Watch out if you’re flying with Ryanair this weekend, as passengers could be hit with a £60 per person charge if they fail to check in earlier than normal.

The airline is closing its website from 10pm on Friday and all day Saturday for an upgrade, plus the check-in service will be unavailable from 4pm on Friday. Despite this inconvenience to its customers, Ryanair has confirmed that it will not waiver the £60 (or €60 outside the UK) charge if passengers are unable to check in and print their boarding passes themselves.

Ryanair says it is contacting all passengers travelling this weekend to inform them of the news. This will not be very helpful for those already on holiday who may be taking a break from looking at emails in order to relax. These passengers may only find out about the fee when they get to the airport.

Dan Plant, MoneySavingExpert.com money analyst, said: “All websites need a bit of downtime for maintenance now and then, but to wallop every unsuspecting customer with a £60 charge if they don’t spot this in time is absolutely outrageous.

“Spare a thought for all the holidaymakers who have turned off emails to relax, who may not receive Ryanair’s message and face having to empty their wallets at check-in.

“To not allow any exemptions for this is a spectacularly poor show.”

Ryanair’s Stephen McNamara said: “As ‘Manage my Booking’ will be unavailable during this website closure, we have advised all passengers due to travel over the coming weekend to check-in on Ryanair.com before 4pm on Friday.”

The airline’s policy states however, that passengers must print off their boarding passes at least four hours before their flight departure to avoid the fee. This will of course, not be possible this weekend.

It might also be prudent for those travelling on Sunday to check in and print off their boarding passes early in case the website upgrade overruns.

Have you ever set off on a 10-hour flight, settled down without the distraction of your mobile phone or computer, but then realised that you really need to get in touch with someone? It’s frustrating when that happens because of course you can’t use those devices, until now. Virgin Atlantic claims it will become the first British airline to provide passengers with a service to make and receive phone calls in flight.

The airline said that the service is in response to the demand from customers, who will now be able to send and recieve texts and access the internet via GPRS. Initially it will only be available to O2 or Vodafone networks, and will be billed international roaming charges.

Director of corporate communications Greg Dawson said: “We have listened to what customers want and connectivity in the air is always on the wish list. Many people will have experienced that moment when you”re about to take off on a 10-hour flight and you need to send an important message to the office, or even reminding a family member to feed the cat!”

 It will be available in all cabins on Virgin’s new A330 aircraft on flights from London to New York, but the service is primarily aimed at business travellers. By the end of 2012, nearly 20 aircraft will provide the service, including the airline’s B747 aircraft, which are currently going through a £50m refurbishment.

There are some restrictions however, only basic web access is possible through the GPRS service, and it cannot be used during take-off or landing, or within 250 miles from US airspace to adhere to American laws.

Do you believe online travel reviews for when you book to go on holiday? Despite an investigation by an advertising watchdog which told travel review site TripAdvisor that it could no longer claim to offer “trusted and honest reviews”, holidaymakers are still persuaded by online reviews.

TripAdvisor was told by the watchdog that it could not guarantee that customer feedback was genuine, and that although reviewers were asked to sign a declaration to state their views were real and they had no incentive or competitive interest to put a review on the site, “none-genuine” reviews could still appear.

The Advertising Standards Agency acknowledged that TripAdvisor uses “advanced and highly effective fraud systems”, but as this is not completely effective it also raises questions about other review sites which may not have so many systems in place. Despite all of this, according to the eTravel Benchmark study, 75% of consumers still think that the majority of travel reviews are ‘mostly genuine’, whilst 61% would be more likely to make a booking after reading a positive review.

The eTravel Benchmark study, carried out by eDigitalResearch, found the highest level of customer satisfaction in over two years.

Derek Eccleston, research director at eDigitalResearch said that sites that ”support customers with a responsive and helpful telephone and email customer service repeatedly perform better than their rivals”.

What do you think? Do you book according to reviews? Do you regularly make sure to write a review after you have been away to help other holidaymakers?

By 2020 travel could become a very different ballgame to what we’re used to now, according to the From Chaos to Collaboration report commissioned by technology expert Amadeus.

The report had six key findings:

1. The next generation of experience: Technologies such as augmented reality, gamification mechanisms and smart mobile devices will transform the travel experience.

2. Automatic transit:  Chips, biometrics, long range fingerprinting and near field communications (NFC) can be deployed in a more integrated way to help with speedy check-in and walk through of immigration.

3. Payment with memory: All data on payments made before and during a trip will be integrated, acting as a digital memory of expenditure and activity for individuals, groups and travel industry operators. Intelligent passenger records and contactless technologies could be used to personalise services delivering higher value and more profitable relationships.

4. Intelligent recommendation: As technologies make it easier for people to tag and review all aspects of travel experiences, travellers will be more influenced by peer groups and expert curators.

5. Taking the stress out of travel: Intelligent luggage tags and tickets will give greater reassurance whilst m-Health (mobile-Health) applications will allow travellers to manage and monitor their health and well-being as if they were at home.

6. The business tourist: Continued emphasis on work-life balance and well-being at work may see the rise of the business tourist.

Andrew Curry, director and co-author The Futures Company (which developed the report), said: “We wanted to avoid making techno-centric assumptions about the future of travel – and painting a picture of flying cars and intelligent robots in a world that is otherwise unchanged from today.

“We hope that this study will challenge, provoke and stimulate thinking around how we will all be travelling in the future.”

Happy New Year to all our readers! Before we move on to this year’s news, here’s a round up of some of the biggest stories we covered on this blog in 2011, it certainly was an eventful year!

January started with the troubled BMI threatening to withdraw its Heathrow – Glasgow route after passenger charges at Heathrow were raised (this was confirmed a month later). Ryanair returned to Manchester with four new routes. And the political troubles in Egypt disrupted flights.

Spiraling conflict in Egypt caused complete cancellation of routes to popular holiday destinations in February. Meanwhile, Which? launched a super complaint on airline card fee charges,the cost of Qantas’ engine troubles were revealed, and airlines flying from the UK finally started to show clearer air fares.

March brought faster flight times under a deal signed by traffic controllers. But by far the biggest news of the month was the huge tsunami which hit Japan and led to re-routing of flights to avoid possible radiation risk, and advice to leave Tokyo.

A Skyscanner survey found Spain back in favour for British holidaymakers in April.

In May Belfast Airport started to charge for going for a cigarette break, and the ongoing battle between Unite and British Airways was finally settled!

More natural disasters happened in June with violent aftershocks in Christchurch, New Zealand and volcanic eruptions in Chile.

The News of the World phone-hacking scandal broke in July with airlines withdrawing their advertisements as a result.

In August research revealed the use of smartphones were ruining people’s holidays.

The Rugby World Cup was held in New Zealand in September, where Wales’ hopes were dashed.

The first biofuel passenger flight took place in October, however green campaigners claimed it wasn’t as environmentally friendly as everyone thought.

Europe announced a ban on body scanners at airports in November, but the UK decided to go against the decision.

Finally, December saw 150mph winds hit parts of Scotland, which is where we are now at the start of 2012 as tremendous winds continue to batter the UK once more.

So, what travel news is in store for 2012? Keep up to date here!

Last week the European Commission banned the use of body scanners at European airports by next April over a fear that the radiation emitted could cause cancer. However, Transport secretary Justine Greening has gone against the ruling by stating that passengers at UK airports could not opt out of using the scanner, despite the ruling which says they can.

Ms Greening said that she would carefully consider the results from the health report, but at the moment the reasons for introducing the scanners are still a pressing concern.

She added: “I do not believe that a ‘pat down’ search is equivalent in security terms to a security scan. The purpose of introducing security scanners in the first place was to protect the travelling public better against sophisticated terrorist threats.

“These threats still exist and the required level of security is not achieved by permitting passengers to choose a less effective alternative.”

In a Parliamentary written statement, Ms Greening said she believed, in principle, that scanners should be rolled out more widely at UK airports.

What do you think about this defiance against the EC ruling? Is it a good idea? Should the scanners be banned, or is this a knee-jerk reaction to initial research?

As Thomson Airways celebrated its first passenger flight partially powered by biofuel yesterday, green campaigners discredited it as an irresponsible PR stunt.

Parent company TUI Travel claimed the four-hour flight from Birmingham to Lanzarote put Thomson Airways at the forefront of sustainable travel, adding that using the fuel has the potential to cut up to 80% of aviation emissions in the future. however, Airportwatch, which campaigns against aviation expansion, said it was a gimmick that would end up harming the environment.

Friends of the Earth also warned that rather than making flying greener, the use of biofuels for flights will wreck rain forests, push up food prices and increase climate-changing emissions.

Aviation minister Theresa Villiers welcomed the flight. She said: “The government believes sustainable biofuels have a role to play in efforts to tackle climate change, particularly in sectors where no other viable low carbon energy source has been identified.”

Thomson Airways managing director Chris Browne said: “We firmly believe the adoption of sustainable biofuels by airlines will help achieve the government’s carbon budget which commits the UK to reduce its carbon emissions by 50% by 2025.”

Smartphones are going to be an increasingly important tool for those involved in the travel industry, according to research from the 2011 SITA – Air Transport World Passenger Self-Service Survey.

Mobile phone ownership jumped from 28% last year to 54% this year, with at least 74% of first/business travellers stating that they owned a smartphone.  With the number of travellers owning these devices on such an increase, those in the travel industry will need to take note as to how to harness their usage.

The survey found that of those carrying smartphones 73% would like to use mobile boarding passes, with 17% already admitting to using them at least once. SMS flight information is also growing in popularity, over 50% of first/business class travelers and frequent flyers receive SMS notifications.

These are not the only uses for smartphones, three out of four users would connect to a free airport Wi-Fi network for real-time information regarding  flight information, wait times at security, time to reach departure gate from current location, location of nearest lounge, and airport parking.

SITA chief executive officer Francesco Violante said: “We are now entering the era of the mobile-centric passenger, who is not only able to manage his or her journey independently but also expects personal and timely communication from airlines, airports and other providers of travel-related services.

“Smartphone penetration is opening up new frontiers for passenger self-service across key steps of the passenger journey from check-in to boarding. Technology on mobile devices, such as Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connectivity, can be used to improve passenger flow, alleviating areas of passenger concern such as queues at border control and security.”