David O'Mahony from Clare has been in touch about Ryanair's travel vouchers which leave a lot to be desired. He recently visited the budget airline's website, planning to buy a family member a gift voucher as a Christmas present. He was less than pleased, however, when he read the terms and conditions and found that if the person who receives the vouchers books a flight which is less than the amount on the voucher, the balance is non-refundable.

So, if you have a €50 voucher and your flight only costs €40, then Ryanair gets to keep the balance.

It is not just this ridiculous policy that our reader takes issue with. The terms and conditions also say that you can only use a maximum of three vouchers per return flight. "So if one gets four €25 vouchers, and the flight, including taxes and charges, is €87.45, only €75 may be used in vouchers and the balance has to be paid, presumably on a credit card which will include a service charge," says O'Mahony.

He also points out that only the phone may be used for booking flights with vouchers and there is "no box to input the voucher number online". He describes it as a "con-job" on travellers which "is contrary to the spirit of, if not the Consumer Protection Act".

While we were looking at the terms and conditions of the Ryanair site, we also noticed that flight bookings must be made using the gift voucher within six months, after which they expire. Having vouchers which expire is becoming increasingly common and is something that all readers should be aware of if they intend buying vouchers from Ryanair or anywhere else as presents this Christmas.

The good news on this front is that the National Consumer Agency (NCA) and the Office of the Director of Consumer Affairs (ODCA) has done all the legwork on vouchers for you this Christmas. The consumer groups have jointly published a list of major retailers and the expiry dates attached to their vouchers.

"Given the number of vouchers that will be bought as Christmas presents, we thought it would be a good time to ask retailers whether or not they sold gift vouchers and if so, whether time limits applied," says Anne Fitzgerald, Director of Consumer Affairs. Some 70 companies were contacted of which 37 per cent had limits which ranged from six months to five years. "It is vital that consumers check to see when the expiry date applies, as they have no redress if it expires before they choose to use it. Consumers should also make recipients of gift vouchers aware of limits if they apply," she added.

Get your priority right

Recently we highlighted the €6 charge Ryanair imposes for priority boarding, prompting another reader to get in touch. "Why would anyone pay for priority boarding with Ryanair?" she asks. "At Gatwick recently, boarding for Dublin, those people were allowed out from under the scrum first. But then they just sat on the bus while it filled up with the rest of us."

Mamma Mia! Much too dear!

Carmel from Dublin contacted us in dismay after attempting to book tickets to the musical Mamma Mia! in the Point via the Ticketmaster website. "I was quoted €52.50 per ticket and an additional €6.75 service charge per ticket. This is supposed to support the cost of postage (a stamp costs only 48 cent!) and processing the request (which entails printing the tickets!)," she writes.

After learning of the booking fee, she rang a Ticketron outlet in Dublin city centre just five minutes from where she works to find out how much of a service charge she would have to pay if she bought the tickets directly from them. "The lady proceeded to tell me that, for the tickets I was buying, I would not incur any such service charge, saving me a total of €27. How can Ticketmaster justify the rip-off price of a €6.75 service charge per ticket? From here on I will refrain from booking my tickets online with Ticketmaster, as I'm livid.

Ticketmaster is no stranger to this column and we have often highlighted its sky-high booking charges. When contacted in the past the company has always robustly defended its position and maintains that the provision of a 24-hour telephone service for ticket-buyers is a major cost, as is postage and other administrative fees. Earlier this year, following a two-year investigation after complaints from many concertgoers, it was cleared of abusing its dominant position in the market by the Competition Authority.