I was recently booking a flight from Dublin (DUB) – Manchester (MAN), I used Skyscanner to check the prices and Ryanair were coming in at about €40, I wasn’t ready to book and missed the opportunity. The next day I checked again and the same flight had gone up to €101.99, I shopped around again and discovered the following :

06:30 DUB
1h 05
Direct
07:35 MAN

06:30 DUB
1h 05
Direct
07:35 MAN

2 airlines, 2 flights, at exactly the same time, I checked the prices and Aer Lingus was €79.99 and Ryanair, €101.99, a difference of €22 one-way.  What happened to the low fares airline? I googled and found the Ryanair lowest fare guarantee – lowest fare or double the difference. Now, I’m always up for a challenge and I also prefer flying Ryanair (because they are more likely to be arrive on-time) so I tried it out.

The main conditions are as follows :

• same route
• flights are within 2 hours of each other
• claim must be made within 1 hour
• max 1 claim per month, 2 per year

I booked with Ryanair, screen-shotted Aer Lingus and completed the form, emailed both to priceguarantee@ryanair.com, I was a bit skeptical, but received a reply back 3 hours 24 mins later saying the claim had been accepted and they would refund €36 after I had travelled the route. The Aer Lingus price had since gone up to €83.99 so the price difference had reduced to €18. I checked my credit card today and they have refunded the €36.

Was I right to fly Ryanair?

FR552 (Ryanair) landed at 7:28am (due 7:35am)

EI202 (Aer Lingus) landed at 7:33am (due 7:35am)