How to buy a Ryanair ticket online

When planning low-cost flights to European countries, ask how to buy a Ryanair ticket. This company is one of the largest air carriers in the Old World, operating on a low cost system. Booking tickets (English booking tickets) and check-in for the flight are best done online in order to avoid significant additional fees. Knowing the important nuances of this procedure will allow you to avoid serious mistakes and make your planned flight safely.

Tariffs and services

When you make your own booking of tickets for Ryanair, the system will offer you to choose one of the current fares of the airline. Each one already includes a certain set of services by default. They, of course, can be purchased separately as needed, but with a one-time payment, the cost of passenger service will be cheaper.

Ryanair, like all low-cost airlines, does not have a business class, therefore, to improve service and receive any benefits, the passenger is given the opportunity to use additional paid services. Today Ryanair offers its customers the following tariffs:

1. Standard Fare - allows you to purchase a ticket at the lowest cost. A passenger can only take on board a small bag measuring 40 x 20 x 25 cm as carry-on baggage. Larger baggage must be checked in and checked in for carriage in the cargo hold at an additional cost. Suitable for those who travel light.
2. Plus is the second most expensive tariff. When paying for a ticket, you will be given the opportunity to:
   • Take two pieces of hand luggage into the cabin under the Priority & 2 Cabin Bags service - a small bag 40 x 20 x 25 cm, a suitcase 50 x 40 x 20 weighing up to 10 kg.
   • Check in one piece of baggage up to 20 kg free of charge.
   • Choose a standard seat in the airliner's cabin without additional charge.
3. Flexi Plus - designed for more demanding passengers. It includes the following set of services:
   • Possibility to change the departure date free of charge subject to availability of seats on the new flight.
   • Free choice of any seat during the flight - standard or premium with extra legroom.
   • Fast track security before boarding.
   • Free check-in at the airport if the passenger has not checked in via the Internet.
   • Carry-on baggage with Priority & 2 Cabin Bags.
4. Family Plus - This rate is available when one or more children are listed on the same booking as an adult. The following services are available for family passengers:
   • Carry-on baggage under the Priority & 2 Cabin Bags service - a small bag 40 x 20 x 25 cm, a suitcase 50 x 40 x 20 weighing up to 10 kg. Additionally, it is allowed to take a bag for infants weighing up to 5 kg into the passenger compartment.
   • Free check-in of two pieces of baggage up to 20 kg.
   • Selection of standard seats in the cabin.
   • Free transportation of two pieces of baby equipment - a folding stroller, a bassinet or a car seat.
   • Warming up baby food bottles during the flight.
   • Discount for a ticket for a child under 2 years old.

Find cheap flights

Novice travelers often wonder when is the best time to buy tickets at discounted prices. Here it is necessary to take into account that:

• When a new route is opened for its promotion, the airline starts selling tickets at significantly reduced prices. It is important not to miss a moment here, and for this you need to follow the company's news - for example, by subscribing to an advertising mailing list.
• You can buy a discount ticket only in the off-season, when the carrier is experiencing a decline in demand - for example, in the fall or in the second half of winter. The increased demand for Ryanair flights is observed in the summer, at Christmas (end of December) and Easter. There are no discount promotions during these periods. The carrier, on the other hand, increases the cost of the flight and baggage.

When purchasing discount air tickets, you should take into account some of the nuances. Discounted flights are usually operated to remote airports where Ryanair's cost of service is most beneficial. For a passenger, travel to the city can be expensive. Another not very pleasant feature of low-cost flights is that their arrival is usually planned at a later time, when public transport is no longer running, and the cost of a taxi can negate all the benefits of the discount.

The place to look for cheap flights is the Ryanair official website.

Here you need to open the Plan tab and go to the Fare Finder section.

In the special filter of the service, set the following parameters:

1. Departure city name.
2. Arrival city. Select Anywhere instead of destination to explore all the discount deals available for your location.
3. The size of the budget.
4. Period for searching for discounts.
5. The need for a return ticket.

On the monitor, you will see a list of discount flights with the names of the cities, the discount period and the cost of the ticket.

All that remains is to choose the best offer and proceed to booking.

Ryanair flight booking

Regardless of whether you choose a standard rate or with a richer set of services, before booking online, remember a few important points:

• You cannot add a child under the age of 16 to an existing flight booking, but you can make a new, separate one. Passengers under 16 can be booked online (just like an adult). After that, you should contact the company via the chat on the website or call the call center to link the booking of children and the person who accompanies them.
• Ryanair's official website does not have a Russian version. Nor will the citizens of Ukraine, Latvia and Estonia find their native language. The English version is used by default. The currency is set depending on the choice of the country of departure. Ticket prices are in euros, except for Poland and Great Britain.
• Ryanair's ticket booking conditions allow you not to pay for a separate seat for a child under 2 years old. He is transported wearing an appropriate seat belt (provided by the crew) in the lap of one of the parents. If the toddler is under 2 years of age at the time of booking, but turns, for example, on the day of departure, he or she must sit in a separate seat next to the parents using an Amsafe CARES child restraint or a car seat that is approved for use on an airplane with a 5-point harness security. In order not to be denied check-in for the flight, at the time of booking, you must indicate the child's full age on the day of departure. This requirement also applies when the child is 12 and 16 years old.
• Online check-in starts 30 days before the flight. However, if you did not choose a seat in the cabin at the time of booking for a fee, you can check in no earlier than 48 hours before departure.

Our step-by-step guide to buying Ryanair tickets will help you make the right self-booking. First you need to go to the main page of the official website of the carrier. At your discretion, you can immediately register your personal account here, in which you can order a ticket. You can go through the booking procedure without creating an account, but you will definitely need it for online check-in for the flight, so you can open it later.

To start booking, prepare your passport details, and then indicate the desired route in the Flights tab, the desired date, the need for a return ticket and the number of passengers.

In the Passengers box, enter the quantity:

1. Adult passengers over 16 years old.
2. Children:
   • from 12 to 15 years old;
   • from 2 to 11 years old;
   • up to 2 years.

If there are no flights on the specified date or in the selected direction, the message “No Flights” will appear on the monitor. Change your search parameters for a positive result.If there are flights that match your request, on the monitor you will see the departure dates and the minimum ticket price at the standard fare for one adult passenger. To continue the procedure, you need to choose one of the proposed tariffs with a certain set of additional services. The cheapest Standard Fare offer is for non-priority passengers traveling with only a small bag.

We will continue the description of the booking process by choosing the cheapest rate for one person.

In the next step, marked Selected, you will see the flight, departure and arrival times, as well as the final cost, taking into account the selected fare and the number of passengers. Click Continue to continue.

Further, the airline will certainly offer to pay for a seat in the cabin and use other additional services - Priority & 2 Cabin Bags, insurance, checked baggage and some others. If you refuse additional options, click Check Out.

And if you still decide to choose a place convenient for you, take into account a small trick of the company: on the monitor you will see only the initial cost of the service. The final price will be shown in the Price column after the seat has been selected. Therefore, you will have to click on different chairs to find the cheapest option.

Ryanair will continue to offer seating options if you opt out of this service.

The next step is to enter personal data of passengers. You need to be very careful here. A mistake in the name, surname or passport information is unacceptable. For each passenger, you will need to manually enter the document number, as well as the name of the country in which it was issued (country of issue)

At this stage, the company will also offer to issue insurance policies for each passenger. People with disabilities should apply in advance for airport assistance during boarding by ticking the box with the silhouette of a wheelchair user.

After entering your personal data, enter your contact information - email address and mobile phone number.

When it comes to payment, the airline will offer two ways to transfer money - from a bank card or through a PayPal wallet.

Once you choose your payment method, click Pay Now, enter your card details and confirm the transaction. After successful payment, you will see the message “Booking Successful” as well as your booking number and your email address. You will need this data for online registration. Click Manage Booking to make changes to your booking.

When you see that the ticket has not arrived to your email address, do not worry. Instead of a ticket, you only receive a booking code. It is the same for all passengers included in a specific booking, regardless of the number of adults and children. If someone changes their mind about flying, they can be excluded during online check-in. You do not need to print anything at this stage. It is enough to save a unique code by which you can check your reservation and check in for the flight.

Using a mobile app

To be able to book tickets and check in for flights on the go, you can use a special mobile application - download links are located at the bottom of the main page of the carrier's website. The program runs on iOS and Android operating systems.

For authorization in the application, use the credentials of your personal account created on the official website of the airline.

Using the Ryanair mobile app, a passenger can present an electronic ticket at the airport with a QR code, which will be displayed on the device's display. However, non-EU residents will have to print out Ryanair's visa ticket. Its presence at the check-in counter at the airport must be marked accordingly.

A boarding pass for each passenger is also required to print for visa control after completing online check-in for the flight. It is better to do this yourself through your personal account on the airline's website. And if you ask for a printout at the front desk, you will be charged 15 euros for the service.

Payment Methods

As mentioned above, you can use bank cards or PayPal e-wallet to pay for your flight. The second method is convenient only if you have a wallet account in euros or a card with an account in European currency is tied to it. Otherwise, the conversion will be unprofitable. There is also a high risk of double conversion. When paying with a bank card, the required amount is converted at the rate of your bank without unnecessary costs.

To pay for the reservation, it is best to use bank cards of international payment systems MasterCard or Visa. The Ryanair website does not accept payment instruments of the Russian national system MIR.

Since in this case you are paying outside the Russian Federation, notify your bank in advance about the upcoming use of the card abroad in order to avoid blocking it.

Refund tickets

If you change your mind about flying, you will not be able to return your tickets, as they are non-refundable. That is, when for various reasons you cannot get on the booked flight, it is enough not to arrive at the airport. Only passengers who have taken out insurance up to 3,000 euros during the booking process can count on compensation in the event of a trip cancellation for various personal reasons. At the same time, the opportunity to get insured is provided only to residents of the EU countries.

Without the use of an insurance policy, a refund for a ticket will be obtained in the following cases:

• Death of a close relative that occurred no more than 28 days before the departure date.
• Death or serious illness of a passenger.
• The death of one of the passengers included in the single booking. In this case, compensation is paid to all or only for one client of the company.

Close relatives at Ryanair are:

• spouses;
• parents, including stepfather and stepmother;
• children and grandchildren, including adopted ones;
• brothers and sisters along with their half-steps;
• sons-in-law and daughters-in-law;
• Grandmothers and grandfathers;
• close relatives of the spouse.

In the event of the death of relatives or the passenger himself, the refund is made without any discussion. And when it comes to a serious illness, everything depends on the decision of the carrier's representatives.

To receive compensation, the passenger must fill out the Refund Application Form on the airline's website. Here you need to upload the following documents:

• a copy of a death certificate or a doctor's certificate on the fact of a serious illness;
• translation of the certificate into English (it is not necessary to certify it with a notary);
• a copy of the document confirming a close relationship.

Alternatively, instead of returning the ticket and demanding a refund of the money paid, you can request to postpone the departure to a later time.

Additional services when booking

In addition to purchasing a ticket, paying for baggage and other additional services that are directly related to the flight, Ryanair will offer to use some options during the booking process after arriving at your destination. This is about:

• Car rental with daily payment. You can choose the car model on the airline's website.
• Hotel room reservation.
• Transfer - a car or bus will take you to the airport of departure or pick you up from there after the flight arrives.

Arenda avto

When completing the booking, all these non-core additional services can be paid in one payment, saving personal time.

Check-in

Ryanair's ticket check-in rules encourage passengers to use self-service services - a personal account on the carrier's website or a mobile application.

You can only check in for your flight and print your boarding passes online.

There is a 55 EUR check-in fee at the airport, regardless of the ticket price.In this case, unnecessary expenses can be avoided only if the ticket is purchased at the Flexi Plus fare.

Possible problems

On the travel forums, you can often find the phrase "I can not pay on the Ryanair website with a credit card." The online booking system is designed in such a way that you will see confirmation of successful payment only after the airline receives bank approval for the transaction. Bank refusal can be received due to lack of funds. The amount in your account must be sufficient to take into account the conversion costs. The payment will also fail if the card balance is insufficient to pay the commission. To solve the problem, contact your bank's customer support team and explain the situation.

Sometimes payment by card does not work due to the fact that plastic is not intended for making payments via the Internet. For example, Visa Electron bank cards can be used for payment only through terminals with a PIN code. It will not be possible to conduct a transaction online. In such a situation, it remains only to replace the payment instrument and try again.

Forum users are also interested in why a ticket for three is more expensive than, for example, for four on the same route. It all depends on the time before the flight and the date of departure. Usually, as the date of departure approaches, the cost of the ticket increases significantly. Therefore, booking seats in advance for 4 people can be significantly cheaper than booking for 3 shortly before the flight. During the booking process, the airline shows the cost of the flight for each date separately.

Prices can also go up dramatically on holidays and weekends. Pay attention to this.

Conclusions

As a low-cost airline, Ryanair strives to keep its costs as low as possible. For this reason, the company encourages customers to book flights and check in for flights on their own via the Internet. Online self-service is also convenient for passengers. They no longer need to visit retail points of sale. You can buy a ticket without leaving your home or hotel, and then go to the airport and safely board.