Ryanair to charge for checking in online !!

[Nigelinoz]

FROM:
Ryanair to charge for checking in online -Times Online

From The Times

May 14, 2009


Ryanair to charge for checking in online




Ginny McGrath



Ryanair is to start charging customers to check in online. The no-frills airline said that check-in for all its flights booked after May 20 would be by website only and that passengers must pay £5 to do so.
Passengers without a printer must find access to one or pay a £40 charge for arriving at the airport without a boarding pass.
The charges come as the carrier scraps airport check-in desks and moves to 100 per cent web check-in.

Just another reason,not that I need one,to never fly Ryanair.

 

[samh004]

Seems silly seeing as they'll save money anyway by moving to OLCI, with less staff needed to check-in at the airports. That's what you get for a LCC though... although you'd think perhaps that this fee would need to be included in the ticket price? It's not optional after all. Wonder what the law says about that.

 

[FL360]

Yes, for the routes I wanted anyway,
Ryanair seems to have really bad times for the cheapest fares.

Because the second tier or even regional airports they use it is very
inconvenient if your flight depart at 6am, or arrive at 23pm.

It is almost certain you can find similar price for better times with other
LCCs such as EasyJet and others....

SkyScanner is really useful for this....

 

[Cyclogenesis]

so in essence, since the fee is unavoidable this is the same as increasing all fares by 5 GBP.. Dodgy, like the old days here when all fares shown were not inclusive of taxes and charges...

 

[dajop]

Whatever .....

 

[coco50]

Like many other technological advances, you do the work and pay for the privilege of doing it!

 

[notzac]

Echoing something I believe munitalP may have said in a different thread - FR should be on everyones' will-not-fly list, along with other quality airline outfits such as GA...

 

[JohnK]

Totally ridiculous! So all Ryanair airfares have just gone up 5 GBP or 40 GBP if no access to printer. This is just taking air travel to silly heights.

Ryanair is on my never-to-fly list but I am afraid that every silly gimmick they devise will be implemented by airlines round the world and more than likely not just limited to LCCs....

 

[dajop]

Certainly makes Ryanair almost impossible to travel on if you're travelling within Europe from Australia.

Typically my 3-4 week case has about 18kg of luggage, so on Ryanair, to access a £4 airfare I have to:
1) Find a printer to print a boarding pass
2) Pay £5 for online checkin
3) Pay £28 in taxes and charges
4) Pay £5 for processing the payment
5) Pay £10 to check in one item of luggage (up to 15kg)
6) Pay £45 in excess luggage.

So even if I could cram my luggage into hand luggage it would still be £52.

I just randomly checked Stansted - Barcelona (Girona) on a random date. Curiously BA are £54 for LGW-BCN for same time of day. And no worrying about cramming hand luggage, finding a printer to print boarding pass. Not to mention the other downsides.

The scary bit is the relationship Ryanair have with Tiger. How long before we some of these "innovations" in Australia and Asia?

 

[tuapekastar]

This is just taking air travel to silly heights.

Nicely put John!

Indeed, once you start adding things up (as dajop has kindly done), budget LCCs do not necessarily stack up so well. Just requires people to actually see past the ultra-cheap advertised fare, minus all the 'opt-in' and compulsory charges that come later.

Still, horses for courses, and I would not rule out flying them, but the planets would most assuredly have to line up for there to be a chance of that happening.

 

[Mal]

LiarAir used to not allow online check-in for non-EU passport holders, however, they seem to have resolved that since March.

An interesting article from the Telegraph in the UK:

Ryanair's online check-in policy: Q&A - Telegraph

 

[Flashback]

I read an article today that said when it comes in, base fares will drop.... so all it's doing is dropping the fare, but then bringing it back up.

Obviously on $0 fares it's not the case.....

 

[mannej]

With all this publicity regarding all the fees and charges, our experience with RyanAir seems to be at odds with all of this.

As a family of four after 3 weeks in Italy, we had plenty of excess baggage, and did not get charged a cent.

Lucky i guess!

 

[dot]

Certainly makes Ryanair almost impossible to travel on if you're travelling within Europe from Australia.

Typically my 3-4 week case has about 18kg of luggage, so on Ryanair, to access a £4 airfare I have to:
1) Find a printer to print a boarding pass
2) Pay £5 for online checkin
3) Pay £28 in taxes and charges
4) Pay £5 for processing the payment
5) Pay £10 to check in one item of luggage (up to 15kg)
6) Pay £45 in excess luggage.

So even if I could cram my luggage into hand luggage it would still be £52.

Don't forget the extra charge to use the loo as well!

 

[straitman]

Certainly makes Ryanair almost impossible to travel on if you're travelling within Europe from Australia.

Typically my 3-4 week case has about 18kg of luggage, so on Ryanair, to access a £4 airfare I have to:
1) Find a printer to print a boarding pass
2) Pay £5 for online checkin
3) Pay £28 in taxes and charges
4) Pay £5 for processing the payment
5) Pay £10 to check in one item of luggage (up to 15kg)
6) Pay £45 in excess luggage.

So even if I could cram my luggage into hand luggage it would still be £52.

I just randomly checked Stansted - Barcelona (Girona) on a random date. Curiously BA are £54 for LGW-BCN for same time of day. And no worrying about cramming hand luggage, finding a printer to print boarding pass. Not to mention the other downsides.

The scary bit is the relationship Ryanair have with Tiger. How long before we some of these "innovations" in Australia and Asia?

Don't forget the extra charge to use the loo as well!

....... and the Credit Charge surcharge on the whole thing :!:

 

[munitalP]

With all this publicity regarding all the fees and charges, our experience with RyanAir seems to be at odds with all of this.

As a family of four after 3 weeks in Italy, we had plenty of excess baggage, and did not get charged a cent.

Lucky i guess!

It's nice to hear someone had a good experience on Ryan - however, is not the case with most. I personally had a very bad run from them and would walk rather than fly on Ryan Air again.

Their seemingly untouchable acts wouldn't pass the public scrutiny in Australia, however, this band of robbers are placed on a podium of achievement in the UK business world - so stupidity like the toilet issue or now the extra charge for online checking is sold to the unwitting public as an achievement rather than what it is - daylight robbery.

Pity on the stupid public who accept these changes without protest.

Mr!

:evil:

 

[dajop]

It's nice to hear someone had a good experience on Ryan - however, is not the case with most. I personally had a very bad run from them and would walk rather than fly on Ryan Air again.

I think they have their market. As a foreign tourist in Europe with tight timelines, and enough luggage that needs checking in and paying XS (which is the angle many of us are coming from AFF), I wouldn't go near them.

If I was based in London, and wanted a few quick cheap short trips/weekends away a year I'd probably play the law of averages that 4 out of 5 trips (or 9 out of 10) would work out just fine and use them. Or maybe not. Depends on how their total price stacked up against Easy jet, bmibaby and the legacy carriers.

 

[Evan]

tuifly, germanwing etc, there are a lot of other LCC's that my European friends seem to think are much better, but as somebody says they have there market. And people silly enough not to check the price on BA and just assume Ryan Air is cheaper are no better than the same sort of people that do the same thing in Australia, fly the LCC and pay more than a full service airline.

 

[anat0l]

+1 reason why not to fly Ryanair.

Hopefully, there are some decent LCCs in EU, because I'm not sure whether the full-cost carriers will be entirely economical if I have to fly around EU later this year.

 

[dajop]

And people silly enough not to check the price on BA and just assume Ryan Air is cheaper are no better than the same sort of people that do the same thing in Australia, fly the LCC and pay more than a full service airline.

Oh yes and this must happen. I recently did a check on Jetstar and they were selling MEL-SIN fares (via DRW) oneway for $20 more than QF9 oneway on same day and $150 more than SQ228 oneway on same day (all three flights arrive in SIN around same time, although SQ & QF leave MEL several hours later). Go figure, but I guess JQ must be selling them to somebody to be charging that much more than their full service competition.