An older couple travelling from London to France were left "horrified" when they were charged an extra £110 ($234 NZD) after they failed to print the correct tickets for their Ryanair flight on the weekend.
Ruth and Peter Jaffe, 79 and 80 years old, had to pay the fee after Ruth downloaded their return tickets rather than the outgoing ones.
The pair were flying from London Stansted to Bergerac, France. Ruth said the Ryanair website was "very confusing" but she thought she printed the right tickets.
Ruth told BBC Radio 4’s Today show that she didn’t notice the mistaken download until she arrived at the airport, where she was then told she needed to pay to check in and get her boarding passes.
"They charged me £55 ($117 NZD) per person," she said, adding she was "horrified" by the charge.
The Jaffe’s daughter went to X, formerly known as Twitter, to complain about the situation.
She tweeted: "£110 for 2 pieces of paper which took 1 minute. Shame on you [Ryanair]." She added that the couple had paid to sit together but were not able to do so.
She added: "My mum made a mistake while trying to check in. You told her she wouldn’t sit next to her disabled husband if she didn’t pay extra so she tried. It then checked her in for the return flight only. They sat separately after paying £110."
The airline has refused to offer a refund or any compensation, saying in a statement: "All passengers travelling with Ryanair agree to check in online before arriving at their departure airport and all passengers are sent an email/SMS, reminding them to do so 24 hours before departure. We regret that these passengers ignored their email reminder and failed to check in online."
Martyn James, a consumer rights expert, told the BBC it is "deeply unfair" to penalise people for a mistake. He also said it is hard for people to resolve issues like these with the airline unless disgruntled customers consider taking the matter to a small claims court.
"None of this guarantees compensation and a lot of people don’t have the time or energy," he said. "If more people complained about a lack of transparency, more airlines start to reconsider these fees."
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