Flight delay and cancellation compensation, Ryanair ONLY

JPears

Personally I think you might struggle with the case. Ryanir will defend this one to hilt I'm sure.
As you say, your 261/2004 calim is very weak as it was an ATC issue that caused you delay, and even knock ons are difficult to win in cases like this.

nellienoo

Hi! Flight back from Barcelona to Manchester with family in October 2017 was delayed over 3 hours. Used Resolver tool & got a quick response (I was amazed) from Ryanair agreeing to compensation (no contest) & asking me to provide bank details so they could deposit money into account. 9 Months later, they still have not paid and have ignored all correspondence & calls to CS have resulted in broken promises of contact. Have informed owner, head of customer service & even managed to have a brief conversation with Head office's switchboard operator (who was disgraceful in her manner). All correspondence has been ignored & the operator refused to allow me to speak with anyone and was rude & insulting. She stated that CS would definitely reply & insinuated that it was my fault they had not replied. I can now only assume that this is actually a deliberate cynical & criminal way that this company makes money. Would my next step be ombudsman? Thanks in advance for any help/advice.:)

JPears

Alas there is no ombudsman. CAA won't touch it.
Yes your cynicism is well founded.
Unfortunately you will have to take this to court via ESCP. Dr Watson's notes on the proess are excellent.
I assume you have written evidence that compensation was offered?
In which case it should be a slam dunk case.
But still hassle.

benhamnett

Thanks JPears - the thing I have in my favour is that the Spanish CAA agreed that Ryanair owed me compensation for the alternate flights/expenses, which is about 1/3rd of my claim; I'll try and work through the argument and counter it as best I can, and see how we go. Re-reading their reply, it's quite odd - they go from arguing that I'm owed nothing (under EU261/2004), then admit that I should be paid for expenses (although they argue the flight), then argue again that I'm owed nothing for loss of earnings/flight cancellation comp, before saying to pay them £300 for the pleasure. All good fun and games

Caz3121

benhamnett wrote: »

Thanks JPears - the thing I have in my favour is that the Spanish CAA agreed that Ryanair owed me compensation for the alternate flights/expenses, which is about 1/3rd of my claim; I'll try and work through the argument and counter it as best I can, and see how we go. Re-reading their reply, it's quite odd - they go from arguing that I'm owed nothing (under EU261/2004), then admit that I should be paid for expenses (although they argue the flight), then argue again that I'm owed nothing for loss of earnings/flight cancellation comp, before saying to pay them £300 for the pleasure. All good fun and games

Duty of care under EU261 is different to EU261 compensation. Duty of Care is a right whether the delay is within the airlines control or not, Compensation only if it is within their control.
No EU261 compensation as it was Air Traffic Strike that caused the cancellation/delay
Expenses are the grey area as, you could have waited till the Thursday and had 4 nights paid hotel + food without issue but as you booked alternative arrangements yourself (for good reason) you were no longer a Ryanair customer and were then due refund for flight only. (this is the stance many airlines took during the ash cloud)
Loss of earnings are not something any airline is responsible for, you should check your travel insurance to see whether it is covered there.
The best result would be for you to be reimbursed for the accommodation/food until your rebooked flight and reimbursement of that flight cost (instead of refund of the Ryanair flight) If they have already refunded the Ryanair flight then you would claim for the difference between that cost and the new flight cost (e.g. Ryanair flight £100, new flights £180, claim £80 on top of the refund already received)

you will see from many articles that the airlines are as frustrated over these strikes than the passengers (maybe you can try and claim your loss of earnings from the French strikers that caused this )
http://www.cityam.com/237207/british-airways-easyjet-and-ryanair-forced-to-cancel-flights-due-to-french-air-traffic-control-strike
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-35860121

themass

JPears wrote: »

Alas there is no ombudsman. CAA won't touch it.
Yes your cynicism is well founded.
Unfortunately you will have to take this to court via ESCP. Dr Watson's notes on the proess are excellent.
I assume you have written evidence that compensation was offered?
In which case it should be a slam dunk case.
But still hassle.

Eh? then who are these people i am dealing with


https://www.theretailombudsman.org.uk/how-to-complain-about-an-airline-in-the-uk/

legal_magpie

A firm who amongst other things, provide an adjudication service, similar to than run by CEDR.

111KAB

benhamnett wrote: »

....... - the thing I have in my favour is that the Spanish CAA agreed that Ryanair owed me compensation for the alternate flights/expenses, which is about 1/3rd of my claim;

AESA - Spanish CAA ~ their support means nothing. There is an outside possibility if the matter went to court that the Judge may take their comment/support into consideration however, more likely is it would just be disregarded. I would not recommend you take Ryanair to court given the strike scenario.

Dr_Watson

benhamnett,
If I can stick my two penneth in here. I think Caz3121 has summed this up (as always) exactly as it is and what your best outcome may well be. I understand your thoughts on the findings by AESA In your favour, in my case many moons ago such a finding helped sway the judge in my favour, albeit with a strong legal argument.
There are many on here who feel such a finding is not worth the paper it is written on, and they have sound justification for this.
The many points of Ryanair's response to your claim seem to shift from one parallel to another, that's par for the course and is their attempt at making a legal argument using the methodology 'Further and in the alternative'. It isn't their strong point IMO and smacks of copy and paste being used from one case to another.
But..... I would be cautious with proceeding further on this purely because of the obvious Extraordinary Circumstance which was the catalyst for the scenarios which unfolded after.

Traveller108

Thanks all for your ideas and support.

My application for compensation was declined by Ryanair, a couple of days ago, so am pursuing further.

Spiro - thanks for this piece of very useful information. I didn't see the programme but applied to AviationADR when I saw your post, and they said that they are going to take up my case - so will keep you posted ...