Ryanair changed flight, offering credit - Advice?

lennylumb

just had my Ryanair flights to Milan cancelled. They have offered alternatives (either wrong dates or airport to far) so I will have to cancel and get my money back for the flights. Problem is I have booked hotels, and will lose money if I cancel these. I have written to Ryanair to ask for compensation for monies lost on hotel bookings but they have written back saying they don't give compenstaion. But surely this is their responsibility - they cancelled their flights, meaning I could not go away and casuing me to cancel the hotels - why should I lose out. My holiday insurance policy states ' no cover where provider has cancelled services...if this happens you should claim against your provider'
has anyone else tried to get compenstation for monies lost through Ryanair cancelling flights ? is it worth pursuing ?
The annoying thing is they only have fax and address contacts for their claim department, no email or phone number - very clever on their part but very frustrating !

PolishBigSpender

lennylumb wrote: »

just had my Ryanair flights to Milan cancelled. They have offered alternatives (either wrong dates or airport to far) so I will have to cancel and get my money back for the flights. Problem is I have booked hotels, and will lose money if I cancel these. I have written to Ryanair to ask for compensation for monies lost on hotel bookings but they have written back saying they don't give compenstaion. But surely this is their responsibility - they cancelled their flights, meaning I could not go away and casuing me to cancel the hotels - why should I lose out.

Your hotel bookings are nothing to do with Ryanair - you have contracted them to take you from A to B. They have had to cancel the contract, so they've fufilled the relevant regulations by either offering you an alternative or by offering a full refund. The fact that you had hotels in Milan side is neither here nor there - it's none of their business or indeed interest what you booked.

You can still go away, Ryanair haven't prevented you from going to Milan.

My holiday insurance policy states ' no cover where provider has cancelled services...if this happens you should claim against your provider'
has anyone else tried to get compenstation for monies lost through Ryanair cancelling flights ? is it worth pursuing ?!

That's your travel insurance policy at fault, not Ryanair.

connlach

lennylumb wrote: »

just had my Ryanair flights to Milan cancelled. They have offered alternatives (either wrong dates or airport to far) so I will have to cancel and get my money back for the flights. Problem is I have booked hotels, and will lose money if I cancel these. I have written to Ryanair to ask for compensation for monies lost on hotel bookings but they have written back saying they don't give compenstaion. But surely this is their responsibility - they cancelled their flights, meaning I could not go away and casuing me to cancel the hotels - why should I lose out. My holiday insurance policy states ' no cover where provider has cancelled services...if this happens you should claim against your provider'
has anyone else tried to get compenstation for monies lost through Ryanair cancelling flights ? is it worth pursuing ?
The annoying thing is they only have fax and address contacts for their claim department, no email or phone number - very clever on their part but very frustrating !

Hi Lennylumb

I would be cautious about what advice you take on here on any Ryanair issue as some posters seem to be very blinkered in their views that Ryanair can do no wrong. I appreciate what you are saying as the last 3 flights I booked with Ryanair have changed but fortunately only within 1 hour. This is clearly becoming a continual problem with Ryanair and the best advice in hindsight I can give is if you plan on using them again make sure your hotel, car etc is cancellable and factor the higher cost of flexibility into the cost of the holiday. For example if you can get savings pre paying these things it might be better to look at paying more for the flight.

Ryanir have many advantages which is why I use them on a regular basis, however they also have many disadvantages. At least I am open minded enough to see both.

Bob_the_Saver

OP got 4 flights, 2 to Prague, 2 back for £30. = A LOSS FOR RYANAIR ON THESE SEATS

Yes some full fare airlines could do more to help than Ryanair, that's because they are not charging £7.50 per flight total, at that price you take a chance and 99% of the time there is no problem.

I'm not one who says Ryanair can do no wrong, I started using them when BA let me down (again) and have had no problems ever. One day I will, but I've saved so many thousands and thousands of pounds I'll get over it.

You could always try BA and pay £ 584.60 or more

If I was saving £554.60 I'd put up with a change like that, it costs £7.50 to go on a bus for 25 miles where I was in the UK !!!!!

Outbound - Thursday 1 Oct, 2009 07:55
1 Oct 10:55 1 Oct Heathrow (London) Prague BA0854
British Airways Euro Traveller

Inbound - Wednesday 7 Oct, 2009
18:40
7 Oct 19:50
7 Oct Prague Heathrow (London) BA0857
British Airways Euro Traveller
Total £ 584.60 ex any card charges

kingston_toon

Call them up and request a route change to / from another airport (if you can find suitable flights). I had a flight moved by 8 hours, and they were more than happy to accept my suggestion that I fly from a completely different airport to another different airport (both more convenient for me actually) at no extra charge, even though the new flights were more expensive.

I've actually never had a bad experience calling the Ryanair call centre... if you're friendly and polite, they seem to want to help you.

cannyscot_2

Hotnuts21 I would try advice above by Kingston-toon. I had same issue and followed this advice above after asking on here and got the same result better flight to where I wated. I was v.shocked.

I have recently had another flight moved which wasnt so good as Id miss half a day or have to forfeit my connecting easyjet flight but the return flight was moved and we gained half a day so all was well.

I have flown ryanair at their cheapest fare for 8 years or so and yes there seems alot of cacellations lately but I think it is every co.


Delta changed my parents connecting flight meaning they had a really bad travel and they are much older and nothing would make delta give us any alternatives not pleading begging etc.


so it has just become a feature of flights I fear you only have to search the internet or look at flyer talk.

robertk

Hello, Hot N#ts.

I really feel for you and your predicament.

I get the distinct impression there is not a lot of sympathy on this forum. When you've had a rough time of it, the last thing you want to hear is clever people on here tutting at your misfortune and telling you you should have done this and should have done that.

So, here's some sympathy: I]SYMPATHY[/I.

Ryanair have just pulled the plug on me, too, as they've cancelled the route I was due to be travelling on in a month's time. Whatever the legal rights and wrongs, re-reading their one-sided small print isn't going to make me feel any better. I've not tried their handy fax system either. Oh, joy.

There's an interesting book I've come across called "Loving What Is" which tries to help you see events from a more neutral point of view so you don't end up feeling bad when things don't turn out as they "should". Perhaps Ryanair could try handing out free* copies?

Good luck with the rearrangements!

---

*not including booking fee, credit/debit card charges, online/offline miscellaneous charges...**

**charges can be changed without notice***

***notice cannot be changed without charges.

Etc.

old_motters

For those people who selected Ryanair as their carrier, more fool you. Their reputation is well known and how they treat customers is also well known.

I think the answer to avoiding these issues is simple, don't book/fly with Ryanair unless you're willing to accept a good screwing over if things go wrong.