Ryanair will no longer accept printed boarding passes ...

Marcusm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123913758#Comment_123913758

Again they have not taken a paper copy off the table; just a home-printed one.

Tork

Again, I'm perfectly capable of telling the difference between printing a boarding pass at home and having to go to the hassle of having one printed out in the airport.

Larbre34

I'm satisfied that for less technologically savvy people, they can still have a boarding pass printed at the Airport for free.

As for those of us who are frequent fliers anyway, who doesn't already have the Ryanair and Aer Lingus apps? So who cares.

The marketing that the app feeds contributes to lower fares. I'd rather that than the alternative.

Ger Roe

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123908999#Comment_123908999

Due to the length of the delays experienced and the amount of passengers affected…. there were huge queues at whatever socket was available. A single socket for a floor polisher, is not a solution when mass phone charging might be required. People queueing to sit on the floor beside a socket at a toilet block entrance, is not an effective solution. The few dedicated three output charge stations were also inadequate due to overwhelming demand. These are real life examples of a real life situation that existed at Dublin airport two weeks ago.

trellheim

And in the case of Dublin you can go to the Ryanair helpdesk at the 100 gates to get it printed out if your phone's died

jimmycrackcorm

I'm at a loss to understand how people spend time travelling to the airport to fly somewhere with a dead phone battery and even not carry a cheap power bank for emergencies

LambshankRedemption

Call me cynical but hear me out.

I had a similar argument with someone over on the Revolut thread about some aspect of the Revolut app. I said something like "Well if you can't operate the app then maybe Revolut is not for you, you don't have a right to a Revolut account". They replied "Actually its in the constitution that you have a right to a bank account". Well fine,wander into a Bank of Ireland branch and do your banking that way, but it's not enshrined in the constitution that you must have a Revolut account.

Ryanair have the market share in air travel in Europe. I wonder if this is a way of them to select or filter out their customers in a subtle way to improve efficiencies and profits.

One of the arguments on this thread against it is what if you are travelling with 3 kids who will need help scanning their phone? Well has some financial analyst in Ryanair identified that kids under 14 spend less money on a Ryanair flight then adults. They don't tend to get on board and order a G&T once in the air. Similarly, the elderly who might have difficulty using the app rather using a print out are notoriously spendthrift while also being slow moving.

Ryanair want able bodied passengers - ideally ones with access to their own money and will buy stuff on the plane. I would be the first to admit I have bought stuff on a plane purely from boredom - admittedly this would have been in pre-kindle or tablet days but I am sure it happens, and Ryanair want people who will and have the capacity to buy stuff.

Dial Hard

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123918367#Comment_123918367

How many times has your phone died on you for non-battery related reasons in the past, year, let's say? Real-world answers only, please.

LambshankRedemption

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123918522#Comment_123918522

Because having a boarding pass is 100% a requirement. A phone battery "randomly" dying is not the only reason why a phone cant be used. The phone got forgotten at home, or got left in the taxi, or got stolen, or got dropped and the screen is unusable, or it fell into the toilet or a myriad of other reasons.

This thread has 5 pages so far with about 30(?) contributors. Ryanair transport 200 million passengers a day, so a 1 in a million type event like dropping the phone down the loo, occurs to 200 people a year. This is why they need to be able to print out boarding passes as a backup.

Rock Steady Edy

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123918522#Comment_123918522

The reason that they'll print it at the airport is to facilitate those that can't or won't download the App. I'd say well over half of those that try getting it printed off at the airport will then decide that downloading the App is less of a pain than getting a printed boarding pass. Suddenly over a few days or weeks the App usage has gone up.

Retaining the facility of printing at home will not change the behaviour Ryanair want to see as quickly.

Marcusm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123918367#Comment_123918367

Get the printed one if you want beforehand as an insurance policy. Otherwise, once you have completed the check in process, perhaps as was suggested up thread that there is some mechanism such as boarding based on ID.

Having seen this thread develop, I began to wonder whether it might also have an immigration aspect. Currently they photo all non EU passports at the visa check desk. Perhaps they have begun to have a spate of people presenting themselves at immigration having used a traffickers EU passport and the handed it back. Online check in would have a record of passport number used although I suspect that there might not be a real

Time check of that. Speculation, I accept.

Marcusm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123918663#Comment_123918663

It’s reportedly done regularly for traffickers, using passports of someone with visual similarity, handed back to accompanying trafficker for future use then present yourself at immigration with no paperwork whatsoever.

Marcusm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123918706#Comment_123918706

European EES is not a pre arrival check, the initial registration of finger prints and faces is only done on arrival!

Marcusm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123918734#Comment_123918734

Onvioulsy the tickets would be the same name as the passport; how else would they get in boarding? The gate agents are not entirely stupid.

davetherave

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123918367#Comment_123918367

Then you do the same thing you do now, go to the gate, speak to the person at the gate. You have gotten through security, so you must have checked in, so they have your details for that flight. They'll ask for your photo id, check you are on the passenger manifest and off you go. It's not rocket science.

trellheim

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123918367#Comment_123918367

As I said above you can just tell them your phone is dead and they will print you one ? There's specifically a Ryanair helpdesk in the middle of the 100 gates for this kind of thing.

Dial Hard

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123918620#Comment_123918620

Jesus fcuking christ, I give up.

What if literally the most unlikely situation anyone could ever possibly conceive of happened to one passenger in a million? Best just maintain the status quo for ever and ever amen, so.

bohsfan

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123918620#Comment_123918620

This has been answered so many times in this thread. You speak to the boarding agents, as long as you checked in online and still have your passport you're fine

Strumms

whenever it’s practical I just book their competitors.. why ? Easier ! … Using competitors the likelihood is…

I won’t be walking for an age to the most far flung gate about a kilometre or two from hot food / shops.

I won’t be queuing for an age in a stairwell and then again out on the tarmac.

I won’t have cabin crew on the PA making announcements about scratch cards, bus tickets, charity raffle tickets and all the rest every 10 minutes.

Generally won’t have to wait for a bus or walk across the tarmac on arrival.

Won’t be travelling 80kms to get from the airport of arrival, middle of nowhere to my downtown hotel.. ( example-CDG to the centre of Paris is about 35 kilometres, Beauvais is about 85 kilometres away and you have to bus it )

So I’ll be digging my heals in a little more. The less flexible and more user unfriendly Ryanair chooses to be… I’ll just be more inclined to use their competitors.

Scanning a bit of paper vs a phone shouldn’t matter to them. It may matter to their customers. Silly battle to pick…petty.

I’d be inclined to try and avoid them now where possible..

LambshankRedemption

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123918597#Comment_123918597

It's a shame that reading comprehension has fallen to such a low standard nowadays.

It's a bigger shame that general manners and decency have fallen to such a low standard nowadays.

Noxegon

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123919541#Comment_123919541

It's not helped by the generally miserable experience that is economy class travel these days.

People who are stressed/irritated are much more likely to be rude.

I'll never forget being lined up at the front of a priority queue for a FR flight and have another passenger come up and say "oi, get out of my way, I've got priority" — it clearly hadn't occurred to him that someone else might have it too…

LambshankRedemption

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123919676#Comment_123919676

I was referring to the prickish way in which that user replied to me. I doubt he was queuing up for a flight when he typed it.

bikeman1

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123919325#Comment_123919325

And isn't that the beauty of the open market and having options. Ryanair will continue on expanding and bringing millions of people on flights with or without you. The trouble is the other airlines are not much better!

Tenger

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123918447#Comment_123918447

Once. (In the last 3 years since I got the phone)

I scheduled an update after a night shift. I got into bed to sleep, plugged the phone in.

Turns out I hadn't inserted the cable properly.

Woke up to a dead piece of metal.and glass.

Rocket_GD

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123921177#Comment_123921177

That's a battery related reason.

IngazZagni

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123921177#Comment_123921177

And if it happens again it won't matter because you can just pick up your boarding card before security and if it happens after security your details are in the system and you just give the gate staff your id and you get through like normal.

It's a complete non issue. If you still really want to beat the system just screenshot the app boarding pass and print it off at home. A qr code is a qr code. The app doesn't need internet to show the boarding pass either.

This will help them operationally with the delays during boarding caused by people having seats that don't exist because of a plane change or a child occupying an emergency exit seat. The app will automatically reasign you a new seat.

I guarantee you other airlines are only a few months or a couple years behind. Possibly not Aer Lingus as they are technically illiterate and have an awful app.

Rawr

I’m curious if this move will kick off a total adoption of app-based tickets across most airlines. Ryanair have this uncanny ability to engineer passenger behavior with their policies. The use of hold luggage being the main example that comes to mind.

As I wrote before in thread, despite my tech know-how I tend to favor a printed ticket, mostly due to irrational paranoia on my part. I use apps for practically all other transport needs, but for some reason the Airport always triggers a different set of rules in my head. Soon I’m flying KLM for the first time, and their messaging has strongly encouraged me to use their app instead of anything paper-based. So I’m going to go that way, and use their app.

I think my main concern would still be battery-life, which is why I’m also bringing a compact powerbank, in case I need it.

I’m wondering if this is how the behavior will go with most people? That going forward the essential equipment for an airport visit will be; Phone, Passport and Powerbank.

LambshankRedemption

I’m curious if this move will kick off a total adoption of app-based tickets across most airlines.

I'm not curious about that, I am 100% certain of it.

It will get to the point where someone contacts an airline and says "But what if I dont have a a smartphone?" and the airline will reply "then pick a different airline, or take a bus".

IngazZagni

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123921494#Comment_123921494

If your phone dies you can still fly but I absolutely do think behaviours are changing.

It drove me nuts that until very recently Irish Rail insisted that I had to print out intercity tickets or collect it from a machine. They didn't have the option for phone tickets. Way behind the times.

DoctorEdgeWild

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123921547#Comment_123921547

I found it bizarre when I was home in Dublin at Christmas that I needed change for the bus. Goes to show that since I travel in London so often (I live in England), I'm conditioned to just tap, tap, tap. Been here for 15 years so I'm long converted.

Customers will generally conform, after the initial period of pissing and moaning. Unless the change is poorly executed or thought out.