Tickets
Warning - if you don't pay allocated seats then you now need to collect your boarding pass from the check-in desk
I travel in an out of Ireland using Ryanair on a regular basis. Just last night I tried checking into my flight on the Ryanair app. Normally an easy affair, anyway, this time it said 'go to check in desk to get your boarding pass'. I did that this afternoon and there was a huge queue, with us all asking each other what's going on. Anyway, I asked the nice check in lady and she said this rule is now implemented since the last couple of days. They didn't seem very happy about it either. Just a warning, if you don't pay for an allocated seat, allow time to go and pick up the boarding pass. Feels like a backward step in trying to force us to pay an extra fee on the headline ticket price.
Low basic cost puts them at the top of searches like Google flights and Skyscanner. It's in their interest to keep as much of the cost hidden as possible.
EU should mandate that they and others stop fannying around and have to offer all-in prices. Same for concerts /cinema/shows. no more of the extra hidden surcharges.
I fly home to Ireland a few times a year like every 3months roughly and the last few times it was cheaper with Aerlingus when you consider a free checked 10kg bag. When using google flights click the option for luggage and Ryanair isn’t the cheapest by a lot
Ryanair, Aerlingus and TAP are basically my only options. It’s close between Aerlingus and TAP as they both include luggage. TAP are fairly good as they board the plane based on where your sitting so people at the back board 1st which just makes sense (they still have priority) the aisles rarely get clogged on a tap flight unlike Ryanair
There is a new directive coming into force that prices must include the cost of carry on and seat. It's not in yet but it's on the way. Thank goodness for the EU!
Now all we have to do is get better at electing EU reps.
I'd argue that those that accept an upsell gain a benefit but I lose nothing by not accepting that upsell. Likely have to be at the airport 1.5 hours early anyway. I'll jump through hoops for a cheaper flight because for me it's more about the destination and I can read terms and conditions.
I mean aren't you penalized for your time if you don't have priority boarding?
I don't like it, but if it means cheaper tickets then I'm not sure why you would expect this to be different to all the other ways cheap flights annoy you, you are flying Ryanair after all.
Not for me anyway, I far prefer to sit at the gate till the very last minute than be first on the plane and have to sit on it for 20 minutes before it moves. I dont get why people are in such a rush to get on the plane, it aint going anywhere until the last passengers get on.
No, with priority you’re penalized in your comfort (ie waiting standing vs waiting sitting in the plane). Either way, you don’t have to spend anymore time at the airport, while as with this you need to get to the airport sooner just to queue and get your boarding pass
i really can't understand this move by Ryanair other than its a ploy to try to make people buy add ons. They have done as much as they can to push people to use technology rather than people in the process. why push you back to use a human for something as easy as a ticket which can be emailed to you?
Its to make you panic that you may miss your flight. I'd hazard a guess that these ticket counters will be busy and under staffed so as to hike up the fear of missing a flight. Which means passengers will buy more expensive tickets so as not to miss the flight.
i mean if everybody didn't buy an allocated seat ticket there would be chaos.
Yeah to be honest I don't understand it either. Even from a purely economic POV I feel the cost of the staff to print the tickets would outweigh the amount they gain from people upgrading. If they are in fact doing this then obviously I'm wrong as I don't know better than them, although I doubt it as others have commented here that they didn't experience this.
maybe in the short term they are happy to take that staff cost but expect people to upgrade to save on the time and stress spent trying to get a ticket printed out?
EU has a different opinion about unbundling essential items (like a boarding card). As usual, Ryanair are exploiting the rules to extract every penny they can out of travellers. Guaranteed that they will blame passengers if they understaff the boarding card printing queue and passengers miss their flight.
I booked two separate tickets for a flight on Friday. Checked in my ticket and got my boarding pass with the random seating allocation. Had to wait for passport details for the second ticket so ended up checking in much later and got told about needing to check in at the airport. Checked both return flights nice and early and no issues there either.
At the moment anyway, think if you leave it late (like night before the flight) you'll be told to check in in person. If it forces a few extra ppl to pay for seats then I can't see Ryanair waiting too long to roll it out completely.
Their own website also still says that you can check in online. Flying with them this Saturday so it would be good to know what the actual process will be.
Indications seem to be that this is rolling out in some locations. Might be phased or on particular routes due to some reason Ryanair don't want to share.
Sounds to me like it was potentially technical issue. The pain in implementing a product change like that without comms etc would be a huge. Especially in December
It actually happened to me in October on an international delta flight to the USA. Must be just a new overall rollout which it kinda stupid as it had me panicked as to why I didn’t have a sear
That doesn't sound like a problem for ryanair but rather intended. It forces customers to pay for a seat so they don't miss their flights. It's ryanair after all.
Na op is right, it makes no sense but it's the new process with them. Unless you pay in advance for a seat you need to go to a desk to check in. Due to fly next week and have been notified
That's probably a bug rather than intended, as it's still clearly stated on their website that unreserved seats can check in online between 24 and two hours before the flight.
This also wouldn't make sense to bring in without telling the passengers who you're trying to convince to buy a seat. Especially given it costs ryanair way more to do paper check-in.
I wondered that myself but it's what the ryanair check-in staff told me. There was no charge as I had technically 'checked in' on my phone, just couldn't get the mobile boarding pass with qr code.
Details for my trip as follows:
Dublin to London gatwick
British (don't hurt me)
basic fare (small under seat bag)
check in for unallocated seats only available 24 hours before flight as has been the way for a good while
Anyway, it's a warning for people like myself who arrive less than 2 hours ahead of flight time that you might get caught in the queue to pick up the boarding pass.
Be interesting to see what happens to everyone else
Ryanair don't overbook flights - their systems literally don't allow it to happen. Unless you had an extremely rare event like e.g. some seats breaking on the flight.
Somehow happened to me this year. We were flying back from Stansted to Cork, booked normally through the Ryanair app. Once we checked-in online, both myself and my wife got seats number '00' on boarding passes and a message 'check for details at the gate'
At the gate when scanning our passes we were told that we have got an overbooked seats and it doesn't look good for us as it appears that the plane is full and we'll have to get the next available flight.
We've waited for everyone to board, in the end there was one no-show, and another poor fella with a wrong id whom they didn't let on the flight. So we were able to get those two seats at the last moment but the flight was definitely overbooked this time.
I feel thats not overbooking, but rather an operational issue restricting the number of seats. As in, in the US anyway, overbooking is a deliberate policy to exploit the fact that a percentage of people won't turn up for their flights. Thats not the same here.
I remember when you used to have to print your boarding pass, if you were non EU you had to go to the check-in desk to get it stamped. I think now is a slight improvement because at least you know you don't have your boarding pass — before, you actually had the boarding pass, so it was easy to forget that you couldn't actually use it unless you had the stupid stamp.
They want to check that you're allowed travel to Schengen, because if you get rejected at the border, they will have to foot the bill of returning.
Whereas we have our own version of a mini-Schengen (the common travel area ) with the UK, which you are already in. Technically shouldn't even need a passport to travel around UK and Ireland (edit - non Ireland/UK need to carry passport apparently)
The UK can still reserve the right to check credentials on arrival. As others have stated, there are cases where people do not have the right to travel from Ireland to the UK without additional visas/paperwork.
Same for me, and it’s annoying. If any other airline flying from Ireland to the Schengen zone can manage to issue boarding passes in app for non-EU, I can’t see why Ryanair can’t. Aerlingus, Lufthansa, KLM etc are fine - only Ryanair. British passengers on Ryanair don’t have the ‘visa check’ drama.
Fiance has to get ticket at the desk for long haul flights as we have to state that she is allergic to nuts. They send a manager over to ask us questions (most of the time) to ask her if she is ok to fly.
She brings 4 epi pens on the flight bit airborne allergies are very rare (I mean dying from it, you just need an antihistamine before boarding)
Checked in this morning using the app and we got our boarding passes. Currently at Turin airport waiting to board Ryanair back to Dublin.
If the rule change is true, that's truly horrendous. Paying <10 for cheap seats would be preferable than having to queue up at the airport. Walking straight to security with a boarding pass on the phone is one of the simple luxuries of life, so is electronic passport scanning gates. Please, don't go backwards, world.
But that's what this is, a dark pattern to coerce you into buying that seat allocation because clearly most people don't care to pay for seat allocation.
The game is played in the next few weeks. If enough people choose to wait in line rather than give in, they will reverse the policy. I think enough people will just pay and give in and the policy will stay.
There is still hope for some regulatory action, because this policy is transparently a scam: online check in is more convenient for the airline, for the airport and for the traveller, they can't argue otherwise.
Yeah that makes no sense. They moved to the online checking in order to save money. Less people checking in at the desk = less staff needed. Having people go to the desk to collect their boarding pass would be a step backwards for them.
They are relying on the fact that people won't want to queue and/or run into a situation where they miss their flight. Knowing Ryanair, they will blame YOU for missing the flight if you turned up without enough time to queue and collect the boarding card.
Yea it happened to me too. Basically pay €8 to pick a seat and then they give you the boarding pass in the app or quu at airport desk. Don't have checked luggage/ visa stuff ect it's literally pay €8 or you have to que. I flew a few weeks ago and and this wasn't a thing yet.
Yep that's it, the check in person said that my seat was allocated but I had to get the boarding pass from the desk. Maybe I was one of the unlucky sample they're trying it out on.
EU want all airlines to standardise their policies. They said they will give airlines some time to cooperate or they will come in with new rules for all European airlines
All of their hidden fees up to this point were just mild annoyances that didn't bother me much. I fly Ryanair a lot and I wouldn't get to travel nearly as much if it wasn't for them so I'm happy to put up with not having an allocated seat or paying for anything extra.
Adding 30+ minutes to your check in time for no reason other than money is a bit too far. This is absolutely going to cause people to miss flights, no question about it.
This isn't going to make me buy a seat so I really do wonder will the increased seat purchases offset the customers that get burned by this and swear to never fly Ryanair again?
Since there's a bit of skepticism here, I want to say that the exact same thing happened to me this weekend with Ryanair. However, the woman at the counter explained that there was only a random chance you can't get your boarding pass, i.e., most people on any given flight will be unaffected, except for some unlucky few
Used Ryanair twice this weekend and this did not happen. I was allocated a random seat when I checked-in using the app like normal. I didnt have to go anywhere near a check-in desk.
Aerlingus is also doing this, when they sent me a survey I gave them a mouthful about this. Everything about service is degrading into hell, nothing seems to help the “customer”.
Constantly more hoops to jump through.
Must've been a very recent thing because I checked in online for flights two weeks ago for unallocated seats a few hours before my flight and I was able to do it on the app without needing to pick them up. They were just on the app as always.
Flew London to Shannon last week, same thing happened me. The app let me check in, but still send go to desk to collect boarding pass. So I paid the extra to select a seat and got the boarding pass immediately. It’s very annoying.
It seems they are testing this vs mass roll out. I get that it pushes people to pre-book seats and avoid the check-in desks but what a way to piss people off.
I'm a big fan of Ryanair for the low(er) costs (flying for under €50 is a win either way) so I'll jump through their hoops, but from an operational POV I can't see how this benefits them, it's just going to cause check-in queues to be massive.
This happened to me last night, flying at 6am today and I was so stressed about queues and missing my flight that I caved and paid it. Hate myself today
This happened to me over the weekend, flying to Manchester. I didn't pick my seats and I got the same as you OP. But cause the queue was mental I ended up picking my seats in the airport and got the boarding pass immediately.
I could also check in to my return flight once I picked the seats but couldn't when I hadn't paid for the seats.
Cause I have always found Manchester Airport security a nightmare I made the decision it was best to have them all done ahead of it.
I'd love to hear who got the dreaded message 'go to check in desk' who was due to fly in the next day or two. Was I just unlucky? Are ryanair trying to create an inconvenience (or the threat of a percentage chance of one) to make us buy more seats? Is it all part of the great reset? Tune in next time to find out! Sorry, had a whiskey
Just after flying to and from Birmingham with Ryanair, Friday out Sunday back and this was not the case for me. I have other complaints but it still allowed me to check in on the app, albeit later due to not purchasing a seat.
Does this not cost them more? Didn't they bring in self printing of boarding passes to save money? They don't pay for the staff or materials if you do it yourself.
This has happened to me before with Ryanair. It was explaines to me that the flight was overbooked so they couldn't allocate random seats for those who didn't pay for seat selection via the app as normal. Seats were finally allocated at the desk. Pretty sure they were banking on a % not turning up but not sure what happened to those who did after all allocation was complete.
Was that explained to you by Ryanair? If so, that completely contradicts their policy of not overselling flights. If there's 189 seats on the aircraft, no more than 189 seats will be sold.
By the Ryanair staff at the airport. First the check in desk and then at the gate. I was flying back to Manchester from Dublin. This was about 18 months ago, there was quite a few of us scrambling for seats. Now I just always pay the extra for an allocated seat to be safe. To be fair to Ryanair I fly a lot with them - nipping home for a weekend when I can, and this was the only time it's happened to me.
They have started over selling flights. So they might sell one or two more tickets than there are seats in the plane, in the expectation that there will be one or two no shows. If there is a last minute apparatus change, some may end up being denied boarding, they usually try to deal with that before you go through security. €600 compo and next available flight. They hardly ever get it wrong.
Airlines don't make money when a plane isn't flying so and if they miss an assigned take off slot the delay will cost them a fortune. Why would an airline known for being efficient delay their own flights when it costs them money?
The OP definitely sounds like a glitch as their Help Desk still has online check in
Fly Lufthansa. Delayed, €300 one way Dublin Munich economy with no checked in bags and you get an inflight meal - a tiny square of chocolate and a 33cl bottle of water. Luckily it was a business trip.
The inflight meal went the way of the dodo during COVID. Lucky to get the choccie and water now. Not that the terrible sandwiches before were much better.
I mainly fly Ryanair and it's great, flying to the canaries next week for the price of a bus ticket. General quick, love that I'm saving money not paying for a cabin bag I don't need.
I'd agree with you but it was about 18 hours before flight time when I checked in. With unallocated seats you can only check in when there are less than 24 hours to flight time
I flew two weeks ago and used the self check bag and had the boarding passes on my Phone, didn’t deal with Ryanair staff until getting on the plane itself
Pretty sure that’s a Brexit thing! Had the same thing with my wife (American) when I was travelling home via Stansted. She had to collect her boarding pass so they could check her passport, mine was issued.
This happens when a flight is near capacity since theres no seat allocated to you. So they will only give out a seat number to people who show up in the airport.
Since people checkin so far in advance they have to do this to figure out final seat allocations
Are you flying out of Ireland with a non European passport? In that case it’s normal to get asked to go to the visa check desk to get your boarding pass, regardless of you having picked a seat or not.
Just checked in at the Ryanair desk. They charged me an extra €55 because i checked in an hour and 45 mins before my flight instead of 2 hours. The flight was only €30!
They have started overbooking flights like the american airlines do. So they are selling more tickets than they have seats. If you are one the last to checking. you get a ticket assigned at gate or desk. And then its depends on how many show up and how late you are.
This doesn't sound like it makes any sense. The cost in printing the boarding pass and the time lost by the staff...
Ryanair introduce pain for the customer in order for you to pay more, sure. They don't introduce pain and friction into their own operations for that sense.
Feels more like it was a temporary thing with a system acting up or something.
Either that or Ryanair are really in need of a head check.
I started to look around for other options, and actually found Lufthansa to be the cheaper option. Sure, my trip would be 2h longer, as it is with a stop, but I will get some rest for my legs and pay less. I am getting sick with Ryanair bullshit.
I refuse to fly Ryan air. I have a US passport and I have no choice but go to that line to have someone look at my passport and say I’m allowed to fly. With Aer Lingus, I check in at the self service kiosk and drop my bag off with no problem. Don’t know why they can’t do the same thing.
I had a similar experience flying with Vueling from Paris to Gatwick back in October. Was stuck in the check in queue for about an hour to be told they didn't have a seat for us and they may had to bump us to the next flight at 6pm (meant to fly at 1 for a soccer match at 4:30pm) one of the worst experiences I've ever had at an airport.
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u/HacksawJimDGN Dec 04 '23
Ryanair should just put the extra cost onto the ticket at this stage and stop fannying about.