A couple have warned people against flying with Ryanair after the low-cost airline charged them £110 over a check-in mistake.
On Friday morning, Ruth and Peter Jaffe arrived at London Stansted in good time for Ryanair flight FR2668 to Bergerac, in southwest France, for a family holiday.
The retired doctors – aged 79 and 80, respectively – had, they believed, observed the airline’s requirement to check in online ahead of their 500-mile flight and printed out the boarding passes.
Ryanair sends out reminder emails saying: “Remember, you must check in online to avoid the £55 airport check-in fee.
But Ruth Jaffe had inadvertently checked in for the inbound flight. She told BBC Today: “We arrived at Stansted two hours before the flight and found that I had not got the outward boarding card. I’d only got the return one.
“I was then told that we’d have to go to the Ryanair desk to get a boarding card. And there they charged me £55 per person. It horrified me.”
Peter Jaffe added: “We didn’t have much choice. There we were with our bags and people expecting us at the other end.
“So we had to pay. It wasn’t the girl on the desk’s fault that she was charging us this. This, she said, was: ‘policy’.”
Ruth Jaffe has complained to Ryanair, but said she did not hold out much hope for recompense: “I think they’ll say it’s in the small print and it was our fault. Which it was, but it was a genuine mistake.
“People hate Ryanair, I think. Certainly our relatives – because we’re having a family holiday out here – and the other people coming out going to all sorts of lengths to make sure they don’t come out on Ryanair.”
A spokesperson for Ryanair said: “In accordance with Ryanair’s T&Cs, which these passengers agreed to at the time of booking, they failed to check-in online before arriving at Stansted airport (11 Aug) despite receiving an email reminder (10 Aug) to check in online
“These passengers were correctly charged the airport check-in fee (£55 per passenger).
“All passengers travelling with Ryanair agree to check-in online before arriving at their departure airport and all passengers are sent an email/SMS, reminding them to do so 24hrs before departure.
“We regret that these passengers ignored their email reminder and failed to check-in online.”
