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- By Noor Nanji & Faarea Masud
- Business reporters, BBC News
Image source, Getty Images
An elderly couple said they were “horrified” after being charged £110 by Ryanair for printing their tickets at the airport.
Ruth, 79, and Peter Jaffe, 80, told the BBC’s Radio 4 Today Programme they had to pay the fee after they mistakenly downloaded their return tickets instead of their outgoing tickets.
It sparked a flurry of social media complaints about the airline’s fees.
Ryanair maintained the fees were in line with its policy.
The Jaffes, from Ealing, were flying from Stansted Airport to Bergerac, France, on Friday.
Mrs Jaffe said she found Ryanair’s website “very confusing” but despite this, she thought she had successfully managed to print their tickets the day before the flight.
It was only when she got to the airport that she realised she had accidentally printed the wrong tickets.
“I was then told that I had to go to the Ryanair desk to get a boarding card, and there they charged me £55 per person,” she said. “[I was] horrified.”
She added it wasn’t easy for her husband to walk from one bit of the airport to the other. “I was quite flustered and upset.”
Mr Jaffe said that they had no choice but to pay, as they had people expecting them in France.
On Sunday, their daughter posted on X, the social network formerly known as Twitter, saying her mother had made “an honest mistake”.
She added that her parents had also had to pay an extra fee to sit next to each other, as her father has a disability.
Her post, which has been viewed more than 13 million times, has gone viral, with many social media users complaining of the high cost of printing boarding passes at the airport, and other “surprise” fees.
“I can feel the rage,” said one X user.
Another urged Ryanair “to do the right thing”, with a third saying: “There should be laws that protect the elderly.”
One user also pointed out that it would have been cheaper to go to the nearest stationery shop, purchase a printer and print the tickets themselves.
Asked about the huge reaction on social media, Mrs Jaffe said: “People hate Ryanair, I think.”
She went on: “If you’re elderly and haven’t been brought up using computers from day one, it can be very difficult.”
Mr Jaffe added: “It’s also the money-making aspect, like the fact we had to pay extra to sit together.”
Ryanair said in a statement: “All passengers travelling with Ryanair agree to check-in online before arriving at their departure airport and all passengers are sent an email/SMS, reminding them to do so 24hrs before departure.
“We regret that these passengers ignored their email reminder and failed to check-in online.”
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