Ryanair passenger’s complaint on Facebook gets support of 350,000 fellow users

No frills airline criticized over additional costs

By: HILDA HIGGINS | Published Wednesday, August 22, 2012, 7:55 AM | Updated Wednesday, August 22, 2012, 7:55 AM

A disgruntled Ryanair passenger who took to Facebook to complain about the budget airlines extra fees has received the support of over 350,000 users.

Suzy McLeod from Newbury, Berkshire, complained after Michael O’Leary’s airline charged her an additional €300 ($374) to print out five boarding passes before a flight from Alicante to Bristol on August 15.

A day later she wrote on a Facebook page devoted to Ryanair, “I had previously checked in online but because I hadn't printed out the boarding passes, Ryanair charged me €60 per person! Meaning I had to pay €300 for them to print out a piece of paper! Please ‘like’ if you think that's unfair.”

Over the course of five days, McLeod’s comment had received over 350,000 ‘likes’ with around 18,000 comments of support.

The Facebook page has since been disabled, but a screen grab of the comment is available here.

If McLeod had failed to print out her boarding pass on her flight from Bristol to Alicante, she would have faced a further bill of £300 as the airline an exchange rate of £1=€1.

Speaking to the Telegraph, the mother of two explained how a budget holiday turned into an expensive family getaway.

McLeod said: “We went on holiday for 15 days and so I couldn't print the return boarding passes because you can only do that two weeks before the flight.

“I had the passes on my phone as pdf documents and thought this would be sufficient. What was originally meant to be a cheap holiday ended up costing a lot.

"We had to scrap every penny we had in cash on us to pay it. It was stressful and unnecessary.

“I don't think we'll use them again. We wouldn't even consider them.”

The Irish airline is known for its no frills policy and charges customers €6 ($7) per person per flight “admin fee” and €6 ($&) “web check-in fee”.

The 35-year-old said she was overwhelmed by the response to her Facebook post.

She said, "It's been absolutely crazy. What it has shown me is that there are a huge amount of people who have had bad experiences with Ryanair. I didn't expect so many people to react to it. It must have struck a chord with some people.”

Defending the move, a spokesman for the airline said, "As is clearly outlined in the terms and conditions for every Ryanair passenger, Mrs McLeod agreed at the time of booking that she and her fellow passengers would check in online and print their boarding cards before arriving at their departure airport, and she also accepted and agreed that if she failed to do so then she would pay our boarding card re-issue penalty of £60 per passenger."