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Booking Ryanair through Diversity Study Trips
Currently, Ryanair offers one channel for booking a group, via their offline groups department. Diversity Study Trips are able to book groups via Ryanair offline via this method for 15+ passengers as long as the booking is made 14 days before departure of the original flight. There are a number of benefits to booking this way such as:
– Name flexibility – 50% of names are required halfway between the booking date and departure date and the remaining 100% of passenger names are required 14 days prior to departure.
– Same fare for all passengers
– 60-day early check-in
– Allocated seats for everyone in the group.
Please note if you have a group of less than 14 passengers, the only way Diversity Study Trips are able to make Ryanair available is via a third party, as they are unfortunately unwilling to allow the travel community to book their flights through standard channels.
We are still willing to book via this method for our clients, however, the airline has now put steps in place to deter customers from making bookings via TMC’s, like ourselves, and other travel agents and so it is important that we make you aware of what would be required from yourselves should we book Ryanair on your behalf.
When booking through Diversity Study Trips, passengers may encounter a notification stating that they have booked through a third party. In such cases, a small fee may have been applied to your booking for using an Online Travel Agent or TMC, such as Diversity Study Trips. Ryanair’s intention is to encourage direct bookings through their official website.
Once booking, each passenger may receive a message from Ryanair when checking in for the flight stating that you have booked via a third party and that they are required to pay a fee of €0.59 to verify your identity prior to check-in. This is a genuine request from Ryanair and as explained a further attempt to drive business directly to their website. You can check in for your flight at the airport, however, you will have to pay an airport check-in fee per passenger to cover the extra cost of the airport check-in service.
In addition, when the verification is complete the booking automatically transfers over to the passenger’s Ryanair profile which removes DST’s access to manage the booking on your behalf, this would limit our access to assist in making any changes on your behalf such as adding bags, seats etc and removes the ability for us to be notified on any schedule change or cancellation. To reassure should this happen, DST are still here to support our customers in rebooking alternative options should this be required.
The travel community has attempted to engage with Ryanair to find a resolution to these issues, however, these efforts have regrettably yielded limited results. As a result, we are only able to offer you Ryanair flights if you understand and accept this process/implications and are prepared to pay the verification service fee directly when checking in using your own credit/debit card.
We accept the inconvenience that this may cause but as a community, the travel industry has attempted to engage with Ryanair who are unwilling to discuss the issue. Therefore, we have no option but to notify you of the extra steps that may be required if you choose to continue booking Ryanair with us for groups of less than 14 passengers. We want to assure you that, as a TMC, we are dedicated to improving relationships and providing a smoother booking experience. We will continue to advocate for a more streamlined and traveller-friendly process within the industry.
