Ryanair Passenger Changes Name, Cheaper Than Amending Passenger Details With Airline
A 19-year-old student changed his name and bought a new passport as this would be cheaper than amending passenger details with the notoriously “cheap” airline.
When Adam Armstrong’s booking was made with Ryanair, his girlfriend’s father gave the wrong name. As the administration fee for amending passenger details with Ryanair would have been very expensive, he decided to change his name by deed poll and get a new passport as this would cost much less.
In fact, he managed to change his name for free by deed poll. Getting an urgent new passport cost him £103 ($157), whereas amending passenger details would have cost £220 ($335).
According to the Daily Express, Armstrong’s girlfriend’s father took the name Adam West from his profile on Facebook, which Armstrong had used as a joking reference to the actor who played Batman on TV.
Armstrong and his girlfriend, Indian Lomas, were booked for a summer vacation in Ibiza, Spain, and everything was hunky-dory until Armstrong realized Lomas’ father had used the incorrect name on his Ryanair tickets.
When he realized that amending passenger details would knock him back £220 ($335), which is double the price of the original flight, Armstrong decided to make a plan.
Student changes name by deed poll because it’s CHEAPER than paying Ryanair to fix booking http://t.co/yvKcd2AP86
— Daily Express (@Daily_Express) June 5, 2015
It turned out that it was cheaper to first change his name by deed poll to Adam West and then buy a brand new passport in the new name than it would have been by amending passenger details on the tickets.
The normal administration fee for amending passenger details is £110 ($167), but in this case, there were two separate bookings involved, which thus doubled the fee to an amount double that of the original flight cost.
Now, according to the Mirror Online, Armstrong, or should we now say West, and his girlfriend are set to fly to Ibiza in the near future.
While this example seems a little extreme, the so-called “cheap fare” airline has been criticized many times before. While they do offer low fares, they are also well known for charging for “extras” that often double the initial fare.
Just to check bags into the hold of the plane can cost as much as £75 ($114), and passengers can get hit for a huge £45 ($68) simply for checking in at the airport.
The Inquisitr has reported on a few controversies involving Ryanair in the past, including the fact that protesters blocked a plane from leaving Copenhagen airport over workers’ conditions.
There was also the story of a Ryanair flight that refused to fly a child, urgently in need of a transplant, simply because the family had arrived too close to the take off time of the plane.
[Image: CC BY-NC-ND 2.0 Tristan Farsac]
