Flight delay and cancellation compensation, Ryanair ONLY

Tyzap

Well done Ryanair, they almost did everything they should have!

The main thing is that you are happy at the end of it.

melanzana

Tyzap wrote: »

Well done Ryanair, they almost did everything they should have!

The main thing is that you are happy at the end of it.

What did they omit? Just curious.

Justice13075

Ryanair knew weeks in advance that this strike was happening and what did they do, apparently nothing they waited till the day of the strike and cancelled the flights. Can a situation you know about weeks in advance make this an extraordinary circumstance? They had plenty of time to make other arrangements or cancel the flights. If the air traffic control walked out on the the day without giving notice then fair enough but Ryanair and the other airlines knew of this strike in advance. Interested to here other views.

melanzana

Justice13075 wrote: »

Ryanair knew weeks in advance that this strike was happening and what did they do, apparently nothing they waited till the day of the strike and cancelled the flights. Can a situation you know about weeks in advance make this an extraordinary circumstance? They had plenty of time to make other arrangements or cancel the flights. If the air traffic control walked out on the the day without giving notice then fair enough but Ryanair and the other airlines knew of this strike in advance. Interested to here other views.

Aer Lingus also cancelled flights at the time.

http://www.irishtimes.com/news/ireland/irish-news/hundreds-stranded-as-a-result-of-french-air-strike-1.2580966

I don't really know if either airline could make alternative arrangements in advance, given that the strikes could just as easily be called off at the last minute too.

I dunno. But personally I am not bothered. We were well looked after all things considered.

JPears

Depending on the route, is it possible to arrange alternative flight paths avoiding Frenh airspace, further distance, but surely better than cancelled flights?

Justice13075

My question would be Is a strike by air traffic control which was known about for weeks in advance an extraordinary circumstance?

Tyzap

I would think it depends upon the circumstances.

I was on an Easyjet flight from Manchester to Malaga on Sunday 20th, one of the French ATC strike days, our flight was loaded and ready to go.

However, the pilot informed us that we would have to wait for FOUR hours before we could take off. He then went on to say that they had just filed another flight plan which would avoid French air space and was hopeful that we might get an improved departure time.

Eventually the new flight plan was accepted with a delay of 2.5 hours.

So, it begs the question, why was a new flight plan, avoiding French air space, not filed earlier? This could have avoided any delay to our flight.

Had we been delayed long enough to claim 261 compensation I would have been asking them that very question.

I'm not so sure tho had we been flying to a French destination.

Vixtaa

Not sure where we stand on this. I can't find much info on these strikes besides that flights have been delayed/cancelled. Apparently if the strike was known before it happened, exceptional circumstances does not occur? Anyway, me and my (now) husband booked to fly to Benidorm the day after our wedding. We were meant to be flying 12pm on 20th March. Everything seemed to be fine, however about 10 mins after we passed through security our flight info was updated to a 2 hour delay. Which was fair enough really, we didn't have the kids with us and though it was slightly annoying, its something you can get over easily

Time passed and we then boarded. Once the plane was full we were THEN informed that there would be a further delay of around 1hr 30 mins, and that we just had to sit tight and wait. THIS I find quite unacceptable as the airline obviously knew about the strike by that point yet still let us board and sat us there for what was actually closer to 2 hours. This part is not the airlines fault as such but..I have to take pain meds every 6 hours, and I had put them in my case ready to take at the other end (was told have to be in luggage, not on board craft with me as its controlled medication), as such I had 2 hours of pure agony while sat in a cramped seat with not much room to actually move to try and alleviate the pain a bit.

So yeah..maybe I shouldn't be looking into claiming, and had the delay just been inside the airport wouldn't have cared so much, though the pain meds would have still been an issue. But that they knew about the delays and stuff and still let everyone board, just to sit..seems ridiculous. I am fully expecting an 'exceptional circumstances' reply but a fair few sites and such say that if the strike was known about prior then this exception does not apply. Its clear that it was known about during the time we spent under cabin arrest (to be melodramatic lol) but I am unsure about beforehand...

Edit. having read through some of this thread, seems the strikes were known about weeks beforehand (though to be fair I knew nothing of them until the delay, but I guess its not my job to know about that sort of stuff). Surely this does not count as 'exceptional circumstances' as with time to plan a lot of the delays and cancellations could have been pretty easily avoided?

Caz3121

Vixtaa wrote: »

A but a fair few sites and such say that if the strike was known about prior then this exception does not apply.

new one on me...
extraordinary circumstances that mean the airline does not need to pay compensation are those that are outside of their control
If a hurricane is known about in advance does that make it not extraordinary?

Technical fault with plane - aircraft maintenance is part of the airline operations, airline responsible, they could have spare planes to mitigate the risk, not extraordinary, compensation due
Delayed/out of hours crew delaying flight - crew are airline responsibility, they could have spare crew to mitigate this risk, not extraordinary, compensation due
weather/ATC - airline has no say...cannot mitigate, if ATC say "no slot" they cannot overrule - no compensation

Yes the strikes were known about weeks in advance, the airlines could have cancelled all their flights and left people stuck where they were
Often these strikes are called off at the last moment and not 100% of flights affected

JPears

As you actually flew, albeit after some considerable, then presumably a flight plan was changed to not include French airspace. Yo could argue that as the strike was known about weeks in advane they could have changed the flight plan weeks in advance, as the regulation does require airlines to minimise delays and cancellations at all costs upto "intolerable sacrifice"