Sooo we got really bored one day and decided to randomly check out plane fares to various places we eventually wanted to see. We ended up on Ryanair.com and could hardly believe our eyes when plane tickets to London from Malmo, Sweden came up as being only 1sek each way per person. That is correct. ONE Swedish Kron. That’s like 17 cents or something. We decided to book that immediately, of course… but I’ll get back to that pricing in a bit. heh.
The Ryan Air site itself is a bit busy and, quite frankly, screams rip off to me rather loudly. It just looks… hmmm… shady. Maybe because of all the info blaring out at you in too-bright colors. They list prices in Euros, but you can have it convert those for you easily enough. There are all kinds of sweet deals listed on that front page flying out of a number of major cities in Europe. You can also do an easy search in the side panel for exactly what you want.
Once you book a flight here, you can also go back and change the details later if you need to… for a fee. It is very easy to rearrange things from the site, I’ll give them that much. They make it easy because they like getting those crazy fees for the changes…
So. Yes. We booked the flights to London for a total of 4sek for 2 round trip tickets. The next page gave us the whammy. There was an additional 500sek each for various booking fees. Now, the truth is, that’s about 60 bucks each US, which is still a hella deal. It irked me to be duped like that, though. I mean we’da still booked had they been up-front on the actual costs. No need to be all sneaky at all. Still. Sixty bucks. And I would get to see London. We went ahead with it.
Then they suggested very strongly that we add on Flight Insurance for an additional 100sek each. I snickered and said ummm NO. Lars, being a male, clicked YES. I rolled my eyes. This is not insurance to protect you. It is insurance to cover your luggage. Silly to pay that. Whaddya gonna do though? He’s a guy…
So now these 4sek tickets were up to 1204sek. We’re still at a pretty good rate, really… but wait! There’s more! Oh yes indeedy!
The male decides he would rather fly out early in the morning the same day so as to have an extra whole day in the pubs. So he goes in and changes the outbound flight info for about 7 hours earlier. BAM! That cost us an additional 400sek each. That’s roughly 50 bucks, folks. Each. Now we’re up to 2004sek total for both tickets, or about (oh hell divide by about 7.06 to figure out the US price, I haven’t had enough coffee yet!) Suffice it to say that we were waaaaay above the initial price. But, by this time I am by gawd going to London and I don’t give a rat’s patootie how much it ends up being. Know what I’m sayin? heh.
So yeah, they bait-n-gouge a bit, but at least they do tell ya that they’re doing it as ya go along. It isn’t like they wait and get your CC number and then sock it to ya without tellin ya. So yeah, it’s annoying, but…
They are, however, very spot on with email. They immediately send you a confirmation of the reservations, and a re-confirmation when ya change anything. They give ya a break-down in the email on all those silly charges, and it is very easy to check your reservations at their website. They do ask you to reconfirm 48 hours before the flight. That’s good. You should do that anyway.
Now that they have all of our info, we never have to input it again. Some folks don’t like their info being saved, I do. Next time I am thinking of a short holiday, I will prolly at least check their website first because I know it won’t involve a bunch of typing and hunting for the card and alla that crap. I’m alllll about easy. As to the flight itself, you have to realize that Ryan Air is a no-frill airline. That means small seats and no extra goodies. If you want something to eat or drink you are going to have to fork over some money. I have no complaints at all about the short flight on this airline. If I were travelling a longer distance, I would not fly with them, but for short hops they are the way to go for sure.
I have to end up at about 3 stars for Ryan Air. They are slightly sleazy, but it’s all so easy and they’re honest about the sleaze charges. Well, they are! I’m saying check them along with many others next time you need a short flight. I will. Just be aware going in that the first price you see is not likely the full price you will be paying…
