OFT describe Ryanair payment policy as childish

The Office of Fair Trading has accused Irish low-cost airline Ryanair of being juvenile and childish over its credit card payment policy.

Chief executive of the OFT John Fingleton lashed out the company over fees that the airline added when consumers use all but one type of credit card to pay online.

He claimed that the firm used a legal loophole to rationalise charging the extra fee, But Ryanair said their policy allowed travellers to avoid costs.

The law states that if an airline offers at least one free payment method, it is allowed to promote cheap fares that don’t include extra credit card charges.

However Mr Fingleton said the company had chosen a rare method of payment to get around the regulations.
Currently, the airline only provides a free booking service to passengers who fund tickets with a Mastercard prepaid card.

The airlines said mandatory fees and charges were included in all the airline’s promoted prices, but contended that payment handling fees are discretionary.

Ryanair presently charge £5 per person per flight, even if all travellers are paid for on the one card, in a single transaction.

Mr Fingleton also said that Ryanair had a funny game where they had found some very low frequency payment mechanism, and saying that passengers can pay with that.

He continued to say that it was almost like taunting the customers, and is entirely outside the spirit of the law.

Fingleton called the act as quite puerile and almost childish.