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RYANAIR HAS EMAILED its millions of travellers advising them of changes to its existing check-in policy.
For all flights from 13 June, free online check-in will be available from 48 hours to 2 hours before departure. Passengers previously had four days to do so.
If you decide to choose what seat you want (which usually costs around €4 per journey) – then you will be able to check-in up to two months in advance.
Emails sent to passengers this morning included terms and conditions which allow customers to cancel flights and receive a full refund if they do not wish to agree to the new policy.
The notice reads: “Customers who choose not to reserve their preferred seat, can check in online or on the mobile app free of charge from 48 hours to 2 hours pre-departure and will be randomly allocated a seat.
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“All Ryanair customers may buy a reserved seat online, both on the Ryanair.com website and mobile app from the time of booking up to 2 hours pre-departure and these customers can check-in online anytime they so wish between 60 days to 2 hours before the scheduled departure time of their flight.
“Please note – any affected customers flying on or after 13 June who do not wish to accept this check-in policy change have the right to cancel and request a full refund within 5 days of this 14 May notification after which the change will be regarded as implicitly accepted.”
A statement from Ryanair added: “Online check-in (for those customers who don’t choose reserved seats) will be available from 48 hours to 2 hours pre-departure for all flights from Wednesday 13 June. This is more than double the 24 hour check-in period operated by British Airways, Lufthansa, Norwegian and Iberia. This will give reserve seat customers more time to select their preferred seats prior to departure.”
Earlier this year, the Irish budget airline introduced new rules which meant passengers could not take a large cabin bag on board unless they bought priority boarding.
Up until January of this year, Ryanair allowed passengers to carry one cabin bag along with an additional small bag, such as a backpack or shopping bag for free.
However, the airline axed the scheme as “too many customers are availing of Ryanair’s two free carry-on bags service, and with high load factors, there is not enough overhead cabin space for this volume of carry-on bags”.
Customers can still bring two free bags, but those who haven’t purchased priority boarding must place their bag in the hold at the boarding gate, free of charge.
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@Dave Collins: That’s no problem. Go with Aer Lingus or BA where it will be twice or three times the price. Is €5 really a game changer when your getting the flight for little or nothing.
@Graham McGuinness: it’s not the money, it’s the da t that every little thing involves a rule or a charge or having to book something or produce something or complying with something or being Jeter through various roped queuing stead depending on what you’ve done.
. Flying is becoming like a cross between a trip to Lidl on a Saturday afternoon, and trying to get something done at the passport office.
@Neal Ireland Hello.: Passport/I.D, boarding card, don’t take the Pee with your carry on bag, check in on time, present yourself to the boarding gate, couldn’t be more simple or straight forward?
@Neal Ireland Hello.: Ryanair fly over 100 million passengers every year. Imagine if there were no rules or regulations or organised queues, just a free for all. Every airline has rules that passengers need to obey, and usually higher ticket prices.
@Graham McGuinness: Not only will it be more expensive.. you will never take off or land on time. I did the Aer Fungus thing for years. They are never on time.. and the staff dont care… they are union.. they don’t have to care.
Ryanair can turn planes around quickly and efficiently. How they co-ordinate the different parties to do it I don’t know…. but they do it.
Ryanair! O’Leary could fly the plane personally, give out free champagne and then carry your (unlimited) baggage to your taxi and some people would still whinge and complain.
Just pay the plus ticket price, 20KG bag, Priority boarding, Fast track security, pick any seat on the plane and you can still bring a cabin bag and a small bag.
@Rob Cahill: agree if you’re talking about one person. But if travelling ad a family those extra fivers add up so not such a straight forward decision.
Great news, I booked a flight for the wrong date in August and to change the flight to a different date cost more than the price of the flight. Now instead of forgetting the flight I can just get a refund for it thanks to this! Happy days
Never have or never will use this airline.
It’s reputation speaks volumes.
I’m surprised they are not using Maurice Pratt in their advertising “Yellow pack airlines”.
@Trevor Hayden: Presumably you don’t fly very often or pay for your flight. Ryanair save me 4 grand a year and offer a lot of choice of routes and times.
@William Grogan: True William, maybe 2-3 times a year but any opinion I’ve received from friends and colleagues have put me off flying with them.
One even referred to them as “cattle mart” airlines.
Hoofed on like cattle, dirty planes, and rude staff.
And hoofed off at your destination.
@Trevor Hayden: Unless you fly business class with the likes of Emirates then that’s just not true!
Any of the European airlines I’ve used out of Dublin, Lufthansa, BA, Cityjet, FinnAir, Aer Lingus are no better than Ryanair..
RA’s aircraft are often newer, the staff younger and more energetic, the flights are on time unless due to Airport issues etc.
@Trevor Hayden: I’ve flown with them loads of times, and with their competitors and never had a single problem on Ryanair. I find most people complaining do so after not complying with the airlines rules or regulations.
@Michael McLoughlin: Well I do apologise for offending the Ryanair fan club michael, but is this not a Comments area?
I’ve gave an opinion and that’s all it is, an opinion.
@Michael McLoughlin: Trevor is perfectly entitled to give an ill informed opinion.
I think flying with Ryanair isn’t great, but it’s competing low budget airlines are no better and more expensive. I think it gets a bad wrap as an airline.
I’ve no problem with this, the app makes check in very quick and simple. If you’re from outside the EU and need to do the visa check then you need to print out the boarding pass for it to be stamped so in that case it could be a bit of pain if you’re going anywhere for more than one night, there aren’t too many internet cafés anymore to print your pass.
I kind of like the new policy of only people in the priority queue bringing on their cabin bags, it avoids the rush in the non-priority queue as everyone knows that their bags will be put in the hold. Personally I don’t mind that as more often than not they are already on the belt by the time you get through security.
@O’Boyle Darragh: Priority boarding is fantastic, being able to get on board without the mad rush…
Having said that if i’m on a longer flight it’s nice not to have to worry about carrying a bag on and off the aircraft…
However, before, when your group, as most didn’t, pay to reserve seats, they would always be sat together, even if you couldn’t choose where on the plane.
Now, if you don’t pay, your group is deliberately split up, by what appears to be a programmed policy of minimum 5 rows apart.
So, yet again, this disgusting company, which has a monopoly on most routes out of Ireland, has deliberately created a problem and then charges you for fixing it.
I think O’Leary’s ‘management’ policy is to see just how many customers, staff and airport authorities he can irritate to the maximum, having got monopoly control of routes and time slots.
@Mike Hall: who Cares about not seating together? Most ryanair flights are no longer that 3 hours. I think that most of the people that complaint just go once or twice a year to Benidorm and don’t appreciate an airline that is cost effective and on time. Because aerlingus and British airways just to name a few are most of the times late and the service is not that good. I find it great that my bag can go free of charge on the handling and I don’t have to carry it inside the aircraft and I couldn’t care less about where I m seated.
@Mike Hall: There is plenty of choice thing is that you most likely cant afford it. And if you cant afford to pay for group seating then you get what you pay for. Funny entitlement attitude will never get you anywhere.
I have no problem with that, bearing in mind, Aer Lingus charge more to reserve a seat, and have less leg room that the new ryan air aircraft from 2016 onwards.
@Charles Williams: What’s not honest about this. The airline is bringing in this new option, telling everyone about it and offering a refund if it doesn’t suit you. Seems straight forward to me
My last flight with ryanair to budapest was with my wife and daughter 13.
seat numbers 9b 19b and 23b. And we checked in as early as possible. Unless blind all can see what they are doing .
Also they know what age the children are when booking. Why centre seats for all three of us? Yes split as many families and friends up as possible. No need for this approach at all.
Hence the bad bame some people brand them with.
I will of course use them again but try be more reasonable when childs welfare is involved.
@Stephen clancy: So, you didn’t want to pay to sit togethet. And then you complain that you are not sitting together? They main reason you are not sitting together is that othets DID pay. Once about half the rows have 2 or more assigned seats then the odds in favour of other people being assigned adjacent seats diminish rapidly.
I really don’t get why some people feel obsessed with sitting next to the person that they’re going on holiday with. You’ll see them when you get to your destination and you might squeeze in a power nap in peace. I am also not one of those tools that need to queue first – the plane is not going anywhere until the last person gets on.
So it’s gone from a week to 4 days and now 2 days for the free online check in.Nailed on to eventually no free online check in ie you have to buy a designated seat at check in.
Queue outrage and threats of ‘never flying Ryanair again’ from the misinformed. Check out the online check in policy of EI and see what you learn. Want a super cheap flight then accept that you will not be treated like a rock star when you board, failing that you could always f*ck off and walk.
10,000,000 passengers a month is proof to me this is a good Irish service provider .Some people need to cop on .A great Irish success story .Play by the rules and everything will be fine .
Flight cancelled to pisa last tuesday 12 hours notice got flights to rome 5 hundred euros hired car drove five hours lost a day just checked in for return flight home i got aisle 10 my wife aisle 20 as mater of princaple i would not pay the extra they dont give a dam about you or me but i have got to fly home with them ps. If its not cancelled that is.
I fly every month with them never an issue, the only airline that got me through the winter storms, great staff and cheap. I don’t care since I always book priority and a seat.
@ed w: Poor baby. In the mid-nineties, to visit my girlfriend once every two months, I used fly to London and take a 24 hour bus to Torun. Couldn’t afford any other way.
@Negan Lucille: first time visiting family was bus from London to poznan . 3 days. Rammed in Uncles car (syrena God he was proud of getting that car in the 70′s ) poznan to gdansk suppose I should be thankful
Have been on their website most of last evening attempting to cancel a flight affected by this policy change. Its impossible…… I give up! Even the support team claim to know nothing about it. Drop down menus are limited to certain issues only.
Fight back. Disrupt. Buy a sachet of brown sauce on next visit to supermarket. After take off make a beeline for the jacks and smear it all over the seat. Scatter plenty oy rubbish around your seat just before landing. If you have kids, encourage them to run up and down the plane. during in-flight service. More suggestions welcome.
@Alex Carroll: Unbelievable. In order to save 5 euro you would create havoc on a plane and make poor flight attendants hard work even harder. There is no word to describe people like you.
Try explain this one so guys.
I booked a weekend away in Budapest and travelled with ryanair. My wife and 13 year old daughter and myself. checked in at the earliest time available and wasnt to bothered once someone is near my child. Seats allocated were 9b 19b and 23b.
Now any fool can see what they are doing splitting everybody up at as early as stage as possible so people have got to pay to sit next or close to family ot siblings.
They also know the adults from the children when booking but still so not take child welfare into consideration.
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