Retired GP and her husband left ‘disgusted’ when Ryanair charged them £110 for boarding pass mix-up – but airline insists they were ‘correctly charged’ as their story prompts fury from others with similar tales
- Ruth Jaffe, 79, and husband Peter, 80, were flying from Stansted to Bergerac
- But they downloaded the wrong passes and had to pay £55 each for new ones
- Have you had to pay Ryanair’s check-in fee? Email: [email protected]
A ‘furious’ elderly couple have slammed Ryanair for charging them £110 to print their outbound boarding passes after they mistakenly downloaded the return ticket.
Ruth Jaffe, 79, and her disabled husband Peter Jaffe, 80, of Ealing, West London, were flying with the airline from London Stansted to Bergerac in France last Friday.
Mrs Jaffe had checked in online the day before and paid £22 for two seats next to each other – but realised at the airport that she had downloaded the wrong passes.
The retired GP claimed that she went to the Ryanair desk to check-in, she was left ‘disgusted’ when staff charged the couple £55 each to print their outbound tickets.
Their story, revealed by their daughter on social media on Sunday, has resulted in an outpouring of fury from other passengers who have fallen victim to similar charges.
But Ryanair insisted that the couple were ‘correctly charged the airport check-in fee’, adding that it ‘regrets’ that they ‘ignored their email reminder’ to check-in online.
Ruth Jaffe, 79, and her husband Peter Jaffe, 80, were flying from London Stansted to Bergerac
The elderly couple were charged £55 each by Ryanair to print their outbound passes
Mrs Jaffe said today: ‘The website was very confusing, they’re trying to get you to add on this and that. I didn’t realise I was checking in for the coming home flight.
What is Ryanair’s check-in policy?
Ryanair states that passengers must check in on the Ryanair website and print or download their boarding pass before arrival at the airport – up to two hours before the scheduled departure.
Online check-in opens 60 days before the scheduled departure if passengers have purchased an allocated seat.
Customers can be allocated a seat for free if they check-in online between 24 and two hours before a flight. They have to pay more if they want specific seats, such as seats next to each other.
Once passengers have checked in online they can print copies of their boarding pass, or download them to their mobile phone, up to two hours before the scheduled departure time.
The boarding pass must be printed on a single A4 page or downloaded through the Ryanair app.
Passengers cannot check in online during the two hours before their flight’s scheduled departure time.
Unless the passenger has a ‘Plus’ or ‘Flexi Plus’ ticket, if they do not check in online more than two hours before the scheduled departure, they will be charged the airport check-in fee of £55 per passenger.
This must be paid before the check-in desks close 40 minutes before the scheduled departure time.
‘At the airport, I tried to get the boarding card and it said check in is closed and I needed to go to the desk. They said that’s £55 per person.
‘I thought it was absolutely disgusting but I had no option so paid up. It was very stressful. The nice girl at the desk told me to complain to Ryanair.
‘I could afford to pay it. but it made me furious. We’re lucky we can afford it but for a family it would be absolutely disastrous.’
The couple had spent £278 on return flights to France and decided to pay extra for seats together to accommodate retired paediatrician Mr Jaffe.
Their story came to light after a post on X – formerly known as Twitter – by Mrs Jaffe’s daughter, who has the username @old_school_alps, on Sunday.
She wrote: ‘Hey @Ryanair, my parents who are in their 70s and 80s, had accidentally downloaded the return flight boarding card instead of the outgoing ones and you charged them £110 to print them at the airport. £110 for two pieces of paper which took one minute. Shame on you.’
Her post has since been viewed 13million times, reposted 16,000 times and attracted more than 150,000 likes and 2,000 comments – many of these from passengers sharing similar experiences.
Mrs Jaffe said: ‘It’s fantastic how people have supported us. Other members of the family who are flying to meet us are refusing to go on Ryanair.
‘We’ve booked our flights back so we don’t have an option, we’re stuck with them. I’d like to be given back my money please. Having bought the tickets in advance, I’m very p***ed off about it.’
Mrs Jaffe also appeared on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme this morning, saying: ‘They’ll say it was in the small print and it was our fault, which it was. But it was a genuine mistake.’
Presenter Justin Webb added: ‘It’s really struck a chord, hasn’t it, and I suppose for pretty obvious reasons?’ And Mrs Jaffe: ‘People hate Ryanair, I think.’
The budget airline charged them £110 extra for the boarding passes at Stansted last Friday
The couple’s story was revealed by their daughter in this post on social media on Sunday
The story was also discussed on ITV’s Good Morning Britain today, with travel expert Simon Calder saying: ‘Ryanair says we’ve got to be the biggest airline in Europe by cutting costs, this is all part of our cost-cutting operation.
‘I’ve been at Stansted, the main base for Ryanair, seeing a couple in tears. They were just off for a wedding, I think it was their wedding. And the chap wasn’t allowed to fly because he’d slightly copied out the numbers on his passport wrong.’
He added: ‘The sad thing about this case is that having heard the story of the couple, they turned up two hours early, and frankly, if I’d been there and I’d realised what was going on, I’d say, and I’m sure many other passengers would, oh look, you don’t need to worry about that. Come with me, I’ll find somewhere to print it out.’
Earlier in the programme, presenter Kate Garraway also said: ‘They’d mistakenly printed out the return ticket, not the outbound. That feels like such human error to me.
‘There will be people that say if you’re buying a budget ticket then you have to expect these things, but we shouldn’t expect to be bemused by a genuine mistake and pay the penalty for it.’
Her co-host Richard Madeley added: ‘I think the fact that Ryanair are drilling down on this, they’re not backing down at all, to me it implies that possibly they’re trying to set an example because they do want people to check in online, it makes things easier for the airline.
‘And so they’re standing by it because it’s teaching us all a lesson.’
Among those commenting on social media was one user who said: ‘I wouldn’t make an exception for most people because these rules are a reason, but I think in this case Ryanair should refund the money.’
Another wrote: ‘Ryanair are the worst airline! Should be avoided at all cost!’
A third added: ‘This happened to me in 2013. Was €70 then. Good to see they’re keeping up with inflation.’
Ryanair responded to MailOnline’s story on X and said the couple were ‘correctly charged’
And a fourth said: ‘It’s sad but I would only recommend Ryanair if you are young and flexible.’
A fifth added: ‘We had a similar issue and they charged us £60 to get back home… never again!’
And another said: ‘Yep happened to me. Their site said I could check in online up to two hours before the flight. But it wouldn’t let me.
’55 euros each to check in at airport because they have no staff and Swissport are hired to deal with it. The guy taking the money was slagging them off too.’
Ryanair’s policy is that if passengers do not check in online up to two hours before your scheduled departure time, they may check in at the airport up to 40 minutes before departure, but they will be charged the airport check-in fee.
Responding to MailOnline’s story on X, a Ryanair spokesman said last night: ‘ As per Ryanair’s T&C’s, which these passengers agreed to at the time of booking, these passengers failed to check-in online for their outbound flight from Stansted Airport (August 11) despite receiving an email reminder (August 10) to check in online. These passengers were correctly charged the airport check-in fee (£55 per passenger).
‘All passengers travelling with Ryanair agree to check-in online before arriving at their departure airport and all passengers are sent an email/SMS, reminding them to do so 24 hours before departure. We regret that these passengers ignore their email reminder and failed to check in online.’
Have you had to pay Ryanair’s check-in fee? Email: [email protected]
Source: Read Full Article
