Ryanair Delays Move To Paperless Boarding Passes

Budget carrier Ryanair has delayed its move to 100% paperless boarding passes to the start of its winter schedule on November 3. From a report: Media reports had suggested that the change could come in May, ahead of the busy summer season. But the implementation will now begin at the start of the winter season in November, and means Ryanair passengers will no longer download and print a physical paper boarding pass. Instead they will use the digital boarding pass generated in their 'myRyanair' app during check-in.

Currently almost 80% of Ryanair's 200 million annual passengers already use this digital boarding pass. As a result of this initiative, Ryanair expects to eliminate almost all airport check-in fees from November, as all passengers will have checked-in online or in-app to generate their digital boarding pass. The airline said it will also reduce passengers' carbon footprint by eliminating unnecessary paper, saving more than 300 tonnes in paper waste each year.

Use our app or we don't do business

[Iamthecheese]

Until I'm literally going to die unless I have x, I will never get a company's app for the privilege of buying x.

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[Ksevio]

You usually don't need a company app for airline tickets, you can just save them to apple/google wallet

Carbon footprint for phone manufacture

[tepples]

From the featured article:

The airline said it will also reduce passengers’ carbon footprint by eliminating unnecessary paper, saving more than 300 tonnes in paper waste each year.

Conspicuous by its absence from the article is how much carbon footprint it will add for those passengers who have to buy a compatible phone for the first time just to board a flight.

I mention "a compatible phone" because Ryanair's website [ryanair.com] implies that the Ryanair app is exclusive to Apple's App Store and Google Play. Not all

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[Bill, Shooter of Bul]

I seriously don't know how anyone gets through modern life without an ios/android phone recent enough to make use of apps. I'm not saying I like it, but so much at least here in the states already requires a person to have one. It does make it extremely difficult for lower income people to just function in the modern world. Some ignorant Americans might point out that airline travel is a luxury, but they've never flown Ryan Air.... Freedom of movement should be available to all at the lowest cost possible.

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[IcyWolfy]

I get by just fine with a flip phone. I dropped my WIndows Phone when Uber upgraded their app in store to require IE 11 (Windows Phone maxes out at IE10), and moved to a flip phone in 2022. Had no issues before or since.

What do you mean "so much here in the states requires a person to have one" I have lived in the San Francisco area with only a WIndows Mobile PHone thru 2014, then Windows Phone (through 2022), and never felt like I "required" an android or ios phone to make use of apps.

What sort of apps

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[Kitkoan]

"My battery died"

App doesn't work without power to the phone, and it's not always easy or even possible to charge a phone in the airport. Some just plain don't have charging options, and many that do are just broken because so many others abused the plugs.

And yes, accidents happen and there could be real reasons that the battery is dead by the time they get to the airport/flight (you have to have your ticket scanned before entering the flight.) (I've had a few times that my battery drained very fast because

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[fahrbot-bot]

Also, is this going to devolve into needing a separate app for every airline people want to use, just to print a boarding pass? If companies are going this route, can't they do this through a regular browser?

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[jacks smirking reven]

Couldn't this be (mostly) solved by having a check-in on the website and you can print the pass at home? I still do that sometimes for flights if I don't want to faff about with the app.

If you have that you are left with the people without a smartphone or a computer or I guess access to the internet at all. Do they still take phone bookings? I suppose you can go real old school and work with a travel agent in that case.

To be clear I don't know if I support this policy or not, I am leaning slightly against

Re:Carbon footprint for phone manufacture

[test321]

Couldn't this be (mostly) solved by having a check-in on the website and you can print the pass at home?

Yes indeed and that's the current situation.

Current situation:
* Ryanair already does NOT give you a paper pass and already does NOT allow you check-in at the airport. You MUST check-in within 24 hours before flight, and that means from the hotel on your way back. If you just show up at the airport without check-in done, Ryanair will charge you 50 € for the service (no joke).
* You can do check-in through the app or website; if you check in through the website, you get a pdf.
* you can print the pdf at home if you want, or carry it with your mobile phone or tablet of any model (without the app)

I suppose you can go real old school and work with a travel agent in that case.

Ryanair does not work with the booking system that agencies use. You can go to an agency, but they'll have to do like you would, search on the internet, login with an account, pay with their bank card. Whether they will want to do that depends on the agency. I had case at work where our contracted agency wouldn't do it for us with Ryanair and we had to pay out of pocket then claim reimbursement from work (then we changed travel agency of course).

The current situation works reasonably well for non-smartphone but educated people. Older fellows get fined ecause either they bring TWO hand items instead of ONE, or their bag is small bit larger than the normalized size (they recommend you buy Ryanair-approved bags from their store), or they'd forget to do check-in. They will also charge a fee for credit cards not belonging to their partner network (meaning strongly suggest you get a credit card from Barclays), and try tricks on the website to push you subscribe a travel insurance you probably don't even need. Some of those things might have changed, they try new tricks regularly. Some time ago they proposed paid bathrooms onboard.

The use case for the company is 1) you want to save money, you read and understand all the fine text and do as they say 2) you travel between secondary cities and there's only Ryanair doing your connection.

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[SouthSeb]

TBH, every airline company I know lets you check in through their website and download the boarding ticket as a PDF. No app really needed.

Paper boarding pass?

[flyingfsck]

I havenâ(TM)t used a paper boarding pass in probably at least a decade.

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[CommunityMember]

I haven't used a paper boarding pass in probably at least a decade.

For a number of years in the earliest days of digital boarding passes I always printed out a paper copy and placed it into a pocket of my carry-on. In a few cases it turned out to be a good choice before the airlines managed to improve their technology and processes (and airports stopped being wifi/mobile network dead zones). These days I can also use my phone as my ID card for the TSA (so while I will still have my physical ID with me, I no longer need to pull it out).

Amusingly, most airlines (includi

it's about getting rid of on site agents, ofc

[rta]

from TFA:

“This will be particularly useful to passengers during disruptions as it will facilitate real-time updates from our ops centre directly to passengers’ phones, and will also provide them with alternative flight options, and offer transfers or hotel accommodation options when necessary.

I read this as "good luck, losers!"
To be fair I've had decent luck with some US airlines' apps when rebooking, but it's not at all clear how eliminating options on site would HELP anyone with travel issues.

So I strongly suspect this has nothing to do with paper or printers and is instead about eliminating client facing employees.

Bring in a foreign country with who knows what voice or data access and zero company employees to talk to will be great!

What about my parents?

[Tomahawk]

I'm ok using a digital boarding card. I prefer it.

I'm not so sure I'm ok with having to teach my parents how to do it, though. I guess I'm going to have to check them in on my phone, screenshot the boarding card, and print the screenshot.

And I'm sure there are many other people who prefer paper for multiple other reasons. Like not having a phone, for one.

Digital is great, but not for everyone!

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[cardpuncher]

For some people, the prospect of them never visiting again would be a bonus.

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[Zarhan]

Not concerned about my parents, just me when technology fails.

I'm paranoid, I always either print the boarding pass on paper at home, or if I'm traveling with luggage, I'll get a printed copy at the kiosk where it also prints out the luggage tags.

Literally three weeks ago, as I was coming home from Cisco Live in Amsterdam, my phone ran out of battery at the airport (Surprise, battery probably needs replacement as it went from 40% to "shutting down now"). I was able to get it charged by plugging to a random

A phone is now required to board?

[slipped_bit]

Does this mean a phone will be required in order to board? I'm old enough to remember when airlines didn't want passengers to operate electronics at all on an aircraft, and now it's required. What a world!