sportpix

My Daughter plans to visit with her family in the first week of June and we've been looking at flights. She looked at Jet2 which came out at 1250 quid (ex Birmingham) for two adults and two small kids while I looked at Ryanair from East Midlands which came out at around 850 quid (still expensive). The Ryanair fare was some sort of "family deal" which said "kids under 12 fly for free", and included a big bag and two cabin bags plus fast track etc.

May daughter just tried to book it and came up with the problem that her youngest will celebrate her second birthday (the other daughter is four) while here in PT and so on the way back will have to have a seat. She said that the website was coming up with errors. It seems there is no customer service we can ring to ask Ryanair what we need to do to make this booking.

Has anyone else faced the same issue and can offer any advice?

Thanks, Richard

RichardHenshall

Could you book the outbound and return sectors on two separate bookings? Then the different party make-up won't matter. Of course, it might leave them exposed in the event of the outbound flight being cancelled. Make sure they have insurance to cover that.

Listen Very Carefully

Book it as two separate bookings as has already been suggested but clear the cookies from your computer in between the first and second so that the booking engine does not recognise what you are trying to do

sportpix

Thank you both for your replies. Buying individual out and back tickets would seem to be the thing to do. I'm curious as to the need to "clear cookies". Why wouldn't the airline accept two individual purchases for out and back tickets?
On a similar theme, I booked tickets to Bordeaux for next month for a family gathering and foolishly included the car hire in the booking. Both Ryanair and the car hire company immediately collared my $ for both transactions but there were no details whatsoever of who the car hire company is. On the FAQ on the Ryanair website is says that I will need to have a credit card, driving license and voucher to pick up the car. Not sure how I do this when they haven't sent me a voucher.
After wading through the lousy Ryanair website this morning I managed to find an email address, which also said they would respond in three to five days...!
Amazing. Your ticket payment goes to them in a nano-second while it takes them three to five days to respond to an email.

Listen Very Carefully

When you make a booking or an enquiry about a flight the booking engine leaves a cookie on your computer about the booking When you go in to book a return the booking engine "sees" the cookie and realises what you are trying to do so instead of perhaps offering you a low price it will offer you a higher price because it knows that you are trying to get back Its a bit like when you try and book a return flight one leg is cheap and the other is expensive unless you have a bit of luck .The cookie is there to try and keep the airlines takings up

GrahamF

As others have said, easier to book as separate flights and don't need to use the same airline if cheaper offers or better flight times elsewhere.

riv

This is why I consider it worth paying extra with Jet2 or Easyjet if they are options on the route I am travelling.

Sometimes they are not tho' and one has to grit teeth...........

That said I have just yesterday been on a Ryanair flight. I was pleased to note that they have much reduced all those peace shattering screeched announcements for this that and the other.

Sunseeker1st

Out of curiosity, have they tried British Airways? Our friends flew out here on Wednesday, 6 April, and fly back Wednesday, 20 April, avoiding Easter, and they paid £69 each. I don't know where they flew from, Heaathrow or Stansted, they live in London.

sportpix

They have decided to wait a couple of weeks to avoid the age complications. And according to my daughter it will save ME 500 quid as I foolishly offered to pay for the airfare. They live in rural Northamptonshire, which as everyone knows is God’s own country, just too cold and wet for me, so they will fly from either East Midlands or Birmingham. I flew from Stanstead to Faro just over a month ago and I can’t remember seeing so many people packed into one place since I last flew out of Bombay