Over the past few years, travel via subscription service has become an option for those who consider themselves to be, or who would like to be, frequent travelers.
- Uber’s subscription service in 2019 included discounted and free services
- Delta’s subscription service, also in 2019, offered early boarding and drink vouchers
- Both launched in 2023, Alaska Airlines’ and WizzAir’s respective subscriptions are still options
- And Virgin Voyages’ 2024 subscription service was so popular that they expanded the option to include stays at Necker Island for 2026
So it’s not really that farfetched that Ryanair is now jumping on the “subscription” bandwagon.
“Ryanair Prime” launched this past Monday. It’s a subscription service that costs £79 per year (about $102) per year. However the budget airline says that the discounts from having the service could save passengers up to £420 (roughly $544) per year.
Member benefits include free reserved seats, free travel insurance and access to 12 (one per month) member-exclusive seat sales during a member’s use year.
Dara Brady, the airline’s CMO, was quoted as saying, “‘Ryanair “Prime” is a new subscriber discount scheme for frequent flyers that want to fly regularly but don’t want to break the bank to do so.’
She continued that ‘the modest’ £79 will deliver ‘great savings’, as it saves members who fly on Ryanair 12 times per year a total of £420.
Will people really save that much?
If you use the plan on a monthly basis, apparently yes. Metro UK crunched the numbers:
If a passenger buys reserved seats on 12 flights per year, that amounts to £120.
Travel insurance for those same flights would cost £180.
On top of that, Ryanair say a traveller would save a minimum of £120 (£10 per seat) on 12 seats bought in a sale.
Add that together and you get £420.
Ryanair says even if you don’t fly every single month – say, only 3 times in a year – you’ll still come ahead and save $105.
Of course, what they’re offering are all optional things. You don’t HAVE to reserve your seat, or get travel insurance or even buy tickets on sale (since Ryanair flights are generally cheap to begin with). If you’re someone who often opts for or purchases these extras, then there’s a good chance you could wind up ahead of the game. But if you typically try to save money by not choosing your seat, or if you generally don’t purchase travel insurance for shorter flights, the amount you’ll actually save is negligible, or could potentially be more than you’d typically pay in a year.
Plus, of course, if you’re not someone who typically buys tickets on ultra low cost carriers, let alone on a regular basis, then Ryanair Prime probably isn’t for you.
But if you don’t mind the Ryanair model, and plan to do some heavy duty flying in Europe, it may be something to look into.
More info at https://www.ryanair.com/gb/en/lp/explore/membership.
Want to comment on this post? Great! Read this first to help ensure it gets approved.
Want to sponsor a post, write something for Your Mileage May Vary, or put ads on our site? Click here for more info.
Like this post? Please share it! We have plenty more just like it and would love it if you decided to hang around and sign up to get emailed notifications of when we post.
Whether you’ve read our articles before or this is the first time you’re stopping by, we’re really glad you’re here and hope you come back to visit again!
