ryanair - whether to check in online sooner or later?

melb

am going to malaga on 17 december from Liverpool. every other time i've flown with ryanair i've checked in online at the earliest opportunity, including the return journey where possible. we were delayed in spain a few days in april with the ash cloud but i seem to remember after the event people seemed to have varying experiences as to whether or not they'd already checked in when the flights were cancelled. bearing in mind the last week or so, where, if the weather didn't get you, then strikes elsewhere would, is there any general advice as to whether to check in online early or wait until nearer the time of the flight in case there are any disruptions. thanks for any advice

ManAtHome

Only thing I vaguely remember was that you couldn't change airports if you re-booked a cancelled flight on-line after you'd checked in.

melb

i'm just bumping this up because i'm about to check in for both my flights. hopefully i will be able to use both flights and they won't be cancelled due to snow which is forecast again for the end of next week, but i do seem to remember there was some issue during the volcanic ash period about being able either to claim a refund or to get booked onto a later flight and that this depended on whether not one had checked in to that particular flight. anyone got any experience or advice please? thanks

ManAtHome

I did re-book checked-in outbound flights twice when volcanoed (eventually got a full refund for out and back when the volcano didn't stop volcanoing).

Looks like you can't change the return flight on-line if it's not been cancelled (as above, you could cancel the entire booking if outbound was cancelled) - dunno if they charge if you call them to change though.

PLEASE NOTE: If your booking has a return flight included which has not been cancelled and you have already checked in for that flight, you will NOT be able to transfer your return flight to a different date. If you wish to do this you will need to call our reservation centre - see below for contact details .

From here http://www.ryanair.com/en/notices/gops/101128-Snow_Disruptions-GB

melb

thanks for going to the trouble ... i think that was what i had in the back of my mind. Don't think this would affect me as if there's too much snow the flight will be cancelled anyway so I will be able to change it online. thanks