Ryanair mobile boarding pass not same as paper pass

Irish Steve

Just a heads up in case anyone else isn't aware of this interesting little wrinkle with the Ryanair mobile boarding pass application,

2 of us went over through Gatwick at the weekend, and I had all 4 boarding passes on the phone and saved in case of network issues, and being paranoid and not having used the mobile system before, I also had paper copy backups.

Going over, the computer at the gate at Dublin was down, so they couldn't check them there, it had to be done manually,. but it wasn't a problem, and the passport check at Gatwick was no hassle either. Coming back on Sunday evening,I used the mobile passes to get through the initial security check at Gatwick, no hassle, they worked fine.

15 minutes later, we're at the gate, and they are checking the passes again at the gate entry, and we been split in the queue, due to a few pushy people who didn't think they should join the queue like normal people. I went through, using the mobile, no hassles, and I was at the border control check when my colleague got to the first gate check, and without thinking about it, he handed over the paper copy of his boarding pass, which gave the computer a conniption. I was "involved" with border control at the time, so couldn't be in 2 places at the same time. The Gate check looked carefully at his boarding pass, and let him through, then the border control system had the same problems, but they did let him through.

On checking with Ryanair on line earlier today, it would seem that there is a difference between the bar code on a paper pass and the QR code on the mobile app boarding pass, and the computer systems at places like Gatwick can't sort out that difference.

So, the message seems to be that while you might have a paper backup just in case of problems, that may not be the smooth alternative that you thought it would be, as the computers doing all the processing seem to not be capable of cross referencing the 2 different systems.

Not ideal, especially if there are a number of people travelling together, and only one phone with all the details on it, as the system at places like Gatwick insists on taking pictures of each person, and processing them one at a time.

goingnowhere

Its probably the sequence number, a reprinted boarding card may cause issues as the sequence number will be 1 higher than the original

Traditional boarding cards are flagged 'reprint' if they are reissued

The barcode contains a lot of stuff. The security routine is about ensuring you entered and exited

I've been airside in Heathrow with no boarding card and still could navigate through the checkpoints, its not about the boarding card, it uses the boarding card as a reference number to find you later, they can simply throw sticker on your passport to get the same result

Irish Steve

It wasn't a reprinted boarding card, I did the check in on line for us, and captured the boarding cards as part of that stage of the process, so they were originals. and then later I went in on line with the smartphone, and got the boarding passes on that, and saved them, as it wasn't clear if they would be persistent, and I wasn't about to get caught with no WiFi access at critical stages of the process and no way to get them back.

s far as I can tell the numbers were the same, but from talking to Ryanair support, it seems that the QR code and the barcode are sufficiently different that the computers at Gatwick don't see them as being "the same", so if the smartphone is used to get through initial security, and the paper form is then presented at the gate entry, the computer doesn't see them as being related and connected to each other, so it throws a wobble as it has no record of the paper boarding pass, and that's in theory not possible at the gate, as it knows the passenger came through earlier security somehow before getting to the gate.

From what I could see of it, they don't have a print capability at the gate or border control point at the gate, and if a mobile boarding pass is used, then border control have to make a note of it manually to keep the numbers right.

It looks like the finer points of the mobile system are still being ironed out, and that this is a small wrinkle on the way, it's altogether possible that this particular scenario hasn't happened before, there were certainly not many people using smartphone boarding cards on the flight we were on.

It will be interesting to see if there is any feedback from Ryanair on this one.

Strumms

Why note just screen capture the boarding cards when you generate them on your smartphone. And email through the individual images to the friends who they apply to, job done.

Irish Steve

Strumms wrote: »

Why note just screen capture the boarding cards when you generate them on your smartphone. And email through the individual images to the friends who they apply to, job done.

If they had smart phones, that might be an option, but if they don't, I've seen nothing that says a paper version of a mobile boarding pass will work, and the object of the exercise is to get away from having to print A4 pages when other methods are now available.

Yes, there are ways around the issue, now that I know it's an issue, there's nothing on any of the sites that warn people that there are fundamental differences between a paper boarding pass and a mobile boarding pass.

In theory, there should not be a difference, if for no other reason than that the systems at the airport should be capable of recognising that 2 different versions of the pass have been used, and not as at present, rejecting completely the second use, as that could lead to a significant security breach.