3824 On-Line checkin (little warning/reminder!)

...my husband has just found out the hard way that you cannot check-in on line and travel with Ryanair if you are travelling on an ID card.

You must have a passport!

PS... it does say this very clearly on the on-line checkin bit...he just didn't pay any attention!

Category
Travel & Holiday Advice

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Mon, 05/29/2006 - 13:57

Ma!

.......so what happened? Were you frog-marched back to check-in?

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Mon, 05/29/2006 - 15:28

I wasn't there....(tempted to say if I was it wouldn't have happened!! :D )

He went to board at Stanstead to Rome this afternoon and was turned away! Checkin had closed so wouldn't reissue a boarding pass and was goingt o be charged £400 to get on the next flight.

Even my 6yr old sobbing as he couldn't go to Italy didn't make them change minds!

There are on their way home!

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Mon, 05/29/2006 - 15:35

This is not a Ryanair/Easyjet - aka "cheap carrier" issue: it is because the UK has not signed up to the Shengen (Schengen?) conventon which allows free travel within Europe for citizens of the EU. The UK gov position is that it would flood the UK with loads of undesirable aliens....ROFL...:D :D

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Tue, 05/30/2006 - 04:14

We have already arrived, Relaxed... :D

What's the difference then between a UK ID card and a full passport? I used to have a German ID card type and managed to travel across Europe and into the UK without any hassle. When that went out of date, I got a full passport (with what looked like an ID card stuck into it) through the German Embassy. Not sure if they've got rid of ID cards and revert to passports Europe-wide?

Sorry to hear about your husband's misfortune, Eve! So, he missed out on the whole trip because of a technicality? I take it ID cards have a photograph and personal details too?

Better luck next time! :)

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Tue, 05/30/2006 - 04:18

....I got the impression that it was an Italian ID card & not a UK one.....

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Tue, 05/30/2006 - 04:31

Ahhhh !!! :)

Things you learn...

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Tue, 05/30/2006 - 11:30

It was an Italian ID card, he has travelled with it for years in Europe with no problem.

Seems that to use the on-line checkin you must have a full EU passport. He assumed ID card was the same.

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Tue, 05/30/2006 - 11:33

Interestling....looking at BMI and BA on-line check-in instructions they say passport and photographic ID is acceptable which implies its only Ryanair that refuses to accept ID cards.

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Tue, 05/30/2006 - 12:23

.....they'll accept them, but only when you go to the check-in desk.

If you check in on line, then they will not allow them (I understand that this was the disclaimer that was missed)?

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Tue, 05/30/2006 - 13:56

Schengen is a small wine-making town in the commune of Remerschen, in far south-eastern Luxembourg, near the point where the borders of Germany, France, and Luxembourg come together.

The agreement was originally signed on June 14, 1985, by five European countries (Belgium, France, Germany, Luxembourg, and The Netherlands). The agreement was signed aboard the ship Princesse Marie-Astrid on the Moselle River, near Schengen.

Interesting that the website of the Consulat général de France à Londres advises: "YOU NEED A [B]SHENGEN[/B] VISA TO TRAVEL TO FRANCE" :D