Ryanair Tries Forcing App Downloads By Eliminating Paper Boarding Passes 113
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: Ryanair is trying to force users to download its mobile app by eliminating paper boarding passes, starting on November 12. As announced in February and subsequently delayed from earlier start dates, Europe's biggest airline is moving to digital-only boarding passes, meaning customers will no longer be able to print physical ones. In order to access their boarding passes, Ryanair flyers will have to download Ryanair's app.
"Almost 100 percent of passengers have smartphones, and we want to move everybody onto that smartphone technology," Ryanair CEO Michael O'Leary said recently on The Independent's daily travel podcast. Customers are encouraged to check in online via Ryanair's website or app before getting to the airport. People who don't check in online before getting to the airport will have to pay the airport a check-in fee. "There'll be some teething problems," O'Leary said of the move.
"Almost 100 percent of passengers have smartphones, and we want to move everybody onto that smartphone technology," Ryanair CEO Michael O'Leary said recently on The Independent's daily travel podcast. Customers are encouraged to check in online via Ryanair's website or app before getting to the airport. People who don't check in online before getting to the airport will have to pay the airport a check-in fee. "There'll be some teething problems," O'Leary said of the move.
Almost 100% is not equal to 100% (Score:5, Insightful)
Corollary: "Less than 1 percent of passengers don't have smartphones, and we don't want them to be our customers anymore.
Re:Almost 100% is not equal to 100% (Score:4, Interesting)
Yes.
I do have a smartphone, but this number of future non-customers very certainly includes me. A process designed to favour the providers, not the customer's ease or convenience, is not a good process.
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If the objective is to maximize profit uber alles of course you ONLY want the most profitable customers. You can maximize your profit function by driving all of the least profitable customers to your competitors--and why would you care if you drive those customers completely out of the market? Profit uber alles!
But when you focus too much on any single dimension the system will eventually implode along that dimension. Have a nice flight?
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I also have a smartphone. And on one recent trip, as I innocently paraded around the airport before boarding, with my iPhone gently swaying in my shirt pocket as I walked, I found myself irrevocably locked out of my phone for an hour. All that swaying was interpreted by the phone as failed attempts to unlock it. At that moment, all my means of communication went poof, and with them any access to a mobile boarding pass. That would have been super fun if I didn't also have a printed copy.
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I also have a smartphone. And on one recent trip, as I innocently paraded around the airport before boarding, with my iPhone gently swaying in my shirt pocket as I walked, I found myself irrevocably locked out of my phone for an hour. All that swaying was interpreted by the phone as failed attempts to unlock it. At that moment, all my means of communication went poof, and with them any access to a mobile boarding pass. That would have been super fun if I didn't also have a printed copy.
Or you have a flat battery. Or the airport wifi doesn't work for whatever reason. Or you are overseas and don't have international data roaming.
Using your smartphone for something critical like a boarding pass is insane, and this is before we consider the security implications.
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I'm in a slow but steady process of dumping my smart phone. I don't have social media apps and I don't have a web browser. That's eliminated most of the waste of time I've used my cell phone for. I may have reached a nice place though. I have more productive things to do with it like Babbel.
I live in a country where 2G and 3G networks have been phased out, so I can't go back to using one of my older dumbphones. So I looked for the "dumbest" new phone a person can buy. Most of the "simple" phones seem to be targeted at seniors and they are awful - the UI tends to be really slow and laggy.
In 2022 I settled on the Nokia 2720 flip phopne. It's small, has no touch screen and will happily use the 4G network. It has a very rudimentary browser built-in but if you need to do web stuff it will act as a
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Joke's on them. Not only do I not have a smartphone (and my tablet is so old it most likely won't run their program), but I also don't have Real ID so I can't even fly domestically.
(Strangely enough, the topic came up the other day at work and when I mentioned I didn't have Real ID one of my co-workers became visibly upset and began demanding that I go get it. I don't know why it would bother anyone so much.)
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WHO TOLD YOU!?!?
I mean... no, not at all.
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Weird. And creepy.
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Just to nit-pick... (a) Ryanair doesn't have any flights in the U.S. (according to Google) and (b) there are procedures available to fly within the U.S. w/o a Real ID, and other forms of ID are also acceptable (also listed on page below), like a valid passport or DOD ID.
Acceptable Identification at the TSA Checkpoint [tsa.gov]
Don’t Have Your Acceptable ID?
The TSA officer may ask you to complete an identity verification process which includes collecting information such as your name and current address to confirm your identity. If your identity is confirmed, you will be allowed to enter the screening checkpoint, where you may be subject to additional screening.
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Yeah, I saw that in a later comment. I heard / read so much about Ryanair that I assumed they had US flights.
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Acceptable Identification at the TSA Checkpoint [tsa.gov]
Don’t Have Your Acceptable ID? The TSA officer may ask you to complete an identity verification process which includes collecting information such as your name and current address to confirm your identity. If your identity is confirmed, you will be allowed to enter the screening checkpoint, where you may be subject to additional screening.
US ciitizen here. That's important to what I have to say. While this all sounds great, you clearly don't know that many times the US government says they will accept something as proof of ID but in reality they won't accept it, even though their own website says they will. And there's nothing in what you quoted that guarantees that such alternate ID process can be done in time to actually make your flight.
About 20 years ago, I had to fill out a government form and I was required to show 2 proofs o
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Heh... I put off getting dear leader's dumbass "real ID" too. I mean... I have my passport, passport card, and global entry card, all of which actually benefit me. So why should I waste my time jumping through stupid and unnecessary hoops to appease dear leader?
In my neck of the woods though, the DMV simply forced the issue by no longer allowing online renewals; and now I have to actually go in to and renew my license in-person. So as long as I had to go through the hassle of the stupid and unnecessary h
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Yeah, I figure so. My last renewal was on-line so my next one has to be in person, and I predict by then it will be the only option.
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Nothing wrong with that.
Those 1% are not worth the hassle.
Denmark’s state-run postal service PostNord announced it will stop delivering letters in the country by the end of 2025, shifting its focus entirely to package deliveries.
The move comes after a roughly 90 % drop in letter volumes since the year 2000 and an additional 30 % decline in 2024. About 1,500 mailboxes will be removed and around 1,500 of the company’s 4,600 Danish employees are expected to lose their jobs as the business pivots.
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Denmark’s state-run postal service PostNord announced it will stop delivering letters in the country by the end of 2025, shifting its focus entirely to package deliveries.
Joke's on them, I'll just put my outgoing mail in boxes. :-)
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Joke's on them, I'll just put my outgoing mail in boxes. :-)
And pay the price of a parcel for a letter. How much will that cost you ?
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Corollary: "Less than 1 percent of passengers don't have smartphones, and we don't want them to be our customers anymore.
Ryanair's O'Leary is well known for making outlandish statements that never come true in order to get his name and his airline plastered all over the news and generate faux outrage for free publicity. Would bet this is just another such stunt.
Almost every airline that lets you check in online also sends you a PDF that you can print out. I'd be very surprised if this was not already industry standard if not law in Europe. Even if they get rid of printers at the airport I suspect this system will remain fo
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Finally I strongly suspect that if they actually did try to force people to download their shitty app... the EU will step in and say nein, non, no y fuck off in 3... 2...
Here's hoping. Until then I will continue never using Ryanair.
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Should not require an app (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Should not require an app (Score:5, Insightful)
... spyware!
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Following that logic, your phone is a browser and the apps are bookmarks with special permissions.
I'm pretty glad Android strips those if you don't use the app for a while.
Glad I don't use planes, but it doesn't look good for the industry if Ryan air is deploying something with a warning of teething trouble.
Progressive web applications (Score:4, Interesting)
Following that logic, your phone is a browser and the apps are bookmarks with special permissions.
This is the case for many applications. Both major smartphone operating systems' included web browsers support progressive web applications (PWA). These use a service worker, a script cached on the device that acts as a proxy to cache a particular site's pages, scripts, and data and present them to the user even while the device is offline. They grant additional permissions to bookmarks on the device's home screen. For example, Safari for iOS allows a website added to the home screen to use the Push API to receive notifications through its service worker.
However, a lot of service providers maintain a native application for iOS and a native application for Android instead of relying on a PWA. Based on my recent conversation with UnknowingFool [slashdot.org], this includes at least Grab, Doordash, Uber Eats, Instacart, Favor, Grubhub, and Postmates, and these providers are thought to have (unstated) good reasons for doing so.
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Ryanair have two motivations here.
1. Steal your private data, spam you with notifications, the usual app stuff.
2. Make more people pay the check-in fee.
They are always up to stuff like this. The other very common one is rejecting bags that are within their size limits. They have special devices that the bag must fit in, but the dimensions are not the same as the ones in their Terms & Conditions. The device has rounded corners that reduce the volume a little, for example.
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1. Steal your private data
Does anyone know what permissions on your 'phone the app will require ? Eg: access to your contacts which will let Ryan Air work out who your friends are. This sort of thing is my primary reason for not liking this.
Re:Should not require an app (Score:4, Informative)
Google Play lists all the permissions:
Device & app history
retrieve running apps
Location
approximate location (network-based)
precise location (GPS and network-based)
Phone
read phone status and identity
Photos / Media / Files
read the contents of your USB storage
modify or delete the contents of your USB storage
Storage
read the contents of your USB storage
modify or delete the contents of your USB storage
Camera
take pictures and videos
Wi-Fi connection information
view Wi-Fi connections
Device ID & call information
read phone status and identity
Other
receive data from Internet
view network connections
pair with Bluetooth devices
access Bluetooth settings
connect and disconnect from Wi-Fi
full network access
control Near-Field Communication
run at startup
reorder running apps
control vibration
prevent device from sleeping
read Google service configuration
You can refuse some of those permissions, but it's still a hell of a lot.
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Why would it need the Camera, Storage, Bluetooth, and Google permissions?
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Indeed. I'm guessing it has some features like QR code reading and Bluetooth beacons for navigation around the airport.
Those aren't the worrying ones though, because you can refuse them. It's the mandatory ones that are the big problem.
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Now days it seems to be "Trust us, install the app and don't ask questions". I have very few company specific apps on my phone as I resist the bloat without good reason.
I am a
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Every airline has a website that allows check-in and can generate a QR-code like boarding pass (which can also then be printed!). Both iOS and Android have "wallet" capabilities for storing such things. So the need for an airline-specific app is...?
Can you still log onto their website prior to flying, download the QR code boarding pass image to your phone, and use that to check in without the need for any app?
If the QR code is what the gate monkey needs, then the QR code is what the gate monkey gets.
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Can you still log onto their website prior to flying, download the QR code boarding pass image to your phone, and use that to check in without the need for any app?
Yes, you can. As you say, it's an image, which can easily be saved to local (offline) storage on the phone. Hell, you could just take a screenshot. Going further, as I mentioned, iOS and Android have "wallet" features, which in this case is just a fancy way of saving a QR code - no different than concert tickets, or mass transit passes.
So, yes, there is no present technical limitation to getting/saving/presenting the QR code that the "gate monkey" needs. And none of that needs a special app - it's al
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There isn't. You would still be able to check-in and do everything else from their website. The only thing that will go away are their check-in counters at the airport. The "app" part is because a) many people don't know what a website is, and those who know assume that a website can only be accessed from a PC..
If people are going to participate in the online world of today, then perhaps they should be forced to take a test first. Because I simply cannot subscribe to the concept that people don’t know what a website is. The fuck do idiots think our clickbait infected world hyperlinks to? The toilet seat?
Browsers are literally software that vendors pay tens of millions of dollars every year just to fight over who is default browser. THAT is how much websites still matter. Assuming a smartphone junkie doe
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There are distinct benefits to having an app including live update information about flights, delays, where to find your bags, estimated queues. For the most part it is quite meaningless, and I don't typically do it (I usually use an app from a travel agent instead which provides this functionality too).
However the one time I did have an app on my phone from an airline it was an absolute godsend. Multiple planes got cancelled while I was in a layover. There were literally over 1000 people in Madrid queued a
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This sounds like every airline I've been on in the past 5 years...
What Standards (Score:2)
Makes me wonder what other standards they consider "good enough".
I wouldn't fly them now. Their 100% standard seems to be low....and I'm going to assume that carries over to everything in the organization. That 100% may be more like 89%...and I don't think I want to take an 89% safety rating.
I don't care if it's true...if they make stupid fucking decisions like this based on bullshit numbers; then we should all go on bullshit made up numbers.
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But they're not true AC's anymore. Who cares if they're often garbage - that's what the mods are for. It'd still be garbage if they didn't click the "Post Anonymously" checkbox. And if someone is moderating, they can't post except as AC, so there's a very legit use for it as well (though, if this were in active development, maybe that could be changed to something else).
I think the better request would be to turn back on the ability to register an account first and foremost, then maybe the ability to post a
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I think the better request would be to turn back on the ability to register an account first and foremost, then maybe the ability to post anonymously.
I agree that those two things should happen at the same time. But I stand by the vast majority of AC comments being trolling or worse (e.g. uncreative trolling) and the "feature" being a huge detriment to the quality of Slashdot.
Paper does not run out of batteries or crash (Score:5, Insightful)
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You still can, but you have to collect it from their customer services desk at the airport.
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For an additional fee.
THAT, I believe, is the main part of this change. Ryan Air already doesn't even break even on the pure ticket cost. It's the horrendous extra fees that make it profitable.
Spyware (Score:5, Insightful)
While every passenger (or group of passengers, like a couple or a family) has a smartphone, not everyone want to install Ryanair's spyware on it. Ryanair obviously wants to collect more data about its customers behaviour.
Also, when travelling abroad, not everyone wants to subscribe for a data plan on the remote country, just to be able to get the boarding pass for the return flight. And using the wifi of an airport in a foreign country would also be definitely a bad idea, security wise.
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Unless you pay extra to assign a specific seat, Ryanair only allows you to check-in for your flight between 24 and 2 hours prior to departure.
As they treat each leg of the journey as a separate single booking, you already are pretty much obliged to have Internet access in your destination during those specific hours if you actually plan to fly back.
I thought that was what TLS was for (Score:2)
And using the wifi of an airport in a foreign country would also be definitely a bad idea, security wise.
How so, now that almost all web and native applications use TLS to communicate with the server? An attacker running a packet sniffer on a TLS session can see the connection's IP address, the server's hostname, the size of communication, and nothing else. This would amount to "A user connected to Ryanair and received a data volume typical of a checkin."
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Developers of iOS native apps have to know what TLS is because the App Transport Security policy of iOS [cocoacasts.com] requires all web APIs used by the application and controlled by its developer to use TLS since 2015.
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Exactly.
Imagine all the flip-phone hipsters being denied boarding.
No shade, it's probably better for your overall wellbeing to use a flip phone.
And the hipsters have Leica 35mm mechanical cameras if the need arises.
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Smaller percentage (Score:4, Insightful)
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Fewer than 100% of customers have a sufficiently charged cell phone
Your concern would be very relevant were we not talking about an airport. If there's one place I expect 100% of customers to have a nearly fully charged phone it's at an airport, since that's about the only in flight entertainment they will have. There are of course people not 100% charged. You can find those people standing at the countless places around any airport where you can charge your phone.
Normally I'm with you on this idea, but this is the one and only situation where I doubt it applies.
Meh... (Score:2)
While I concede that not every person on the planet has a smartphone and not every smartphone owner wants to install an app to manage their boarding pass (frequent flier details and other things as well), it is a LOT easier to manage that way if you're a frequent traveler. The only times I have used a paper boarding pass for the last 15-ish years is when I didn't want to bring my phone to my destination (i.e. China).
I'm guessing that Ryanair has done the math and decided that they don't care if the folks w
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Perhaps the cost of supporting that option
Which cost, exactly?
We are speaking about paper boarding passes the customers themselves print. The gates read the barcode and don't care if it's on paper or a phone screen.
So which cost, exactly?
You are wrong. (Score:2)
No.
They still support paper.... but only paper generated by their support desk after traveler generated it in the app...
It is identical functionality they are removing from consumer's web app... it is still in their support desk web app
Good luck with that (Score:5, Interesting)
Fun anecdote: I visited the Philippines in 2022. I flew Cebu Pacific Air for a few domestic flights, and they had just setup an abundance of these self-check-in kiosks at their airport check-ins. While prior visits to this particular terminal would see six to eight staff working check-in counters, this visit only had two: one assisting with the kiosks, and one checking baggage. Wait times were long, kiosks were confusing, and people were agitated, but we all got through.
I just returned from another trip now in 2025. Flew Cebu Pacific Air again for my domestic flights. This time the terminal had only three self-check-in kiosks, they were shoved up against a wall aside from the check-in counters, and nobody was using them. Everyone was waiting in line to deal with a human. (In the consideration of both sides of this human-vs-machine argument, perhaps the reason why kiosks didn't succeed in the Philippines is because human labor there is very cheap.)
Regardless, the moral of the story is that airline travel is agitating. Companies that try to nickel-and-dime passengers (even budget airlines like RyanAir) by removing mature, reliable, human & paper & analog components from that experience in place of new, untested, anxiety-inducing digital counterparts may discover that the total cost is not worth the savings.
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Fun anecdote: I visited the Philippines in 2022. I flew Cebu Pacific Air for a few domestic flights, and they had just setup an abundance of these self-check-in kiosks at their airport check-ins. While prior visits to this particular terminal would see six to eight staff working check-in counters, this visit only had two: one assisting with the kiosks, and one checking baggage. Wait times were long, kiosks were confusing, and people were agitated, but we all got through.
I just returned from another trip now in 2025. Flew Cebu Pacific Air again for my domestic flights. This time the terminal had only three self-check-in kiosks, they were shoved up against a wall aside from the check-in counters, and nobody was using them. Everyone was waiting in line to deal with a human. (In the consideration of both sides of this human-vs-machine argument, perhaps the reason why kiosks didn't succeed in the Philippines is because human labor there is very cheap.)
Regardless, the moral of the story is that airline travel is agitating. Companies that try to nickel-and-dime passengers (even budget airlines like RyanAir) by removing mature, reliable, human & paper & analog components from that experience in place of new, untested, anxiety-inducing digital counterparts may discover that the total cost is not worth the savings.
I too have had the pleasure of flying Cebu Pacific and travelling in the Phils, generally they're not a good example of how to do things and Filipinos, as lovely a people as they are really tend not to do things the easy way.
In Europe, even here in Colombia almost every airline will have automatic check in machines with manned desks as a backup in case the machines fail. 99 times out of 100 it makes things faster and easier as well as allowing for more people to check in simultaneously.
I didn't realis
Great (Score:2)
Now going through phones will be a breeze for TSA , everyone will need to carry one to get onboard. Check for rootkits and spyware in that app. Burner phones will get more popular as noone in their right minds want to let TSA and the likes download all their private lives and search through it at their leasure without proper court orders.
Off topic (Score:2)
TSA is a specifically US agency. Ryanair does not operate in US airspace, much less fly to US airports. EU security checks are focussed on security, with some theatre at times, not looking for thoughtcrime.
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Oh, my sweet summer child.
Re: Off topic (Score:2)
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The question is whether you heard reports of customs officer in Europe searching through your phone for data. Though the most likely do have the right, it does not seem a common occurrence. My search "TSA vs European airport safety" got me this:
I’ve traveled back and forth between the US and Europe dozens of times and I’m always struck by the difference in the twos airports. Particularly when I return to the US. The TSA agents are usually disrespectful unprofessional, sloppy, rude, ill informed and generally unpleasant to interact with, while the European counterparts are almost always friendly, professional, well put together, respectful and very helpful. https://www.reddit.com/r/Trave... [reddit.com]
Never in dozens of trips to Europe have I had fat, trashy looking, people braying commands at me or issuing frustrated yells at a line of people, nor can I ever remember agents yelling at each other across the checkpoint. All regular occurrences with TSA. The degree of professionalism across the continent is much, much higher. https://www.reddit.com/r/Trave... [reddit.com]
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What TSA, I didn't know Ryan air had US routes.
No TSA in the EU.
teething (Score:5, Insightful)
"There'll be some teething problems," O'Leary said of the move.
That's putting it mildly.
Smartphones can crash, run out of battery or any number of problems. On important trips I usually have a paper boarding pass with me as a backup. Only needed it once, but I'm just one person with fairly normal travel amounts. Multiplied over the number of people flying Ryan Air, statistically speaking this happens constantly.
Frankly speaking, I think it's a gimmick to milk the customers for more money. Someone at Ryan Air has certainly done the calculation, estimated how many people can't access their boarding pass at the gate for whatever reason, and how much additional money they can make by forcing all these people to pay the additional fee for having it printed.
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Both people on your flight experiencing this problem can have it rectified at the customer service desk. Ryanair may be the first to mandate an app, but all budget airlines use them.
Next time you're at an airport flying a cheap airline take not of how many people have paper tickets vs use their smartphone already. I'll wager it's close to zero. It's certainly been the last couple of times I've flown Easyjet and Corendon (out of principle I don't fly Ryanair, there's such a thing as too cheap).
They appear hell-bent on going through with it (Score:2)
which means that except for that last ticket I got before it was announced I'm not flying with them anymore.
They can do whatever they want (Score:3)
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Because decades of market consolidation means your options are very limited.
Fortunately things are not as bad over here in Europe, there's still loads of competition. That being said, Ryanair as an ultra low cost carrier specialises in flying from smaller airports to an airport somewhere near somewhere people want to go (I.E. "London" Isle of Skye airport) so for many it is their only option apart from driving a few hours to a major airport.
I doubt they'll try this as EU and UK consumer laws will have some rather strong things to say about it. O'Leary has a history of saying out
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Because decades of market consolidation means your options are very limited.
What market consolidation? Ryan air isn't just not the only option for consumers, it's not even the only low cost option in Ireland. The number of competitors to Ryanair are too high to count, and certainly massive enough in number that they are trivial to avoid on principle for any start / destination combination (which I already do).
You don't need to fly Ryanair to get cheap tickets. Many people didn't long before this announcement.
Disabilities Act violation? (Score:5, Interesting)
Why should this not be a violation of the Americans With Disabilities Act?
My eyes cannot deal with the "flyspeck 3" fonts used by smart-phones, and as I result I cannot use one. Can I get the statutory $15K per violation specified by this US law?
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Ryanair does not fly to the americas, they operate purely in europe and the immediate vicinity like north africa, they have no obligation to comply with laws outside of the countries they operate in.
Let's try Irish disability law (Score:3)
You are technically correct that the Americans with Disabilities Act 1990 does not apply because Ryanair operates in Europe, not the United States. However, the United States is by far not the only country with a disability discrimination law. Ryanair is headquartered in a suburb of Dublin, Ireland, a European Union member state that has its own disability accommodation law framework [nda.ie]. So let me address the spirit of coats's question:
Say someone can't use a smartphone without setting it to use large print. I
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When you buy your ticket, you can just specify that you're disabled and that you need a paper ticket as a special accomodation. After all, they already have these questions for people who need other accomodations (for wheelchairs or food). It shouldn't be too hard to add one more to the list.
And for the passengers that don't have the foresight to check that box when they buy the ticket, I'll bet Ryan Air will be more than happy to supply a paper ticket for an extra $75 fee per boarding pass (or per leg of t
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My eyes cannot deal with the "flyspeck 3" fonts
Disabled passengers are still able to get assistance at disabled counters in airports, including blind people. But people who just refuse to put on reading glasses don't count unfortunately.
They underestimate the non-tech-savvy (Score:2)
That said, my mother is rapidly approaching her 80s and even with her smartphone I don't think she could be trusted to be able to check in. People like her are going to be fumbling around with their phone right at the gate, and it's going to be a nightmare. Best of luck to them actually making things better.
Unlimited privacy rape (Score:2)
Delete after use (Score:2)
There is no reason I know of for anyone not to delete the airline app directly after returning home.
You can always write your username and password down, reinstalling everything when you fly again.
Even if you have another flight in a month.
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Just removed the app... (Score:2)
Security (Score:2)
Surely this system will prove to be hackable.
People will think of all kinds of creative ways to fuck up Ryanair.
Why an app? (Score:2)
Why not a PNG or PDF in an email that I can access offline?
It's almost like Ryanair intentionally harasses their customers.
Any company that forces me to use a smartphone (Score:2)
will lose my business
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will lose my business
I follow the same policy. A nice side-effect is that I seem to spend less money.
This is bullshit (Score:2)
Electronic boarding passes are fine, if they're just bar codes in a PDF. Then people with smart phones can use their phone, and people without can print them.
Forcing people to use an app is simply trying to spy on them.
Its getting to that point (Score:2)
Where I'll have a basic cheap smart phone just for all their stupid apps that are 'required' with a different name than my own that only gets turned on when I have to use one of these apps. I'll only hotspot or wifi it. It'll just be an android tablet.
Want my data always all the time? Kiss my ass.
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Sorry I live in reality and not the one told to me. I can't speak for anyone elses experiences, but I had two business trips to the USA this year.
Went to the border, said where I was going and just drove in. No problems, no fuss, no muss, nothing.
Everyone acting like it's dangerous and scary. Yeah, maybe if you have a criminal record and you're doing illegal activities, it's proably a dumb idea to enter a foreign country. I never hear any stories or could find any of regular people going for proper reasons
Not gonna (Score:2)
I may have a "smart phone", but I refuse to set up internet connections on it.
Get the shittiest, cheapest smartphone you can get (Score:2)
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I've noticed this kind of thing a LOT lately. Evidently this book is out called Nudge that tells its readers to annoy the shit out of their customers until they 'install the app". Because evidently running in the background and draining your battery constantly harvesting your data and monitoring your location is more profitable than actually selling the service.
Nudge is riding the data-cattle trend, and there are a *LOT* of companies trying desperately to be a part of that trend.
I would think you're exaggerating about the Google stuff, but this past week they decided I wasn't an adult and "need" me to upload my state issued picture ID (Driver's License) and my credit card information to "verify" my adult status just so I can continue to upload my shitty but fun songs on Youtube. Uh, sorry Google. You aren't that much of an authority figure to me, and I certainly d
Online safety acts (Score:2)
I would think you're exaggerating about the Google stuff, but this past week they decided I wasn't an adult and "need" me to upload my state issued picture ID (Driver's License) and my credit card information to "verify" my adult status just so I can continue to upload my shitty but fun songs on Youtube.
What country? I seem to remember some countries have instituted policies that require "social" web applications to thoroughly verify the age of all users. Australia, for example, passed such a law [esafety.gov.au] that takes effect next month.
One alternative to YouTube is uploading your "shitty but fun songs" on your own website.
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What country? I seem to remember some countries have instituted policies that require "social" web applications to thoroughly verify the age of all users. Australia, for example, passed such a law [esafety.gov.au] that takes effect next month.
One alternative to YouTube is uploading your "shitty but fun songs" on your own website.
I'm in the USA, South Dakota specifically. FWIW, this happened at the precise same time all the Porn sites started closing down if you're not using a VPN, so it may be a state led thing.
I've put several things up on my own sites over the years. Was using Youtube to catch an audience though. Slowly, the avenues for non-professionals to get any traction even within small niche audiences are dwindling back down to nothing.
Re: Online safety acts (Score:2)
Re: Nudge (Score:2)