Originally Posted by
pinniped
Does Aer Lingus have kiosks to print boarding passes at the airport? If we're traveling in Ireland for a day or two, likely at B&B's that might not have computers and printers, we'd likely want to check-in online at T-24 but not physically print the BP.
Yes at certain airports, including all Irish ones. Note that EI online checkin for flights within Europe opens at T-30, not T-24. The best seats will be gone by T-24.
Note that there is no fee on EI to get your boarding card at the airport, either from a kiosk or from an agent.
Originally Posted by
pinniped
Is a Visa Electron card basically just a Visa card...or something else?
It is a different type of card that is not widely issued. The origin of the rule was that for a time, airlines had to advertise their fares including all non-optional fees, and the fee was considered optional if you could somehow avoid it, such as by paying with Visa Electron. The rule now (for airlines operating in the UK at least) is that a debit card fee must be included in the advertised price, so the Visa Electron distinction is legally moot, but some of the airlines offering lower fees for Visa Electron still do so.
Originally Posted by
pinniped
Basically it's starting to sound like Ryanair is a pretty mean-spirited airline to fly. Make one mistake and you either have to pay 200-300% of your ticket price in fees or you're stuck not flying. I don't mind paying reasonable fees (begrudging accepting a baggage fee as "reasonable") but I'd worry a lot about "gotchas" that I didn't expect once I got to the airport.
That's Ryanair for you. If you follow all its rules to the letter, you'll get cheap transport, but you'd better not be bringing a 23lb carryon, or a separate personal item, and so on.