EVERYBODY ON BOARD ONLINE

Find out how check-in is changing and how it will affect you

WONDERFUL NEWS FROM RYANAIR
This is the way things are going.
You are charged a fee for using an existing system. If you persist in using that system after a certain date, you are charged double the current fee. This is to encourage you to ‘embrace’ a new system.
Embracing is something you do with both arms. I can think of better uses for those arms with regard to the new system of online-only check-in.

This is what Ryanair is introducing. It will come into operation on October 1st, after which date there will be no Ryanair check-in desks at any of the airports it uses.

WILL IT SAVE MONEY OR TIME – AND WHOSE?
Wonderful news for Ryanair, which will save millions of pounds. The company will shed around a hundred jobs at Irish airports alone and make further savings by ending its contracts with check-in services at European airports.

The company says the policy will help passengers avoid ‘time-wasting queues and delays’.

How much will it cost? Even though Ryanair will save buckets of money, the airline will still charge passengers a fee of £5 per person per flight to check in online, whether they are checking in luggage or not. Oh, and an extra £5 per person per flight for using a credit or debit card other than Visa Electron.

Nearly forgot. There’s a charge of £9.50 per bag per flight. And ‘optional’ charges of £15 for each kilo of excess baggage and £60 for travelling with music or sports equipment. Plus £50 if you want to change a flight or £100 if you have the misfortune to need to change the name on a ticket.

IS IT LEGAL?
Apparently this is legal as long as the company makes its charges clear. There are claims, however, that the charge for online check-in is not among the charges shown before the customer agrees the purchase, but only with the flight confirmation.

Other passengers make the point that if you add a compulsory charge to an advertised price, it means you cannot actually buy a ticket to fly at the advertised price.

GET READY WITH OTHER AIRLINES
OK, budget is budget only by some definitions. But it gets worse, and here’s where other airlines are also putting a foot on the travelator.

Flybe, for example, offers you online check-in from 36 hours before your outbound flight departure until one hour before. ‘Try it out now!’ they shout joyfully, ‘and see how much time you save.’

British Airways goes a step further. Now you can check your flight status or choose your seat using your internet-enabled mobile phone – all, they say, without leaving the beach. (Would that be the artificial beach that’s being installed at Westfield shopping centre in London?)

For BMI online check-in is available on most routes and again you can complete the entire process from your mobile phone. The small print warns that customers travelling economy on shorthaul routes are required to use online check-in or self-check-in where it is available.

And so it goes on, Air France, Qantas, you name it, they’re all offering it.

GET INTERNET SAVVY OR...
Here’s the big problem, though. What do you do if you’re not internet-savvy or, more important, if you don’t have access to the internet? If you suffer from technofear or have a peculiar, old-fashioned preference for dealing with human beings? What if you have a computer but not a printer?

Do you really want to have to rely on asking a friend or relative or hotfooting it to the local library?

If it were me, I’d be put off from flying with any airline that insists on online check-in.

But, as I said, this is the way things are going.

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