A dad was "fuming" after he and his party were charged an extra £270 to fly home from Spain.
The man, who asked not to be named, and three other passengers were each hit with a £30 check-in fee and a £38 cost to load their bags on board. The 27-year-old, who had been on a five-night all-inclusive holiday to Spain, claimed he and the others he travelled with were not told they had to check-in online for the return flight from Palma to Manchester.
The dad-of-one, from Leeds, said he had paid £1,300 for the holiday - which was then "ruined". He told the Manchester Evening News : "The holiday was brilliant and we had no problems when flying from Manchester to Palma.
READ MORE: Foreign Office updates passport rules for Spain, France, Portugal and 30 other countries
"But when we went to check-in at Palma airport on our flight back, we arrived over two hours before our flight, only to be told, 'you have got six minutes to check-in'. They couldn't find my booking.
"The woman at the check-in desk tried to help, but my email address that I had used to book everything with (online travel agent) On The Beach, didn’t work. It kept saying there was no booking available. Then the airport staff charged all four of us £30 each to check-in.
"We were absolutely fuming. We didn't have to pay that at Manchester. It’s a lot of money to pay. We didn't have any spare cash, so my friend had to pay on her credit card.
"We are still trying to pay that back. I'm a full-time dad, so any money I lose is less money for my son."
The party had booked the holiday through On The Beach, which included £475 Ryanair return flights, four-star hotel and bus transfer. They were then stunned to discover that there was a £30 charge for each passenger to check-in, which the man claimed they had not been informed about beforehand.
After the group checked in, they faced another £38 charge to check-in their bags, as they had not booked priority boarding tickets for the flight. However, On The Beach insist the passengers were warned that failure to check-in online could result in airport check-in fees, in line with Ryanair's policies.
The man said the experience of flying back to Manchester was "stressful" as they were not expecting further charges after having booked the holiday online. He added: "We had to pay extra just to take our bags on the flight. So we paid hundreds of pounds for the four of us just to get back to Manchester.
"The Palma airport staff said they couldn't do anything about it and that is just the rule. It was hard to communicate with them about it because they were Spanish, so there was a language barrier.
"All of us were stressed out. None of us had our bags with us because they got taken off us and put under the plane with the big bags. I don't understand why Ryanair seem to have this impression that people can go on holiday for a few days with just a handbag or just a backpack."
He added: "It was literally when we got to the airport in Spain and we basically got told ‘if you don’t pay, you are not allowed your bags on the flight’. It was the same with the check-in. They said ‘if you don’t pay the £30 for the check-in, you can’t get on the flight. You’ll have to book another flight.'"
He said more transparency is needed so that passengers could have been prepared for the extra charges. The man added: "They need to stick to one rule at every airport. They can’t have one rule at one airport and one rule at another.
"I would much rather they told us when we were flying out at Manchester Airport, rather than be forced to pay money to get my own clothes back to England."
What Ryanair said
A spokesperson for Ryanair said: “The issues these passengers encountered is a direct result of having booked their flights through an unauthorised online travel agent (OTA). Ryanair has no commercial relationship with any OTAs and in this instance, the OTA failed to advise the passenger of Ryanair’s online check-in and baggage policies, resulting in them being correctly charged an airport check-in fee of £30 per passenger at Palma airport and a gate bag fee of £38.
"Ryanair urges customers to always book directly, as OTAs may provide Ryanair with incorrect email addresses, contact and payment details, which block Ryanair from communicating directly with the customer to share essential flight information and updates, including check-in prompts, potential departure time changes, delays, cancellations, and refund updates.”
What On The Beach said
On The Beach "strongly rejected any suggestion that we provide false or misleading information to Ryanair or to our customers".
A spokesman for the online travel agent added: "Our communication with the customer provided all of the flight information needed to check-in online including reference number, unique email address and baggage allowance.
"We also advised that failure to check-in online could result in airport check-in fees. We’re sorry to learn that the customer incurred these charges, but this unfortunate incident is a direct consequence of Ryanair’s aggressive anti-competitive campaign against travel agents and their customers, who are being punished and treated as second-class citizens for choosing us over booking directly through Ryanair.
"Millions of customers choose to book with On The Beach every year without any difficulty because we offer choice, convenience, competitive pricing and protection by ATOL and the Package Travel Regulations - something that cannot be offered when booking flights alone.
"As package organisers, we have a responsibility to manage all elements of a package holiday for our customers. In contrast, Ryanair continues to impose onerous conditions on its customers, charging additional fees and causing confusion. It is critical that they put an end to this unfair and anti-competitive behaviour”.
A spokesperson from Ryanair replied: "Like any business, Ryanair is entitled to determine its own distribution model. Ryanair has decided to deal directly with its customers, and not intermediaries who seek to freeride on Ryanair’s innovation and investment in many cases just to impose inordinate intermediary mark-ups on air fares.
"This innovation allows Ryanair to ensure flight safety, security, and public protocols are complied with, while providing the best choice, care, and lowest fares to its customers. We would ask On the Beach to respect Ryanair’s distribution policy and also its own customers (who no doubt understandably assume that a business holding itself out as a package organiser has commercial agreements in place with its suppliers) by ceasing to sell Ryanair flights.”
Receive newsletters with the latest news, sport and what's on updates from the Liverpool ECHO by signing up here
