The £55 Ryanair charge that infuriates customers – and the way to get around it
HOLIDAYMAKERS have been urged to use a simple trick to get around a common and infuriating £55 Ryanair charge.
It comes after a woman claims her parents were hit with the fee for printing the wrong boarding cards for their flight.
Anyone who doesn't check in for their flight online two hours before their scheduled takeoff time has to pay the fee, as set out in the terms and conditions on the .
The fee is listed as an "airport check-in fee" and will be handed out to anyone who doesn't turn up with their boarding pass either downloaded or printed out.
It states: "If you do not check in online more than two hours before the scheduled departure time, you will be charged the airport check-in fee set out in our table of fees."
Two people who were stung by the charge were a couple in their 70s and 80s, who accidentally printed out the wrong boarding pass.
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The pair had checked in for their return flight, rather than their outbound trip, and were made to pay the fee for airport check-in.
Their daughter : "Hey @Ryanair, my parents who are in their 70s and 80s, had accidentally downloaded the return flight boarding card instead of the outgoing ones.
"You charged them £110 to print them at the airport. £110 for 2 pieces of paper which took 1 minute. Shame on you."
Other people were angered to read the story, saying the airline should hand out a refund.
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One replied, saying: "Charging an arm and a leg for basic services shouldn’t be allowed!"
Another added: "Hope they get that money refunded."
The airline staff were following the terms set out on the website, that reads: "You must check in online at www.ryanair.com and print or download your boarding pass."
However, there are ways to avoid having to pay the airport check-in fee after arriving at the airport, provided it's still two hours before the flight's scheduled departure time.
- Have you been affected by the charge? Email [email protected]
As pointed out by Cheap Holiday Expert, holidaymakers can download the Ryanair app on their phone and get access to their boarding cards for free, rather than having to pay the charge.
She wrote: "If you realise you're without your boarding pass, download the app, put in your reservation number & you can get a digital boarding pass for free."
The Points Guy has also previously recommended passengers download the app to dodge the charge.
They wrote: "The free-to-download Ryanair app will generate an electronic boarding pass that's entirely free of charge.
"You'll need access to your phone in order to show the electronic boarding pass at security and the gate and avoid getting stuck with that infuriating fee."
Alternatively, passengers who pay extra for a flexi or flexi-plus ticket can also check-in for free at the airport.
Ryanair told Sun Online Travel: “In accordance with Ryanair’s T&C’s, which these passengers agreed to at the time of booking, they failed to check-in online before arriving at Stansted airport (11 Aug) despite receiving an email reminder (10 Aug) to check-in online.
"These passengers were correctly charged the airport check-in fee (£55 per pax).
"All passengers travelling with Ryanair agree to check-in online before arriving at their departure airport and all passengers are sent an email/SMS, reminding them to do so 24hrs before departure.
"We regret that these passengers ignored their email reminder and failed to check-in online.”
There are other advantages to having an airline's app downloaded as well.
Essence Griffin, a flight attendant, explained why she would never fly without having downloaded the app first.
She told : “If you don’t have the app, you are definitely flying blind. I would never travel without downloading the app for the airline I’m flying on.
“It’ll tell you when you’re boarding, if you’re running late you’ll know if the flight’s still there, if it got delayed. You’ll see seat changes, gate changes, information about your boarding passes and upgrades."
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Meanwhile, a money expert revealed how the day you book and the day you fly can impact how expensive your flights are.
And this dad revealed how he keeps costs down on his family holidays.
