Cancelling a Ryanair flight

lost78

A friend is in a bit of a flap having just spoken to Ryanair's "cancellation line" in order to cancel some flights (Birmingham, UK to Girona, Spain; end of July). she tried to cancel online, clicked through the links, then found herself redirected to the "cancellation line". The person she spoke to was extremely rude, bordering on abusive, and informed my friend that she should simply not turn up for the outbound flight then phone to cancel afterwards. When my friend questioned such an absurd situation (politely), the call centre person shouted at her and then hung up while my friend was speaking.

Surely this can't be right? Anyone know the correct procedure for cancelling Ryanair flights? Looking around on other forums there are various issues with recouping fees when cancelling/changing flights, which seem very complicated. Seems Ryanair staff are trained to be obstinate about paying anything back.

My friend is reluctant to phone back and wants to be sure of the correct procedure here and what she should expect to get back. Anyone know? The number she had to call was, of course, premium rate so ideally she wouldn't call it again.

Cheers, bloody Ryanair..

benjus

Ryanair tickets have very little flexibility... you have to pay a lot to change the times or the names of the people flying.

The fares are non-refundable. However, you can obtain a refund of the taxes you paid, minus an administration charge (which is likely to be close to the amount you're claiming - so don't expect to get much). I believe that Ryanair prefers to handle these transactions by fax, although I've never actually tried to claim any money back from them myself.

This is pretty standard in the low-cost airline industry. Easyjet, for example, offers flexible fares but these are a lot more expensive than the standard ones.

BTW - don't call the premium rate number - look through their site for the "rest of the world" contact number in Ireland and call this using a discount international calls provider. I must say that whenever I have spoken to the Ryanair call centre I have never found the staff at all rude.

spiro

Bascially the only think Ryanar allow you to do is 'change' the booking to another date/time/route. You dont say why she want to cancel, it might be covered by her travel insurance.