[From a reader of MintMe]

Having recently had a bad experience with them, I googled ‘I hate Ryanair‘ and this came up…..

I booked a return flight online to Alghero, Sardinia because it was fairly cheap, (I had been there before in 2002 so it was not my first choice): £159.30, including checked in bag, web check-in and insurance. A page came up saying my booking was complete and there was a link to print this. I thought this was sufficient- it always had been in the past.

I arrived at Stanstead airport 2 hours before my flight – unusual for me, and queued to put my luggage on. But on reaching the front of the queue I was told that I needed a boarding pass and ‘Can’t you read?’ the info to Ryanair passengers on the screen? My print-out was not enough and I needed to check in with the machines that had been installed there, (one wonders at what expense) and get a boarding pass. ‘I’ll have to queue again then’, I said. ‘That’s right’ she said, unsympathetically.

So I typed in my details and discovered that I’d have to pay another £40. I refused to do this and queued up at the ticket desk to enquire. There I was asked, ‘Didn’t you read the ‘Very Important Information?’ ‘on my print-out. It said you needed a boarding pass, but I said, I thought this WAS a boarding pass. She said ,’No, it’s confirmation’. I said it always used to be sufficient. ‘Well, things have changed’ she replied. I said that it didn’t tell me to do anything else and there was no link on the page to print out the pass, so she said, ‘You should have gone on the website’. ‘But I didn’t know’, I said. ‘It’s in the terms and conditions’ she said. I asked, couldn’t she print one out for me as I had already paid to check-in.’ No, we don’t have the facilities here’. Well, it’s funny that they have the facilities to change your flight and print other information. I asked, couldn’t they give me £40 so I could do this on the machine? ‘No’.

Of course, I got angry and upset, to which the woman at the desk said, ‘Have you considered having anger management‘. I said that she was sitting there smugly and no doubt enjoyed this sense of power. Meanwhile, another passenger was getting upset for similar reasons and had the added disadvantage of struggling with English.
It seems that the philosophy of Ryanair is, the customer is always wrong – it’s always the customers fault but staff are allowed, maybe even encouraged, to give misleading and incomplete information.

I then reluctantly went back to the machine and paid my extra £40. It seems that this boarding pass issue is a scam designed to catch customers out as it does not save any time other than to those who don’t put their luggage in the hold.

I then queued again. I rely on my mobile phone for the time but it was in my bag, and I was exhausted, distressed and not thinking straight. By the time I got to the front of the queue I was told that it was too late to put my luggage on, but that as I didn’t have much, I might be able to take it on with me. So I went through to security and tried to decide what liquids to throw out, (you’re only allowed a small amount) and they then threw away my new bottle of suncream.

I managed to get through security but had a long walk to the gates. There were no announcements or calls but on the screen it indicated that they were boarding. Alas, by the time I got there, the gates were closed but the aeroplane was still there. I told the man at the gates what had happened and asked him to talk to the airline staff but he stood there helplessly saying there was nothing he could do. This is ridiculous. Other airlines call their passengers. I remember when I flew to Israel (to go to Palestine), we had to change planes at Zurich (?) and my friend and I couldn’t find the gates so we were late, but they waited for us. Someone said that had they got my luggage on, they may have waited….I’m not so sure…..

So I’d got rid of my suncream for nothing!

Meanwhile, a Sardinian couple had also missed their flight. They told me that they were called but this didn’t make any difference.

My options were to forget my holiday and loose the £216 I’d now paid, (including taxi to Stratford and National Express coach), or pay more to get another flight. Ryanair charges £100 to change flights and the next one to Sardinia was the next morning. I did not want to pay for another return coach fare and even less, wanted to loose another night’s sleep as it’s unhealthy, so I asked if I could go somewhere else, now. I was told it had to be Italy – Rome or Pescara. I chose the latter as I’ve been to Rome.

Just as I was getting to the gates I suddenly realised that I’d not asked about my return, (of course, the man who sold me the ticket didn’t mention it). The lady at the gates told me to look on the website where it says, ‘Manage my account’ and it should be on there…..

When I eventually got internet access, I saw that my return flight was still from Sardinia. Did they really expect me to get a train to the West coast of Italy (to Rome, I think- I was on the Adriatic side), a ferry to the East coast of Sardinia, and then a bus or two or three to Alghero, (North West coast)? Of course, thinking doesn’t come into it – this was a computer. There didn’t seem to be a way of changing it online so the next day, I had the added expense of telephoning Ryanair. It is expensive enough without phoning from a mobile, over seas. Lo and behold, the Ryanair employee told me there was nothing she could do and I’d have to pay another £100 for my return flight. The fact that I’d not been told was irrelevant, as usual. I could not be sure that going to Sardinia would have been cheaper, (probably not if I flew and I doubt there would have been a direct flight) and it would certainly have wasted a day of my holiday getting there – the ferry probably takes at least 10 hours. In any case, by the time I’d found out, I may have lost this flight and would have had to ring Ryanair again. As it was, I couldn’t go back the day I’d intended to and chose the next day as I didn’t want to shorten my holiday.

So what had started as a £160 flight was now £400, for which I could have had luxury accommodation, or flown to Thailand, India, etc……Rest assured that I will be writing to Ryanair for a refund and compensation and if it doesn’t work, (which it probably won’t), I will write to Trading Standards and consider taking legal action, maybe with others. There could be a way round it – there is the 1997 unfair contracts law.

Deborah Fink