The simple answer is that with Ryanair it won't work because you won't be able to do this.

Personally, I would never recommend a passenger who needs assistance to travel with Ryanair because:

1) You cannot make an immediate on-line booking - you have to pay their exhorbitant premium tel no rates to check whether there are already 4 disabled passengers on your chosen flight or not before you can make a booking.

2) If you arrive at the airport without going through this process you will be made to manage without assistance or if this is impossible, denied boarding and deemed not to have complied with their terms and conditions and hence cannot expect a refund.

3) You cannot check-in online and go straight to security because the assistance will only be provided once you make yourself known to the check-in staff. With most airlines the assistance is booked in advance and you can make yourself known to assistance office and receive help from the moment you arrive at the terminal. With all other airlines you can usually even wait in your car in the car park and the person accompanying you can go and notify the assistance office who will then send someone to the car park to help you. With Ryanair, the airport staff will not provide you with assistance direct until the Ryanair check-in staff have confirmed the request - which in order to save money if you are 'no show' - they will only do so after you have made yourself known at the check-in desk.

4) Also, you have to collect from the check-in staff the docket which you need to give the cabin crew on boarding.

5) The assistance will not have been booked in advance at the other end either - this will only be provided once the cabin crew phone and request it on landing and hand over said docket.

6) The cabin crew cannot be relied on to remember to do this on landing and an unaccompanied passenger needing assistance is then marooned in their seat until a crew member comes along to demand why they haven't disembarked with everybody else.

As far as I am concerned, Ryanair go out of their way to try and do everything possible to deter disabled passengers from travelling with them and in the case of my family have well and truly succeeded. We have had one poor experience with Thomas Cook flying back from Tenerife and to be fair this was also in part due to the attitude of a family trying to insist on sitting together despite not booking them and arriving at check-in at the last minute. Since my mother has started to experience mobility difficulties we have never had a problem with BA, FlyBe, BMiBaby, Monarch or GB Airways (as was). Next month we will be using Jet2 from Manchester to Tenerife for the first time and I will be interested to see how they, as another 'no frills' operator, go about meeting the needs of disabled passengers but I cannot see how they possibly be any worse than Ryanair.

SM

They certainly don't make it easy......

We travelled with my mother in law to Dublin with Ryanair a number of years ago and it certainly wasn't that complicated. Notified them in advance (as I remember) but she was in her own wheelchair and did not need assistance to the plane, only to board it. Told we would have to pay charges at both Airports.
We were last to board the plane but had seats saved for all 7 of us together. Serviceair chaps helped to carry her up the stairs onto the plane !
At Dublin, last off the plane, assistance was waiting - Green Caps ? - carried her off the plane and insisted on wheeling her all through the terminal.
In the end, both Airport waived the fees which was a bit of a result I suppose.

John

Prices changes again at Ryanair........

From 1st October on all new bookings:-

Checked in bags (15Kg) will be £15.00 each way (from £10.00)
Excess baggage up to £20.00 per Kilo (from £15.00)

You can now add a 2nd checked in bag with ANOTHER 15kg allowance for £35.00.

If you want to take checked in bags - get booked in the next month !!!!!!

John

Hi John123,

The flight I was looking at was Luton to Girona on 6 October to 13 October, 2p all in.

I guess there are other dates available but I haven't looked into it.

Mark

I'm so glad that I've never needed to take hold luggage when travelling with Ryanair, as I've only used them when visiting friends, where 10kg of hand luggage has been ample. I iuse Ryanair for convenience as much as price, as it goes where I want from my nearest airport. I've never had any problems with the airline, apart from a 4 hour delay at Toulon once, and going through my hand luggage with a fine tooth comb when coming back from Denmark in March - don't know why, possibly all the Tunisian stamps in my passport. These latest increases are absolutely scandalous.

As the news item says on thr Ryanair website - it is part of the airlines programme to encourage passengers to travel with hand luggage only.

I have no idea what an airport charges for collecting/loading hold luggage but I would guess that completely removing that is the ultimate goal for Ryanair. No check-ins anymore - no hold luggage in the future ? Could they get the turnaround even quicker and utilise the aircraft better ? Less hold luggage - more cargo they can take ?(if they do)

I have no problems with the £20kg a kilo for excess - I spend the time making sure I have the correct weight - why shouldn't anybody else. Some Ryanair passengers really do extract the urine !

Not sure where they are going with the extra bag though - you can take 30Kg for £50 - can't really work out if that is good or bad value

Anyhow - me, hold bags and Ryanair don't mix - hand luggage it is...............

John.

Edit : Mark - hoping you were going to say up north somewhere

On the subject of increases in baggage charges it sort of defeats the budget airlines complaints about APD killing their trade when they announce 50% increases , APD is going up 10%. obviously APD can't be avoided and check-in baggage can but how do they come up with an increase like this? By their own admission they are cutting fares on average by 20% but offsetting this by the 50% bag increase, its hardly going to help them to make up more trade, but they state that it will not affect 70% of their passengers because they don't check-in bags, but the other 30% might look elsewhere as it will make their total costs higher.

I think its all about trying to raise extra revenue rather than "encouraging" passengers to travel with hand luggage only, a bit of a sledgehammer to a nut policy.
There is no way that the charge is what they have to pay baggage handling agents they make a lot of profit on this charge, but they are very critical and outspoken when charges are increased (or discounted charges expired) against them by aiports, governments etc, but defend their own excessive increases by trying to tell you its part of their policy and they wonder why people are so critical of them!

Told we would have to pay charges at both Airports.

John1232, this is the key difference between then and now. Ryanair was taken to court over their attempt to pass on the charges to the passenger and/or the ground service companies. The reason why both airports waived the charge is that they accepted that such charges to the passenger are illegal. All other airlines absorb the cost of this themselves and when held to be acting illegally by charging disabled passengers it looks from your experience as if Ryanair then tried to still make them pay by saying that they must pay the airport ground service operator directly. No wonder they have such a jaundiced view of Ryanair's operation with regard to this matter!

SM

So now Ryanair have added 33p or something like that to each fare to cover the costs.........

Not sure how that works out on 1p fares

John

Ryanair hikes fees again

The cost of checking in a bag on Ryanair flights is being hiked from October 1.

Checking in a bag at the airport will cost £30, up from £20. Doing so online in advance will cost £15, up from £10.

It will cost passengers £70 to check a second bag in at the airport or £35 by the internet in advance.

Each bag will have a separate 15KG allowance to allow passengers to travel with up to 30KG of checked in baggage - double the current allowance of 15KG.

The increases are "part of the airline's programme to encourage passengers to travel with carry on luggage only".

The airline said: "All passengers can avoid these optional checked in baggage fees by travelling with carry on baggage only."

A spokesman said: "Ryanair continues to reduce air fares - saving our passengers over €530m this year alone.

"In order to persuade passengers to travel with carry on bags only and to defray the cost of some of these fare reductions we are increasing baggage allowances and fees with effect from 1st October.

"These baggage fees are all avoidable by all passengers who choose to travel with carry on luggage only.

"Over 70% of Ryanair passengers will be totally unaffected by these changes as they already travel with just one carry on bag, which is free of charge."

With permission from Travelmole

Well it's only a few days to our 1 week break, and have just checked in on line and printed off the boarding passes.
Looking at the print offs, is the barcode supposed to be 'garbled' - some sort of code ? and not like a plain one you find on most products ?
Also I am using original inks and a good quality paper, and don't think the results are bad, as anyone had any problems having these scanned at the airport - uk or spain ?
I'm sure I read that if they get damaged (wet/crumpled etc..) they will not scan and you have to pay to get them done again ?
I am thinking of spray mounting a second copy to card and keeping them seperate in case of any problems - good idea ?
Cheers for any advice,
Spike.

Hi Spike

They are not a barcode as such - not sure of the correct terminology - more like a scrambled up rectangle.

I guess if an inkjet print got wet then it might well smudge and be unreadable. Wouldn't surprise me if Ryanair tryed to charge you £40 to print boarding cards out

Maybe a backup would be a good idea or print them on a laser (if you can get access to one) as they are much more water resistant if you think you might get wet

Not sure about monting them on card as Ryanair have to tear them at the gate.

Never had a problem with them being scanned.

John

they will charge you for a new one if it is unreadable i.e. wet/smudged. Someone in front of me at Prestwick this summer had to pay for a new one. The staff told him that it was his responsibility to keep it safe. You could just keep it stored in a poly-pocket, then it couldn't get wet.

Thanks for the replies, have now got a 2nd set printed off and in a hard back plastic wallet, fingers crossed now as all is falling into place - airport parking booked, mini-bus from Alicante sorted, villa will be waiting for us - a great week coming up !
Will post on my return about the resort/area/ryanair/airport etc..
Thanks to all for the great help you have given (makes a change to be in here rather than my usual Goa forum)
Spike

A change is as good as a rest Spike and thank goodness there's always someone on here to point us in the right direction when we have a query. Hope you have a lovely holiday.

i,ve booked a flight to palma from liverpool on oct 1st with ryanair in feb and paid for airport check-in, since then ryanair have changed their policy to online check-in but on the website it says passengers who booked before the 21st may can still use airport check - in, but from the 1st oct all passengers must check-in online, any advice ? shud i check - in online for both the outward and inward journey (oct 6th) before i fly

terryjay

You have the choice to either check in at the airport or check in online.

They are doing away with check ins but this only takes place from 25th October. I guess it comes down to which works out better for you at the airport - as you have already chosen to check in at the airport, I am guessing that you have hold luggage. Perhaps the check ins will be quieter than the bag drop as less people are using the check in desk ?
If you don't have hold luggage then on line check in is the way to go !
Remember that you can't change your mind once you have checked in on line.

Have a good trip

John

thanks john for your help

I booked a flight last month with Ryanair and I have just printed my boarding pass for the flight. I have just received an email requesting passenger information, I have gone to the link and find that againt my flight ref no states NOT CONFIRMED. I have checked my Bank Statement and my account has been debited for the full amount to Ryanair. Is this normal or do I have to contact Ryanair ?

Many thanks

Tricia