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??

I'm not saying that there aren't bargains to be had if you know exactly what you're doing, stick rigidly to their rules and firmly avoid any of their additional income streams (some of which would normally be seen as quite basic and not luxuries at all).

In the same way as you can get a decent deal on cinema tickets and see a film for a reasonable outlay; but they obviously work on the basis of hoping to tempt customers (and pester power from kids, of course) with their horrendously overpriced munchies.

I bet they amended their T&Cs immediately after that, though!!

I'd guess they'd claim that they had potentially already turned away other people wanting to bring extra luggage, owing to weight considerations on the plane, hence you had to pay for reserving that capacity.

Just like if you booked a table in a restaurant and didn't turn up: you couldn't just say that you didn't order any food, so they lost nothing, if they had turned away other customers who could have used your table.

Change your names to the names now booked and get a set of new passports and then redo the proceed after. You can be known as jdjs amsnnrk for the holiday.

Seriously though, it's horrible but it happens. We've all done something similar. I had to pay 100s to a mobile phone operator about 2 years ago because I had a low data limit I wasn't even aware of cos I don't use much, and one of my kids streamed something while the Wi-Fi was turned off. It really upset me. They didn't even notify me either just took the money from my account and I found out when I hadn't enough for something important, thankfully I had savings elsewhere but it was horrible. The worst feeling.

The thing is when only full service airlines were around there were complaints of how expensive they were. List the benefits of them; customer service, flexible ticketing policies, free seat assignments, manned check in, liberal luggage policies, included food and drink on the plane and there were cries of ‘I don’t need that so I don’t want to pay’.

We seem to forget that when booking low cost airlines. You are paying for the absolute base cost and anything additional you feel you want you pay for on top. That includes ticket flexibility and the org understanding that errors happen and willingness to fix . The cheapest price is the most restrictive terms and unfortunately you make your choice at the time.

Ryan air did change them for us but it was one flight. Friend booked it for our group and used the wrong surname for one friend (her upcoming married name but she was 2 months pregnant marriage). We only clocked it in the taxi so ran to the desk and begged. He initially said it’s a £60 charge but then did it for free. I think we looked that pathetic he was clearly feeling kind. So frustrating. But we all need some silly stories to tell the grandchildren.

I just don’t understand why you’d be surprised when you clearly suspected it was a possibility 🤣 irrelevant really, just struck me as odd lol

You could literally be in on fire at the boarding gate and they wouldn’t help you.

But there's a big gulf between them making the admin changes free of charge and charging a fortune for somebody to tap a few keys on a keyboard. If they charged a tenner, surely that would cover their costs.

Like with the parking companies with very dubious ethics, the extra charges bear no relation at all to any loss that they've suffered or work for them to rectify it.

I'd guess they'd claim that they had potentially already turned away other people wanting to bring extra luggage, owing to weight considerations on the plane, hence you had to pay for reserving that capacity.

I thought of that and asked if I could still buy extra luggage. They said I could buy more but I could not reduce. So they had plenty of space/weight allowance available.

Incognito middle can be cheaper, in particular if you are doing lots of different searches for flights. The search algorithm recognises you are seriously looking to book so will increase prices the longer you are searching to encourage you to make the booking as quickly as possible

I once booked easyJet flights in my married name, forgetting my passport still displayed my maiden name (it had 9 years left when we got married and it seemed wasteful to update). I'd booked flights for me, DH and DD and only realised the day before we were due to fly . . I spoke to them and was completely blown away by the fact the lovely woman simply changed the name on the booking. I was expecting a whopping charge. Ryanair may well be more callous but if you're honest and extremely self-deprecating (as I was) it might work!

And for winning the internet tonight by making me giggle with this comment, I will start the go fund me for the change fees 😂

PS second place to the MNetter who said cheaper to change passport and name legally.

If you’re definitely change the name, then do it asap! Im an ex travel agent and they use to charge name change fee plus any difference in fare. Ryanair charges a name change fee plus any difference in fare for a full name change. The fee is £115 online or £160 if you contact an agent or go to the airport. If the new fare is higher than the original fare, you will pay the difference in addition to the name change fee.
Easyjet to do this as well, I had one customer who had booked a year before, and then 1 month before the flight he needed to change one of the name and it was over £500 name change fee, due to the difference in fare! He said he would rather get his mate to change his name by deed pole and a new passport as it was cheaper! don’t wait till near Christmas when they same seats will be more expensive.

But if the argument is you should only pay enough to cover the costs of a transaction or service then bear in mind a lot of the basic Ryanair fares (especially off peak off season) get absolutely nowhere close to covering the costs the airline incurs in flying the passenger from A to B...

If people want to demand only paying a tenner for an admin charge then OK, fair enough, but then they have say goodbye to most if not all sub-£100 basic returns to Europe in the off season.

I hate Ryan Air, not only because of their non existent customer service but because they piss about with flight times right up to the last minute so any other associated services you have booked such as parking also have to be changed and any additional fees incurred as a result are payable by you, not to mention the hassle.

It's not quite as simple as tapping keys on a keyboard. It's more to do with the incredibly complicated way airfares are priced. I haven't got the time to go into detail but it is based on a zillion factors, very dynamic. You'll have people sitting right next to each other who paid different prices. Hell, it seems you pay less when you book online using incognito mode, I didn't know about that one.

It's not the labour of the person on the computer that costs.

Sorry this happened to you, OP, but I'm not surprised Ruinair didn't help. Their entire schtick is "we don't give a shit, what do you expect for £29.99". Check out their social media, it's how they market themselves and to be fair they are sometimes quite funny. Just be aware that you get what you pay for with them. A cheap flight and not much else.

🤣🤣🤣

how on earth are they to get new passports under fake names? I can only assume you are trying to be funny?

Yes, I think that's a safe assumption.

That’s not a bad shout. Unless they’re Irish passports? They’re very valuable at the moment, one of the easiest to travel on, so a good fake would set you back £10k per passport I reckon. Although, may be handy to have anyway for your kids for freedom of movement in the EU??
Have a think OP

Going through life with a name like jhghu ssgcgg is probably better than flying Ryanair. They'd agree.

The best bit about this is the fake names are random letters… ‘Ms gdjsy qrqrqrw ?’ I’m pronouncing that correctly?

Ryan air make their money off peoples mistakes, not offering flights at €30 - so when there is an issue, or a flight delay or bad weather issues etc. there’s feck all staff to help deal with it, and the ones you can get hold of will have the mantra of ‘computer days no’ down.
It’s why I don’t fly with them. By the time you paid the extras for a family of 4 EasyJet and other airlines aren’t much more expensive. And can be cheaper.
If it was just me and a knapsack I suppose I might risk it.

You think easyJet are better than Ryanair and make less changes? 🤔

As PPs have said, budget airlines are not even covering their costs with some of their cheapest fares. They want to offer people who want no frills who book early and don’t need to change anything, cheap travel. They do that pretty well.

You pay well over the odds if you book late or make a mistake or need to change a flight date or time. That’s where they make their money.

Yeah, I’ve also heard booking systems can see what device you’re on and alter prices to suit. Plus, sometimes prices do simply change 🤷🏻‍♀️