Woman slams Ryanair for charging elderly parents £110 to print boarding passes
A woman has slammed budget airline Ryanair for charging her elderly parents £110 to print their boarding passes after they mistakenly downloaded the wrong ones.
The daughter said her parents Ruth Jaffe, 79, and Peter Jaffe, 80, mistakenly downloaded their return boarding pass, instead of the outgoing one. This happened on the first leg of their journey from Stansted Airport to Bergerac, France last week.
The couple had already checked in and even paid an extra fee to sit next to one another - which the furious daughter said was to ensure her mum could accompany her disabled father.
But, for their “honest mistake” Ryanair charged them an extra £110 to print the two pieces of paper.
The couple's receipt for the Ryanair fine (Kennedy News and Media)Sharing the story on Twitter, the daughter said: "Hey @Ryanair, my parents who are in their 70s and 80s, had accidentally downloaded the return flight boarding card instead of the outgoing ones and you charged them £110 to print them at the airport. £110 for 2 pieces of paper which took 1 minute. Shame on you”.
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In response, the airline responded, asking them to contact them on Facebook. But the daughter said: “We’ve put in a complaint via your online form My mum made a mistake while trying to check in. You told her she wouldn’t sit next to her disabled husband if she didn’t pay extra so she tried. It then checked her in for the return flight only. They sat separately after paying £110”.
The original tweet has been seen over 12 million times and went viral across the social media site formerly known as Twitter. Thousands of other users flocked to the responses to offer advice and share their own frustration with the budget airline and its policies.
A few others pointed out that the airline, which so often replies sarcastically to users on social media, showed nothing of the sort today. One person wrote: “The cheapest airline will eventually cost you the most.” Another shared their own frustrations, saying: “They don’t care. If you can afford it book another airline if not welcome to the low cost game”. Meanwhile a third simply said: “Sounds like I will not be using their service.”
The couple’s options were limited and they were forced into using Ryanair, the daughter explained, as no one else flies the same route, she said. They had to pay the £55 each in airport check-in fees. According to the airline’s conditions, fliers have to check in up to two hours before their departure time. Boarding passes must be printed or downloaded onto the app.
A Ryanair spokesperson told the Mail that the decision was legitimate and defended their decision, explaining that “as per Ryanair’s T&C’s” the couple “failed to check-in … despite being advised to do so”. Due to this they were “correctly charged the airport check-in fee”.
Ryanair have been approached for comment.
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