Ryanair, the European no-frills airline that has been pushing the boundaries of country law and airline traditions in search of lower fares, has met stiff resistance in Spain. A judge there just ruled that Ryanair’s rule that passengers print out boarding passes before coming to the airport or face a €40 ($55) boarding-pass-printing-fee to be “abusive.”
The airline has instituted this rule in an effort to keep staffing levels low at airports and claims that since tickets are purchased on the Internet, there is no reason that boarding passes shouldn’t be handled on the Internet as well.
A judge in Barcelona said that, under international air travel conventions, Ryanair can neither demand passengers turn up at the airport with their boarding pass, nor charge them €40 (£34) if they do not.
“I declare abusive and, therefore, null, the clause in the contract by which Ryanair obliges the passenger to take a boarding pass to the airport,” Judge Barbara Cordoba said.
“The customary practice over the years has been that the obligation to provide the boarding pass has always fallen on the airline.”
Of course, in typical combative Ryanair style, their representative claims that the airline may just refuse to have anyone at the gate to process boarding passes. It is an extreme position, but the airline aims to force the Spanish court’s hand in their appeal.
“The court is wrong,” said Ryanair spokesman Daniel de Carvalho, who claims that forgetting a boarding pass is almost the same as forgetting a passport. “You need the boarding card to fly. If a passenger arrives without a boarding card, we find an ad hoc solution to their problem. The €40 is a penalty for doing that. We serve the boarding card in exactly the same way that the passenger makes the booking, by internet.”
De Carvalho went on: “If the problem is the €40 charge for this service, we’ll simply stop offering the service. That, of course, will mean the passenger who arrives without a boarding card cannot fly.”
How do you feel about a boarding pass fee? If Ryanair is doing it, soon Alegiantair and Spirit will be considering it and just as they did with first-checked-bag baggage fees, consumer-friendly American Airlines will be looking at the charge for their coach passengers who are not members of their elite frequent flier programs.
Charlie Leocha is the President of Travelers United. He has been working in Washington, DC, for the past 14 years with Congress, the Department of Transportation, and industry stakeholders on travel issues. He was the first consumer representative to the Advisory Committee for Aviation Consumer Protections appointed by the Secretary of Transportation from 2012 through 2018.
My problem with RyanAir is not the fact that they have a different business model, but rather the fact that they have such a “gotcha” approach to collecting the money. I imagine them collectively saying “ch-ching!” every time a customer makes a mistake.
On a recent flight from Paris to Dublin, I had a chance to fly RyanAir. I went on AerLingus instead, regardless of the added expense, because friends convinced me that there would be unanticipated charges with RyanAir no matter how careful I tried to be.
If this is not true, RyanAir needs better PR. If it is true; they need a better attitude. In any event, they lost the ability to show themselves off to me, and to develop customer loyalty and good word of mouth, just on their reputation alone.
I travel a lot for business and often do not have access to a printer once I leave home — or have to pay steep fees to use one in my hotel’s business center. Not all the places I stay have business centers or even internet access. My efforts to use electronic boarding passes on my smartphone have met with mixed results. Sometimes the TSA or gate agent can’t read the pass, which creates a MAJOR inconvenience, especially when I’ve just spent 15 minutes in the security line.
You can’t check in for a flight more than 24 hours before it departs, so what am I supposed to do on a multi-day trip if the airlines stop providing kiosks to print boarding passes at the airport? And how expensive is it to install these kiosks, which also handle inquiries about flight schedules and seating assignments, and automate the bag check-in process, all without the need for additional employees?
What makes this policy even worse is the Catch-22 the airlines have created by demanding the original or scanned copy of a paper boarding pass to verify flight segments in FF mile disputes. As usual, they are trying to have it both ways. My employer has millions of employees in the USA and we fly millions of miles each year. I doubt my employer will allow the airlines who participate in its lucrative travel contracts to externalize the cost of providing employees with paper boarding passes.
This is really just going too far. AND I think it really would not “fly” in the US – any airline trying this out over here would quickly find that they are losing market share – things happen: printers break, pieces of paper disappear, etc.
Big difference between not having a passport and not having a boarding pass–the passport is government issued and an official ID document, while the pass is airline issued and has value only to the airline. So, once again, Ryanair tries to muddy the waters by charging for things that are required and not optional.
As for this scheme working in the US–the TSA would have something to say about this, since a boarding pass is required to get through security, thus it most likely wouldn’t be chargeable (although they might allow a fee for getting it at the airport as opposed to free from home or business).
I disagree with “dcta”‘s comments about a US airline trying it over here
not getting away with it. With the recent exception of one airline
starting to charge for carry-ons…(are they still charging or did they
back down?), every airline that charges any fee, is following another
airlines’ footsteps or if they are ‘brazen’ enough to be the first,
it’s almost a guarantee that the others will follow.
With the recent figures published of how much money airlines have
made, even more tragic when compared to the cost made from
actual “bare” tickets, the airlines will try ANYTHING.
I say bring back regulation or ban any fee that didn’t exist
before they got on this ‘keys to the bank vault’ mentality.
Gone too far? from an airline that wants you to possibly pay to use the bathroom I don’t think this is out of line to charge for a boarding pass. Bottom line is if people are willing to pay let them do it. Or as one earlier poster said, fly a different airline!
Please, please if you are ever tempted to “fly” with Ryanair if you are in Europe, think again. Ryanair is without question the most arrogant and abusive company I have ever encountered. Their customer service is appalling and they flout European law at every opportunity. Please also lobby all you can to ensure that practices employed by Ryanair are not introduced in the U.S. Your airlines are far from perfect but even the worst is better than Ryanair in every way.
A few years ago, we flew Ryanair from Frankfurt to London. They wouldn’t let us check in online because we weren’t EU citizens (we’re US Citizens). So when we got to the airport, we were charged 5 Euros each for not checking in online. We made that trip several times afterward, but not on Ryanair.
I doubt you’ll see anything as ludicrous as $55, but I wouldn’t be surprised at all to see a smaller, say $5-10 “convenience fee” for using an airport kiosk or, heaven forbid, wanting to talk to an airport agent to complete check-in. What would be interesting, though, is if any exceptions will be offered, since there are folks who can’t print boarding passes online for one reason or another (SecureFlight problem, international itinerary, airline reservation snafu, etc.). Then again, the airlines won’t waive the telephone reservation fee even if there’s no other option for booking, so you’ll probably be stuck with it.
@AKflyer – the problems you note are easy enough to work around, actually. In Europe at least, you’ve got internet cafes all over the place, and if all you need is to do is print a boarding pass, it’ll only cost you a couple of euros. Domestically, there’s always FedEx Office, where a couple of bucks will get you internet access and a printer long enough to print one off. Not saying I would agree with it if the airlines starting charging to use a kiosk, but there are still ways to avoid paying.
I agree with AKflyer. The last trip we took I hsd to use my mobile phone to check in on the outbound leg because of Wi-Fi and Internet access problems in the hotel. For the return leg I checked in from a cruise ship and although printing is usually available in can be extremely awkward and time consuming. So I would have been very upset to have to pay a fee to print our boarding passes at the airport. If one has to use a terminal to check in the checked bags where is the extra expense for printing a boarding pass?
I’ve never flown Ryanair, and would certainly need for them to be WAY under other options before I’d consider them, based on all I’ve heard. On the other hand, it’s their business model, and if they want to do it that way, it’s up to the market to acquiesce or resist. As long as the “fee” is avoidable, it should be their decision. Any “fee” that is not avoidable should be banned and made to be included in the fare.