Why am I so stupid?? Mistake booking flights

[MrsFinchleysFlan]

I was booking Ryanair flights earlier to fly home for Christmas. I usually use the app, but I wanted to check I had the best price by putting the same flights into the Ryanair site in incognito mode. I did it quickly and put some random letters in for the names.

For some reason the baggage was cheaper, so I went ahead and booked the flights though the browser in incognito mode (after logging in to my account) after carefully checking I had the right dates.

BUT DID I CHANGE THE NAMES?? NO I DID NOT 😵😲😲

They apparently allow name changes for free up to 48 hours after booking, but only by 3 letters! So now they want £400 to change the names!

Their customer service opens tomorrow morning. What can I say to beg them just to make the changes for free??

And why was the baggage cheaper in incognito mode??

RyanAir is AWFUL, but sadly sometimes they are the only existing airlines, so no choice.

OP, just try the chat the minute they reopen and go from there. Blame a computer malfunction or something, the agent wont' care, but if you don't try to speak to them, nothing will happen anyway.

at worst they refuse and then it might be cheaper to cancel and rebook.

We have all done some stupid shit, you are not stupid because you see it was a stupid mistake, it's life!

The larger airlines are not much better. I got the first name and surname the wrong way round for 1 of the 4 of us with Aegean and called them within 5 minutes of booking. The f'rs still charged me a name change fee.

Their main policy is to devise very hard and fast rules, with no wiggle room whatsoever, to encourage people in based on the headline price and then to (they hope) end up paying more for basic 'extras' that many people (especially first-time customers) wouldn't necessarily expect to be excluded.

Technically, you can fly by paying the stated price and not a penny more, but they obviously hope that they'll get more money off you somehow; so there's no way whatsoever that they'll concede and lose an opportunity to charge you more (often a lot more) money if you've made a mistake which means that you can't use your flight if you don't.

They're a bit like the airline equivalent of the parking cowboys, who will swoop the second they can to impose a large and disproportionate fine if you very slightly stray from their very strict rules. No, it wouldn't have made a difference to them that you were five minutes delayed in getting back when the car park is three quarters empty anyway, or that you clearly accidentally pressed a letter O instead of a number 0 if you had to input your registration - but it's a huge part of their business model to cash in on people's tiny mistakes, disappointment and misery.

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Apologies - I really hope MN fix the glitch soon that leaves your message intact after you've posted it, so it looks like it hasn't posted.

They’re not cowboys.

they’re a low cost airline that does exactly what it says on the tin.

I didn't say that Ryanair were cowboys - just that their interest doesn't lie in delighting customers when they have an opportunity to rinse them for more money.

Do they really rinse them though?

they have low cost seats. I’m flying home from Milan with them for €94 - with a carry on bag. That same flight would’ve cost me £130 minimum with easyJet.

@AppleStrudel16

Agreed.

According to their last financial report they made around £8 a head on an average passenger over the year, pretty much the norm across a lot of the industry these days...

Well at least there's no deadline for changing names (up to 2 hours before the flight I think?) so I can sit it out and see if rebooking will end up cheaper than paying the name change fees 🫠

exactly - i am flying to Dublin for half term with my daughter and we got return flights for 85£ - hardly feel like im being rinsed! its an amazing price! We only need a small carry on each as we going to my mums and we leave stuff there so we dont usually need luggage when we visit!

Tickets never go down in price. Only up

@AppleStrudel16 actually, they go down and up so every time I come to buy flights I get locked in a game of chicken with Ryanair to see if I've bought them at the right time. I check the cost, check the cost, decide to buy, then keep checking the cost to torture myself if I've bought them "too soon" 🙃

Did they offer an explanation in English rather Wankspeak??

Well I didn't say otherwise, but my point was it's completely irrelevant to say 'x airline did xyz' and expect that to translate to a crap airline such as Ryan air.

No, you pay peanuts you accept that they don't do things like name changes for free.

Ryanair are very very cheap. They are so cheap because they stick to their policies, that you sign up to when you use them, which they are very transparent about.

So sick of people using Ryanair and whining about it.

Ah, there's an extra fee if you want English!

@ChillBarrog Will a name change involve anyone taking some time to do some work? I think it'll just be a case of updating the system. But even if an employee was required to do something, would it be £115 worth of work? Per person?

I fly with them because they are generally the cheapest and generally have the times that suit me the best. I appreciate their model means fees. It just seems unreasonably high for this.

You lose the money on Ryanair if you cancel.

But even if an employee was required to do something, would it be £115 worth of work? Per person

Probably not, but they don't have to justify the amount, that is almost arbitrary.

If they can clobber everyone (number unknown) who makes a mistake with a three figure fee it's more income for Ryanair and allows them to keep the basic ticket price down whilst still making a profit.

😂👏🏻

That’s because they want you to do it right the first time

That's how they work. When you follow all the rules, you get very cheap flights. When you don't, you get high charges. That are published and transparent.

It's annoying, it's expensive, I'd be pissed off too. But it's not unfair. It's not a con.

Yes, don't we all. Don't we all.

I made a mistake on Ryanair's website once. I put my details in instead of flying a decent airline. By decent I mean literally anyone else. Including Air North Korea.

@MrsFinchleysFlan have you actually seen this rule in their terms and conditions?

I ask because I once accidentally bought extra luggage I didn't need and they wouldn't refund. I asked them to quote where this was written in their terms and conditions and they couldn't. So they refunded me. Worth a shot?