A Legoland trip put at risk over Ryanair’s passport policy

A reader called Billy contacted us on behalf of his two-year-old grandson who was due to fly to London Stansted with Ryanair recently, before heading on to Legoland with his parents and brother.

“Before booking Sam’s ticket his father checked with Ryanair customer care to see if Sam needed a passport,” Billy writes. “He was told this was a country specific policy and because the UK doesn’t require passports from Irish citizens there was no need for a passport for Sam and he just needed to have a birth certificate for him.”

That was not, however, the case.

“When trying to check in this morning this wasn’t an option and so Sam’s father contacted customer care again to be told Ryanair’s new policy was that a passport was required and that he had been given the incorrect information previously. It means that a two-year-old little boy, who has been wheeling his case around the house for days, and has been pointing to every aeroplane that flies over his house, will now have to be told his treat is cancelled. This is really heartbreaking for him and his family and confirms the lack of care Ryanair has for its customers.”

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We contacted Ryanair to see what it had to say and received a statement that we will run in full because its tone is, we think, as illuminating about the attitude of the airline as the content.

“As both you and all of our passengers are well aware, all passengers travelling to the UK agree at the time of booking that they will provide a passport. This is clearly set out in our T&C’s on our website and has been in operation for over 20 years! This is not a new policy as wrongly claimed by this so-called reader.”

We are not sure why the unnamed spokesperson referred to Billy as a “so-called reader” — were the suggesting we made him up? Or maybe they were suggesting that while he did exist he did not — in fact — read the newspaper or this page in the newspaper? Anyway, we digress and will leave that aside for now.

We should say in the airline’s defence that this requirement for a passport when travelling with the airline from Ireland to Britain and the other direction is definitely not new. The statement — despite its somewhat aggressive tone — is correct to say that we are well aware of that fact.

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We did have a follow up. We got back on to Ryanair and accepted that this has long been a Ryanair policy. The follow up question was why that is that case? The British and Irish governments do not mandate it. The ferry companies do not mandate it, Aer Lingus do not mandate it. “So why is Ryanair so inflexible and indeed recalcitrant when it comes to the this policy,” we asked.

We got no response. If we were to hazard a guess as to why Ryanair insists on passports for people travelling from Ireland to Britain and from Britain to Ireland we would say that by adopting a blanket approach, it reduces confusion and potential messing at gates with different forms of ID which might slow down the boarding process and cost it money ... But that is only our best guess.

We also got back on to our so-called reader Billy asking what happened next.

“He got to go to Legoland in the end. He and his father booked a flight to London with Aer Lingus, who did not require Sam to have a passport. So [his mother and brother] travelled with Ryanair, and [he and his dad] flew with Aer Lingus, just like the Royal Family. They brought a birth certificate with them for Sam, which sufficed to get him on the plane. Under 16s do not require a photo ID.

“And yes of course Sam’s parents should have had a passport for him, but his father is adamant that at the time of booking the flights with Ryanair he was told that Ryanair had no specific policy in relation to passports and conformed to whatever was required by specific countries. However, all’s well that ends well.”