Ryanair Prime claims to offer exclusive seat sale access, free reserved seats and free travel insurance.
But looking at the calculations Ryanair provide shows very few travellers would make a saving by subscribing - unless you always want to pick your seat, and even then the terms and conditions are full of caveats.
Ryanair Prime subscription free seat selection, and the crucial caveat
The most direct benefit of a Ryanair Prime subscription is that it includes free seat selection on up to 12 flights a year.
Ryanair says this amounts to £120 saving. That assumes each seat costs £10, but the Ryanair fee page says standard seat selection costs from £4.50, depending on the route and travel dates. Twelve seats booked at £4.50 would cost just £54.
Typically seats are more expensive than that and fees do go as high as £15.50 for a standard seat, so the savings could be higher.
Crucially, Ryanair says when no Ryanair Prime seats are available customers will be subject to random allocation - essentially making the benefit useless. Nor does it say which rows Ryanair Prime members will have access to.
And remember, if you are buying a seat to sit next to friends or family then they will also need to take out a Ryanair Prime subscription.
Ryanair travel insurance offers poor cover
Ryanair Prime subscribers get travel insurance included. Ryanair says travel insurance for the same flights would cost £180. But there are far better policies available for less money.
Cancellation cover is essential with travel insurance, especially if you or someone in your party falls ill and can't travel. The Ryaniar policy includes cancellation cover for your flight (minus a 10% excess), but won’t cover your accommodation, which is usually the greatest cost on a holiday. It won’t even reimburse additional fees, such as additional bags or seat selection. And it only covers Ryanair flights.
Ryanair also only includes €150,000 cover for emergency medical treatment. All the insurance policies that Which? recommended include five million pounds in medical cover for European travel.
Ryanair’s policy offers no medical cover if you are over 70, or for any pre existing medical conditions.
Other travel insurance policy costs vary, depending on your circumstances, but you can find excellent annual cover for under £100.
Ryanair Prime exclusive deals
In short, it’s not clear what, if any benefit these ‘exclusive discounts’ offer
Should I take out a Ryanair Prime subscription?
No.
source https://www.which.co.uk/news/article/ryanair-prime-subscription-service-probably-wont-save-you-money-aMOjp2q0VYMs