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Ryanair set to charge £5 for online check-in

Thursday, 14 May 2009

Ryanair passengers face a £5 charge per flight to print out their tickets at home as part of moves to abolish check-in desks and increase revenues. The policy replaces Ryanair's practice of offering free online ticketing and charging anyone who opted for face-to-face check-in £10.

In future, anyone who arrives at the airport without a pre-printed check-in card will have to pay a £40 "boarding card re-issue fee". In-built restrictions to the online ticketing system mean many customers will be unable to print their tickets when they book, raising the chances for penalty charges from customers who think they have completed the process.

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Ryanair says its system won't allow customers booking more than 15 days before their flight, or within four hours of one, to check in at that time. so those who book farther in advance will have to revisit the website nearer the time of their trip to check in.

The EU has forced Ryanair to change the way it lists the costs of its tickets to include taxes and some – but not all – fees up front. Advertised "free" tickets can still end up costing £20 to £80. For example, Ryanair adds £10 or more to each round-trip ticket if it is purchased with normal credit or debit cards, making the charge almost impossible to avoid, but this cost is omitted from the initial price.

The airline defends this practice because it offers free booking to holders of a restrictive, ill-marketed Visa Electron card that is unavailable in major countries.

 

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Bunch of crooks
[info]sceptic45 wrote:
Thursday, 14 May 2009 at 07:46 am (UTC)
In other words, disguise the true cost of the flight even more than they already do.

Simple. Don't use them.
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Re: Bunch of crooks
[info]rants_a_lot wrote:
Thursday, 14 May 2009 at 10:41 am (UTC)
Ryanair don't need good customer service, or good publicity because they are nearly always the cheapest way to travel and that is all that matters to millions of people who travel with them.
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Hardly cheap flights...
[info]clickety6 wrote:
Thursday, 14 May 2009 at 07:47 am (UTC)
Let's see - charge for printing ticket, charge for checking in luggage, charge for using toilet paper, charge for actually having a seat on the flight, charge for a packet of peanuts, costs of getting bus/train to a centre of civilisation when Ryan Air lands you 200 miles from anywhere...

I'm just waiting for Ryan air to empty the cabin of air during the flight and charging 40 quid a bottle of air for those who aren't able to hold their breath long enough and feel the need to breathe...

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Well...
[info]veomar wrote:
Thursday, 14 May 2009 at 07:53 am (UTC)
I'll just go for easyJet then when there is the option to. At least they aren't quite as bad ... and there seems to be a fraction more legroom too. The easyJet aircraft cabins are also more aesthetically pleasing - white/grey/orange with soft seat furnishing and not that hideous 'in ya face' blue yellow plastic everywhere.
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Re: Well...
[info]westhamsterdam wrote:
Thursday, 14 May 2009 at 11:05 am (UTC)
Aren't the Ryanair seats made of leather? BAY use the same seats easier to clean.
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Ryanair the fantasy airline
[info]cybernet24 wrote:
Thursday, 14 May 2009 at 07:56 am (UTC)
I suspect that visitors to Europe will not be using Ryanair for their travel more than once. Can transit passengers arriving from overseas access printer facilities in the UK's run down airports to print their Boarding passes for their "cheap" Ryanair flights?
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Out of the air
[info]humble_sparrow wrote:
Thursday, 14 May 2009 at 08:21 am (UTC)
Anything to get people out of the air and onto trains and buses is really great
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Ryan We-Don't-Care Air
[info]trojan_horace wrote:
Thursday, 14 May 2009 at 08:37 am (UTC)
In my, almost routine these days, complaints to other airlines about their innumerable failings, at the back of my mind remains the special memory of the even worse excruciating misery of checking into a Ryan Air flight and what feel like the institutionalised abuse of customers, applied from the CEO to their snotty, bad mouthing stewards from start to finish. They appear to take the view that people like to be treated like crap and will pay handsomely to have that masochistic urge scratched and so to reinforce the misery helps protect the illusion of a cheap price. It's the Emperor's Clothes. Their myth of cheapness is exposed for the fig leaf it is and sooner of later the P&L sheets will have to reflect the increasing unhappiness of their long suffering customers. I don't fly Ryan any more, even when no alternatives immediately appear to be available, so dreadful is the misery and I'd suggest more of us lobby with our wallets until some semblance of respect for their customers begins of emerge. A casual visit to airline forums will reveal that there's a "special place in Hell" slot for Ryan, so I'm obviously not alone in my complaint.
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(no subject) - [info]thomas_66 - Thursday, 14 May 2009 at 08:40 am (UTC) Expand
on-line charges
[info]kilcavan wrote:
Thursday, 14 May 2009 at 08:41 am (UTC)
I am disgusted with ryanairs new on line boarding pass fee. I have just booked for October so will probably have to pay. They are being really stupid closing check- in desks as not everybody has access to a computer. Makes you wonder what they think they will achieve by penalising their customers, or maybe they dont care but therer are other airlines out there I wish they had a bit more competition.
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Never Again
[info]arion444 wrote:
Thursday, 14 May 2009 at 09:21 am (UTC)
I will boycott this airline carrier, and any other that fleeces people under the pretense of 'service.' The airline and car hire industry needs a severe investigation and cleaning up. I am fed up with these practices that often sock people right where it hurts the most, just for choosing the lowest cost option cause they can't afford better in the first place. Rubbish! Time for someone inside Ryanair, and any car hire company you can think of, to blow the whistle loud and hard.

Ah, the penalties we pay for being 'poor.'
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Carry on charging
[info]rockinrog wrote:
Thursday, 14 May 2009 at 09:35 am (UTC)
I love Ryanair (although like any sane person I never actually use them). No pretence at valuing customers at all. Just give us your money! But how come they are not charging people to look at their website? Surely that is the next step. You really can fool some of the people all of the time.
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Ryanair
[info]ganef wrote:
Thursday, 14 May 2009 at 09:37 am (UTC)
I used this airline one, to fly to Venice. Advertised free (actually they charged one penny for legal reasons) I understood from the advertisement that I would have to pay airport charges and there was no freebie food. The plane was new, clean and arrived there and back some 20 minutes early. The staff were polite and I actually wrote to Ryanair complimenting them.

If you don't like the bargain airlines, use regular ones and pay the price. There is no such thing as a free lunch.
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Charging for everything that used to be free
[info]allenn007 wrote:
Thursday, 14 May 2009 at 09:40 am (UTC)
If Ryanair are charging for everything that used to be free, it means they are expensive.
They aren't giving passengers a choice but bullying them into paying more for the only option left, which is online check-in.

If you balance everything out with all the many add-ons it will work out the same price as other airlines, all a bit of deception really. Cheap fares but you have to pay for other essentials which makes it expensive.
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Bunch of crooks
[info]mssuperior wrote:
Thursday, 14 May 2009 at 10:05 am (UTC)
Absolutely right. O'Leary and the rest of Ryanair have an absolute contempt for the people they carry. So, as sceptic45 says, don't use them. Another worrying aspect is the democratic deficit (Brown on YouTube anyone?)which assumes everyone has access to a computer and printer. Not so. Whether it is cost or just plain choice, not everyone can book online, or if they CAN book online they may not be able to print. And sorry, having to take a journey to a library or a neighbour or anywhere which would print out for you is a patronising suggestion. But then Ryanair's business model may be grinding to a slow halt, so let's speed it up. I use Flybe and have always been able to pay just the quoted cost.
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What next!
[info]tommo15 wrote:
Thursday, 14 May 2009 at 10:11 am (UTC)
I'm sure it won't be long before Ryanair "The low Quality Airline" start charging you for an actual seat! If you don't pay you'll probably have to stand up on the plane at the back!
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RyanAir disregards the Law
[info]zoomshot wrote:
Thursday, 14 May 2009 at 10:22 am (UTC)
Our return flight from Sardinia was delayed overnight. RyanAir provided no information or help with accommodation whatsoever despite their obligations under European Law. Afterwards they refused to pay reimbursement of expenses that we were legally entitled to receive.

We will never use RyanAir again. There are plenty of law abiding companies where we can take our business.
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Ryanair
[info]sogrumpy wrote:
Thursday, 14 May 2009 at 10:25 am (UTC)
Have used Ryanair some 14 times. No problems. Good service, pleasant staff, on time. Least expensive by far but the hidden Credit card fee and future check in is a pain. However many airlines have service charges. The drinks etc. cost the same as I pay on internal flights in Norway. Nearly 60 million people use Ryanair. Twice BA I wonder why. You can print your boarding pass up to 15 days before so whats the hassle.
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Long haul
[info]dunque123 wrote:
Thursday, 14 May 2009 at 10:31 am (UTC)
Since I only fly long-haul these days this is no problem, unless proper airlines follow suit.
I assume the Adevertising authorities will ensure that the minimum of GBP 5 is added to all quoted fares?
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Bunch of crooks
[info]busybee1983 wrote:
Saturday, 23 May 2009 at 11:21 pm (UTC)
They do not know what else to charge for. It is a disgrace to charge people for checking in online and print their own tickets. It cost ryanair nothing however it cost passangers. I am really angry with the airline for making us to pay for everything. As a frequent traveller I might have to consider my other options and use alternative airlines.
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Ryanair being banned from charging extra on creditcard in germany
[info]simple321 wrote:
Tuesday, 30 June 2009 at 09:39 pm (UTC)
The German court stopped Ryanair from charging customers additional fees on their credit card on the internet. Ryanair has been taken to court by the German consumer organization ( Verbraucherzentrale Bundesverbands). Ryanair has till the end of this month to go back to court in Germany.

The reason for all this is to get more transparency on the internet, so consumers should not be tricked and just pay for the sum they see.

This would be a great improvement to all transactions for the consumer, but maybe not for the seller.

(articles in German , please translate with Google translate.):

http://www.spiegel.de/reise/aktuell/0,1518,630705,00.html

http://www.kostenlose-urteile.de/newsview8011NFC.htm

http://www.welt.de/reise/article3935510/Ticketkauf-per-Kreditkarte-darf-nicht-extra-kosten.html

(Berlin Court:Berliner Kammergericht: Aktenzeichen 23 U 243/08)

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