Travel/Holidays

Advertising on Ryanair’s website referred to the following:

“Family Extra – Discount Offer

Ryanair is offering 50% discount off checked bags (15kg only) and travel insurance for children (under 16) when the accompanying adult(s) in the same booking, purchase a corresponding fully priced service. Family Extra discounts are only offered when making a new flight booking.

There are 50% discounts off checked bags (15kg only) and travel insurance for up to a maximum of 2 children when 1 accompanying adult included in the same reservation purchases the corresponding fully priced item.

There are 50% discounts off checked bags (15kg only) and travel insurance for up to a maximum of 4 children when the 2 adults included in the same reservation, purchase a corresponding fully priced item.

Adults and children must be booked in the same reservation to receive Family Extra Discounts”.

The complainant said that she booked five flights from Knock to Faro using the Ryanair app. The flights booked were for two adults and three children. The complainant said that as part of her booking she had selected a 15Kg bag for each adult and a 15Kg bag each for two of the children. She considered that the children’s baggage should have been discounted by 50% i.e. reduced in cost from €20 to €10 each. While she had been able to avail of the travel insurance discount, the discount for the two children’s bags had not been applied.

The complainant contacted Ryanair to have the discount applied to her booked baggage but was informed that this had to be applied during the course of the original booking and they were unable to apply it once the booking process had been completed. The complainant considered that she had been misled by the advertising.

The advertiser said that due to the limitations with the Ryanair app, it was currently not possible to avail of the discounted family baggage offer when booking through this platform. They said they were currently working to resolve this issue and it was hoped that they would have a solution to the problem in the coming weeks. They pointed out that app developments can take time and resources to implement.

The advertisers pointed out that the discount in question was currently available when booking through desktop and mobile web and in the interim they encouraged families who wished to avail of the discounted baggage offer to do so via their website. They said that the discounted baggage through Family Extra was only advertised on Ryanair.com where it was available.

Complaint Upheld

The Complaints Committee considered the details of the complaint and the advertisers’ response. The Committee considered that if the discounted baggage offer could not be applied to consumers who booked their flights through the Ryanair mobile app this should have been referenced in the advertising on the advertisers’ website. As this was not the case the Committee considered the advertising to be in breach of Sections 4.1, 4.4, 5.4 and 5.5 of the Code.

ACTION REQUIRED:
The advertisement should not be used in its current format again and the advertisers should amend their website to reference the fact that the children’s baggage discount cannot be applied when booking flights through their mobile app.