2012-11-22 — /travelprnews.com/ — Ryanair, Europe’s only ultra-low cost airline, today (21 Nov) called on Atrapalo to hand over the €40,000 it was awarded by a Barcelona court to its misguided customers, who were charged hidden handling fees when booking Ryanair flights on the screenscraper website.
Ryanair has been fighting various cases across Europe to prevent its passengers from being subjected to excessive charges and to ensure Ryanair has appropriate contact details to communicate with its customers. Many screenscrapers have been:
Mis-selling Ryanair flights with hidden mark-ups as part of packages;
Failing to provide consumers with a proper breakdown of the flight price;
Failing to provide Ryanair with passenger contact details which prevents Ryanair from communicating directly with passengers in the event of schedule changes or flight disruptions (similar actions by other travel agents resulted in thousands of passengers being left without any information during the 2010 volcanic ash airspace closures, as travel agents and screenscrapers failed to forward Ryanair information to passengers);
Failing to provide Ryanair with passenger credit card details, which prevents passengers from receiving refunds directly from Ryanair;
Failing to notify passengers of Ryanair’s Terms and Conditions of Travel at the time of booking;
Failing to notify Ryanair of special assistance requirements of passengers.
In the interests of consumers and price transparency, Ryanair allows and encourages “price comparison only” websites to access its timetable and pricing information, for an annual charitable donation of just €100. This allows them to compare Ryanair’s guaranteed lowest fares with those of high fare airlines. Ryanair’s licence agreement is open to all genuine “price comparison only” websites and already many have signed up, whereas Atrapalo has refused.
Ryanair’s Stephen McNamara said:
“Ryanair has been fighting various cases across Europe to prevent our passengers from being subject to excessive charges and to ensure Ryanair has appropriate contact details to communicate with our customers. A Barcelona court recently awarded Atrapalo €40,000 and the screenscraper website recently asked how it should spend the sum. Ryanair is calling on Atrapalo to hand the money over to their misguided customers to refund the additional fees they have been charged by Atrapalo.
Screenscraper websites have caused a number of difficulties for passengers and our message is simple: book directly on www.ryanair.com for the guaranteed lowest fares and best customer care.”
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