Belfast City Airport Chaos..

SuperMum2008

Just wondered were any other poor souls caught up in the city airport debacle on Friday night and if so, what are the chances of any compensation?

I was sitting on a grounded plane for 3 hours, delayed by a further 1 hour in the terminal, with nothing to eat, no food or drinks offered by Ryanair (:(), involved in a very frightening scuffle to get a bus up to international for an hour and a half with groups of men who had been drinking for the duration of the delay, queued for 40 minutes to get through new security at international, and then sat for 2 hours with the lights turned off at international waiting for a human to tell me if I was even in the right place. Eventually boarded a 2nd plane which we sat on for an hour waiting for it to be defrosted too. :mad: . Planned flight time - 6.30pm, final take off from a different airport 1.10am, finally got to my destination at 3.30am.

Not happy with Ryanair, and there were virtually no staff anywhere to help me, or reassure me in what was at times quite a frightening situation, I was very cold during the wait for the buses, got elbowed in the ribs to get on a bus, nearly lost my hand luggage, was starving hungry and thirsty - just attrocious.

peterdoherty

cant help but I'm not surprised with the way ryanair treated you. they are a disgrace and from previous similar experience (and friends similar experience) I will never fly with them again.

I didnt mind being treated like cattle when you could fly for 1p or £1 but now with all the stupid moneymaking charges I will never travel with them again

SuperMum2008

To be "fair" to Ryanair, there were other airlines with the same issues (broken defrosting equipment I presume provided by Servisair?) and they also had no staff on - it meant hundreds of people were stranded in arrivals waiting for buses and not knowing where to go....agree the the charges though...Grr!

belfastgirl23

This is exactly why I never fly with ryanair. To be fair to them they are very open about the fact that their customer service is s**t. But this does sound like a horrible situation OP. Might be worth checking on the travel board to see if people did get compensation in similar circumstances?

The only bit of it I find worrying is that the city airport didn't have a working de-icer in the middle of winter. Apparently one of them had gone missing as well. how on earth do you lose a de-icer for a plane?? It's not as if one of the customers put it in their handbag is it?

SuperMum2008

LOL no, they had run out of de-icer, got more, one broke, they brought one down from international and then that needed 1 hour to warm up (I ASK YOU???!!!), then I think that one broke too...grr. Good idea re the travel board though - will have a look there!

almillar

They've cost me £300 before I've ever flown with them by 'rescheduling' the flight (what they actually did was cancel Monday's and put me on Tuesday's) so I had to re-book with another operator months later at a higher price.
I won't be booking with them again, it literally isn't worth it!

metalgal

i hate ryanair and pretty much all of the airline who treat you like cattle and a sucker to bleed dry.

I cant post links and i have to perfect information for you!! Your flight was delayed by 7 hours and you were entitled to meals and refreshments and two free telephone calls, faxes or emails, and possibly entitled to €250-400 approx in compensation. It depends where you where going. If you PM me ill give you the link you need.

I would advise writing a strongly worded letter to Ryanair and if you are not happy with their response seek independent legal advise or possibly CAB

peterdoherty

metalgal wrote: »

i hate ryanair and pretty much all of the airline who treat you like cattle and a sucker to bleed dry.

I cant post links and i have to perfect information for you!! Your flight was delayed by 7 hours and you were entitled to meals and refreshments and two free telephone calls, faxes or emails, and possibly entitled to €250-400 approx in compensation. It depends where you where going. If you PM me ill give you the link you need.

I would advise writing a strongly worded letter to Ryanair and if you are not happy with their response seek independent legal advise or possibly CAB

ryanair will undoubtedly fob you off with the excuse that it was outside of their control and weather related to get out of paying compo!

purt

metalgal wrote: »

I would advise writing a strongly worded letter to Ryanair and if you are not happy with their response seek independent legal advise or possibly CAB

I wouldn't waste the paper, ink, envelope or stamp writing to Ryanair. They don't give a monkeys in these situations. I rarely fly with them, unless absolutely essential.

If you have travel insurance you ought to be able to claim off it, at least for the expenses incurred around food etc. There are legal obligations upon airlines if you're delayed, including around provision of refreshments. I'm not sure if these rules still apply in situations where Ryanair may refund you if a flight is severely delayed, or even cancelled.

chunter

Think Ryanair.com, think Partypoker.com.
If you want to gamble, there's two sites I'd recommend.

mojopolo

the consumer council give some guidance on what you are entitled too
http://www.consumercouncil.org.uk/publications/
in their 'plane facts' publication - pg 36
Looks like you need to have been delayed for more than 5 hours before your entitled to reimbursement of the ticket price - the airline is meant to clearly display this. They are also meant to provide refreshments etc.

If you have no satisfaction with Ryanair its the consumer council that you need to complain too.