13 Apr, 2010 @ 17:30
1 min read

Ryanair boarding pass farce

A HOLIDAYMAKER’S Costa del Sol plans were ruined when Ryanair refused to let her fly – because her boarding pass wouldn’t scan.

Sue Craig, 54, had paid an extra 10 euros to print her online ticket at home, but it wasn’t recognised at Bournemouth Airport’s check-in desk.

“My pass was fine, I was treated dreadfully.”

Craig – who was heading to Malaga – was instead told by staff to go to the service desk to log in for her flight.

In the mean time, the gate closed and Craig, from Poole, was forced to wave goodbye to her 70-euro ticket as well as 50 euros in car-park fees.

“My pass was fine, I was treated dreadfully,” said Craig – who is now taking the budget airline to a small claims court.

Ryanair claimed that it couldn’t delay the flight for Craig.

Jon Clarke (Publisher & Editor)

Jon Clarke is a Londoner who worked at the Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday as an investigative journalist before moving permanently to Spain in 2003 where he helped set up the Olive Press. He is the author of three books; Costa Killer, Dining Secrets of Andalucia and My Search for Madeleine.

Do you have a story? Contact newsdesk@theolivepress.es

8 Comments

  1. Go for it Craig … I successfully sued Ryanair a couple of years ago and won a county court judgement against them. The case cost them a lot in legal fees, so it was well worth making them take responsibility for treating people properly.

  2. This happened to me too! Very inappropriate. We lost our flight to Italy from Spain because the service desk closed, we lost the cost of the ticket and had to re-book flight with another airlines for full fare … all because (after waiting in long line) we were misled and told to go to the service desk for check in. Not to mention the missed rental car and hotel accommodations at final destination. The few times I have had to use Ryanair I discovered they are in the business to make it as difficult as possible for its customers. I should have sued them at the time and commend you for having the courage and making the time, to do so.

  3. i proudly boycott them, not just “whenever possible,” but all the time (meaning i will never ever fly with them again). when i tell this to friends/family, they almost without fail reply “yeah, i know what you mean…but they are the cheapest airline.” i won’t trade my dignity for a lower price. ryanair only want to make sure that they get as much money as possible from me and that the journey is as abusive and uncomfortable as possible. when i need to take a flight somewhere i will gladly gladly gladly pay “extra” to be treated with some simple human dignity.

  4. What do expect from an airline that frisks it’s passengers when boarding to see if they have enough coin in their pockets to pay for a crap on the flight!

    Soon they will announce even better economy fares that give the flyer the option of a wing seat (literrally on the wing) They would market it this way…save money, and get the view of your life!…Parkers and oxygen extra!

    Ryanair leading the way in Stupidity!…Who said the Scotch were cheap!

  5. I am taking RyanAir from Dublin to Gatwick on Sept 28. I would have preferred to take EasyJet, but I noticed that EasyJet doesn’t even fly our of the Republic of Ireland.

    For ‘online check-in’ RyanAir requires you to print out your boarding pass on A4 paper.

    The thing is, I’m in the US, and we don’t have A4 paper here!

    We have something similar called ‘8 1/2 x 11’ but it is a slightly different size than A4.

    What are the chances RyanAir will not accept my document printed on non-conforming american paper, and instead charge me the 40 euro extra fee for checking in at the airport?

  6. Whatever happened to the hundreds of passengers stranded recently in Portugal??? On October 24th 2011 hundreds of us were stranded on Faro airport. During the night a tornado hit the airport, on arriving at 1.45 there were thousands of people waiting to get home. This was a total nightmare , it was that bad the TV crew were interviewing people of what they were experiencing with the cancelled flights. Ryanair & a couple more airlines were leaving people stranded. Some were taking off after hours of waiting. The care was nil, no representative or help from Ryanair whatsoever. It was shambolic & herds of cattle would have got better treatment. I cannot stress eneough for people not to book with this company, you are asking for trouble.

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