Ryanair locked in £165 check-in row with family

A family is embroiled in a row with Ryanair after being charged £165 to check in at the airport as the airline claimed they “unchecked” themselves online.

Damian Lloyd, 50, checked in himself, his wife and their daughter a month in advance for their 10-day holiday to Gran Canaria in July, and took the printed boarding passes to the airport.

However, when they arrived at the check-in desk they were surprised to find their barcodes would not scan.

Mr Lloyd, a health and safety manager from Neath, South Wales, said he had never had an issue with Ryanair’s fees before and was “in total shock” when the boarding passes did not scan.

He told the BBC a Ryanair employee at the desk was equally confused and did not know what had caused the problem.

The family eventually decided to pay the extra fee, as Ryanair’s customer service desk was not yet open because it was an early morning flight.

Mr Lloyd says he was told by the staff member at the check-in desk that he and his family could claim the money back as the issue was to do with a computer glitch.

However, the airline later rejected his request for a refund, saying there was no fault with its IT system.

Excuses

“Ryanair came up with every excuse under the sun,” said Mr Lloyd.

A spokesman for Ryanair told the BBC that the family “unchecked themselves on the website on July 22 and ignored the pop-up that warned them they would have to check in again and generate new boarding passes”.

The spokesman added: “As they didn’t have valid boarding passes, they were correctly charged the airport check-in fee.”

However, Mr Lloyd denies this, saying: “I can’t remember going on the website after I checked in.

“They earn hundreds of millions a year. If I had made the mistake I’d put my hands in the air and pay but I did have the right passes.”

Ryanair has referred Mr Lloyd to AviationADR, an independent airline complaints scheme, as their dispute cannot be resolved.