Every day Ryanair is contacted by thousands of customers who booked through an Online Travel Agent (OTA) and run into difficulties with their booking. Some OTAs don’t provide Ryanair with customer contact or payment details, which means Ryanair cannot directly contact customers with important information and updates or directly assist customers who may contact us with a query or directly process refunds to customers.
Some recent examples of difficulties caused by OTAs:
Case 1
Customers who book through OTAs may have problems accessing their booking. The OTA often associates the booking with their own accounts which means only they can access the booking. When a customer reaches out to Ryanair in this case, we are unable to help unless they verify their identity and manage their booking under their own myRyanair account.
When OTAs make bookings, they often use their own email addresses. When customers wish to check in online, they may be unable to do so unless they verify their identity and manage their booking under their own myRyanair account.
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Case 2
In this case, a customer contacted our chat team to request support for a flight change. When our chat agent asked the customer for the email address on the booking, it was not correct because the OTA provided their own email address instead. The customer therefore did not pass our security test and could not manage their booking directly with Ryanair. In these circumstances, the customer will have to verify their identity in order to manage their booking.
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Case 3
When you deal directly with Ryanair, you purchase services directly from us and can therefore be certain that the services are confirmed. In this particular case, the customer paid the OTA for baggage and arrived at the airport to find that the baggage had not in fact been added to their booking. This would have been avoided by booking directly with Ryanair where customers can add products via their myRyanair account.
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Case 4
OTAs often apply their own commissions in addition to the price of Ryanair flights and products. If your flight is cancelled, we offer a full refund of your flight ticket. When you book through an OTA, and your flight is cancelled, you may not receive a full refund of the total sum you paid to the OTA because the commissions they may have added to Ryanair’s fare and fees may be non-refundable. If you book directly with Ryanair, we offer a full refund of the price you paid for your flight ticket.
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Case 5
Sometimes customers mistake OTA websites for the Ryanair website.
The passenger is then often charged the OTA commissions in addition to the price of Ryanair flights and products.
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OTAs act as middle men. Additional commissions are often applied by OTAs in respect of Ryanair flights and services which can be avoided by booking directly with Ryanair. Passengers may experience difficulties when booking through OTAs that they would not experience had they booked directly with Ryanair. Always book directly with Ryanair on Ryanair.com or the Ryanair app. Look for the Ryanair verified seal to ensure you’re booking directly.
