Ryanair - cancelled flights

vegasvisitor

We have just had an email from Ryanair saying they're cancelling our flights from Edinburgh to Rome in November. It says we have the option to transfer to the Prestwick flight (we couldn't get Prestwick flights at time of booking, hence selecting Edinburgh which is further away). On looking at the website there's still no Prestwick flights so how am I supposed to change to a flight that doesn't exist? We also have the option to get a refund.

Anyone else had/got this problem? We've booked a non-cancellable hotel for 3 nights, so this is going to be a problem.

Tried to call the 10p per minute helpline, but the recorded message says there's high call volumes today so I gave up after I heard that.

jpsartre

lesley74 wrote: »

On looking at the website there's still no Prestwick flights so how am I supposed to change to a flight that doesn't exist?

You can't. I see no obvious alternative routing with Ryanair so I would opt for a refund and begin looking at other carriers. KLM looks like they might be cheapest from Glasgow though BA is another option..

vegasvisitor

The thing is, I don't want to just cancel online because they seem to be saying we can tranfer to the Prestwick flight.... here's a snippet from the email.



Option 1



Full refund of all monies paid. To obtain a refund - click on the link belowand complete the required information. Please note: If one of your flights is due to depart before the 07/11/12and you do not wish to use that flight you can also receive a refund for thisflight by including this information on the refund form.



http://schchng.ryanair.com//r.asp?i=38LYJEJI203402-FR6682BABK00CIAEDIM100FDADCBC&lg=EN&p=2



Option 2



Transfer free of charge onto one of the below listedalternative Ryanair flights from, alternatively contact reservations regardinga free transfer to/from another Ryanair airport.



Flights to/from Glasgow Prestwick to Rome Ciampino



Please contact Ryanair reservations. Click below for details.



http://www.ryanair.com/en/questions/contacting-customer-service

I'm thinking it looks like they intend to have a prestwick option (which by the way is fine by us as Edinburgh isn't actually our nearest airport).

Other than this it is all 1 stop flights at £200 each from Glasgow. Closest alternative is to drive down to Manchester for a flight at about £80 each. I think I'd like to think that their email suggests there's going to be a flight from Prestwick, but as I can't see it online I'm not so sure! Is it possible they'd change their flights from Edinburgh to Prestwick flights instead? Edinburgh is quite a small airport, so I was pretty surprised they had the flights.

jpsartre

If there are no flights from Prestwick loaded now for November I find it unlikely that there will be any. Winter schedule has been released for a while now. I can't guarantee that there won't be any last-minute additions but my guess is their systems just aren't up-to-date. If you don't mind driving down to MAN you should be able to transfer your existing booking free-of-charge.

Edinburgh Airport isn't that small by the way. In the UK, it's surpassed only by the London airports and Manchester.

richardw

jpsartre wrote: »

If there are no flights from Prestwick loaded now for November I find it unlikely that there will be any. Winter schedule has been released for a while now. ....

You're forgetting this is ryanair, anything can happen.

richardw

jpsartre wrote: »

...it's surpassed only by the London airports...

Are you including London City LCY and London Southend SEN in that statement?

SaveTheEuro

My guess is that they are offering earlier dates from Glasgow. They'll transfer your flights if you're prepared to fly in October.

Your may have to bite the bullet and make that expensive phone call.

jpsartre

richardw wrote: »

Are you including London City LCY and London Southend SEN in that statement?

No, the bigger London airports are LHR, LGW, STN, and LTN.

jpsartre

richardw wrote: »

You're forgetting this is ryanair, anything can happen.

I didn't forget. As I said, I don't guarantee that there won't be any last minute additions.

vegasvisitor

Thanks for the advice all. It's just so annoying We're trying to get organised for going away on holiday on Friday coming, so we could be doing without this hassle for our Rome trip in November.

There are still Edinburgh-Rome flights up to the 7th November, unfortunately we fly on the 9th. The flights the weekend before are more expensive, but I do wonder if they would transfer us to those (they were the same price when we booked because we looked at various date options). That said, I still have the hotel problem - we booked a non cancellable rate at Holiday Inn Express (on the HI website). I guess this must happen to loads of people but it's so annoying.

jpsartre

I think they would transfer you to the earlier flight free-of-charge if you asked them. Of course, that doesn't solve your hotel problem.