Irish airline Ryanair has introduced an SMS booking option for passengers. Instead of printing their confirmation, passengers can now have their booking confirmation texted to them. But that single text will cost you one euro.
Is this a mobile barcode service?
No, no. That would be useful. This is simply your booking confirmation number. This will let you check-in without printing your confirmation – that’s all. You’ll still need to get a boarding pass and all the usual paper tickets.
What we think?
In the grand scheme of things, one euro isn’t much to pay at all. But this isn’t paperless ticketing, or mobile barcoding, or any of the good services that are being offered by airlines like Lufthansa. This is, quite literally, a text with your booking number in it. You could achieve the same thing by writing your number down on a piece of paper and bringing it with you. Which would be free. The last time I was travelling from Germany to Ireland, I saved a note on my phone with my booking number in it, so that I could have it to hand when I reached check-in. And I got my confirmation number by checking my gmail through my phone browser – and even with data roaming counted, that was still cheaper than this service.
