Booking with Unauthorised Travel Agents

Third-party travel agents are companies who do not have any commercial agreements with Ryanair to sell our flights and products. These companies make their profits by adding their own commissions to Ryanair flights and products, which means customers who book through them often pay more than customers who book directly with Ryanair.

Some third-party travel agents often do not pass on to us your personal contact and / or payment details, which means we cannot contact you with important updates of your booking or process refunds directly to you.

We advise that customers only book Ryanair flights directly through the Ryanair App and the Ryanair website, and to always check the website’s URL for www.ryanair.com. 

If you have been asked to verify your identity, it is because your booking has been flagged as having been made by a third-party travel agent that has no commercial agreement with Ryanair to sell our flights. 

Many of these third-party travel agents use their own email address, phone number, and payment information - not yours – so that only they can manage the booking. This means we often don’t have your information. They may also complete the Ryanair check-in process on behalf of their customers in breach of our General Terms and Conditions of Carriage. For your safety and security, and for the safety and security of your fellow passengers and our crew, the check-in process must be completed by you personally, by a passenger on your booking, or by a duly authorized natural person with personal knowledge of you and of the contents of your luggage – not a bot or third-party travel agent. Verifying your booking also ensures that we have the correct contact information for you so that we can contact you with important itinerary information, including in the event of schedule changes, delays or other service disruptions.

When making bookings, third party travel agents may not provide us with any of your personal information other than your name. They often book with their own email address, phone number and payment information – not yours. This is problematic because third party travel agents often:

• Use their own payment card which makes it difficult for us to refund you directly in the event of cancellation. By using their own card and not yours, this does not provide you with any visibility over the actual cost of the Ryanair flight, ancillary service or any other service provided by Ryanair. For example, we are aware of some third-party travel agents charging customers for services that we provide for free. In one case, a third-party travel agent charged a name change fee when we provided the name change for free! 
• Data privacy concerns. We are aware of cases where third party travel agents inputted the wrong email address when making a booking resulting in the customer’s booking confirmation email being sent to another individual.
• Unlawfully check-in and make dangerous goods declarations on your behalf. We have a legal obligation to obtain certain declarations from you, i.e. that your baggage does not contain dangerous goods. These declarations must be made by you as a passenger or by a duly authorized natural person with personal knowledge of you and of the contents of your luggage – not by a third-party travel agent or a bot.
• Creates customer service issues. When you contact Customer Support about an issue, we ask you to answer some security questions to verify that we are talking to the customer on the booking. Passengers who book through third party travel agents often have difficulty answering the security questions because the third-party travel agent has provided us with their own information, and not yours. Therefore, you as the customer often cannot confirm the email address used to make the booking or the last four digits of the card used to make the booking. This, in turn, means that Customer Support are unable to help you as they cannot be sure they are talking to the customer on the booking. 

If you have been asked to verify your booking, you have the following three options.

1. Express Verification uses facial recognition technology provided by our partner GetID. We know that not everyone is comfortable with facial recognition tools so we offer other booking verification options as outlined below. To complete the process, you will need to

1. provide your booking reference and passenger name;
2. log into or sign-up to a myRyanair account;
3. pay the £/€0.59 fee to cover the cost of GetID’s facial recognition technology; 
4. provide a photograph of your travel documentation (i.e., passport or identification card);
5. take a photo of your face to verify the travel documentation which you provided;
6. carry out a liveness check of your face by performing some actions you will be asked to do (you will require a device with a camera for this); and
7. provide your phone number.

You will receive an instant confirmation where your booking has been successfully verified using the Express Verification Process. Once verification is complete, you can access and manage your booking yourself. To start Express Verification, please click below:

Start Express Verification

2. Standard Verification involves: 

1. providing your booking reference and passenger name;
2. logging into or signing-up to a myRyanair account;
3. uploading a photo of your signature;
4. uploading a picture of your passport or national identification card; and
5. providing your phone number 

Standard Verification is provided free of charge. Once your booking has been verified through the Standard Verification process, we will email you with confirmation instructions advising you on how to check-in online. Once verification is complete, you can access and manage your booking yourself. 

To start Standard Verification, please click below:

Start Standard Verification

3. In-person verification involves completing the verification process at the check-in desk in the airport. You must arrive to the check-in desk at least 120 minutes prior to your scheduled departure time and complete the verification process with one of our agents. Once the agent has confirmed your identity and ensured you are on notice of relevant safety and security requirements, they will check you in.

While verification at the airport is free of charge, you will be required to pay an airport check-in fee as set out in our Table of Fees here. 

You will need your Ryanair booking reference which the third-party travel agent should have provided you with. This is a 6-digit code containing a mixture of letters and numbers e.g., ABCD12, which is unique to your booking. If you do not have access to the Ryanair booking reference associated with your booking, you will need to contact the third-party travel agent who made the booking and ask them to provide it to you. You will also need a form of identification with a photo/signature on it (national ID card or passport) and device (e.g., phone, tablet, laptop) with a camera. 

Yes, Ryanair is fully compliant with the GDPR and does not store any of your information or documents longer than the period stated during verification. Documentation uploaded during online verification is deleted within 24 hours.

Ryanair ensures that our third-party partner, GetID, who collects and processes personal data on our behalf adheres to the strict requirements of data protection law, including strict retention periods. You can find more information in our Privacy Policy. 

Express Verification is available at a cost of €/£0.59 per booking. This fee is to cover the cost of GetID’s online verification face recognition tool. Ryanair does not benefit commercially from verification fees. If you wish to recoup this cost, we advise you to contact the third-party travel agent you booked through. 

Standard Verification is free of charge.

In Person Verification is free of charge, but please remember that you will have to pay an airport check-in fee (please see our Table of Fees here) if you opt for In-Person Verification at the airport.

We rely on the following legitimate interests to process your personal data for booking verification purposes:

1. Preventing and minimising customer care and privacy issues associated with customers being unable to manage their own bookings with Ryanair directly;
   
   
2. ensuring Ryanair can communicate all necessary information, including service-related information, to customers in a timely manner;
   
   
3. avoiding reputational damage associated with the difficulties caused by third-party travel agent bookings;
   
   
4. reducing operational costs associated with third-party travel agents;
   
   
5. ensuring that an individual with personal knowledge of those traveling and of the contents of their luggage completes dangerous goods declarations which are intended to ensure the safety, security and public health of all staff and passengers; and
   
   
6. operating Ryanair’s business in a commercially efficient manner so that Ryanair can ensure that it can continue to provide competitive fares and prices.
   
   
7. Fulfilling Ryanair’s safety and security obligations related to crew and passenger safety and air travel;

In addition, we rely on your explicit consent for Express Verification. You do not have to use Express Verification and can choose Standard Verification or In-person Verification at the airport.

For further information on how we process your personal data, please see our Privacy Policy.

Please contact Customer Services if you have queries regarding the booking verification process. 

You will only need to verify once for each booking made with a third-party travel agent. For example, if you book a return trip from Dublin to Paris through a third-party travel agent, you will need to verify the booking before you can check in for the outbound flight. It will not be necessary to verify your booking a second time to check in for the return flight. 

However, if you use a third-party travel agent to book another trip one month later from Dublin to Rome, you will have to complete the booking verification process again.

If you request a cash refund you will need to provide your payment details. 

If you use a verified source (Ryanair.com or the Ryanair app) for future bookings, you will not be required to complete the booking verification process. We urge all of our customers to only book through platforms which have the Ryanair Verified Seal.

No, you can choose Standard Verification which is free of charge. You may also verify in-person at the airport, although you will have to pay an airport check-in fee (please see our Table of Fees here). 

Your booking was made by the third-party travel agent and they likely did not use your actual details, instead using their own. We therefore may have their phone number or payment details – not yours. This means we can’t use that information to verify your booking.

Ryanair engages an experienced third-party partner, GetID, to provide a quick and seamless online booking verification process for customers. Ryanair has a data processing agreement in place with GetID to ensure that they appropriately protect your personal data. 

We advise that customers only book Ryanair flights directly through the Ryanair App and the Ryanair website (www.ryanair.com), and to always check the website’s URL for www.ryanair.com. Also, you should look for the Ryanair Verified Seal, which will appear on all Ryanair authorised channels.