Ryanair booking frustrations

Sorry to hear about a very frustrating sounding experience. I have only ever used Ryanair's online booking (through their website) and it has always worked. They are a challenging airline to work with ime in other ways though, from making sure your baggage is paid for correctly to the frequent delays. I still fly them for all the reasons (convenience, fare), so maybe next time try booking on their website instead of the app.

The same thing happened to me. I fly with them in June from Porto, Portugal. I guess I should give myself extra time and be prepared for frustration.

I have also have had some frustrations and a decidedly mixed experience booking with Ryanair. We're flying from Bari, (in Puglia, Italy) to Budapest in early October. I'm pretty sure we've got everything sorted out but I have found them to be incredibly intrusive/invasive and disrespectful of privacy, with constant annoyances to get me to install and use their app (no thanks, don't want that on my phone), they send a lot of spam (I used a dedicated, throw-way email address that's never been used for anything else; I've even logged in via a VPN for an extra layer of privacy).

I think things will work but they're just so damn insistent and pushy that I feel like I need to take a shower after every interaction with them. Alas, they're the only reasonable way to get from our origin to our destination, so I will put up with them for this flight. But it's clearly a company I will try hard to avoid if there's ever any alternative. YMMV.

I guess I'm mystified, never had any issues paying, but the card I use has 3DS security, which is a common required security feature for online transactions in Europe, but for US based ISPs, they usually exempt that.

As for at the airport, as long as you check in online, have paid for the level of luggage you need, then no problems. I always get where I am going, on time, and I fly them about once a year.

I’ve only used Ryanair twice, but had the same experience as Paul.

"I appreciate e how Ryanair has made it possible to travel inexpensively throughout Europe, ..."

You have to know that Ryanair's business model is to sell cheap flights, and then make a profit on extra charges. So they game the system such that you often cannot avoid paying extra afterwards. So you have to be very careful.

And US credit cards are often an issue when booking things in Europe because US banks do not yet apply the same security standards as European ones do, giving another opportunity to Ryanair to fleece customers...

There is something screwed up with Ryanair this week ( or is it business as usual?) because I had the same experience as the OP in the last 24 hours.
Last night, I went through Skyscanner and selected Ryanair to buy Bari to Milan, Italy flights directly through Ryanair. Skyscanner does not sell flights itself but provides links to buy tickets either directly through the airline or through a broker.
The ticket sale went through and I took screen shots of the Ryanair confirmation.
This morning when I saw no confirmation e-mail from Ryanair ( but I have the screen shots of the confirmation code) I went through the RyanAir App which said the tickets I bought were from a vendor not authorized to sell them ( what vendor?—Ryanair itself sold me the tix!) so they needed me to re-enter all my info and credit card info to process the purchase. And, of course, every step of the way Ryanair tries to sell me more options.
Did all that and Ryanair’s App rejected the sale stating that the credit card was declined. Tried another credit card from a different bank and got the same result.
So I phoned Citibank and they told me the Ryanair payment was processed during the original purchase last night.
I don’t know what’s up at Ryanair but they definitely need to stop trying to hoodwink their customers or fix something that’s screwed up with their platforms.
Buyer Beware!