Ryanair to scrap paper boarding passes - passengers will need to use their phone

[cakeorwine]

Are print off Ryanair boarding passes really being scrapped? - Which? News

40% of people still use paper boarding passes. I am one of those people. I do have it on my phone but I do have a worry / what if with phone power, losing phone etc - where as having a paper copy is a good back up.

What happens if your phone dies?

Ryanair hasn’t yet answered this question fully. Though it has said that it can print boarding passes on the gate if necessary, based on passport information, it did not clarify what would happen if a traveller’s phone dies before they are able to pass through security in an airport where Ryanair has removed the check-in desks.
We contacted Ryanair to check if there are plans to introduce any fees for boarding passes printed at the gate, but the airline did not respond.

Flown with Ryanair a bit recently - it's fine. I can see issues at airports for people who may have phone issues, especially power - and after a flight delay. Power can go down quickly.

Oh well, I've never wanted to fly with RyanAir anyway. I certainly won't be doing it now.

I'd rather come home by train/ferry.

Well, he will either have to understand that this is what you need now in a modern society, or not fly.

Or… fly one of the many other airlines still using paper passes as well

Exactly. If he is highly intelligent he will find a way to get where he wants to.

Were you travelling entirely by yourself? If you had a travel companion, you could have transferred your boarding passes to their phone (using their phone to log into the app in your name first).

Same with my parents and they travel a lot. They have very old phones and aren't interested in upgrading, plus my dad doesn't trust online stuff.

I’m fairly sure he could have the ticket on a tablet instead.

But there is no universe in which carrying a tablet is easier than carrying a piece of paper!

How on earth is carrying paper passes easier than having tickets on your phone?? I can't understand this at all.

You don't have to logon to your phone, open the right folder, find the ticket, zoom in to make sure you have the right one and then make sure it can be scanned.

You just hand the paper over and it gets scanned. Or checked

Really?

The paper performs one task. The phone is being used for multiple things eg texting, checking weather at destination etc. You often need to have your passport to show alongside the boarding pass anyway so keep the pass inside the passport and you can pop your phone away for a bit.

How do you get children through the airport security gate? I always print my 11yr olds even if not my own.

I’ve never had to zoom in. Boarding passes are stored to my Apple wallet

There are other airlines. I've never flown with Ryanair. They're always a last resort, which thankfully so far, I've never had to, well, resort to!

Front screen on phone closes down whereas printed pass is just there.

Phone a lot chunkier than paper boarding pass.

Much easier to slip paper pass inside passport than faff about opening phone screen up.

TBF - if travelling by train I just use my phone as I wouldn't be bothered with the faff of printing but when needing my passport then the printed pass makes it easier and quicker to move through the airport.

Trying to get a boarding pass on a phone can be a right faff. That said trying to get a recalcitrant printer to print it can be a right faff as well! But why do you need a boarding pass at all? Ryanair demand a passport so that should be enough.

I prefer train tickets on my phone though. When I go into the office, I use a Network railcard for the return, and my local rail company has decided that anyone who uses a paper ticket with a railcard must be a fraudster and blocks the ticket at the gate. But I have never been stopped with an e-ticket on my phone, even though my railcard isn't stored on the app.

@Pinkdaisie
If you aren't the person that's booked, then Ryanair passes don't go into your apple wallet.

My 82 yr old aunt flys out to stay with us a couple of times a year. Ryanair is the only carrier to our nearest airport.
She hasn't got a smart phone, and doesn't want one. Her very basic mobile does want she needs it to do perfectly well and she has better things to spend her state pension on than a smart phone she won't use.

There are many people in similar circumstances- what difference to Ryanair does it make if she waves her printed pass with Qi code or a phone screen with the same information?

But if they do it, all the airlines eventually will.

The airlines will only do it if they can see thay Ryanair isn't suffering financially for it

Very good point. I sometimes have my DH's boarding pass on my phone as well and then hand it back to him to scan at the gate, but it's easier when he has a paper version of his.

Ryanair are canny, if annoying. They won't do it if they think they will suffer financially.

I go to Tesco or Sainsburys, I use my phone to scan the clubcard app, I pay with my phone, scan qr codes for returns, have tickets for days out on my phone. I'm sitting on a train right now and my ticket is in my Google wallet. I don't have to faff around with a piece of paper, forget which pocket I've put it in. I'm not surprised that Ryanair is doing this, I imagine most other airlines will follow suit at some stage. I don't fly loads but the past couple of times I have, it's very rare to see paper tickets - and on the train that I'm currently on, a very busy service into King's Cross, I don't think I've seen a paper ticket yet !

I know it’s popular to kick Ryanair but there’s a general move across the airline industry to move away from paper boarding cards..

https://edition.cnn.com/interactive/2023/09/travel/paper-boarding-pass-history-emirates-dg/

This is currently an idea floated by the owner.

He also said a few years back he was going to do standing "seats" for €1 a ticket, and also bring in a charge for using the toilets on short flights. Neither of which have come to fruition.