Ryanair Flight Compensation

j.i.p

Ok so I sent my claim to Ryanair for reimbursement of my Jet2 re-route costs. I just received an email no acknowledgement of my claim under EC261/2004 just how it was not there fault the flight was cancelled and how the have refunded the original cost of the flight to my card. They have not even mentioned my claim or given any legal reason to refuse it they have just ignored it.

Any ideas as to what my next step should be. They will not let me reply to the email so are already making it difficult to continue this!

ian41

j.i.p wrote: »

Ok so I sent my claim to Ryanair for reimbursement of my Jet2 re-route costs. I just received an email no acknowledgement of my claim under EC261/2004 just how it was not there fault the flight was cancelled and how the have refunded the original cost of the flight to my card. They have not even mentioned my claim or given any legal reason to refuse it they have just ignored it.

Any ideas as to what my next step should be. They will not let me reply to the email so are already making it difficult to continue this!

You have the choice – drop it or pursue it – no-one can make that decision for you because it a personal matter.

Ryanair – not for the first time – are trying to confuse the situation so that you simply give up. I suggested in post # 8, that it would be a struggle to extract money from Ryanair.

They are fully aware that EC Reg 261/2004 Article 8 provisions are mandatory and apply whether or not Ryanair were fully responsible or blameless for the flight cancellation – there is simply no let-out for the airline once they cancel any flight. So you are on solid ground legally.

If you decide to pursue, the next steps would be as follows. You send Ryanair a “Letter before Action” (LBA) which summarises your claim in a semi-formalised way. If you wish to proceed, I can prepare a draft LBA foryou. The LBA would (usually) give Ryanair x days to settle the matter failing which you could proceed to take legal action without further notice.

Ryanair are more likely to respond to either the threat of legal action or legal action itself – particularly in this situation when they have no defence.

There is no cost involved in preparing and sending an LBA (apart from signed-for postage) and the costs of starting a legal claim against Ryanair are pretty small. The exact costs depend on where you are resident but £25-35 for the claim would be typical and this sum is usually added to the amount claimed from Ryanair.

If the claim went to a hearing (extremely unlikely) the hearing costs could add a further £25 which, depending on the country where you start your claim, is again added to the bill assuming Ryanair lose.

If you want to proceed, then it would be prudent to either post or PM an exact copy of what you said to Ryanair in your email(s) and their replies – omitting of course, your address and all personal details. Equally, you need to say where you live on a day-by-day basis please.

Finally, I turn to the last para of your post. Very sadly, this is now a tactic used by an increasing number of airlines including KLM, easyJet and Ryanair. They are working on the basis that by telling you that they will close the file or just closing their file, the vast majority of complainants will just give up (and they do!) – and this saves the airlines afortune. At the appropriate time, simply re-start the correspondence by email and at the start of the email, refer to the previous correspondence and include all PNRs/flight details/Ryanair references – and carry on as before. This chain of correspondence is important to you.

If you want to see how others approach such problems, there is a (large) specialist thread on MSE called Compensation for flight delays (and cancellations). You might enjoy reading some of the many posts here

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/51838505#Comment_51838505

Post back if you need any further clarification, have any queries or when you have made your decision.

marmarama

J.I.P., I just want to let you know that I for one disagree with ian41's assessment- not on the urgent issue, but I do think it's worth pursuing compensation from them.

Why?

Basically the fact that Ryanair are in dispute with some authority or another is not an exceptional circumstance!!

Thay may have a case for suing the Hungarian state, but that's not your problem (in fact they'll probably try to get Hungary to pay for the compensation they'll have to fork out!).

They have any number of options to deal with this border police dispute without cancelling your flight - one of which would be not to assume they can run such a ridiculously tight operation everywhere.

Volcano = exceptional circumstance
3rd party strike affecting, say, fuel supplies everywhere - exceptional circumstance
ryanair in dispute with employees/ authorities/ police/ customers - not exceptional



PS I for one smiled smugly when I read: 'we even sent them letters from other border police forces and they just ignored us'
Boo hoo ryanair! But at least Hungarian border police didn't charge you 1.50 a minute to listen to your complaints

Centipede100

marmarama wrote: »

J.I.P., I just want to let you know that I for one disagree with ian41's assessment- not on the urgent issue, but I do think it's worth pursuing compensation from them.

Why?

Basically the fact that Ryanair are in dispute with some authority or another is not an exceptional circumstance!!

Ian41 has explained already why trying to extract compensation from the airline in this instance will be a fruitless task and I for one agree with his conclusion.

The re-route reimbursement is a different matter entirely and might lead to Ryanair making an offer to settle this sum without recourse to legal action to make the recovery.

I should add to Ian41's post that it is difficult to issue a County Court small claim in the UK on Ryanair as they have no 'place of business' as defined in the Civil Procedure Rules at which a claim may be served. The Swords County Court just outside Dublin, however, has been used on a number of occasions to obtain relief from the airline and it is worth following this up if you need to proceed that far. The costs appear to be somewhat similar to those stated by Ian41 above.

If you have access to legal expenses cover via a household contents insurance policy, then that would be a better method still and allows you to get someone else to do the work on your behalf.

Voyager2002

Centipede100 wrote: »

Ian41 has explained already why trying to extract compensation from the airline in this instance will be a fruitless task and I for one agree with his conclusion.

The re-route reimbursement is a different matter entirely and might lead to Ryanair making an offer to settle this sum without recourse to legal action to make the recovery.

I should add to Ian41's post that it is difficult to issue a County Court small claim in the UK on Ryanair as they have no 'place of business' as defined in the Civil Procedure Rules at which a claim may be served. The Swords County Court just outside Dublin, however, has been used on a number of occasions to obtain relief from the airline and it is worth following this up if you need to proceed that far. The costs appear to be somewhat similar to those stated by Ian41 above.

If you have access to legal expenses cover via a household contents insurance policy, then that would be a better method still and allows you to get someone else to do the work on your behalf.

I disagree: Ryanair do have a registered place of business in the UK (at Stansted airport) and several posters on Flight Mole report using this address to issue proceedings in England.

My only Ryanair experience involved a cancellation, although it genuinely was the result of exceptional circumstances. I followed their instructions and claimed my out of pocket expenses (three meals; a hotel; some bus and train travel) and received reimbursement in full after about six weeks. The total cost of my original ticket was five pounds!

Centipede100

Voyager2002 wrote: »

I disagree: Ryanair do have a registered place of business in the UK (at Stansted airport) and several posters on Flight Mole report using this address to issue proceedings in England.

My only Ryanair experience involved a cancellation, although it genuinely was the result of exceptional circumstances. I followed their instructions and claimed my out of pocket expenses (three meals; a hotel; some bus and train travel) and received reimbursement in full after about six weeks. The total cost of my original ticket was five pounds!

Whilst a few posters have used the Stansted address to issue proceedings, it appears few (if any) have been successfully resolved to the passengers' satisfaction and certainly none of any recent reports. The Ryanair address at Stansted is that of a dormant company and, that being the case, has no assets listed that could be seized in the remote event of either a successful judgement or that the airline refuses to pay.

Ian41 and myself have discussed this both on and offline at some length and the consensus is that claims issued against that company will usually fail at the first hurdle once the airline state it is not an address of 'place of business' for the airline.

Indeed, from the cases listed on flightmole and elsewhere, Ryanair seem to vigorously defend that that is the correct address of the 'operating carrier' as defined in 261/2004, the correct address being that of Ryanair at Dublin airport. Ryanair UK Ltd is not the operating carrier and a claim made against that entity is IMO bound to fail and will cost the claimant court fees issued against that company.

Conversely, the Swords County Court has been used with some success in claims against Ryanair on a number of occasions.

Check out Zubo's successful thread on flightmole where the question of this Stansted address was discussed along with other pertinent details: http://www.flightmole.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1216

j.i.p

Well, it's been 6 weeks from my initial post and I have a result to report.

I decided to peruse the re-routeing option only and claimed for reimbursement of the Jet2 flight. To save time I lodged my claim on the EU 261/2004 claim form on the Ryanair website. Ryanair then refunded my £14 for the two cancelled flights and said how sorry they are. I sent a fax to them pointing out my claim was for reimbursement of the Jet2 flights and not a refund of the Ryanair flights. I told them if they did not comply I would start legal action in the Irish courts and how this would cost them, as they had no legal reason to refuse my claim. I also pointed out, if I was forced to bring a claim against them, I would also be minded to include a claim for the 400 Euro compensation x 2 at the same time, as I believed they did not do everything in their power to make the flight go and also noted I was aware they had changed the flight schedule for future flights on this route, so why could they have not done the same for the flight I was on, before cancelling it.

I received another letter from Ryanair telling me I opted for a refund (Not true) and once they did the refund I was not entitled to further care under EU261/2004. To my astonishment the next paragraph said they had issued a payment of £666.40 (800 Euro) in full and final settlement of my claim, the cheque arrived in today's post. I can't believe they gave up on this point so quickly and this just shows they did not have a leg to stand on.

I would advise anyone who was affected by the same flight cancellation to pursue a compensation claim even if you opted for a refund of the initial flight.

SaveTheEuro

Brilliant result. Thanks for letting us know.

j.i.p

My suggestion of perusing a claim was indented to suggest contacting Ryanair and lodging a claim for compensation with them, it was not a suggestion to start a claim in the courts, that decision would be down to the individual and based on the circumstances and merits of the claim.

The regulation states you are entailed to compensation in additionto care, eg refund or re-routeing, as Ryanair has already refunded my cancelledflight and issued compensation.