[bonoboTP]

They are verbose and vague about it: "Some passengers may be concerned about what they can do if they lose their phone or of their devices run out of battery before the pass board the aircraft. Ryanair has said they will assist people experiencing difficulties free of charge at the gate gathering their information and flight details which will be cross-checked and validated against the flight manifest so that they can board as normal."

[jacobgkau]

Of course-- there will be accommodations to start out with. Then, after the new system has become "just the way things work," the accommodations will be removed for security or efficiency or some other reason.

Or maybe not. I've never lost a boarding pass, but if you lose one, you can get it re-issued somewhere, right?

[bonoboTP]

Without endorsement of the behavior, here's a guy getting arrested for being argumentative about not having a boarding pass in the app, and being told he can't pay their 5 dollar boarding pass print fee with cash.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0QwwPmHyuEA

Again, being argumentative like this never helps, but it will be you either go along with it, get escorted out or not fly in the first place.

[john01dav]

Morally, this guy did nothing wrong. These abusive practices need to be stood up to. I'd rather live in a world where this sort of vehement NO when someone with power tries to pull something unreasonable, like demanding an app or fee, is common and effective, than this world where companies and governments can just steamroll people. Ideally, other passengers would see what's going on, see the systemic problem (even if minor in this case), and also join in in the NO. Make the terminal unusable with an angry growing mass until they decide to be reasonable. The comments on that youtube video mocking the guy and not even addressing the airline's unreasonable policy are also an absurd lack of solidarity against these companies. When someone is mad they probably have a reason to be mad and we ought to listen to them and then get mad too if we agree, other than just dismissing someone for feeling an emotion, lest we'll just have more and more rights, privileges, and respect eroded. We need a culture of standing up for each other against injustice, no matter how small.

I know that his behavior was not a rational pursuit, since in practice humans are too skittish about standing up for themselves and too skittish against anyone whom they see as abnormal/not complying with social norms. But, this does not change the fact that he's completely in the right. I'd love to know a more effective strategy to deal with this shit from companies, if anyone knows one. What should he do instead in this situation where it is simply too unjust to him to be acceptable to give in?

Also, I'm offended at this cop for telling the guy to "be cordial". NO. The airline's behavior is not cordial! They do NOT deserve it back! Freedom of speech means freedom to get mad at someone, possibly REALLY mad, when they try to be unreasonable. Being angry is different from being violent, and the government shouldn't shield people and companies from this consequence (angry people) of their actions.

[brokenmachine]

>The comments on that youtube video mocking the guy and not even addressing the airline's unreasonable policy are also an absurd lack of solidarity against these companies.

I see this a lot on reddit and youtube. I tend to think that it's bots paid for by the company.

There's always just too much unanimous agreement in favor of the corporation.

Maybe I just don't want to believe that people are that homogenized.

[hulitu]

This really looks dystopian. But, this is the future.

No TLS certificate (which will expire soon), no boarding. /s

[bonoboTP]

The likely future is where you'll be given a USB-C charger to charge your phone. If you have no phone or is broken, it will be the equivalent to having a strongly damaged passport. No fly that day, get a new phone, fly on another date, just like if you needed a new passport. The phone will be your ID, passport, credit card and everything. But since it will be all backed up in Google/Apple/Microsoft cloud, maybe you'll be able to buy a new simple phone near the gate, log in via fingerprint and facial recognition and go on your merry way. But also, once all this stuff is connected up in the cloud, maybe facial and fingerprint recognition will be enough to fly. NFC chips under the skin are probably too bad optics for the near future, but in one or two generations, attitudes will shift.

> I've never lost a boarding pass, but if you lose one, you can get it re-issued somewhere, right?

Yes, typically there's a fee for getting it printed at the check-in counter.

[qingcharles]

I had a very worn passport. I got to check-in one time and as I handed my passport to the agent my photo fell out of the back page.

They still let me fly from UK to USA and back.

This was 1997. Wild times.

[caztanj]

How are you going to buy a new phone when you have to pay with your broken phone?

[tgsovlerkhgsel]

With a normal airline? You walk up to the gate, say you lost your paperwork (boarding pass, ticket, doesn't matter), show your ID, and get a new boarding pass issued within about a minute of managing to get someone's attention. At least that was my experience. No hassle, no fee.

Ryanair? I would expect them to offer you their boarding pass printing service for only $99.99 (you missed the $49.99 special that was only available until 4 hours before boarding, silly you).

[koyote]

Maybe we need to collectively all 'lose' our phone just before boarding at the gate, resulting in some flight delays, so that this nonsense gets reverted.

[john01dav]

This is the sort of solidarity that we need against this insanity.

[sjw987]

And the sort of solidarity that unfortunately will never happen. Most people will just download the app and carry on. Very few people hold the very real concern about things moving in this direction.

Your average phone user is already hostage to 7 hours of screentime daily. They don't mind installing more apps. The average person has hundreds of apps on their phone, many of which are never even used.

[bonoboTP]

And they have a constant barrage of notifications, and they tap "Allow" on everything. It can be mind boggling if you spend your life in a developer-minded bubble. They watch ads. They sometimes like the ads and smile at them and don't skip them immediately.

Nothing much has changed since the times when you had to "fix" your aunt's computer in 2003 because it's "slow" and found a zillion toolbars and cleanup/speedup utilities.

[Asooka]

Oh so I can just carry a phone with a dead battery and don't have to go through their idiotic app.