I'm flying on Ryanair soon from EDI to DUB. To be able to use their online check in it says that "Each passenger MUST present a valid EU/EEA issued passport at airport security and the departure gate". I have a US passport. Does that mean I can't do online check in?

I would assume that's sloppy copy, but with RyanAir assumptions can be expensive...

you can't use online check-in

That's my understanding also. And I do recall reading horror stories somewhere about non-EU nationals being denied boarding after checking in online because they were unable to provide proof of EU citizenship at the gate.

While I can sort of understand their reasoning for this restriction on international flights within the EU (i.e., OLCI available only for those covered by EU Free Movement rules) it makes no sense whatsoever on internal flights where citizenship is irrelevant.

On UK / Ireland "domestic" flights with Ryanair you must produce photographic ID issued by a government. For EU/EEA people that can be an ID card, passport or photo driving licence. For non-EU/EEA folk it must be a passport

But citizenship is relevant in this case. As a non EU passport holder might need a visa for Ireland, although US citizens do not. I expect they want to see your details and so prohibit online checkin.

You quoted me out of context. I was talking in general terms - the point I was making is that Ryanair won't let non-EU citizens check in online even on internal flights. I am aware that EDI-DUB is an international flight. However, Ryanair is fairly unique in barring non-EU citizens from checking in online; no such restrictions exist with other airlines.

It does make some sense.

Mrs WHBM has a Russian passport, with a visa to live in the UK. But this does not cover Ireland, or Schengen Europe, for which separate visas are required.

Airport security staff are not there to check on your travel documents (in the UK they do not even check IDs - long may that continue) so the only check possible is at the gate. And the contracted gate staff Ryanair use do not have the knowledge to check visas.

And if Ryanair take someone from the UK to Ireland or Germany or wherever without a valid entry visa they get done financially for bringing in travellers with inadequate documentation. So they have decided that only check-in (who do get a bit more training in reading visas - though not much) can do it.

Yes, Ryanair operate some domestic flights in the UK as well, but they delight in having a "one size fits all" approach to their rules.

To the Original Poster, you could of course have chosen to go with Aer Lingus from Edinburgh to Dublin. They don't offer On Line Check In to ANYBODY at Edinburgh !

I also saw the online check-in requirements for Ryanair. My flight is booked for this Thur 1 Nov, flying DUB-STN. I checked in online (along with my 15 yr old)and thought that I would present my US passport, which has a 5yr visa stamp for living in Ireland. My concern was more for my 15 year old as she is not required to have a visa stamp untill she turns 16.

Anyone else tried online check-in with a visa for living in Ire? If so...were there any issues once you checked in at airport?

Thanks!

Ryanair's approach is that rules are rules, and if the rules say "EU passport" then that's what it is.... NO flexibility, I'm afraid. I have a friend who has lived in the UK since he was a baby, but he has a US passport which means no online check-in, full stop. If you are on a US passport then you HAVE TO check in at the desk, no two ways about it.

You will need to go to the desk - you cannot just present yourselves at the gate with your US passports.

Thanks Aviatrix.

I stated having doubts myself after reading the posts. Better to be safe then sorry.

Remember discussing with the Servisair handling agent at Stansted how they checked valid visas for a Finnish airline they handled when the passport was in Russian and the visa was in Finnish, neither of which the local staff at Stansted could speak of course.

They said they were trained to just look somewhere for a date. If there appeared to be a date in the future that was OK. Their computer terminal identified whether visas were required or not when they entered the nationality of the passport.

Even after taking this trip, I'm still unsure if I could have used the online check in. I ended up calling ryanair and listened to some message that pretty plainly said you have to be EU to use it. But when I got to EDI, I asked the woman at the check in desk and she said that she couldn't see why I couldn't use it. She asked another guy and he agreed that I could probably use it.

The rules say that you can't.

It is entirely possible that there are handling agent employees who have been poorly trained and who aren't fully familiar with Ryanair rules, and if you are lucky enough to be processed by such an employee then you can probably get away with using online check-in. But if you get a gate agent who does know the rules then you're going to be stuck!

speaking from very recent experience, i can add that you will be offloaded from the flight if you hold a non-EU passport and use online check-in.

i have an Australian passport and used online check-in. i read the statement but assumed it was a passport or form of identification accepted in the EU (ie. i can't use my Australian drivers license for ID). i fly every week, and have never come across a rule like this on any other airline.

anyway... i was allowed to board my flight in the morning no problem, but then for my return flight in the evening I was denied boarding, and had to pay for another flight and hotel room... plus a few hours lost sleep.

sure i wrong because of a mis-interpreting the requirement. but i would add that when using online check-in it is a requirement to enter the country of your passport. the fact that ryanair's system accepts and even prints "Australia" on my boarding pass made me think that my interpretation of the rules was correct. they have an online system that is sophisticated enough to accept and check my credit card, find my flight number from a 6 digit reference number, yet do not implement a check that refuses my attempt to check-in if the country of my passport is not one of the 27 countries in the EU. this reeks of ryanair trying to squeeze every last euro out of passengers for an honest mistake, instead of stopping the problem before it occurs.
to top it off, they then still charge 4� for using desk check-in (although there is no alternative for non-EU).

i could continue the rant... but in the end the message is clear to me - don't fly ryanair. if there's no choice, definitely don't use online check-in if you have a non-EU passport!