Ryanair February survey exposes OTA for shocking 117% overcharges

Saturday, February 10, 2024

Today (February 9th), Ryanair unveiled its February OTA (Online Travel Agent) Pirate survey, revealing On The Beach as the top offender for overcharging customers. The survey highlighted that On The Beach charged an exorbitant fee of 117% more (£125) for a flight change, compared to the £45 fee available directly through Ryanair’s website.

Ryanair is actively advocating for consumer protection against the excessive charges and misleading practices of OTA Pirates, including On The Beach, Lastminute.com, eDreams, Opodo, and Booking.com. The airline is renewing its call for the UK and Irish Governments, along with EU consumer protection agencies, to intervene and put an end to these exploitative practices by OTAs, ensuring consumers are not subject to these unfair overcharges.

Ryanair’s Dara Brady said:

“Our Feb survey continues to expose the scams and overcharging of OTA Pirates, with On The Beach highlighted as Feb’s No.1 Pirate for its egregious 117% overcharge of £125 for a £45 flight change fee on Ryanair.com, while Opodo are charging a €60 “service” fee for a non-existent service and eSky are charging a €33 “cancellation” fee for flights that cannot be cancelled. These are just the latest examples of hundreds where OTA Pirates are unlawfully scraping Ryanair.com to overcharge, dupe and scam unsuspecting consumers for Ryanair products and services.

It is unacceptable that the UK and Irish Govts and EU consumer agencies continue to ignore this rampant digital piracy and anti-consumer mis-selling. Ryanair will continue to campaign against these OTA Pirates, exposing their digital piracy and overcharging scams and will continue to call for these OTA Pirates to be outlawed and their scams ended.”

Excess Fees Comparison

Unfounded Fees

Ryanair has recently entered into authorized OTA partnerships with loveholidays and Kiwi, effectively putting an end to unauthorized screen scraping (digital piracy). This collaboration allows customers of loveholidays and Kiwi to benefit directly from Ryanair’s competitive prices, safeguarding them against the potential for overcharging or deceptive pricing practices.

« Back to Page

• Ryanair and SAP concur forge game-changing corporate travel partnership

• Ryanair fortifies security with new customer account verification