Ryanair's £40 charge for printing boarding passes is ruled illegal by Spanish court

[oz_mark]

Re: Ryanair's £40 charge for printing boarding passes is ruled illegal by Spanish cou

I have no doubt that the ACCC gets involved - I just think that it shouldn't and that the market should "decide" this.

There are a number of issues at play, but in terms of purchasing an airline ticket, you really don't get an opportunity to negotiate the terms and conditions - you are pretty much presented with a common form, take it or leave it contract. Given the relative strangth of a consumer versus an airline, there is ready scope for them to provide contracts that protect their interests but are hardly consumer friendly. The free market mechanism really doesn't provide a way to sort these issues out.

In addition, there is the way in which a fee is presented. If it were a fee for service, then perhaps itwould be ok - however, Ryanair have presented the fee as a penalty fee. Profiting by charging an execssive penalty fee is a bit of a no no, a position the banks here seem to have been dragged kicking and screaming into agreeing with.

The reality is, that if Ryan had only charged, say a 5 pound fee, they may not have been dragged off to court, but if you make the fees high, then the more likely someone will get their back up and take them to court.

Going, forward, though, it will be intersting to see if the ruling ultimately holds sway against the rest of the EU.

 

[medhead]

Going, forward, though, it will be intersting to see if the ruling ultimately holds sway against the rest of the EU.

I think it'll be interesting to see if the ruling is upheld by the appeal court.

 

[Oneworldplus2]

Re: Ryanair's £40 charge for printing boarding passes is ruled illegal by Spanish cou

I think it'll be interesting to see if the ruling is upheld by the appeal court.

I agree. This will be interesting.
As other members have mentioned in this thread already, moving forward with next gen check-in technology is the way to go, but charging 40 quid for a BP seems a little bit excessive.

When Gatwick Airport did this (free of charge) for passengers during 2009's snow disruption, Ryanair IP blocked the machines.

Ryanair showing their true colours (That's about as low as you can go in my books - screwing the customer as much as possible during a natural disaster. Good God!).

 

[oz_mark]

Re: Ryanair's £40 charge for printing boarding passes is ruled illegal by Spanish cou

European budget airline Ryanair is threatening to refuse to allow passengers to board its planes unless they print their own boarding passes.

The threat comes as the airline appeals a decision by a Spanish court that ruled a charge for printing passengers' boarding passes was illegal.

Passengers who fail to print out their boarding passes themselves face a fee of €40 ($54) for the airline to print them at check-in.
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If Ryanair's appeal fails, the airline plans to force passengers without boarding passes to purchase another ticket at the airport

Ryanair escalates row over $54 boarding pass fee

I presume if you have to buy another ticket, they'll give you a boarding pass for it - otherwise you end up in a loop