Without prior notice, the low-cost airline Ryanair has shortened the maximum lead time in which the mandatory web check-in opens from 48 to 24 hours. If you would like to receive your boarding pass on your smartphone earlier or to print it out yourself, you need to reserve a seat for a fee.

Ryanair and other low-cost airlines allow Internet check-in when purchasing a seat reservation a few weeks before departure. This enables travelers to print out their boarding passes for the outward and return flight at home, for example when they are on vacation, or to download them to their smartphones. However, if you do not want to pay for the optional reservation of a seat of your choice, you can now only check in from 24 hours before departure.

The low-cost airline insists on Internet check-in and charges a fee of 55 euros at the airport if the counter is visited without the printout or barcode on the smartphone. If you have completed the process but forgot your boarding pass, you have to pay an impressive 20 euros for printing it out at the counter. 

Courts prohibited check-in fees

Passengers repeatedly complain that they did not have the opportunity to use the Internet check-in during their vacation. However, this is only really justified for a few who do not have a smartphone. However, the amount of the check-in fee is absurdly high, as is that Supreme Court in the matter of the daughter Laudamotion. A German court explained this to Ryanair in the first instance for inadmissible.

For many passengers, it is a problem that mobile boarding passes are not accepted in holiday destinations such as Morocco. This is not due to Ryanair, but to the local regulations that insist on paper boarding passes. Hotel guests can have them printed out quickly at reception, but classic backpackers have a harder time and have to go to an internet cafe if necessary in order to save the fees.

The period of “from 24 hours before departure” is customary in the industry. Lufthansa allows check-in via the Internet from 23 hours in advance, Austrian Airlines opens this between 47 and 23 hours before departure, depending on the destination and possibly codeshare partners. Easyjet, on the other hand, deviates significantly and allows you to obtain your boarding pass several weeks in advance. The only difference is that, with the exception of a few providers such as Ryanair, Wizzair, Utair and Air Baltic, no extra fees are charged for using the counters or machines for check-in at the airport. For example, Ryanair and Wizzair ask heavily to checkout if you have not previously checked in via the Internet.