An Historic Ruling
 

From the BBC

Spain fines budget airlines including Ryanair €179m

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c8jy2dpv722o

About time too...

Yeah! I had a reservation, but no printer, so I could not print my boarding pass. I paid the silly fee for them to do it when I got to check in. Then, having paid, and they printed, they "noticed" that my name as it appeared on the boarding pass was not the same as it appeared on my passport, super silly fee to correct that! "But wait a minute, I just paid you to print the boarding pass, and you printed it with wrong information!". To the agent's credit, she agreed, and re printed it for no further fee. But, I can say that at the time, the cost for Ryan Air to print a boarding pass at the check in counter was about twice the airfare! I suppose that that their printers are top quality, very well maintained, and crewed by awesomely qualified and experienced printer people!

Years ago I missed a Ryanair flight out of STN for reasons I can only blame myself for. The taxi was cash only, something I had not thought of possible in the year of 2011, so we had to detour via a gas station where I could withdraw some at an extortionate cost. Fast forward 5 years taxis were still cash only in the UK (along with other things, such as the toll bridge over the Thames.... ), but this time I had learnt. Back to the gate at STN, a few minutes late and boarding was non-negotiable. I had to do the walk of shame back to the ticket office to try and get on the next flight some 12 hrs later. They had an "offer" for the likes of me who had missed their flight - £110, printing of boarding pass included. The ticket price on their website was a lot better but then I'd be standing there with a ticket but no printer. Well crafted offer!

So you expect others to provide you with said printer services for free? Most public libraries will print a page for about 20p give or take. Or do you just rock up at check-in in 2024 without the app/QR code and demand the check-in staff print your boarding card for freebies? What about the other 180+ pax?

Either way; all airlines will now just add a surcharge for Spain so that means every single passenger now has to pay to cover the likes of the above. A loss for every switched on passenger in 2024 and a win for those who want their hand not only held but gently guided through the aviation process.

Sad to see.

Do LLC airlines charge for printing the luggage tag for checked baggage? - asking for a friend.

None that I have ever flown but then I can read the T&Cs and follow basic instructions…

There are folk who haven't dived into the new world order of apps and QR. Personally I don't have a phone at 81 years of age because I don't have any need for one. Wife has one which is basically for messaging and phone calls, doing anything else on it is ????. QR codes are ????

Which is fine, elsewhere in the world, airlines offer both paper or electronic

So they will just stop providing the printing facility at all. No boarding card on the phone or printed = no show and no refund.
And an enterprising person will set up a kiosk in the terminal printing cards, at a 50% higher peice which the authorities can do nothing about as they will serve all airlines.

"So you expect others to provide you with said printer services for free?"

I don't think anybody said that. The point is nobody expects to be charged £20 for the privilege

I've posted a link to this song before, but I think it is related enough to this thread that it's worth posting again. It's by Fascinating Aida and is called 'Cheap Flights':

Every passengers has a few choices; use the app, print your own paper boarding card or pay a fee at the airport.

A ruling like this will redistribute the costs across all passengers by increasing ticket prices across the board. So everyone else gets penalised for customers who make a choice to not use modern methods or not to prepare ahead and print their own boarding card.


Pax are perfectly entitled to do their own thing, nothing wrong with that. Why should other customers have to cover for that?

Ryanair LOVES this kind of publicity. They are honest and never pretend to have customer service.

The performance of an aircraft is predicated on weight (mass), the heavier the given aircraft is the lower its max altitude and increases fuel burn.

I object to having to pay the same for my svelte personage as the 140kg football fullback, set the price for a ticket based on the individuals weight (mass), they do it for air freight. I'm subsidising the fatties. Life's not fair, nor the fares.

Thank you! (Currently weighing in at 70 kg )!

The airlines use an average weight per passenger. I'd be interested to know if they use different weights for flights within North America than say within South Asia. I do know that the average weight figures have been revised upwards over the years because of people getting fatter, though.

I'd guess that the pilot of a smallish aircraft carrying a rugby team has to allow extra fuel and take on less airfreight due to the extra weight of his passengers. Rugby players come *big*.

I have a vague memory of an episode of 'Air crash investigation' where the crash was caused by a massive under-estimate of the passenger's weight.

I think they we transporting a company of marines back from some warzone and they weight a lot more than the average parents+2.2 kids.

Ever had your phone battery go flat? No signal when you try to check in? Found the app has a bug? Can’t get the airport wi-fi to work? Left your boarding pass at home?

it is reasonable to charge, but the charge should be reasonable.

As an aside, compared to the BA app the Ryanair app is robust and a model of clarity and ease of use. Ryanair may have a vile business model, but it is undeniable that they are very good at what they do.

Ryanair will just remove the charge and their own printing facility. No paper or smartphone - same as turning up to the theatre, or concert with no proof of right to access. And no refunds for no-shows as a result.

And someone will open up an independent printing facility in the various terminals for printing boarding cards for the memory challenged.

At twice the RyanAir price .........

It's gone up 50% between your two comments. It was only 50% last time.

The reason everything is so expensive at Heathrow (see earlier thread, 'Duty Free') is that Heathrow charge retailers until the pips squeak for the privilege of having space to sell their goods in the terminals. A printing booth for the few customers who would avail themselves of the service would not be profitable at any price level. That's what Ryanair are relying on.