Ryanair Boarding Pass Changes in 2025

Jenn: [00:00:00] Hey everyone, and welcome back to Travel Tip Tuesday with the Travel Mug Podcast. Today, Meggan, I wanna talk about boarding passes very fast.

Meggan: love

Jenn: Yeah. Yeah. But first, do you print a boarding pass or do you just use your phone?

Meggan: We'll get into it further later when we discuss it, but to start, it's in my phone.

Jenn: Interesting. All right, so I recently read that Ryanair is switching to 100% digital boarding passes. They will no longer accept printed boarding passes sort of. It's very misleading, that title. I'm gonna get back to that in a minute, but apparently 90% of their passengers already check in online and use a digital boarding pass, which makes sense.

I think that's probably accurate for most airlines. It does make me wonder, like, what happens if you don't [00:01:00] have access to like your internet or your phone dies or something? 'cause we all know I have anxiety, so obviously I'm gonna worry about that.

Meggan: Sure. As one does, as one

Jenn: Yeah. Okay, so this is the new Ryanair policy. It states that you must check in online prior to your flight.

You will then be issued a digital boarding pass. Pretty similar, you know, that's, that's pretty much all airlines that if you check in online, they'll like, they'll issue you a digital boarding pass. If you arrive at the airport without checking in online, you will have to pay an airport check-in fee, which ranges between 30 and 55 pounds or euros depending on the country you're departing from. So it, it is no small sum Really.

Meggan: I feel the nickel and dimes jingling in my

Jenn: Hmm.

Meggan: what they're trying to take

Jenn: Oh, so if you check in online, and you can't use your phone for a digital boarding pass because it's broken [00:02:00] or it's lost or you don't have a smartphone, you will be issued a boarding pass free of charge at the airport, but only if you've checked in online. So they're kind of are still accepting paper boarding passes, but only if you check in online.

Uh,

Meggan: Okay,

Jenn: yeah.

Meggan: you can fe that your phone is broke if you truly

Jenn: I guess so. So another exception is passengers flying from Morocco. Apparently they require a paper boarding pass, so you'll be issued one. Uh, sure. So Ryanair stated that these changes are to lower, uh, airline airport costs, provide better service, and that it is better for the environment, which I cannot argue against that last point.

But what do you think, Meggan? What are your thoughts?

Meggan: Well, I'm fine. Like I'm not super techie, but of course we, we always check in online in advance. We always get it sent to our phone. I add it to my wallet. We're good to go. Yet, every single time I get to the airport, they print us one [00:03:00] anyway. So. I'm fine. I guess at the end of the day if it all goes digital, but as of right now, I don't know why I'm saving it to my wallet because every single time I go to drop my bag off and they check me in, they give me one anyway.

Jenn: Mm-hmm.

Meggan: What I mean? So if it went all digital, it would be fine. 'cause that's what I always expect. Then they always hand me one, so I'm like, I'll take your paper copy if you're gonna give it to me. So I guess it's fine, but I think I would probably like you have a tiny bit of anxiety in case like I have. Like what if it won't come up on my phone? Like what if, like what, what

Jenn: Yeah,

Meggan: I can't live without all my what ifs. How do I get

Jenn: I know. Oh.

Meggan: So I guess it'll be fine. I mean, it, it goes along with the, the way of the world, but I still do like a piece of

Jenn: I know I love my paper boarding passes. Like I get it. I get that they're not great for the environment. I, I keep them as a souvenir. I probably have every boarding pass that I've ever had as an adult. Um, they

Meggan: Bless your heart.

Jenn: give [00:04:00] me comfort that if I can't use my phone that I have a backup. But, and this like just also feels like another way that airlines are charging us for something.

It's so

Meggan: Oh, a hundred

Jenn: annoying.

Meggan: A hundred percent. And also I understand like, we're all moving forward and, you know, the older generations won't be with us, you know, as we move into 10, 20 plus years. But they're, they're still here. They're still trying to travel. They don't always have access to all the things or feel comfortable using it or whatever.

So I, don't know, as a society, I don't think with this one we're quite there yet, but I understand why we're heading here.

Jenn: Mm-hmm. Yeah, I agree. So, I mean, like we said, this is right now just Ryanair that I know of. Um, if there's any other airlines that are doing this, please let us know. But that is it. That's all we have for this week's episode. Let us know your thoughts on social media at Travel Mug Podcast on our website, travel mug podcast.com.

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Uh, so, uh, until next time, we will chat with you again soon. Bye.