Ryanair will ship a physical gift card to your doorstep free of charge if it starts from 100 €, but ask 2 € for a virtual one that is sent via e-mail.
From their ToS:
A €2/£2 (or local currency equivalent) admin fee applies to Digital Gift Cards. A €5/£5 admin and delivery fee apply to Physical Gift Cards. This fee is waived for purchases exceeding €/£100.
Additionally the classic “Same number for differently valued currencies” making these fees approximate and not made based on the actual cost.
That statement is also written in a way that can be ambiguous whether fee is removed for only physical or both types.
And another thing is that it seems they are processing these virtual cards manually. You have to wait around 40 minutes between payment and e-mail. Guess that’s why there is a fee, someone has to paste a code in mail and send it out.
It’s Ryanair, this is nothing.
For every decision they take they always consult the Big Encyclopedia of Dark Patterns and Asshole Design™ to maximize the damage to the user
Probably they noticed that a virtual gift card will get used very soon (example give the money for a trip to someone else) so they are going to charge extra for the “convenience” while the physical because arrives weeks later via snail mail gets forgotten and they can keep the unused credit at expiration.
“Welcome to Ryanair! As a forward thinking company, we have added a hoop for you to jump through for your convenience! Only £5 per jump! …Oh, no, the only way to board the plane is to use the hoop. But for an additional fee, we will extinguish the fire before you jump!”
You could have just said “Ryanair” and that’s all the description you need. Ryanair is designed by assholes. They deliberately designed every element of their business to squeeze pennies out of you for services other airlines offer for no cost at all. And they seem in no rush to tell you about these things until the last possible moment, just so they can catch you off guard and add a last minute charge.
They should put the gift card through a scanner and send the image. If it’s that easy, charging for it is asshole-ish for sure.
