MSE News: Ryanair threat for passengers without online boarding pass

walrus1

I hate to take issue with this but as aregular traveller, in my case to Rome, the price of Ryanair has risen to such an extent for flights this year that BA is cheaper in some cases. If you factor in the preflight scrum and extra charges for luggage I think O'Leary is pricing himself out of business. Personally I prefer Jet2.com or Easyjet, so much less hassle.

Froggitt

This is the solution to the problem

peterbaker

That's what I meant

I hope I didn't thank you too hastily Froggitt - you haven't embedded a clever message in that QR code, have you? I have no decoder installed so if you did, it will be very much an 'in joke' for those that do

Froggitt

Nope its real. http://www.heathrowexpress.com/mobile-ticketing

No reason why airlines couldnt use the same technology for checkin/boarding cards for those with mobiles, and paper technology for those without.

peterbaker

I agree it is the way for the whole industry to go and this 'anybody's inkjet will do' system is certainly a waste of paper and is surely not particularly secure. I have seen people saving paper by printing boarding cards on the back of pre-printed scrap A4 and getting them accepted for Ryanair. So it is already close to an 'any media will do so long as we know it's you' type thing. Airlines have successfully shifted this part of the business of processing passengers on to the airports so why do they have to be so anal about the few people who make a mistake?

Let's face it, those of us who have used Ryanair throughout their Europe-wide growth crescendo will recall that there was a significant period (well post 9/11 too) where it was routinely possible to turn up with no printout, and quote the booking reference verbally at the check in desk - it would be checked against a list and the boarding card issued after cross-checking the name on the list against the passport name (no other passport details were stored), and the boarding card handed over. And that was in the days of true 1p Ryanair flights !

To move so far along the spectrum of flexibility and customer service from that, to a £40 per person charge is clearly verging on the obscene for a harried family of four taking their only flight for the year for the summer break perhaps. I say Ryanair deserves ridicule for asserting that hitting unfortunates like that with a sudden £160 charge is both contractual and justified).

Clearly it does not cost anywhere near £40 to print a boarding card. Even a late fee on an out of order credit card is currently limited to £12 after the OFT had stepped in some years ago now stamping on £20, £25 and £30 wheezes by similarly minded marketeers at the banks (as those bare-faced marketeers who inhabit parts of Ryanair it seems). So why haven't the OFT already stepped in and stamped on this?

In my view, Ryanair deserve the Spanish judgement against them. As someone said long ago in this thread, had they been more patient with their public and applied a modest charge truly reflecting the oncosts of providing a backup boarding card printing service like that instead of an overt penalty then they would not have attracted the long arm of the law.

It is all a result of Ryanair behaving like they are the farmer herding sheep. Their field, their farm, their sheep. Wrong Mr O'Leary. Our field, our farm, and we are not sheep. If you want to farm in our field then try being civil or we can start surcharging your fuel when we upload it into your Irish registered aircraft from our UK government licensed pumps. If you like, we can time our surcharge so it is just when you are least expecting it, and when you thought you were doing ok. Wouldn't want you to get too comfortable would we? (sucking up millions of gallons of our aviation fuel and thinking you have an unassailable right to pay no tax on it)? Should we test that perhaps? Surcharge you I mean, and then string out a case in the courts and keep surcharging you until the ECJ says something about fairness?

Then we might see how Ryanair might find the taste of its own medicine, and whether its corporate cashflow can stand the unnecessary stress. Would the UK government actually ever do that? Of course not - we are far too reasonable to even consider it.

Alternatively then, we could all behave like reasonable human beings and the company could quietly drop the Appeal in the Spanish court, the OTT charge, the nonsense in Denmark and the dodgy price advertising and instead try to impress us a little more. It shouldn't be too difficult.

alanrowell

Froggitt wrote: »

No reason why airlines couldnt use the same technology for checkin/boarding cards for those with mobiles, and paper technology for those without.

One very good reason - cost. The HEX is simple as they only need two sets of scanners at LHR & Paddington.

Try extending that to the airports that an airline uses especially as they don't own the airport and with few exceptions the same terminals and gates are used by several airlines

Froggitt

Cost.......even my crappy mobile can read these barcodes and translate them into something sensible.

Hold up your phone......let me take a photo/scan of it with my checkin phone/ipad/scanner/device......beep......pass through please.

The_Groat_Counter

alanrowell wrote: »

One very good reason - cost. The HEX is simple as they only need two sets of scanners at LHR & Paddington.

Try extending that to the airports that an airline uses especially as they don't own the airport and with few exceptions the same terminals and gates are used by several airlines

The Heathrow Express tickets are actually checked/scanned on board the train by the conductors, there aren't any barriers at Heathrow or Paddington (for the HEX platforms).

Billea

Ryan air are FAB you see, I read all te terms and conditions, and now am familiar with how they expect us to make it easier n them, hence reducing their turn around time and thus providing me wit cheap flight options..... If yo want te scheduled airline service, bu a scheduled airline ticket!

SaveTheEuro

Billea wrote: »

Ryan air are FAB you see, I read all te terms and conditions, and now am familiar with how they expect us to make it easier n them, hence reducing their turn around time and thus providing me wit cheap flight options..... If yo want te scheduled airline service, bu a scheduled airline ticket!

Beautifully put.