Ryanair App message scam

Bozzywozzy

Not compensation for a delay but I wondered if anyone else has been the victim of this obvious Ryanair scam. I travelled to Dublin for the day in March with a friend, and was trying to check in on the App the night before at 10pm when I received a message advising "one or more passengers on this booking can't use our Mobile Boarding Pass, these passengers must print it from our website." This stopped me in my tracks, and as I didn't have access to a printer, I decided I had no option but to check in at the airport next morning. (Rightly or wrongly, I wasn't aware of the £55 charge as I have always checked in online, as would have happened this time if the message had not appeared.) I got hit with £110 charge for the two tickets at the airport - they issued me with two boarding passes and guess what - they both also appeared on the App. As soon as we arrived in Dublin, I tried to check the return flight and the same message appeared - photo below. This time I ignored it and both boarding passes appeared in the App. I have disputed this through AviationADR which is a complete waste of time. After 6 months, they found in favour of Ryanair, stating I had offered no evidence of trying to contact Ryanair - this despite the fact that from 10pm when I was checking-in, and 7am when we flew, the offices are closed! It is clearly a scam but there is no way of contacting Aviation ADR to get them to explain how they can possibly find in favour of Ryanair. Has anyone else had this issue?

la531983

Has any reason ever been given as to why someone wouldnt be able to use the boarding pass from the app and it muct be printed?  If there is a legitimate reason then that isnt a "scam", they would want everyone using the app if at all possible.

Bozzywozzy

They have given no reason at all, nor an explanation as to why the message appeared. It appeared when I checked-in for the return flight also, but I ignored this, proceeded, and both boarding passes appeared, which suggests to me the statement is untrue

indiekiduk

I saw the message today for a passenger with a USA passport travelling from Edinburgh to Palma. 

Before the message appeared they used the new passport verification feature which requires scanning the RFID chip in the passport. The message should not have appeared since after verification succeeds it is actually possible to get a mobile boarding pass, which is what they got.

Before in-app passport verification, when a mobile boarding pass was not possible, the crucial step was to complete the checkin and then passport verification and printing of boarding pass can be done free of charge at the airport (although it adds an hour or so extra to airport arrival time). So not only is the message badly placed in the flow but it is also totally wrong. There was one time they asked to see the app that it displayed checkin had been done, so I suppose if we couldn't prove that it might have resulted in a charge, despite them knowing fine well from their system the checkin was done and seat was assigned. The thing that is printed from the website is actually a "this is not a boarding pass" notice in the form of a boarding pass pdf. That can be shown on the way out but on the return journey, from a holiday without access to a printer most will not have that, as in your case. This printing of boarding pass could be renamed to checkin at desk charge to inform passengers the critical step in avoiding the charge is to checkin online. And then optional step to guarantee no charge is bring proof that online checkin was done, either the app or the print out of "this is not a boarding pass". I would always take the print out for the outbound then take a risk on the app for the inbound.