Ryanair to charge $64 to check in

Ryanair customers who forget to check-in online will be assessed an “emergency check-in fee” of £40 each way – about $64 – to check-in at the airport. Don’t pay, and you won’t be allowed to board your flight. For those who forget, “hopefully they will only forget once,” a Ryanair spokesman tells the London Telegraph. The spokesman claims “the high fee is designed to encourage people to remember, and not to be hit again. Technically the fee is to cover reissuing the ticket.”

Ryanair’s move comes a day after the carrier eliminated the last of its check-in counters, part of the carrier’s efforts to require all of its travelers to check-in via its website. But even that’s not free; The online check-in costs £5 (about $8) each way on non-promotional fares.

The Daily Mail of London writes “Ryanair chief executive Michael O’Leary said the measures would save him £50million a year. The low-cost airline has been building up to the deadline as from May 1 all new bookings have had to be made on the internet — with a ‘web check-in fee’ of £5 applied to all but promotional or special offer flights.”