I wrote:
Well they certainly haven't done up till now. I fly regularly EMA-SFX and while the Berlin staff will always print my boarding pass if I tell them the website wasn't working, the UK staff have "no option" but to charge you - first £8, then shortly afterwards, £10 - to do it. They just can't get round it, followed by something about "Servisair".
The second time was following a last minute flight change which left no time to get to a printer except through an internet cafe the morning of the flight. However despite what they claim the Print Boarding Pass option isn't available once the 4 hours deadline for amending flight details has passed. It very easily could be - only a matter of copying and pasting a link onto a web page - but they choose not to provide it and thus rake in ... er ... must be £12 by now? - every time someone needs to do this.
I'm afraid I've done Mr O'Leary a big disservice here by positing that the next logical future charge for non-printing of boarding pass following online check-in would be £12. Tonight I received this automated email in advance of my next flight to see my daughter:
Ryanair’s online check-in service is available from 15 days up to 4 hours prior to your scheduled flight departure time(s). If both your outbound and return flights are within the 15 day period, at the time you check-in online then both boarding passes can be printed simultaneously. If you do not check-in online you will be required to pay the relevant fee to re-issue your boarding card at the airport.(Euro 40/ GBP 40)
So not £12, but £40. I'm sorry, Mr O'Leary. What a slur to your business acument to think that you would adhere simply to a random rip-off progression when you could simply plump for what you gauged the market would bear. Yes, of course - who would rebook a complete flight for the sake of £40?
Of course, the fact that most decent people would label you a sneaky thieving crook is neither here nor there ... in your culture, this don't cut no odds.