Easter break in Malaga ruined by Ryanair ticket row

Sue Craig and her travelling companion, who both paid an extra £10 for online boarding passes which they printed out at home, had arrived at the airport around an hour-and-a-half before the no-frills Ryanair flight was set to depart on Easter Monday morning.

But when their passes failed to scan at check-in, rather than the counter staff simply typing in the data manually, the pair became the latest victims of a computer culture that balks at common sense.

“With time running out we were sent to another desk where just one woman was struggling to deal with three flights that were about to leave,” said the 54-year-old from Lower Parkstone, Poole.

The English teacher, whose holiday plans were left in tatters, added: “We had to queue for 20 minutes at this Servisair desk simply because our ink was too faint.

“The ink cartridge used was brand new, there was nothing wrong with it. By the time we got through it was too late – we couldn’t board. This makes a mockery of online boarding. Other passengers were telling us to never use Ryanair, as it is a gamble you’ll ever make it onto an actual flight.”

Sue and her companion were told the next available flight, the next day from Bristol Airport, would cost them another £100 each. The tickets she’d bought originally cost £27 each, although this eventually rose to £151 for the pair. She has also lost £50 in parking fees.

She said: “I’m just resigned to the fact I won’t be going now. It’s all a bit of a shock. I mean, ink too faint, its like leaves on the line isn’t it?”

Ryanair’s Stephen McNamara said: “The print quality of this passenger’s boarding pass was too faint to be read by airport security scanners and the passenger was asked to return to the Ryanair ticket desk. Ryanair could not delay or inconvenience a flight of 180 passengers because this passenger failed to print a valid, legible or readable boarding pass.”