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Ryanair: print your tickets at home or not, you pay
We're all used to airline fees that punish inconvenient behavior. So, I was beyond impressed when Ryanair found a way to punish the helpful ... and punish the helpless. Starting on May 20, passengers will have to pay €10 if they print their own tickets. Essentially, taking matters into your own hands and saving time and expense at the airport will cost you somewhere between $10 and $15.
It sounds like incentive to cause a delay at the counter while you ask thousands of questions while a ticket agent tries to print your pass as quickly as possible. Michael O'Leary & Company thought of this, however, and are charging €40 ($40 to $60, depending on where exchange rates go) for those who try to avoid the €10 fee.
Put simply: the cost of flying Ryanair just went up €10, unless you want it to be up €40.
Fortunately, there is an exception to this rule. If you picked up a €5 fare that includes all fees, you won't get slapped with any extras.
Online check-in used to be free. Apparently, this "discriminated" against passengers from outside the European Economic Area, as they weren't able to check in via the web until recently, according to a report in the Sydney Morning Herald. Key word: weren't. Now they are. So, the discrimination is gone.
That doesn't stop Ryanair and its twisted logic, though: the new policy doesn't discriminate because everybody has to pay!
Gallery: A Closer Look at Ryanair
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
sean May 21st 2009 7:33AM
Just another way for O'Leary to squeeze more money out of his hapless customers. Although I think it might serve to squeeze more appeal out of his airline. Ryanair is such a false economy when you tot up all the extras you have add.
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