MSE News: Ryanair threat for passengers without online boarding pass

malkie76

Do RyanAir have a poor safety record (compared to any other airline)?
Do they fly to locations other airlines don't?

PasturesNew

Nice little earner for somebody with a laptop and printer who wants to sit in the airport and print them for people for £20.

PasturesNew

I don't even know what a boarding pass is, or what it's for. I'd have not spotted you need to print one out - and I don't have a printer either.

Alpine_Star

jayok wrote: »

Ryanair do specials where they absorb the tax and airport charges.

I can't argue with that. In fact this was recogonised by a judge (Norwegian this time) who fined Ryanair £43000 for absorbing the tax it charged it's customers when refunding them for flights it cancelled.

And using your rational the cost would be passed on to their passengers.

Alpine_Star

jayok wrote: »

If Ryanair is not allowed to charge for the boarding passes, it is rational to think that the requirement will go up and they may need more staff. They will either load it all onto the hold luggage charge or onto the ticket price for everyone.

If I were the CEO of a company that was so badly managed that it had to resort to employing additional staff to press 'print' buttons, the managing director would be out on his ear.

danothy

Alpine_Star wrote: »

I can't argue with that. In fact this was recogonised by a judge (Norwegian this time) who fined Ryanair £43000 for absorbing the tax it charged it's customers when refunding them for flights it cancelled.

And using your rational the cost would be passed on to their passengers.

I think the two things here are slightly different, you're referring to a fine for refusal to refund taxes and fees upon cancellation where as I think jayok was referring to the deals in which Ryanair didn't charge for them in the first place. Unless I misunderstood? Either of you please elaborate if I did.

Either way, yes, I do think the cost of any fine they are subject to would eventually be passed onto their passengers.

Alpine_Star wrote: »

If I were the CEO of a company that was so badly managed that it had to resort to employing additional staff to press 'print' buttons, the managing director would be out on his ear.

Last time I flew with Ryanair I didn't interact with a member of their staff until I was at the gate, this is how they want it as it it means they don't pay someone to greet you and check you in. Right or wrong (I'm not here to defend them or their business practices) they have no fat in their business and some would say that is good management (at least from a cost perspective, and that does seem to be their primary directive).

Fundamentally Ryanair are kicking up a fuss about this ruling. The sad fact is that no amount of rationalising about how the previous state of affairs was bad for the consumer will make any of the alternatives looking forwards any better for the consumer.

It might be nice to think they'd let this charge slide, but if in X months time after a modest increase in man-hours to account for an increased demand for boarding passes due to passenger apathy towards the cause of reducing your company's workload drove prices up across the board would you feel bad for the consumer? Especially when Ryanair would just as readily have it that no-one checked in at the airport and no-one would pay that £40 because it meant lower operational costs.

Gorgeous_George

I don't know why your passport cannot act as a boarding pass.

GG

danothy

Gorgeous_George wrote: »

I don't know why your passport cannot act as a boarding pass.

GG

If I were to speculate I would guess that it's to do with having a physical receipt to acknowledge you checked in and subsequently be validated when you boarded the plane.

benjus

PasturesNew wrote: »

Nice little earner for somebody with a laptop and printer who wants to sit in the airport and print them for people for £20.

Nice idea, and in fact some airports have internet stations with printing facilities. However, the airlines are one step ahead, and require the online checkin to be done several hours before departure.

jayok

danothy wrote: »

I think the two things here are slightly different, you're referring to a fine for refusal to refund taxes and fees upon cancellation where as I think jayok was referring to the deals in which Ryanair didn't charge for them in the first place. Unless I misunderstood? Either of you please elaborate if I did.

You are quite correct, I was referring to where the consumer was not required to pay the charges as Ryanair has agreed to pay them on your behalf in order to have a headline grabbing sale advert. You could say it comes out of their 'marketing' budget or you could say that those who choose to avail of the extras are subsidising those who do not.