Why can US passport holders not do OLCI on Ryanair?
 

Other major airlines allow this, why not FR?
Instead, they make you pay the £4 per flight, per passenger, which you have to then send a letter to them in Dublin to get it back. Why? :mad:

Because they can.

Seriously, non-shengen passport holders aren't regular flyers of Ryan Air. So they can charge you extra fees because you're going to be more trouble.

But why is is any more trouble for them? They do refund the money, if you ask them.

Indeed - especially because anyone can OLCI on mainline airlines (like BA). I find it odd that there is an extra cost incurred by the airline.

More than anything, it sounds an attempt to gouge more money from the passenger.

You can check-in online. Just check the box that you hold an EU passport. They never give it a problem at the airport. Everyone does it. Don't worry about it.

So do you check in online, and print your bp?

Are you talking from personal experience or is this just a rumour you heard?

I have read reports (including some here on FT) of people trying this and being turned away at the gate and having to buy a new ticket for a different flight.

I agree it's a stupid rule but I would recommend you don't even THINK about breaking it. You stand to lose a lot more than the £4 check-in fee.

Who has time to write a letter for a four pound refund OHMG

Probably a lot of people in the Budget Travel forum... :D

7 pax flying return = 7*4*2=56

I've actually done it. Several times. There is no reason why any citizen from ANY country should not be able to check-in online. While it is the carrier's responsibility to verify that the passenger is allowed to travel into a certain country, that is not the fault of the non-EU passport holders and therefore the non-EU passport holders should not be financially punished based simply on the country of citizenship. Under EU rules, the immediate family members (husband, wife, children) of EU citizens have the right to live and be with their EU-member citizens family members. That includes the right to travel within the EU. It seems more than a bit discriminatory that a French husband would have to book on a separate reservation and not pay the check-in fee, while his Canadian wife and Canadian-born children (not yet applied for French citizenship, for argument's sake) would have to be on a separate reservation and pay the check-in fee.
There is but one destination (Morocco) served by Ryanair that is outside of the EU, EEC, or almost-EU (Croatia who is in talks to join and has already made agreements with close EU countries such as Italy, Slovenia, and Austria to change their immigrations and customs regulations to be more aligned with the EU). It seems to me that this is an internal ploy to collect more fees. Simple as that. I am sure that in the court system, Ryanair again would lose.

dg4255 - I totally agree that it's a stupid rule, and I suspect that if it were to be challenged by the spouse of an EU citizen they would almost definitely be forced to change it.

However, there HAVE been reports of people being turned away at the gate on presenting a combination of OLCI boarding pass and non-EU passport, so simply ignoring the rules (or telling lies about one's nationality) is a risky strategy - you may get away with it, but you may not, and if someone is denied boarding because they lied about their nationality they haven't got a leg to stand on.

I really do hope that someone will mount a legal challenge about this - but unless and until this rule is successfully challenged my advice to non-EU passport holders would be to stick to the rules.

Absolutely, I couldn't agree with you more.

But for the sake of £4, I doubt anyone's that bothered. And Ryanair knows this and is counting on it.

Write your mep
 

It must be Christmas with little to do :D - so I used the excellent website WriteToThem to contact my MEPs.

I would like to draw your attention to the discriminatory behaviour of Ryanair in respect of non-EU passport holders.

Such individuals are barred from checking-in on-line and therefore reaping the savings amounting to £4 per person per trip. There seems to be no logic to this rule other than earning fees from a small but significant minority such as my wife who is a US passport holder with permanent residence in UK.

Please take up this matter on my behalf with the appropriate Commissioner

Perhaps others would like to add their voices to mine?

This statement surprised me, so I did a bit of research to see if it's true and could only find evidence to the contrary, e.g. http://uk-immigration.ukresident.com...n/uk-visas/29/

Forgetting the families angle, legal residence in the UK is not enough to get you into other EU countries without needing a visa (first hand experience of helping a UK-resident Zimbabwean friend get a visa for France) so it's expected that Ryanair should check non-EU passport holders have the required documentation for their destination.

The argument is then whether it's fair for them to charge only the affected passengers for this extra procedure, or spread the cost amongst everyone.