A dad and his friends had to fork out £272 extra just so they could get home on a flight they had already paid for.
The unnamed dad-of-one, from Leeds, booked an all-inclusive holiday to Palma, in Spain, with the travel agent On The Beach.
He and three of his mates paid £1,400 each for a package including £475 Ryanair return flights, a four-star hotel and bus transfer.
The actual holiday was ‘brilliant with no problems’ but things took a turn when the group tried to return home.
Airport staff in Palma said they could not check the group onto their flight as they had not checked in online beforehand – a Ryanair requirement.
The friends say they were never told about this rule but On The Beach insists its customers were warned.
They ended up having to pay £30 as a check-in fee and £38 to store their bags each – £272 in total.
The dad said: ‘We were absolutely fuming. We didn’t have to pay that at Manchester. It’s a lot of money to pay.
‘We didn’t have any spare cash, so my friend had to pay on her credit card. We are still trying to pay that back. I’m a full-time dad, so any money I lose is less money for my son.’
The saga seems to have started some kind of drama between On The Beach and Ryanair – over the company policy of advising customers to only book with the airline directly.
Ryanair said: ‘The issues these passengers encountered is a direct result of having booked their flights through an unauthorised online travel agent (OTA).
‘Ryanair has no commercial relationship with any OTAs and in this instance, the OTA failed to advise the passenger of Ryanair’s online check-in and baggage policies, resulting in them being correctly charged an airport check-in fee of £30 per passenger at Palma airport and a gate bag fee of £38.
‘Ryanair urges customers to always book directly, as OTAs may provide Ryanair with incorrect email addresses, contact and payment details, which block Ryanair from communicating directly with the customer to share essential flight information and updates, including check-in prompts, potential departure time changes, delays, cancellations, and refund updates.’
On The Beach ‘strongly rejected any suggestion that we provide false or misleading information to Ryanair or to our customers’.
A spokesperson said: ‘Our communication provided all of the flight information needed to check-in online including reference number, unique email address and baggage allowance.
‘We also advised that failure to check-in online could result in airport check-in fees. We’re sorry to learn that he incurred these charges.’
The statement went on to blast Ryanair’s ‘aggressive anti-competitive campaign against travel agents and their customers’.
On The Beach said its users were treated ‘like second-class citizens’. The company also explained why people opt to use travel agents instead of booking directly – to get the benefit of booking accommodation and local transport all at once.
Ryanair then replied: ‘Like any business, Ryanair is entitled to determine its own distribution model.
‘Ryanair has decided to deal directly with its customers, and not intermediaries who seek to freeride on Ryanair’s innovation and investment in many cases just to impose inordinate intermediary mark-ups on air fares.’
The airline also believes customers are assuming On The Beach has a commercial relationship with Ryanair – which it does not.
‘We would ask On the Beach to respect Ryanair’s distribution policy and also its own customers,’ the statement said.
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