This is a cautionary tale for anyone planning to jet off abroad this (or any other) summer, or maybe planning to fly to Perpignan.

We were planning a summer holiday to either Portugal or the Canaries until the fixtures for this season were released. When realising that we could holiday on the Costa Brava instead and take a day trip to Perpignan to take in the game I persuaded ‘She’ (who must be obeyed) to change our plans.

'She' (who must be obeyed) agreed so I managed to find ourselves a great looking hotel in Tossa de Mar. Transfers from Barcelona airport seemed quite expensive and also quite time consuming (a major consideration when travelling with a six year old) so we reluctantly decided on using Ryanair into Girona. This turned out to be a major mistake.

Flights, hotel, transfers and airport parking were all booked and paid for months ago, and we could start to look forward to our two weeks in the sun as well as my first visit to Perpignan. Then a few weeks ago I received an email from Ryanair advising me that our return flight had been changed – not to a different time, but to the following day! Airport parking was the cheapest online option and couldn’t be changed so £45 down the drain. Fortunately the transfers could be amended for free but for an extra night in the hotel we had to cough up another £165.

Not very happy at having to find an extra £165 and losing our car park money, but at least we didn’t rebook a new car park deal. Over the weekend I got another email from Ryanair. This time they have altered our outbound flight from the Tuesday to the Monday. Just received a quote from the hotel and they want another £355 for the extra night, plus I am self employed and travelling Monday means closing the business over the weekend (my busiest time) hence losing a full weekends takings.

I cannot begin to put into words how angry I am right now. I estimate that if we accept Ryanairs change then they will cost me about £1200 extra including lost revenue. We could have gone to the Caribbean for what the total cost would come too. As it is I have decided to bite the bullet, cancel the Ryanair booking (which is an option they give though I will be amazed if I get all my money back), rebook to Barcelona with Easyjet and hire a car for the duration of our stay. Even this is going to cost me over £500 but at least I will be able to keep trading over the weekend before we go.

Moral of the story – be careful when booking holidays seperatley rather than as a package. We have done it for years, and it does work out cheaper, but when you get caught out you really do get caught out. Also, steer clear of the (I can’t type what I want to here so let’s just say) irish airline. They’re an absolute disgrace. Even their customer support is expensive to phone, they keep you on hold for best part of 30 minutes and they you get some fella saying “hello... hello... I can’t hear you, you will have to phone back”.

Be warned!!!

I fly away on holiday in May, and we are using RyanAir. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that everything will be fine (booked as a package, not seperate) but with them lot, you never can tell what is round the corner.

Wow that is bad luck but poor stuff from Ryanair. We've done that trip, in fact the last 3 summer hols spent in Tossa. We got sick of the aggressive/rude/frantic style boarding with ryanair so last year did the package thing with thomson. Much easier and far less stress. Hope it all turns out well for you

Wow this has shocked me i have flown to girona with ryan air for the last 2 years and never had any problems with them flights was on time etc only thing i dont like about them is there not very good at landing planes they scare the hell out off me.

We have booked with easyjet to go to lloret this year for our stay to go over to perpignon as at the time of booking it was £70 cheaper pp im glad that we chose to travel for the extra time to save the money now than chose ryan air, its unfortunate that this has happened to u as i booked in january and im sure u would have got the flights for cheaper i know they are prices more now as i added an extra person to our trip.

I hope u manage to get ur money back in whole from ryan air i know they have steep prices for any changes there bad in that department

After being stranded in spain by ryanair a couple of years ago i always pay the extra now, will never use them again.

Sugar - booked with Ryanair to Venice in June to meet a cruise! Better not show the misses these posts!

Gutted, though I guess your going to join the long queue of people (including me) who will never fly Ryan Air again. Their CEO really is a prize jerk. I hope a revolt against the company isn't too far away.

This might help you www.ryanair.com/en/questions/wha ... by-ryanair I've flown loads of times with them and never had a issue. But lots of people.

This might help you www.ryanair.com/en/questions/wha ... by-ryanair I've flown loads of times with them and never had a issue. But lots of people.

Does'nt affect me as I only fly long-haul.

But basically you get what you pay for.

We've only used Ryanair once - we were holidaying in Spain and flew out Ryanair Liverpool-Murcia and return Jet2 Alicante-Manchester.

Both were excellent trips, no delays and good service

Ryanair cancelled - I wonder how long before my money lands back on my card? (They say upto 7 days after the refund has been approved, can't see them approving it quickly though).

Easyjet booked but costing £200 more than Ryanair did, and well over £200 more than Easyjet would have cost when we originally booked months ago (but we wanted to fly to Girona rather than Barca). Just need to find a reasonabley priced car hire from the airport for 15 nights and that allows us to cross the border into France.

Anything less than a near perfect performance in Perpignan (something similar to Huddersfield in the cup last year) will be a little dissapointing after the trouble and expense that we have had to go through so far!

Try BUDGET for car rental in spain, we got a great deal last time we went over

Rather than book transfers from Barcelona a cheaper option is to take the airport bus into town and then get the direct bus to Tossa de Mar, its not expensive and takes about an hour, this link is for the timetable and prices rlclick hererl

We stayed in Tossa for the match last season and went to Barcelona for the day using the bus. You will enjoy Tossa, its a really nice place.