Ryanair passenger Ann-Marie Murray found herself escorted off of a flight by police after trying to purchase Pringles onboard using her Barclays credit card.
The airline’s payment system failed on a flight from Tenerife, Spain to Bristol, U.K. on March 28. She’d already eaten the snacks, also including water and a soda. She couldn’t cover the £7 (US$9) bill, and the airline repeatedly couldn’t get her card to go through. So they called the police.
The woman thought flight attendants were joking with her when they told her that law enforcement had been called to meet the aircraft. She had even offered to withdraw cash from an ATM as soon as they landed! Another passenger on the flight – who apparently hadn’t yet consumed the snacks – had issues with the Ryanair payment terminal as well.
On arrival in Bristol, three officers boarded the aircraft and escorted the woman and her partner off the aircraft. She recorded the incident as it unfolded and as she was ultimately placed in the back of a police van.
A 55-year-old woman was escorted off a RyanAir flight from Tenerife to Bristol after her card declined while purchasing Pringles, prompting a police intervention. pic.twitter.com/jTJiLPYLcQ
— Geopoliti Monitor (@DalioTroy) April 6, 2025
After hearing her explanation, though, police officers brought her to an airport ATM. She paid the £7 bill. And the officers marveled at how their time was wasted, “ridiculous!” However, Ryanair staff informed her she was now banned from flying with them – not that she’s willing to risk flying them again anyway.
According to the airline,
The crew of this flight from Tenerife to Bristol (28 Mar) called ahead for police assistance after a passenger became disruptive onboard. During this flight, this passenger attempted to purchase food onboard; however, the card did not process payment. As crew looked to resolve the payment issue, this passenger proceeded to ignore crew instructions, consume the items prior to payment, and subsequently became disruptive. The aircraft was met by local police upon arrival at Bristol Airport, and this passenger was removed. Ryanair has a strict zero-tolerance policy towards passenger misconduct and will continue to take decisive action to combat unruly passenger behaviour, ensuring that all passengers and crew travel in a safe and respectful environment, without unnecessary disruption.
As if the woman’s day couldn’t get any worse, she made it back to the airport’s Silver Zone Parking lot and found her car’s front bumper severely damaged, rendering it undriveable. It had to be towed, and she and her partner went home by taxi.
Pringles are a key part of many flights. They were used to evade mask requirements during the pandemic. They can be used to MacGuyver the seat in front of you so that it cannot recline. Sleeping passengers can be force fed the chips. And they’re the preferred inflight snack on easyJet of former U.K. Prime Minister David Cameron.
You people that just love the ULCC business model. Here you go. Moreover, if the card didn’t go through why was she given the snacks in the first place?
Aaaand that’s reason 178 why I won’t fly Ryanair. Imagine banning someone over GBP 7!
is that modern Les Misérables?
I once flew Ryanair when they were a partner with Continental and I had a ticket from EWR on Continental connecting with London via Dublin (after spending a week there). Even though I had a roundtrip ticket purchased from Continental which included the Ryanair segments, I was told by Ryanair that I did not receive any baggage allowance beyond their usual (minimal) allowance and I had to pay for checked bags. Back then it was very expensive. Of course Continental reimbursed me, but the way it was handled by Ryanair even after showing them my ticket and that I did not exceed the baggage requirement from Continental on that ticket made me not want to ever fly them again.
Whatever the actual circumstances you would think that someone there would stop and realize just how stupid this makes the airline look. Perhaps it is expecting too much, but someone should have had a little sense. Ideally a couple of employees could have kicked in the money and everyone would have been able to talk about the good customer service they had there. Now the discussion will be about how bad it is
This truly sounds too insane to believe. Was she actually “disruptive” in a real way? We all know that is a trigger for flight attendants to take action.
I wonder how RyanAir FA’s are defining ‘disruptive’, and ‘unruly’? If the onboard payment system failed and was unable to collect payment (not the passenger’s fault), in my opinion, it seems appropriate to offer the snacks complimentary. We aren’t talking about a filet mignon and a bottle f aged red wine, or a big chunk out of company profits. If a FA humiliated her over the matter to where other passengers could hear, that might have angered the woman. Pull a stunt like that on me when the payment processor is at fault and I would have sone colorful thoughts. This was a non-story that was made a story by FAs who didn’t like the response after humiliating a passenger, likely suggesting she was penniless, when the FAs could have easily thrown in a few buck each and covered the cost without making this an issue, or if they were too broke themselves to do so, just comped the chips and soda to customer service. It seems the FAs got the drama they sought and it backfired on them royally
Wild. We, as a species, seem so keen on punching-down, the littlest of infractions, as in this case; all the while, we allow rampant corruption on a global scale (the kleptocracy, Putin, oligarchs, #45/47, etc.), and we do practically nothing about that–no, wait, some actually ‘look up’ to those in the ‘0.00001%’ as they whine about the vulnerable and the petty. Insane.
Ryanair – The Marriott of the air.
When a story is unbelievable, it’s usually not true in some important respects.
Horrible airline. I flew with them back in September from Rome to Corfu. I figured it couldn’t be too bad since it was only a 1 hour flight and I paid extra for the best seats. I thought the FA’s were fine but it was the most uncomfortable plane i ever flew on and even just one hour was miserable. If people in the US had to deal with this, you would hear nonstop complaints.
Reminds me of the days when travelers would bring on a $100 bill for a $2.50 drink saying that’s the smallest they had. Never worked. They didn’t realize I guess that many of the F/As were flying the same routes and had just been given a $100 bill by the same guy the week before. By the time we got change he had a wallet full of one dollar bills. When we started to use credit card readers the game changed to ‘oh sorry I don’t know why my card was declined but I don’t have another one’. The stories go on and on….