MSE News: Ryanair U-turn: it will care for stranded passengers

MarkBargain

Sorry to read about that experience jules99. I totally understand what you mean, as Ryanair blanked out days of their schedule and anyone rearranging flights had to book a long way in advance, and then when earlier days became available it was not possible to change online unless huge fees were paid. It is best to steer well clear of Ryanair if possible. I use them as they are the only carrier on the route I sometimes take.

Jamjar_2

We were originally due to fly back to Scotland from Ibiza with Ryanair on the 15th April and we eventually re-booked our flights for 29th April.
We made our own way back to the UK and my question is -
Should we attempt to notify Ryanair that we will not be travelling on the 29th April and add the cost of the unused flights to our overall claim?

Hope this makes sense and any advice would be much appreciated.
JJ

wave_rider_2

JJ, EU Regulation EC261/2004 entitles you to EITHER a refund of your return fare OR food & accomodation whilst you wait for your 're-routed flight'. As you've not taken the 'food & accomodation whilst you wait' option, I would suggest that your only option now is to cancel your re-routed flight before 29th April and request a refund of its cost.

Anything more than that, I think, will be down to goodwill on Ryanair's part!

mikeglaire

jules99 wrote: »

I rang Rynair this morning and explained and was told I should get a refund. I asked about compensation for accommodation and food costs and they told me to submit my receipts and I should also get those back.

I couldn't believe my ears, so rang again and spoke to a different person and was told exactly the same so fingers crossed. I have noted time of call and person I spoke to just in case. The only problem is I was told I had to fax my claims through for refund of accommodation etc so this isn't helpful

Like yourself, I'm going to try and reclaim accommodation costs from Ryanair, can you provide details of where the receipts have to be faxed to ? Have tried to get through on the phone, but waited ages and got nowhere.

jules99

mikeglaire wrote: »

Like yourself, I'm going to try and reclaim accommodation costs from Ryanair, can you provide details of where the receipts have to be faxed to ? Have tried to get through on the phone, but waited ages and got nowhere.

Yes Mike - the fax number is 00353 15081702. Wonder how long it will take to get that sent through without getting a busy signal. I'm going to have to ask work if I can use their fax like many other people probably.

I have found the following article which gives a link to a template letter to claim (the template letter is on the second link I give at the bottom). I've not looked it it properly yet but it looks helpful.

http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/bargains-and-rip-offs/travel/article.html?in_article_id=503265&in_page_id=1093

http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/bargains-and-rip-offs/travel/article.html?in_article_id=503227&in_page_id=1093

jules99

Jamjar wrote: »

We were originally due to fly back to Scotland from Ibiza with Ryanair on the 15th April and we eventually re-booked our flights for 29th April.
We made our own way back to the UK and my question is -
Should we attempt to notify Ryanair that we will not be travelling on the 29th April and add the cost of the unused flights to our overall claim?

Hope this makes sense and any advice would be much appreciated.
JJ

Hi - I worried about this on my return home. When I rang Rynair yesterday I asked about the refund for the unused re-scheduled flight in May and was told I would be refunded but then must have been so relieved I forgot to ask them to cancel it. They wouldn't have cancelled it because I wasn't asked for my details.

I therefore had to ring them again and listen to their dreadful automated message reminding me that I was paying 10p a minute for them to droll on about their website address etc. First time, I selected the option to speak to someone (think it was a general queries), but the second time I selected a different option - that specifically related to flight bookings.

Have you requested a refund via their link on their website? I think it is on the main page where there are links to the latest update on the volcanic ash situation (it was there a few days ago right at the top of their home page). It will ask you the date of the flight you want a refund for. I selected the re-scheduled flight date which was 1st May (even though it hadn't been cancelled) so if you select 29th April . I selected one way too, even though it was a return flight I booked - was unsure about this.

When I rang them yesterday he looked into my booking and knew I had put a refund request in for the 1st May via their website and said it will be processed.

Hope that answers your question. If the link has gone just ring them and ask for a refund of the flight and then fax your accommodation/food receipts to the number I have given in reply to Mike's post.

Both times I rang I was only on the phone (including hold time) approximately 7 minutes each time so wasn't as bad as I expected

ysi

arb wrote: »

Ok, not quite Ryanair will pay out.

They will only pay out if you selected the option to re-route on the next available flight to your final destination.

If you took the refund then you (rightly) get nothing. It is your responsibility. But if you rebooked on another flight that was not the next flight Ryanair won't take the claim. So what was the procedure to book onto the next available flight?

As for the rights and wrongs of this - I personally think that the regulations are too strict. It wasn't what they were meant for - they were meant to stop airlines just cancelling flights at the last minute because they needed the plane for something else (or some other reason), thus leaving the passenger out in the cold. But, these are the regulations - whether they are right or not.

Ryanair continually point this out about what they are obliged to do, as well as showing their own charges/polices (and make you say yes to having agreed to them when you book or check in).

My wife and 2 sons were stranded in Finland on 18 April. Unable to contact Ryanair or rebook online- only option was 24 April which would not confirm).

They came home over 50 hours, via 12 trains, 1 bus, 1 Danish train ferry, 2 normal ferry ships, 1 car and 2 london tubes, after arriving at Ramsgate 0400 hours Tuesday 20 April. (they had to blag a lift onboard this ferry, from some Germans as the ferry policy was 'no walk ons'.). They didn't have any hotel costs -as they slept on train/ferry seats- all sleepers being booked out. Total cost about £700. + the unreceipted cost paid to the kind Germans, €50, who even took them to Ramsgate train station.

Now the default option on the Ryanair website is a link to simply reclaim your flight. Plus another link gives their intrepretation of the EU Regs- if you abandon their flight option and make your own way home by train etc, they state that they don't have to pay for that.

Research here and on thisismoney.com indicates the correct procedure is to submit a claim to Ryanair, and see how they treat it. If they reject it, take this to your insurer. Ours is Tesco -who appear to be settling.

The fax number for Ryanair is shown on this thread, and the address for written claims is:
Ryanair Compensation Department, Dublin Airport, Co. Dublin, Ireland.
(can you send recorded delivery to Ireland??)

I would be interested to hear if anyone has any response/ better info etc: thanks

steve1500

Has anybody actually found out how to go about claiming, I have looked on their website and they are not giving a lot away. A bit like when we were stuck in Malaga

mikeglaire

jules99 wrote: »

Yes Mike - the fax number is 00353 15081702. Wonder how long it will take to get that sent through without getting a busy signal. I'm going to have to ask work if I can use their fax like many other people probably.

Julie,

Thanks a lot for that, the template letter looked a bit long winded, so I've done a single page of A4 version.

Will get it faxed now, luckily I work from home so will leave the fax on auto retry !!

Sure lots of you won't agree with this, but I feel a bit sorry for Ryanair, they're not in the insurance business, they are acting like insurers having to pay out, but haven't had the benefit of collecting the premiums. They thought they were running a flying bus service !!!!

At least Ryanair have the money to pay out, suspect a lot of the other carriers will struggle to find the cash and we will see a few more fail. Make sure you use your credit cards for all airline bookings !!!! I did for my Ryanair flights to France in May (£67 return for two including all taxes etc etc ). Michael , we love you.

MarkBargain

ysi wrote: »

(can you send recorded delivery to Ireland??)

You can, it is called International Signed For and costs £4.25 on top of the normal Airmail postage price (£1.31 for 100g if sent "small packet rate").

I think I will send a copy of my receipts, as I fully expect to get no response. This is the company that will not even publish an email address for customers to contact it!