Is Ryanair’s £6 per person online check-in fee legal?
Written by Karen Bryan
Update 1 December 2010 - Ryanair has now increased the check-in fee to £6 per person per flight, a whopping 20% price increase for something that you have to do yourself!
When I read that Ryanair will charge a £5 per person per flight online check-in fee for all bookings made from 20 May 2009, the first thing that crossed my mind was, is this legal? My understanding was that airlines had to include all compulsory costs in the price displayed on the website. You can’t fly without checking in, therefore how can it be an optional extra? Online check in has reduced airlines’ costs, so it’s ridiculous that we are being charged for doing something that the airline previously did for us. However ensure that you do check in online and take a print out of this to the airport with you, or you’ll be slapped with a £40/40 Euro charge per person for airport check in.
Ryanair certainly has plenty of additional charges, such as the £5 per person per flight card handling fee for payment by any debit or credit card, except the flights are paid for by Mastercard prepaid debit card. Until this change if you paid by the free free payment card, checked in online and had no hold luggage, you could actually pay the advertised price. (Although there are usually some costs/fees payable by the card issuer for using the Mastercard prepaid debit card, they are generally much lower than the Ryanair payment fees).
However as you can’t fly without checking in, every passenger will have to pay the £5 online check in fee, a headline cost which doesn’t include an unavoidable fee is not accurate. In 2007 the UK Office of Fair Trading instigated successful legal proceedings against thirteen airlines who did not include all non optional costs in their advertised prices.
I’d like to get to the bottom of this, please leave your comments and views on the £5 Ryanair compulsory online check-in fee.
I’ve already made the decision to never book with Ryanair again. They are now too bad of an experience to fly with even if the flight itself is free!
Just horrible.
And regarding the new fee, I’m pretty sure it breaks the OFT rules now.
Jack – I have to say when I had a 10 hour delay flying with BA from Edinburgh to Venice via London in order to reach Istria in northern Croatia, I was thinking of my previous direct 3 hour Ryanair flight from Edinburgh to Zadar in central Croatia and thinking what bliss. I can live with Ryanair in order to get cheap, direct flights,
It will be interesting to see if there is a legal challenge against the new £5 Ryanair online check-in fee.
I flew with Ryanair recently and although the end price I paid was only £60 return, there were certainly lots of add-ons that were not obvious when I commenced the booking. The add-ons more than doubled the advertised price.
I also understood that a price that was advertised had to be what you could actually pay – if it’s not anoptional charge they should include it in the advertised price.
I prefer flying with Easyjet because it’s low cost but the pricing structure is much more transparent
Heather – I agree that Ryanair should list each add charge separately, as when you click on a fare all these charges are lumped together.
I never found fares for prices like the Ryanair £5 returns with Easyjet.
The baggage restrictions have become ridiculous.All women need a
handbag to travel with for necessesity also as an important fashion
assecory as we all like to look the part.Ryanair restrict cabin baggage
to one hand luggage only,where do you put all important things i.e
purse,passport,documents personal,pills,sundries it makes air travel
a nightmare not to mention toiletries you are not allowed.
K St John – thanks for your comment. You should see me trying to fit my netbook and leads in my one piece of cabin luggage. When I fly with BA recently they allowed on computer bag and one small case on board and it was so easy to fit in everything.
I wish that Ryanair would just make their advertised fares higher to include more of that add ons. However even with some add ons, I still find Ryanair flights really cheap when I travel midweek off peak.
basically ryanair are charging you for using thier web site facility its disgusting that they can even ask for this payment after you have made your booking… There will be no more cheap flights as each one will cost at least £10 fee for checking in… Do any other mail order companies charge you for collecting your purchase this is what they are doing….
All this is doing for ryanair is essentially covering all costs of running the airline so that it will never occur a non profit seat.
julie – thanks for your comment.
I have the feeling that Ryanair may be challenged over this online check in fee.
I think I read that there won’t be the online check in charge on promotional fares (if you can find them for dates you can travel) You need to look for promotional fees which include taxes and charges and then pay by Visa Electron card and only take one piece of cabin baggage.
I flew to Spain for 1 penny earlier this year. That’s it, just one penny and both outward and return flights were on time. Didn’t buy any food either so really only paid 1 penny.
£5 charge for check-in is nuts. The EU competition people will have to make them include that in the cost.
I agree that their flights will still be cheap & Easyjet don’t do £5 flights.
But to put it into context Ryanair fly to Barcelona (Reus or Girona), where you then need to make it onto a bus or train to get to Barcelona, or hire a car. All these options add hours & expense to your traveling.
Easyjet fly to the real Barcelona, with direct access to the city a short hop away.
They also allow 20kg per person of booked in luggage. This allowance is also sharable between couples. NOT PER PERSON ONLY.
I have already started using Easyjet.
No more slogs round to Stansted.
I read that they will be putting all proceeds of the online check-in fees into a pot, and then using it to send all their pilots on a training course entitled “How to land a 737-800 without slamming the rear landing gear into the ground so hard”
Simon – thanks for your comment. I agree that Ryanair sometimes fly to airports that are far from the supposed destination, however this often works for me as Girona is a beautiful medieval city, not as busy as Barcelona. Also in northern Italy Ryanair’s Milan airport, is Bergamo, which I prefer to Milan and is closer to my favourite Italian lake, Iseo.
Yes Easyjets hold luggage weigh is more generous than Ryanairs.
Janice – sounds like you have experienced some bumpy landings with Ryanair.
I assume all pilots have to pass a standard “flying test” there isn’t a cut price pilot’s school for Ryanair pilots?
Its a non optional charge that everyone has to pay and so it will have to be included in the cost. However, Ryanair will try to avoid this as they will want
everyone to think they are still getting a good deal.
For those of us who know how to book and avoid their additional charges it’s great. They make lots of money out of people who don’t know how to do that and so they can afford fares that are below costs….
Its time the EU and the UK put an end to the games that Ryan air plays and to have min standards such as bags, check-in, toilets on board, as part of the fare and only allow airlines to reduce the fare based on whatever a customer does not want…
Tony – thanks for your comment. The whole low cost airline pricing system needs an overhaul to make it transparent.
It was a revelation to book with British Airways and have the full price quoted immediately including two pieces of cabin baggage, one hold bag, online seat selection, drinks and snacks on board. The only additional charge was if you paid by credit card, with no charge for payment by debit card.
With a home base in Ireland, I’ve been able to find seats cheap enough that I can methodically visit each european city. Ryanair just has a “you-get-what-you-pay-for” system. All of you acknowledge there are “no frills”, but then complain when you have to pay for things. It works for myself because I’m only traveling with a backpack, staying for a couple days, then going back. And, I’m willing to trade a couple of hours for a few bucks, to make my trip more economical.
If you want to take bags, get seats, just fly with a different airline. If they started to charge by default for “minimum standards” as Tony puts it, I might not be able to afford travel.
Dave – thanks for your comment. As I’ve said before overall i’m delighted with Ryanair, as like you, I’ve been able to fly directly to many destinations in Europe that previously involved expensive and/or connecting flights. I just think that this latest non optional charge will have to included in the headling price of flights.
When I made my booking there was no mention of any extras. Wen I paid my contract with Ryanair was secured at the cost paid. I have no intention at all in paying them any extra money. If they (or their website) do not allow me to obtain my boarding card at the fees already paid, then I will simply sue them.
Watch this space an I will report the outcome ……….. :-)
Steve – thanks for your comment Steve. I checked on the Ryanair site and it says there that £5 online check in charge will be made to new bookings made from 20 May 2009, so as long as you made your booking before that date, there should be no charge for online check in
http://www.ryanair.com/site/EN/faqs.php?sect=chk&quest=cost
I hate travelling with Ryanair, but if they are the cheapest then reluctantly I will go with them.
I fly to Malta quite often and now I am finding that Air Malta is usually cheaper than Ryanair if you take hold luggage and you get a generous 20 kg as opposed to the rigorously enforced 15kg with Ryanair.
I will never ever buy anything from onboard a Ryanair flight after getting charged £28 for 5 small beers and 3 packets of nuts. They conveniently waited until we had opened the cans before asking for the money.
Mike – thanks for your comment. I never buy anything onboard Ryanair either. i bring fruit and sandwiches to the airport and buy water once I’m through security, although water can be pretty expensive at airports. To be fair all Ryanair do display their food and drink prices in their magazine.
I will NEVER fly with RyanAir again. Over a year ago I was charged £12 to check in at the airport. Since I travel with a non-EU passport, I am NOT legally eligible to use on-line check in. RyanAir’s check-in policy states that when this is the case, the check-in fee will be refunded upon request. 14 months and over £15 worth of faxes, photocopies, and registered mail postage later they still will not refund the check-in fee and have requested yet another copy of my passport photo page (they already have at least one).
This is absolutely absurd. I have checked with trading standards and my only recourse at this point is to sue them, but I don’t know if I want to spend still more money trying to get back that lousy fee.
Eta – OMG sounds like you are out of pocket over all this, never mind the time and frustration involved.
I used to fly ryanair a lot, and got bargains most of the time. I have not been able to find a £5 flight in ages. By the time luggage etc is added, it is as much as easyjet or BA. On top of that easyjet and BA fly to normal airports, not abandoned military bases in the middle of nowhere, where you spent a good chunk of money getting where you want to be. And they fly at normal times, so you can take public transport to the airport. If a flight leaves at 6.25 from Stansted I am £45 out of pocket for a cab.
Its Easyjet and BA all the way for me now. Oh, and Lufthansa, they do 2 for 1 offers on European flights every now and then.
Anja – thanks for your comment. I did find a few £5 promotional one flights ie £5 if you pay by Visa Electron and only take hand luggage, a few weeks ago (promotional fares don’t charge the £5 online check in fee) But you’re right you have to compare the total price between airlines, as the additional charges can massively inflate a low initial price.
Up until now, I have always found a way to avoid the fees – ie open an Electron account, hand luggage only etc. What irks me here is there seems to be NO option, which Ryanair have always maintained there has been before…
There has to be a choice, I am scrabbling around looking for it…
chris – thanks for your comment. As far as I can ascertain the only way to avoid the £5 check in fee is to book one of the promotional sale fares.
I came accross this page while looking for news of Ryan Air’s payment handling fee. I’ve just bought tickets and hadn’t really paid much attention to the online check in fee. In fact, I’m quite confident I might not have known to check in online if I hadn’t been so infuriated by the payment handling fee to Google it and find this blog (and save myself 40 quid it may seem).
To me, the check in fee is nowhere near as much an issue as the “payment handling fee”, which isn’t calculated into the total cost until the final stage of booking – paying. This payment handling fee came to £20. Unreasonable, I thought, so I sought their justification. It’s £5 per person per flight. I made one payment. It is absolutely ridiculous to pay to ‘handle’ it four times.
Aled – thanks for your comment. I’m not happy to pay £5 per person per flight to check in online because I can’t fly without checking in and it can’t cost Ryanair anything like £5 per person per flight for passengers to do the online check in. It would be more transparent just to add £5 to their fares than add yet another additional cost to the originally quoted fare.
However at least the card payment fees are avoidable if you use a Visa Electron.
Some great conversations here. With regard to the payment fee when NOT using the Visa Electron, will I be charged a further payment fee if I make a change to my booking. We have two small children travelling with us and I am considering Priority Boarding to make sure we sit togther. However, I don’t want to pay another £60.00 fee (6 people) for a change that will cost £36.00. Most airlines give priority boarding to families with small children with no extra charge.
John – thanks for your comment. I really don’t know the answer to your question if you’ll have to pay an additional £5 per person per flight payment fee on top of the £3 per person per flight priority boarding fee. I looked at Ryanair site to check and it;s not clear.
Perhaps the only way to find out is to go online and see what the total chargeable is once you order priorty boarding? Please let me know what happens.
Hi Karen – I think that sitting with my fingers crossed whilst making the transaction must have worked – no payment fee on a change to the booking. Strange really, they feel the need to charge for the first transaction (you know, the one that you can’t avoid unless you have a Visa Electron) but don’t bother with a change that I should have anticipated in the first place – base over apex comes to mind!
Many thanks for your help.
John – glad to hear that there was no payment fee when you paid for priority boarding. Probably safer to book everything together initially in future or get a VIsa Electron card to avoid the peyment fees altogether (for the moment at least).
This is the first and last time that I travel with Ryain Air. I don’t really see the point to charge 5£ for flight with Debit Card. For a flight A/R for two people is 20£ but the transaction is just one!!! So it could be fair enough 5£ for transaction but not for flight. This is non sense and illegal.
And now you must check-in online and pay for that. What?!?
Speaking about lowcost, Easy Jet is really better.
Marta- Thanks for your comment. I agree that the Ryanair payment fee should just be for one transaction rather than per person per fight.
As for an online check in fee – it doesn’t make any sense at all.
Hi all
My sister just booked flights with Ryanair and was not told at any point in the booking of the £5 per person each way ‘handling’ charge. First mention she noticed of it was on the email confirmation. As she went through the booking process the webpage wouldn’t load up correctly and the message advised her to check her email to see if the flights were booked. This was when she found out about the £5 charges. I had the same message a few days when searching for flights. As she was never advised of this charge at any point in the booking process, or before she paid, is this legal? Also, the recurring problem is worrying if it means that you can go through the process without being informed about the £5 charge.
Carri – thank for your comment. As I’ve had a Visa Electron card for years to avoid payment fees with the low cost airlines I really don’t know what comes up on the screen once you enter that your payment will be by other cards which incur a fee.
In order to check this out I have just visited the Ryanair site to do a trial, as soon as I entered that I was paying by Mastercard the price displayed increased by £10 ie the £5 per person per flight booking fee was added to the total payable.
Now it would be easy to miss this change in total payable as it happens quikly as soon as you enter which card you’ll use but there is a clickable link which says “click here for information on handling fees where the charges are details.
I conclude that it would be clearer if the addtional payment fee was displayed separately rathe and labelle as the card payment fee rather than just added in.
Karen
Thanks a lot for your comments. I’ll let my sister know as she’s maybe missed the not-so-obvious screen change on entering your card! She did have a ‘total to pay’ displayed to her, but that was £40 less than the total charged that was shown in her email.
Grrrr.
I have no option but to fly with Ryanair to get home as no other companies fly the same route. The total price is usually reasonable and it is a short flight so I am willing to put up with the bumpy landings and unfriendly staff however the pricing strategy just angers me. For Ryanair’s own reputation they should make costs more transparaent up front. Advertising a flight for £1 that actually costs £40 to me is very misleading so I think the advertising agency should put a stop to this as well as trading standards should demand they make pricing more clear. I do feel that Ryanair has taken this opportunity to increase there prices as well which is annoying when they advertise such cheap prices.
Kerry – thanks for your comment, I agree with the whole transparency issue. However it is possible to book a £1 flight. I booked £1 flights to Dublin and Bournemouth a few weeks ago. As long as you find a a “sale” flight there is no check in fee and if you pay by Visa Electron you avoid the payment fees and only take hand luggage, you can book Ryanair flights for £1.
Thank you for the interesting and useful discussion. I am often incensed at Ryanair’s charging methods – blatantly, shamelessly squeezing every last drop at every stage – but at the same time must feel gratitude for being able to fly directly to where no one else will fly.
Maria – thanks for your comment. The point is if you understand Ryanair’s system you can avoid any additional charges. Overall I feel positive about Ryanair because I’ve had cheap, direct flights all over Europe.
I have just flown back from Spain and on p7 of the 16 August 2009 version of their in-flight magazine it says:
“Ryanair has introduced an avoidable EUR 5 check-in fee to non-promotional bookings.”
Does anyone know how they make this claim? Is it only “avoidable” by paying a £40 charge for not checking in online?
Mike – thanks for your comment, Interesting question, I don’t know how to avoid the £5 online check in fee, except by booking promotional fares or as you state, by paying the airport check in fee. Perphaps Ryanair can enlighten us?
Not sure if anyone’s covered this but surely if on-line booking is now compulsory (ie. not an option) then Ryanair cannot make a charge for it. Like a lot of people we now buy food before boarding the plane, even Pret-a-Manger is cheaper than Ryanair and a lot fresher.
Stewart – thanks for your comment, that’s my take too, if you can’t avoid the charge ie you have got to check in, then it’s a mandatory charge and must be included in quoted price.
The only avoidance seems to be in the promotional fares where online check in is free, maybe that’s the legal loophole.
BTW booked a £2 return flight Edinburgh to Pisa for November yesterday.
How can it be that I just paid 10 Euro for a flight and my 1 year old son sits on my lap and has to pay 20 Euro!!!
Ryanair really are the pits!
Chrissy – I hope that you don’t have to pay £5 each way to check your son in for the flights. Would it have been possible to but the 10 euro tickets for your son too, or can you only purchase them for passengers aged 2 and over?
The £5 charge was fine when it was optional. However, as it is now compulsory, it should have been included in the fare. The
DTI required all airlines to change their systems and Ryanair was
given extensions in the past.
I have complained to Trading Standards and to the Advertising Standards Authority who deal with false advertisements. Ryan air
is well known to them for trying every trick in the book.
It took a lot of complaints before DTI acted the last time, but now there is a clarification, it should be quicker. There is no need for a compulsory element of a fare to be removed, except to
mislead a consumer into thinking their fare is lower.
Why is it to so many people respond to the actual question as thats what we are trying to get an answer or idia of opinions. Its not helpful for someone to say “they will never use Ryanair”.
was thinking the same thing and so I have lodged a complaint with Trading Standards.
I share everyone’s frustration regarding this matter and I would like to follow it up the best way possible. I was wondering if everyone can joint in a collective petition to Ryanair and the financial authorities in our respective countries. Like someone pointed out, soon Ryanair will charge customers for the oxygen the breath while on board their aircrafts.
Grrr this is so frustrating. I’m travelling with other friends who have already booked their flights with Ryan Air so I’ve got no choice instance. What I can’t possibly comprehend is how its legal to charge 4x£5 in “admin” fees for the card when its just one card purchase.
I’m going to book, I’m going to fly and grin and bear the miserable experience of flying with them. And I’m going to report them to the Advertising Standards, DTI and Civil Aviation Authority.
We have to complain where it counts.
Hi all,
It is indeed quite a challenge to keep up with Ryanair’s tactics, all designed to surreptitiously extract more money from add ons rather than have an upfront all-in ticket price.
It is still just possible to obtain their flights for the advertised price, and that is how they stay just on the right side of the law. A narrow path they follow, indeed.
Regarding the compulsory added on check in fee, I am of the opinion, and I suspect that the European court also would be, that this will have to be deleted, if anyone is inclined to pursue the case.
If only the competing airlines were to bite the bullet and advertise completely transparent bottom line ticket prices, together with reasonable baggage charges, allocated seats and no extortionate fines for forgetting to bring a print out of what the check in agent has on a screen in front of them anyway,
Ryanair would very soon start to show appreciation for the their customers, instead of the blatant contempt currently supplied in bucket loads. What they do is not good business at all, treating my customers in this way.
Best wishes to all, including Ryanair, for a serene Christmas and a happy new year.