Ryanair is today making airline history. It's the first company to abolish the airport check-in. Although it's been phasing in the policy since March, today is the day it affects every single one of their passengers. Wherever you are flying, you'll need to print out your boarding pass before you get to the airport, or face a £40 charge for every person.
James Fremantle at the Air Transport Users Council says that a £40 penalty for not printing out your boarding pass is too high, but he does agree that Ryanair's decision to go 100% online with no airport check in is the way of the future. He said to Watchdog, "We think generally airlines bringing in online check in is a good thing for consumers. It puts the ball in their court they are now in charge of their own booking, their own check in online, their own bags drop with some airlines as well. So I think this is here to stay we probably will see more of it in the future."
If no more check-in desks means no more queuing, that has to be a good thing. And Ryanair says it is yet another way for them to keep costs down. Meaning the company can concentrate on the thing that's always been its big selling point. Lower fares.
Ryanair first took off in 1985. In the beginning it struggled for survival. But it was curent CEO Michael O'Leary who turned things around, with a policy of aggressive advertising, bold publicity stunts, and one message: cheap fares.
Michael O'Leary said in 2003; "We don't want war. We want peace. We want a piece of Italy. A piece of Germany. And we want a big piece of easyJet."
Now, as Ryanair start to rip out its check-in desks, it's changing another policy too.
Today, the cost of carrying anything except hand luggage on Ryanair has gone up. The charge for ONE bag increases to £15 from £20 if you book online, and from £20 to £30 if you do it at the airport. And if you take a second bag, that's now £35 if you book online and £70 at the airport for just one way.
Ryanair is determined to encourage passengers to just take hand luggage. It keeps costs low and means the company can turn around planes in an average of 25 minutes.
But it also makes it difficult for everyone to get their cheaper fares.
Take a family of four. They fancy a holiday after seeing Ryanair's cheap fares in an ad. But they might think twice about taking the kids when they see those baggage charges. Plus there'll be more charges if they want to take a car seat or travel cot. They'll be £15 per kilogramme. Which is why this is the way that 70% of Ryanair passengers travel. Very light.
Ryanair says itscharges are 'optional'. And of course other airlines have them too. It's budget airlines that have led the way, but now even British Airways is doing it. From next week, if you want to guarantee seats together in advance, or would prefer to sit by the window, there will be a range of charges, starting from £10 (see below).
So maybe Ryanair is getting it right. It now sells more seats than any other European airline. And all those extra fees last year earned the company almost £550m.
Are they always the cheapest?
They're doing pretty well but what about their big claim? Low fares. Are they really always the cheapest?
We did a quick price test. We chose three European destinations. Madrid, Rome and Milan and compared booking a flight for next January with Ryanair against two other airlines, BA and easyJet. We were looking for the cheapest fares available - without any bags and avoiding any extra charges. We even used a Visa Electron card to avoid extra payment fees.
But on only ONE of the three flights was Ryanair cheapest. BA came out the priciest each time. But on two of our flights - it was easyJet who came out the lowest. Ryanair were £12.88 cheaper than easyJet to Madrid. But £17.38 more expensive than easyJet to Rome and £6.47 more expensive than easyJet to Milan.
Ryanair response
The beginning of the end for airport check-in desks happened over 12 months ago, when Ryanair first introduced web check-in for passengers travelling without hold luggage. Today all Ryanair passengers use web check-in. Airport check-in desks and thankfully airport check-in queues are now history on Ryanair.
There is a huge saving to be made every time you fly with Ryanair, families with lots of luggage also save enormous sums of money by flying Ryanair as opposed to high fares airlines like British Airways, which is why Ryanair continues to grow strongly, while British Airways' traffic is falling.
Ryanair disputes the findings of Watchdog's flight price comparisons with British Airways and easyJet.
British Airways response
"Passengers now have the option to pre-assign their seats at the time of booking (up to 355 days in advance), beforehand they could only do so 24 hrs in advance. The free option of choosing your seat 24 hrs in advance is still available. Families can choose their seats three days in advance. Many other carriers have charged for emergency exit seats before we did. Please take a moment to check on Ba.com to clarify our new seating policy since it was very badly reported on in the press.
"The luggage allowance has only been cut for travellers who used to be allowed two pieces (the US for example). Most of our network have always only been allowed one piece in the past. This now means that our luggage policy is streamlined across our network. You can still have one bag at 23kg as well as a generous hand luggage allowance for free on BA.
"There is not an extra charge for sporting equipment per se. Sporting equipment is now included as part of your 23kg one piece allowance, for many travellers this will have little or no impact on their ticket price."
Ryanair's response:
Michael O'Leary: As long as you are talking to us, I know we are doing a good job.
Anne Robinson: You've done away with check in desks. What's next? Would you do away with staff perhaps?
Michael O'Leary: I don't think so. Remember what we've done. We've done away with check in desks for everybody since the 21 st of May this year and as a result of saying that money from getting rid of check in staff and getting rid of bag handling staff. We've reduced our reduced our average fairs by 20% this year.
Anne Robinson: We've seen from the film that ¾ of your customers tend to travel alone. They travel without luggage. What about someone like Beverly who is in our studio. There are seven in her family and you are penalising people like that.
Michael O'Leary: Complete rubbish. The difference between the average fares of Ryanair and Easyjet it's about £30 a passenger. She would save more money flying Ryanair for her entire family and bringing her suitcases.
Anne Robinson: Easyjet don't charge for that check in they let you have heavier bags and they let you have reclining seats.
Michael O'Leary: If you like higher fares don't book Ryanair. If you want the guaranteed lowest fares in Europe fly Ryanair. If you don't like us don't fly with us. 67 million people will take your seat.
Anne Robinson: It's a very good commercial. We took a day in January in your return flights over a long weekend Milan Rome and Madrid and compared you to Easyjet and on only one were you cheaper.
Michael O'Leary: In all three cases the fares you quoted for Ryanair are not the lowest fares on the website.
Anne Robinson: They were on the day we checked because we have it on record.
Michael O'Leary: Our fares rise the closer you get to the day of travel. They would have been cheaper still a couple of weeks ago when your researchers booked it. If on the rare occasion any passenger sees a higher fare on Ryanair than some other airline we offer to refund double the difference. We have lower fares, we are more on time. People love us.
Anne Robinson: Are you going to have a fat tax soon for obese people?
Michael O'Leary: Sadly no. There is no way of levying a fat tax but we are as you know working hard on a plan to charge for the toilets so we can take out two of the three toilets on board, add six extra seats and lower the fares yet again. I promise not to stop until we make the fares on Ryanair free for everyone.
Anne Robinson: So plenty more charges must be coming our way.
Michael O'Leary: But none of them will be hidden Anne. All of the charges are detailed on the website and of the four people you have that are antis, all of them agreed to those charges before they were allowed to make the booking on Ryanair.
Anne Robinson: You make a very good case...
Michael O'Leary: ...we have no hidden charges. All of the charges are upfront and agreed by passengers before they fly with us.
Anne Robinson: Has he changed the minds of any of the anti-O'Leary's over there? Certainly not they say.
Michael O'Leary: I think my warm wit charm and engaging personality will win them all over.
Ryanair makes airline history
James Fremantle at the Air Transport Users Council says that a £40 penalty for not printing out your boarding pass is too high, but he does agree that Ryanair's decision to go 100% online with no airport check in is the way of the future. He said to Watchdog, "We think generally airlines bringing in online check in is a good thing for consumers. It puts the ball in their court they are now in charge of their own booking, their own check in online, their own bags drop with some airlines as well. So I think this is here to stay we probably will see more of it in the future."
If no more check-in desks means no more queuing, that has to be a good thing. And Ryanair says it is yet another way for them to keep costs down. Meaning the company can concentrate on the thing that's always been its big selling point. Lower fares.
Ryanair first took off in 1985. In the beginning it struggled for survival. But it was curent CEO Michael O'Leary who turned things around, with a policy of aggressive advertising, bold publicity stunts, and one message: cheap fares.
Michael O'Leary said in 2003; "We don't want war. We want peace. We want a piece of Italy. A piece of Germany. And we want a big piece of easyJet."
Now, as Ryanair start to rip out its check-in desks, it's changing another policy too.
Today, the cost of carrying anything except hand luggage on Ryanair has gone up. The charge for ONE bag increases to £15 from £20 if you book online, and from £20 to £30 if you do it at the airport. And if you take a second bag, that's now £35 if you book online and £70 at the airport for just one way.
Ryanair is determined to encourage passengers to just take hand luggage. It keeps costs low and means the company can turn around planes in an average of 25 minutes.
But it also makes it difficult for everyone to get their cheaper fares.
Take a family of four. They fancy a holiday after seeing Ryanair's cheap fares in an ad. But they might think twice about taking the kids when they see those baggage charges. Plus there'll be more charges if they want to take a car seat or travel cot. They'll be £15 per kilogramme. Which is why this is the way that 70% of Ryanair passengers travel. Very light.
Ryanair says itscharges are 'optional'. And of course other airlines have them too. It's budget airlines that have led the way, but now even British Airways is doing it. From next week, if you want to guarantee seats together in advance, or would prefer to sit by the window, there will be a range of charges, starting from £10 (see below).
So maybe Ryanair is getting it right. It now sells more seats than any other European airline. And all those extra fees last year earned the company almost £550m.
Are they always the cheapest?
They're doing pretty well but what about their big claim? Low fares. Are they really always the cheapest?
We did a quick price test. We chose three European destinations. Madrid, Rome and Milan and compared booking a flight for next January with Ryanair against two other airlines, BA and easyJet. We were looking for the cheapest fares available - without any bags and avoiding any extra charges. We even used a Visa Electron card to avoid extra payment fees.
But on only ONE of the three flights was Ryanair cheapest. BA came out the priciest each time. But on two of our flights - it was easyJet who came out the lowest. Ryanair were £12.88 cheaper than easyJet to Madrid. But £17.38 more expensive than easyJet to Rome and £6.47 more expensive than easyJet to Milan.
Ryanair response
The beginning of the end for airport check-in desks happened over 12 months ago, when Ryanair first introduced web check-in for passengers travelling without hold luggage. Today all Ryanair passengers use web check-in. Airport check-in desks and thankfully airport check-in queues are now history on Ryanair.
There is a huge saving to be made every time you fly with Ryanair, families with lots of luggage also save enormous sums of money by flying Ryanair as opposed to high fares airlines like British Airways, which is why Ryanair continues to grow strongly, while British Airways' traffic is falling.
Ryanair disputes the findings of Watchdog's flight price comparisons with British Airways and easyJet.
British Airways response
"Passengers now have the option to pre-assign their seats at the time of booking (up to 355 days in advance), beforehand they could only do so 24 hrs in advance. The free option of choosing your seat 24 hrs in advance is still available. Families can choose their seats three days in advance. Many other carriers have charged for emergency exit seats before we did. Please take a moment to check on Ba.com to clarify our new seating policy since it was very badly reported on in the press.
"The luggage allowance has only been cut for travellers who used to be allowed two pieces (the US for example). Most of our network have always only been allowed one piece in the past. This now means that our luggage policy is streamlined across our network. You can still have one bag at 23kg as well as a generous hand luggage allowance for free on BA.
"There is not an extra charge for sporting equipment per se. Sporting equipment is now included as part of your 23kg one piece allowance, for many travellers this will have little or no impact on their ticket price."
Ryanair's response:
Michael O'Leary: As long as you are talking to us, I know we are doing a good job.
Anne Robinson: You've done away with check in desks. What's next? Would you do away with staff perhaps?
Michael O'Leary: I don't think so. Remember what we've done. We've done away with check in desks for everybody since the 21 st of May this year and as a result of saying that money from getting rid of check in staff and getting rid of bag handling staff. We've reduced our reduced our average fairs by 20% this year.
Anne Robinson: We've seen from the film that ¾ of your customers tend to travel alone. They travel without luggage. What about someone like Beverly who is in our studio. There are seven in her family and you are penalising people like that.
Michael O'Leary: Complete rubbish. The difference between the average fares of Ryanair and Easyjet it's about £30 a passenger. She would save more money flying Ryanair for her entire family and bringing her suitcases.
Anne Robinson: Easyjet don't charge for that check in they let you have heavier bags and they let you have reclining seats.
Michael O'Leary: If you like higher fares don't book Ryanair. If you want the guaranteed lowest fares in Europe fly Ryanair. If you don't like us don't fly with us. 67 million people will take your seat.
Anne Robinson: It's a very good commercial. We took a day in January in your return flights over a long weekend Milan Rome and Madrid and compared you to Easyjet and on only one were you cheaper.
Michael O'Leary: In all three cases the fares you quoted for Ryanair are not the lowest fares on the website.
Anne Robinson: They were on the day we checked because we have it on record.
Michael O'Leary: Our fares rise the closer you get to the day of travel. They would have been cheaper still a couple of weeks ago when your researchers booked it. If on the rare occasion any passenger sees a higher fare on Ryanair than some other airline we offer to refund double the difference. We have lower fares, we are more on time. People love us.
Anne Robinson: Are you going to have a fat tax soon for obese people?
Michael O'Leary: Sadly no. There is no way of levying a fat tax but we are as you know working hard on a plan to charge for the toilets so we can take out two of the three toilets on board, add six extra seats and lower the fares yet again. I promise not to stop until we make the fares on Ryanair free for everyone.
Anne Robinson: So plenty more charges must be coming our way.
Michael O'Leary: But none of them will be hidden Anne. All of the charges are detailed on the website and of the four people you have that are antis, all of them agreed to those charges before they were allowed to make the booking on Ryanair.
Anne Robinson: You make a very good case...
Michael O'Leary: ...we have no hidden charges. All of the charges are upfront and agreed by passengers before they fly with us.
Anne Robinson: Has he changed the minds of any of the anti-O'Leary's over there? Certainly not they say.
Michael O'Leary: I think my warm wit charm and engaging personality will win them all over.
Ryanair makes airline history
