What is the Aerlingus Handling Fee?

axer

Hi,

I am trying to book some flights on aerlingus.com.

Does anyone know what the "Handling Fee (excluding infants)" is? It shows up on the aerlingus website after you choose your flights even though they say they are telling you the "full price" when choosing the flights.

It comes up before I even choose whether I want to use a debit card (€2 charge) or credit card (€6 charge) so i'm thinking it can't be that.

Anyone know?
Thanks.

lynchie

axer wrote: »

Hi,

I am trying to book some flights on aerlingus.com.

Does anyone know what the "Handling Fee (excluding infants)" is? It shows up on the aerlingus website after you choose your flights even though they say they are telling you the "full price" when choosing the flights.

It comes up before I even choose whether I want to use a debit card (€2 charge) or credit card (€6 charge) so i'm thinking it can't be that.

Anyone know?
Thanks.

It defaults to showing you the credit card charge. If you choose to pay by laser its cheaper (Is it €2 now, I remember when there was no charge for booking with laser)

Gillo

Is it not the complimentary grope you get after you've checked in???

TheDriver

Its the "grab more money from you" charge, i wouldn't even try to figure out whats its for, you'd have more luck figuring out the mysteries of fatima

Colonel Sanders

companies who charge fees like this say its to cover the costs of accepting credit card payments. Ryanair charge €8 for a return flight and don't give you the option of using laser.

Not sure what aerlingus average fares are like but whenever Ryanair quote average fares the handling charge is far higher than the upper amounts banks charge retailers on credit card transactions.

axer

Thanks lynchie. Didnt think they would just presume like that.

Colonel Sanders wrote: »

companies who charge fees like this say its to cover the costs of accepting credit card payments. Ryanair charge €8 for a return flight and don't give you the option of using laser.

Not sure what aerlingus average fares are like but whenever Ryanair quote average fares the handling charge is far higher than the upper amounts banks charge retailers on credit card transactions.

I think ryanair's fees are more clearly marked on their website than aerlingus's.

Plus ryanair charge €4 credit card charge for each flight - aerlingus now seem to charge €6 for using credit cards for each flight. I just wish I could get a Visa Electron card to use on ryanair.

CantGetNoSleep

It is for nothing, just and extra few euro the c*nts try to take off everyone

mcaul

Colonel Sanders wrote: »

companies who charge fees like this say its to cover the costs of accepting credit card payments. Ryanair charge €8 for a return flight and don't give you the option of using laser.

Not sure what aerlingus average fares are like but whenever Ryanair quote average fares the handling charge is far higher than the upper amounts banks charge retailers on credit card transactions.

I'm a relatively small internet retailer and my credit card charges are 1.5% of transaction total. Laser charges are 15c per transaction.

I just can't think why Aer lingus / ryanair can justify their charge for any other reason tan profit.

lynchie

axer wrote: »

Thanks lynchie. Didnt think they would just presume like that.

I think ryanair's fees are more clearly marked on their website than aerlingus's.

Plus ryanair charge €4 credit card charge for each flight - aerlingus now seem to charge €6 for using credit cards for each flight. I just wish I could get a Visa Electron card to use on ryanair.

Aerlingus charge €6 per person per booking, whereas ryanair charge €4 per person per flight, so a return with ryanair you pay €8 and with aerlingus its €6

Colonel Sanders

mcaul wrote: »

I'm a relatively small internet retailer and my credit card charges are 1.5% of transaction total. Laser charges are 15c per transaction.

I just can't think why Aer lingus / ryanair can justify their charge for any other reason tan profit.

1.5% is what betfair charge for CC deposits (I use laser, its free) and seems to be in and around the fees quoted by most people on here who are retailers (I'm open to correction on this, anyone is free to correct me)

last figures I saw quoted for ryanair was an average fare of €40-45 euros. adding on airport fees, baggage charges etc lets say a customer pays on average 100 euro each way (probably a pessimistic estimate from the customers point of view). That means a fair charge would be €1.50 per flight, instead ryanair charge almost 3 times that. Bit of a joke really....

axer

lynchie wrote: »

Aerlingus charge €6 per person per booking, whereas ryanair charge €4 per person per flight, so a return with ryanair you pay €8 and with aerlingus its €6

Thanks, didn't know that as I was booking a one way flight.

Still can't see why they do not include the charge in the "Taxes and charges" and "Total price" in the page preceding where it is shown for the first time. It is a bit misleading. They show it on the page after you have chosen your selected flights and you have to enter your payment details and move to the next page before they show you the actual prices they will be charging for the flight.

Colonel Sanders

axer wrote: »

Still can't see why they do not include the charge in the "Taxes and charges" and "Total price" in the page preceding where it is shown for the first time. It is a bit misleading. They show it on the page after you have chosen your selected flights and you have to enter your payment details and move to the next page before they show you the actual prices they will be charging for the flight.

yeah this annoys me too, aerlingus and Ryanair both quote prices 'including all taxes and charges' and then slap on a credit card/laser fee and thats before baggage etc! I think Ryanair don't charge if you use visa electron but afaik they are only available in Ireland as gift cards, and I'd be surprised if they account for .005% of their sales.

Have often read articles or heard debates on radio with people from consumer watchdogs giving out about how misleading this kinda stuff is but nothing ever seems to be done

damnyanks

They were shut down in the uk for 3 days to fix their website (Ryanair)

now its meant to have all costs included in the actual flight.

Colonel Sanders

damnyanks wrote: »

They were shut down in the uk for 3 days to fix their website (Ryanair)

now its meant to have all costs included in the actual flight.

just checked a random flight. Still doesn't include 'handling fee' (rip off fee to you and me) but it does say that it excludes handling fee.

Still misleading if you ask me as there is no mention of a handling fees when you actually select the time and dates of flights

axer

Colonel Sanders wrote: »

just checked a random flight. Still doesn't include 'handling fee' (rip off fee to you and me) but it does say that it excludes handling fee.

Still misleading if you ask me as there is no mention of a handling fees when you actually select the time and dates of flights

The difference between Ryanair and aerlingus is that you cannot avoid the charge with Aerlingus so their total charges should be inclusive of at least the cost of the debit card or the credit card whereas you "can" avoid the charge completely with ryanair by using visa electron. So if you use a visa electron, no baggage, no insurance etc etc then the price displayed at the begining is the price you pay - that is not the case with aerlingus.

Colonel Sanders

axer wrote: »

The difference between Ryanair and aerlingus is that you cannot avoid the charge with Aerlingus so their total charges should be inclusive of at least the cost of the debit card or the credit card whereas you "can" avoid the charge completely with ryanair by using visa electron. So if you use a visa electron, no baggage, no insurance etc etc then the price displayed at the begining is the price you pay - that is not the case with aerlingus.

don't disagree but as I've stated earlier on this thread Visa electron isn't widely available in Ireland. Why the flock don't they take laser (most of friends are in the 'they'd make less money that way' camp)?

I've no figures to base this on but an educated guess would be that less than 0.5% of their transactions from Irish bases customers would be via vias electron. Wouldn't a fairer way of presenting the fare be to include their 'handling fee' with a footnote that discounts apply for certain payment methods?

axer

Colonel Sanders wrote: »

I've no figures to base this on but an educated guess would be that less than 0.5% of their transactions from Irish bases customers would be via vias electron. Wouldn't a fairer way of presenting the fare be to include their 'handling fee' with a footnote that discounts apply for certain payment methods?

It is available in the UK and elsewhere. Considering that the UK customer base alone is 15 times larger than Ireland then why would they worry just about the Irish customers not being able to get their hands on the card.

Colonel Sanders

axer wrote: »

It is available in the UK and elsewhere. Considering that the UK customer base alone is 15 times larger than Ireland then why would they worry just about the Irish customers not being able to get their hands on the card.

there's 4 million people living in Ireland, thats not insignificant.

In any case I was pointing out that the 'handling fee' is almost unavoidable for Irish customers and therefore shoud be included in 'all taxes and charges'whether the potential market is 1 person or 1 million people

axer

Colonel Sanders wrote: »

In any case I was pointing out that the 'handling fee' is almost unavoidable for Irish customers and therefore shoud be included in 'all taxes and charges'whether the potential market is 1 person or 1 million people

The fee is unavoidable with Aerlingus thus it is more pertanent that aerlingus include that fee when displaying total fees and charges. The charge is avoidable with Ryanair by using visa electron which is actually available in Ireland via a gift voucher card so they can get away with not displaying it with taxes and charges thus the price that they display at the begining can be the price you pay in the end.

Colonel Sanders

axer wrote: »

The fee is unavoidable with Aerlingus thus it is more pertanent that aerlingus include that fee when displaying total fees and charges. The charge is avoidable with Ryanair by using visa electron which is actually available in Ireland via a gift voucher card so they can get away with not displaying it with taxes and charges thus the price that they display at the begining can be the price you pay in the end.

yet again I ask how many people based in Ireland actually use visa electron to book flights and do you feel it reasonable to expect a customer to get a gift card for each flight they book? After paying 30 euro stamp duty for the privilege of having a 'nornal' credit card I don't think it is. In terms of fair play and making sure the consumer makes an informed choice I still feel this is misleading (and I bet most people would agree)

A far fairer way would be to display prices inclusive of handling fee with a disclaimer that discounts may apply depending on payment method.

axer

Colonel Sanders wrote: »

yet again I ask how many people based in Ireland actually use visa electron to book flights and do you feel it reasonable to expect a customer to get a gift card for each flight they book? After paying 30 euro stamp duty for the privilege of having a 'nornal' credit card I don't think it is. In terms of fair play and making sure the consumer makes an informed choice I still feel this is misleading (and I bet most people would agree)

A far fairer way would be to display prices inclusive of handling fee with a disclaimer that discounts may apply depending on payment method.

so which handling fee do they include? i.e. for what card?

Colonel Sanders

axer wrote: »

so which handling fee do they include? i.e. for what card?

credit card. highest charge and (educated guess) the most frequently used card, for irish customers (no idea about how many people in england use debit cards or visa electron). no danger of cunsumer being misled and some will actually get a pleasant surprise when they see the final fee for the flight

axer

Colonel Sanders wrote: »

credit card. highest charge and (educated guess) the most frequently used card, for irish customers (no idea about how many people in england use debit cards or visa electron)

and what about customers based in the uk and elsewhere?

Colonel Sanders

axer wrote: »

and what about customers based in the uk and elsewhere?

a lot still use credit cards. As I said no chance of a consumer being misled if the highest charge is quoted.

if they wanted to be really fancy a list of cards + charges could be seen when the flight is first selected and the fare which allegedly includes all taxes and fares is given to the customer.

Admittedly this is not a perfect solution but the way things are now they are misleading customers end of story by advertsising fares inclusive of taxes and charges which in fact are not inclusive of all taxes and charges.

my 2c anyhow

deromalley

Is there a fee for luggage on aerlingus flights? Its not clear from their website. If so what is it from dublin to uk?

brettmirl

Eur24 per bag return...if you book the bag in beforehand.

It's more expensive if you do it on the day at the airport.

What airport are you planning on flying to?

gavinbeatty

You can avoid the credit card by getting a virtual VISA Electron from entropay.com. I've used it before.

The catch is that they have a 4.95% charge on loading money onto the card. But it's well worth it for cheaps flights (well, less than ~€200)

http://bargainsireland.wordpress.com/2008/11/21/avoid-the-credit-card-charge-when-booking-with-ryanair/

lynchie

gavinbeatty wrote: »

You can avoid the credit card by getting a virtual VISA Electron from entropay.com. I've used it before.

The catch is that they have a 4.95% charge on loading money onto the card. But it's well worth it for cheaps flights (well, less than ~€200)

http://bargainsireland.wordpress.com/2008/11/21/avoid-the-credit-card-charge-when-booking-with-ryanair/

This thread albeit a zombie one is about aerlingus and not ryanair :rolleyes:

DM1983

From aerlingus site:

Handling Fee: Charges as follows: €5 per person or equivalent, per flight. Flights originating in the USA, Infant Bookings and Bookings using Visa Electron are not subject to the handling fee.

oneweb

Just to confirm the current Fee situation

Handling Fee

Charges as follows: €5 /£5 per person, per flight. Flights originating in the USA, Infant Bookings and Bookings using Visa Electron are not subject to the handling fee.

When you choose Visa Electron on the Pay screen, the price doesn't automatically update. When you reach the Buy screen, the Handling Fee will no longer be there

dudara

oneweb Please don't resurrect old threads.

dudara