I know it's uncool to complain about Ryanair: when you fly with them, you have to accept that you've got minimal rights and certainly no right to expect that you'll be travelling with dignity. And if something goes wrong, you have no-one but yourself to blame for choosing the world's least favourite airline.
But I have discovered an even craftier way for Michael O'Dreary to shake down his customers. This morning I logged into the 'manage my booking' part of the website to add a checked-in bag for a flight later this week. I paid the fee £10 with my credit card and received an 'error' message; so I tried again with another card and again received an 'error' message. Thinking it was a problem with the Ryanair website, I went to the internet cafe on the square and logged in again, only to find that both times the transaction had been processed and £10 deducted off my cards.
Obviously, I'm not going to bother to call the call centre in Ireland. Who needs the stress, especially when you're dialling an 0870 number and paying 10p per minute for the privilege? But surely it's illegal for a company to take money from a credit card and give the customer the impression that it hasn't? This is potentially a very lucrative scam for Ryanair. Or is it just another way to discourage customers from checking in a bag? Either way, you have been warned - or, in my case, robbed!
Two years ago I hung up my high heels, put the Prada handbags into storage and left behind my fashionable West London life to renovate an old village house in rural France. Et voila. This blog is about what happened next....
Bleeding hell - daylight bloody robbery - I would double check the call charges though - I think you'll find it's actually £1 per minute - basically they don't want you calling. I have to say, my patience is really wearing thin with this increasingly non-budget 'no-frills racket of an airline!