Couple 'horrified' at £110 Ryanair ticket print fee

An aged mates said they were "horrified" aft being charged £110 by Ryanair to people their tickets astatine the airport.

Ruth, 79, and Peter Jaffe, 80, told the BBC's Radio 4 Today Programme they had to wage the interest aft they mistakenly downloaded their instrumentality tickets alternatively of their outgoing tickets.

It sparked a flurry of societal media complaints astir the airline's fees.

Ryanair maintained the fees were successful enactment with its policy.

The Jaffes, from Ealing, were flying from Stansted Airport to Bergerac, France, connected Friday.

Mrs Jaffe said she recovered Ryanair's website "very confusing" but contempt this, she thought she had successfully managed to people their tickets the time earlier the flight.

It was lone erstwhile she got to the airdrome that she realised she had accidentally printed the incorrect tickets.

"I was past told that I had to spell to the Ryanair table to get a boarding card, and determination they charged maine £55 per person," she said. "[I was] horrified."

She added it wasn't casual for her hubby to locomotion from 1 spot of the airdrome to the other. "I was rather flustered and upset."

Mr Jaffe said that they had nary prime but to pay, arsenic they had radical expecting them successful France.

On Sunday, their girl posted connected X, the societal web formerly known arsenic Twitter, saying her parent had made "an honorable mistake".

She added that her parents had besides had to wage an other interest to beryllium adjacent to each other, arsenic her begetter has a disability.

Her post, which has been viewed much than 13 cardinal times, has gone viral, with galore societal media users complaining of the precocious outgo of printing boarding passes astatine the airport, and different "surprise" fees.

"I tin consciousness the rage," said 1 X user.

Another urged Ryanair "to bash the close thing", with a 3rd saying: "There should beryllium laws that support the elderly."

One idiosyncratic besides pointed retired that it would person been cheaper to spell to the nearest stationery shop, acquisition a printer and people the tickets themselves.

Asked astir the immense absorption connected societal media, Mrs Jaffe said: "People hatred Ryanair, I think."

She went on: "If you're aged and haven't been brought up utilizing computers from time one, it tin beryllium precise difficult."

Mr Jaffe added: "It's besides the money-making aspect, similar the information we had to wage other to beryllium together."

Martyn James, a user rights expert, told the BBC that the couple's acquisition highlighted "a existent issue" - what if you marque a genuine mistake?

"It's profoundly unfair to penalise radical who made an guiltless mistake," helium said, adding that airlines should perpetrate not to complaint radical successful specified cases.

Mr James said that radical bash person options if this happens to them. They tin kick to the airline, arsenic the Jaffes person done, oregon instrumentality it to an alternate quality solution strategy oregon the tiny complaints court.

"But nary of this guarantees compensation and a batch of radical don't person the clip oregon energy," helium said. "If much radical complained astir a deficiency of transparency, much airlines commencement to reconsider these fees."

He added that these further fees are thing new.

"For years, airlines person been stripping retired things that utilized to beryllium free, and charging for them," helium said.

"This communicative truly touched a nervus due to the fact that thousands upon thousands of radical person besides been deed by sneaky hose charges.

"It resonates with radical due to the fact that they're aggravated they've been deed with these prices excessively - whether it's luggage charges, paying to beryllium adjacent to your family, oregon thing else."

Ryanair said successful a statement: "All passengers travelling with Ryanair hold to check-in online earlier arriving astatine their departure airdrome and each passengers are sent an email/SMS, reminding them to bash truthful 24hrs earlier departure.

"We regret that these passengers ignored their email reminder and failed to check-in online."