This is the third day in Greece since the capital controls were instituted and the first full day since Greece defaulted on its loan repayment to the IMF. Things have certainly not gotten easier here for the Greek people as ATMs are still running low or completely empty and people are not spending the cash they do get so stores are becoming more empty of customers.
Read More: Finding Money In Greece – Tips For Travelers
Another aspect of the capital controls that were put in place is the inability to use Greek credit cards/debit cards to make payments outside of Greece. This includes online type services like iTunes, Amazon, Google, Facebook, etc. but also prevents payment of things like airline tickets for airlines not based in Greece. Such is the case with Ryanair.
Ryanair Letting Greek Customers Use Cash
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Ryanair is known for being a completely cashless airline. If you want to buy a bottle of water onboard their aircraft (because they do not give anything away as part of their extreme economic fares), it has to be paid for with a credit card. Well, Ryanair has removed the non-cash policy for Greek customers as many are still trying to go on holiday (or maybe even leave until these difficulties blow over) and they were unable to secure the cheap airfare aboard Ryanair to fly throughout Europe.
So, if you are a Greek customer, you can go to any airport serviced by Ryanair and pay for your ticket with cash. This is very good also for Greek people who may be trying to get back home to be with family. Without the ability to pay in cash, they would be stranded until the capital controls lift.
Even still, with the restriction of only being able to draw €60 per day no matter where they are in the world (if their money is coming from a Greek bank), they are still not going to be able to travel that far. At least Ryanair is making it a little bit easier for the Greek people during their challenging economy situation.
On the Greek homefront, Greece-based airline Aegean Airlines has said that all flights will continue operating normally and Greek customers can use their Greek cards to pay for tickets on Aegean or Olympic.
HT: RTE News
Unfortunately, statement that you can not pay for anything on Ryanair with cash is simply false. I have been a witness of man paying with cash (exactly: Euro) for a bottle of coke a few days ago.
It is their policy but I imagine cash does happen onboard sometimes.
Anytime I travel with them and shopping cart is about to be started, the flight attendant announces that “the payments can be carried out using credit cards, euro and the currencies of both outbound and inbound country”. Despite that, I agree that looking for change is often troublesome for flight attendants.
You certainly have more travel experience on them than I do so I will defer to your experiences. Thanks for updating!