Ryanair and family locked in GBP165 check-in row

A family is locked in dispute with Ryanair after being charged £165 to check in at the airport and being told by the airline that they had "unchecked themselves". Damian Lloyd had checked in his family a month in advance, and brought the printed boarding passes to the airport. But the barcodes would not scan so the family had to pay to check in again. Lloyd tried to reclaim the money but Ryanair said they had unchecked before flying, so the fee was justified. After several weeks of email exchanges, the airline has now referred Lloyd to a dispute resolution service. Health and safety manager Lloyd had booked a 10-day family holiday to Gran Canaria in July. The 50-year-old from Neath is a regular flyer and says he has never had a problem with Ryanair's extra fees before - he had happily paid to reserve seats - so was "in total shock" when his, his wife's and his daughter's boarding passes did not scan. A Ryanair employee at the check-in desk was equally confused. "He looked on the computer, and our names and seat numbers came up. But for some reason [the boarding passes] weren't scanning. He didn't know why," Lloyd told the BBC. As it was an early morning flight, the employee could not phone Ryanair's customer service to investigate the problem as it was not yet open. Passengers are not allowed to board a Ryanair plane unless their boarding passes are scanned, so the family was given a choice - either wait for customer service to open and miss their flights, or pay for new passes. As the next flights were three days away, Lloyd decided to pay up.<br/>