EASYJET 10 – RYANAIR 1(?)
A Silver Traveller’s experience
For a holiday visit from Bristol to Mallorca in April, Flight Scanner showed flights at just the times that worked best for us … out on Ryanair and returning on Easyjet.
Making the booking on the Easyjet website was so easy … completed, paid and confirmed in five minutes. But trying to book the Ryanair flight was a dreadful experience for a Silver traveller with ‘senior’ computer skills!
Twice during the process, I was surprised to be interrupted online to say that the quoted fare had increased since I started – first time for £3+ and the second time for £2+! I reluctantly decided to continue. Also, on two occasions, a notice appeared on the screen to advise me that the fare would be only available for 10 minutes and that there were only two seats available. Then I had a message to say I had made an error in my seat selection and I had to start again! When I attempted to go back to the beginning of the booking process, I was interrupted by a superimposed website offering me a list of agents to make my booking, headed by Opodo.
So in desperation, I repeated the same booking with Opodo and it eventually went through with a confirmation. And I could see at the seat assignment stage, that there appeared to be plenty of seats available on the flight – so much for the “only two seats available” claim!
But that was not the end of it. I then received another confirmation e-mail, this time from Ryanair, so I contacted both Ryanair and Opodo to be certain that I had not booked and paid twice. However, since both ‘bookings’ had the same flight reference number and details, I was assured that all was well. My bank also confirmed that I had paid only once. But with the Opodo agent’s fee added, the Ryanair flight was more expensive than Easyjet.
It all took me over an hour of frustration! That’s the result of trying to do it myself!!!