Flight delay and cancellation compensation, Ryanair ONLY

My_head_aches

This is a ryanair problem but not for a flight delay so if I am in the wrong place can someone help anyway.

Just over a couple of weeks ago our best friend died unexpectedly. He was booked to fly to the UK for a short holiday to visit family for 10 days along with his wife. He lived in Spain.His wife is still planning to fly but is understandably still recovering from her loss. She asked me to contact Ryanair for a refund for the husband’s ticket so I sent a fax to the number given on the website. This was over a week ago and we have NO response whatsoever. My daughter has telephoned the so called 'customer service department' twice. The first time she was quoted data protection by the foreigner she spoke to and told they would only talk to the person who made the booking. My daughter explained he was dead and they changed their tune slightly.

The second time (yesterday) she was told to wait for a response from Dublin and that customer service had no way to make direct contact. I find this hard to believe.

As the couple were just planning a short holiday to home they didn’t bother with insurance and she has no idea how he paid for the holiday so it is no use trying to claim the money back from the card company given it may have been a visa debit card anyway.

How long should I wait for ryanair to at least acknowledge receipt of my fax? I have been checking both his emails (distressing) and my own daily.
Any help gratefully received.


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karenelainehughes

Just to update on my saga, I've reached an impasse with Ryan Air as although they have now agreed to look into my claim (after 3 letters back & forth) ...the flight I was on back in 2010 was delayed over 3.5 hours, I am unable to find the original booking ref. I paid for Halifax Visa to send me my visa statement from the month I made the booking but the only reference on there is the transaction reference there is no flight booking ref included, although it clearly shows the amount paid to Ryan Air ... there is something in this thread somewhere that says credit card companies usually show your booking ref on your card statement ... I called Halifax and they said they don't use it, just the actual transaction reference, I tried writing back to Ryan Air explaining that I couldn't retrieve it, surely it must be possible for them to retrieve it from their passenger manifests (I would have thought they'd legally have to keep them for more than 3 years..?) anyway just had email back from Ryan Air saying that if I can't supply it they can't pursue my claim any further as they do not have access to passenger manifests for old flights, they only have the last 9 months worth of flights available as booking history on-line. So unless you happen to have kept a copy of your original booking you can't claim... end of story, unless I try taking them to court, losing the will to be honest.

London2013

Our flight was scheduled to depart at 7:20am, on 5th Dec 2012 from London Stansted to Frankfurt Hahn. As we were waiting at the boarding gate at 7am there was an announcement that many ryan air flights were cancelled and our flight (with 6 or 7 others) was being rerouted from another airport (due to 2cm of snow) and to go back to the main terminal collect luggages and to await a coach to be transferred. There was absolute chaos, no one from Ryan Air was able to tell us where to go etc. Interestingly all other airlines were ok to fly!
By chance we managed to find where people were waiting for the coaches outside the terminal. This was now around 8am. Passengers for several other Ryan air flights were there too, waiting for their coach to take them to other airports. Our flight was being re-routed from Birmingham. I have never seen so much disorganisation and lack of care for passengers in all my time of travelling. Everyone were standing together like sardines in a small space shivering from the cold. Not once did any staff come to see if everyone is ok or offer hot drinks and refereshments. My mother is in her 60s and father in his 70s and suffers from alzeihmers, we were travelling to Frankfurt for 2 days to attend a funeral. The lack of information and care for everyone there was nothing short of shocking.

The first coaches arrived around 10am and ours picked us up well past 11am. We arrived in Birmingham at around 1:30pm, only to be told by a Ryan Air manager at the airport that the plane that was supposed to go from Birmingham had left to Stansted and all the coaches for this flight were called to go back to Stansted apart from ours due to miscommunication! She calmly informed everyone to get back on our coach and get back to Stansted in order for us not to miss the flight. Further scrutiny revealed that we would miss the flight in any case as the plane would not wait for us and we were asked go back to Stansted and ask the ryan air desk there to book us on the next flight which was leaving that night at 20:45 (More than 12 hours after our original schedule flight!). The desk at Birmingham were extremely unhelpful, they didn’t attempt to call Stansted to ask for our original flight to wait for us, or book us in for the next flight or even give us any refreshments. We asked if the next flight had enough room for all of us (52 passengers) and they said we needed to go back to Stansted and find out from there. It was only after we demanded for them to call Ryan air and find out how many seats were available on that flight that we were informed it was only 37! We were told to stop arguing and get back on the coach and get back to Stansted before the coach left!

On the coach back it was a scramble for us to get on our mobile phones to call Ryan air to be rebooked on the next flight. We managed to this, but at least 15 passengers were unable to. We got back to stanstead at 5pm a fully 12 hours after our first arrival there that morning! Again no Ryan staff gave anyone any refreshments explanation or apology! In the end we got to Frankfurt Hahn at 11pm local time, and had to get a cab to our final destination (costing £150!) as we were late for other forms of transport.

You couldn’t write this whole laughable episode. But it wasn’t a laughing matter considering the reason for our travel, the length of stay and the age of my parents.

Is there anything that can be done? Would I be able to get our money back on the flights?

Fletchasketch

London2013 wrote: »

Our flight was scheduled to depart at 7:20am, on 5th Dec 2012 from London Stansted to Frankfurt Hahn. As we were waiting at the boarding gate at 7am there was an announcement that many ryan air flights were cancelled and our flight (with 6 or 7 others) was being rerouted from another airport (due to 2cm of snow) and to go back to the main terminal collect luggages and to await a coach to be transferred. There was absolute chaos, no one from Ryan Air was able to tell us where to go etc. Interestingly all other airlines were ok to fly!
By chance we managed to find where people were waiting for the coaches outside the terminal. This was now around 8am. Passengers for several other Ryan air flights were there too, waiting for their coach to take them to other airports. Our flight was being re-routed from Birmingham. I have never seen so much disorganisation and lack of care for passengers in all my time of travelling. Everyone were standing together like sardines in a small space shivering from the cold. Not once did any staff come to see if everyone is ok or offer hot drinks and refereshments. My mother is in her 60s and father in his 70s and suffers from alzeihmers, we were travelling to Frankfurt for 2 days to attend a funeral. The lack of information and care for everyone there was nothing short of shocking.

The first coaches arrived around 10am and ours picked us up well past 11am. We arrived in Birmingham at around 1:30pm, only to be told by a Ryan Air manager at the airport that the plane that was supposed to go from Birmingham had left to Stansted and all the coaches for this flight were called to go back to Stansted apart from ours due to miscommunication! She calmly informed everyone to get back on our coach and get back to Stansted in order for us not to miss the flight. Further scrutiny revealed that we would miss the flight in any case as the plane would not wait for us and we were asked go back to Stansted and ask the ryan air desk there to book us on the next flight which was leaving that night at 20:45 (More than 12 hours after our original schedule flight!). The desk at Birmingham were extremely unhelpful, they didn’t attempt to call Stansted to ask for our original flight to wait for us, or book us in for the next flight or even give us any refreshments. We asked if the next flight had enough room for all of us (52 passengers) and they said we needed to go back to Stansted and find out from there. It was only after we demanded for them to call Ryan air and find out how many seats were available on that flight that we were informed it was only 37! We were told to stop arguing and get back on the coach and get back to Stansted before the coach left!

On the coach back it was a scramble for us to get on our mobile phones to call Ryan air to be rebooked on the next flight. We managed to this, but at least 15 passengers were unable to. We got back to stanstead at 5pm a fully 12 hours after our first arrival there that morning! Again no Ryan staff gave anyone any refreshments explanation or apology! In the end we got to Frankfurt Hahn at 11pm local time, and had to get a cab to our final destination (costing £150!) as we were late for other forms of transport.

You couldn’t write this whole laughable episode. But it wasn’t a laughing matter considering the reason for our travel, the length of stay and the age of my parents.

Is there anything that can be done? Would I be able to get our money back on the flights?

This is more or less exactly what happened to me, albeit only a 4 hour delay. I've put in a claim both for the delay and every single associated cost. Will keep you posted, good luck!

blondmark

This information has been redacted

Tony_Hatton

Hello,i am looking for some advice on what steps to take next,if any,our Ryanair flight was delayed by 6hrs 30 mins.I complained to Ryanair,and got the following reply.
Would be extremely grateful of any advice.
Thank you.

We sincerely regret the delay to your flight FR9943 from Cork to Lanzarote Arrecife on the 23/10/12, which was due to an unexpected safety/technical problem with the aircraft due to operate your flight. It was necessary to delay the departure of this flight until the fault was rectified and the aircraft was cleared for operation by our Engineering Department.
Ryanair is committed to provide on time services for all passengers and is Europe's No. 1 on time airline.

Occasionally, there are situations which are outside our control such as technical faults that disrupts our flights.

As this delay was outside Ryanair's control (Extraordinary Circumstances), we regret to advise that no compensation is due under EU261.

We note that refreshment vouchers were issued according to the time of delay.

If you incurred any additional reasonable receipted expenses during the delay, then please forward copies of these receipts so we may consider them.

I hope, despite your experience, we have not entirely lost your goodwill and that you will afford us the opportunity of serving you more successfully in the near future.


Yours sincerely

London2013

Thanks Fletchasketch.

I was not sure reading all the previous posts if we would be able to claim compensation, as the original delay was snow, before the laughable long delay afterwards.

goodwithmoney101

I am dealing with a family member's compensation claim as their Ryanair flight was delayed for 6 hours on 9th April 2008 due to a mechanical fault, however I have a few questions that I hope someone is able to help with...

1) My understanding is that the statute of limitations for claims initiated in Scotland is 5 years. I am about to send a letter-before-action giving 2 weeks notice before lodging papers at a local sheriff court in Scotland, but is this a wasted exercise? If I send the letter before action on 8th March, giving 14-days notice, then (assuming no positive reply from Ryanair of course) lodge papers at the court on 22nd March, will the issue still become time-barred or does the fact that I have lodged the claim before the 5th anniversary mean it can follow through to a natural conclusion?

2) 2 passengers were party to the same booking....
a) I intend to send one letter before action to Ryanair which will be signed by both parties. I assume this is acceptable and will not hinder the validity of the claim?
b) My family-member paid for both passengers' tickets on one booking, so if court proceedings are necessary, I assume that this can be conducted via one single claim in their name, with both passengers mentioned on the claim form? Or does this have to be lodged as 2 separate claims by the individual passengers?

3) I assume it is normal practice as with other contractual breaches to add statutory interest @ 8% to the value of the compensation claimed?

Many thanks for any assistance.

Mark2spark

Erm, sorry, but you can't file a court claim against RA in Scotland as they are an Irish Company.
You'll have to use the Euro small claims procedure, the way to do this is detailed in the FAQ's sticky on the main section.
Be careful not to go out of time.

Fletchasketch

Have just had a reply from Ryanair referring to the flight which wasn't delayed stating that the flight was delayed due to extraordinary circumstances. Seems they are just sending out stock replies without even looking into the individual claims.