Flight delay and cancellation compensation, Ryanair ONLY

Annaibbo

Ryanair have replied and said that our delay was due to bad weather - storms but they told us at the airport that the delay was due to a new plane and crew not being available from Alicante. What do you think I should do now?

jpsartre

Annaibbo wrote: »

Ryanair have replied and said that our delay was due to bad weather - storms but they told us at the airport that the delay was due to a new plane and crew not being available from Alicante. What do you think I should do now?

You thing doesn't rule out the other. E.g. bad weather can lead to diversions which can lead to crews being out of place. Have you tried the flight checkers on Bott&Co/EUClaim?

Annaibbo

I have just sent the details to Bott & Co and I am waiting for a reply. We were told they could not locate a plane from Alicante and that is why we were delayed there was never any mention of storms and I have checked the weather and there was light rain. Thank you for the reply a very quick response .

ihaveaq

jpsartre wrote: »

Didn't the CAA mention the reason in their response? It will be difficult to prepare a case if you are completely in the dark as to why the flight was delayed.

The CAA emailed me saying "Following our intervention, the airline has reassessed your flight and have informed us that the disruption of your flight is of a type which means that compensation is payable. It appears from the documentation provided, that the disruption could be considered as inherent in the normal operation of an airline. Therefore this disruption does not fall under the extraordinary circumstances’ exception of the Regulation. As such, the airline has agreed you are entitled to compensation."

That's all. Now Ryanair is saying ATC equipement failure again, which was the original excuse, before the CAA intervention.

peterbaker

So as discovered whilst obtaining feedback from some Ryanair customers of my acquaintance who have tonight been experiencing the now proverbial 'Stansted Lightning Storm messed up our Fuel System Knock-On Fiasco', how can Ryanair get away with warning customers when they finally arrive at the desk after hours of queuing not to spend more than three times their original ticket price on getting home. For that apparently is what they've been told if they don't like the sound of Ryanair's 'standby to standby take it or leave it' offer at 0115 in the morning?

Still not sure how this fiasco started exactly - seems to me it is a little like the occasional fiascos we get at Stansted on unexpectedly icey mornings i.e. on such mornings no aircraft can fly unless very recently deiced. If they don't fly within a certain number of tens of minutes after deicing, they must be deiced again. And Stansted isn't set up to deice every departing aircraft to schedule.

There is a difference with refuelling - all aircraft need refuelling checks before every flight and can be topped up any time e.g. after they land from the last flight of the day and before they are tucked up doors closed for the night. But if they haven't been, and they don't have enough fuel to get where they are going on the first trip (some will - most won't), they can't fly until they do get the necessary top up. Stansted isn't set up to refuel every departing aircraft just in time before departure.

So why would so many of Ryanair's aircraft not have been refuelled whilst there was time Saturday night/Sunday morning, ready for the off a few hours later? Generally speaking the last of the birds are supposed to be home to roost by about midnight, and the first few scheduled outbounds are generally not much before 6am. That's a full six hours for the earliest departing aircraft to be checked, cleaned, restocked and refueled.

Was refueliing the only problem or were other ground services postponed too? Stansted's refuelling system looks to me as a frequent STN passenger to be an underground system so not at all vulnerable to lightning strike until someone above ground tries to connect to it. The pumps I've lately seen in use are all small mobile units (presumably more than one) on something not much bigger than a pick up truck which simply carries two free ends of pipe and the pump but no fuel. One end of free pipe connects to the underground connector underneath a service flap on the apron next to the aircraft, and the other free end connects to the aircraft. Same with most ground power connections at STN, and most modern airports.

My guess is that someone in charge of Stansted ground services at some point Sat night/Sun morning said let's not try to connect anything to the aircraft for fear of it inviting a lightning strike. Not so much any direct equipment damage but fear of it and consequent risk to personnel in the immediate vicinity of a connection to ground? They may well have been quite right, but if this is the real reason, how did they get so behind? Did they go home and forget it?

I ask all this, because without a clear statement right now of exactly what happened, I am sure there is ample opportunity for this "event" to be dressed up as something which deters EU261 claimants, when in fact it is probably far more to do with the airport and or the airlines simply deciding not to fully manage certain risks for their own account, which are perfectly forseeable as occasional risks to airline operations. They just don't want the costs beyond having cancellation plans ready which protect the next day's schedules from knock-on effects. Dump as much airline operation risk management cost onto the paying customer as the market will tolerate? Seems the market tolerates a lot, irrespective of the EU261.

Never mind protecting passengers who've been cancelled. EU261 can still be bent every which way to throw the customers off the scent of a full or even a partial EU261 claim, eh?

domharrison

Hello - Firstly, I hope I have posted this in the correct thread! I'm wondering if anyone could help or advise with my current dispute with Ryanair, and what steps I should take next please?


On 20/05 I was informed that our flight for 3 people due to leave on 22/05 from Beziers to Manchester was cancelled due to ATC strikes in France. The earliest possible flight Ryanair could offer us was 26/05, which was in no way acceptable.

We spoke to their online chat service to discuss it, and were told;

In case a refund or re-route with our airline within 7 days of your cancelled flight is not an option for you, you can book a ticket with one of the following suppliers for example, and the price of the ticket will be reimbursed for you:
(Easyjet)
You can book with other airlines also of course, but please note that only reasonable expenses will be refunded. Please note, that you will have to create that other reservation with your chosen alternative airline, since we have no access to their system to create it for you.
Please keep the receipts of your addition meal, travel and accommodation expenses and send copies to the customer service department by attached them to the following form: https://eu261expenseclaim.ryanair.com. They will review your claim and answer you via email.

We had to travel home no later than the originally planned date of 22/05, so the most efficient way for us to do this was book a train from Beziers to Marseille, and a flight from Marseille to Manchester.

I completed the above form, and sent copies of receipts for our new flight, train tickets, and refreshments we bought through the day. I also ticked the box asking if I wanted to claim compensation for the cancelled flight.



Ryanair replied saying

[FONT=&quot]We[/FONT][FONT=&quot] sincerely regret the cancellation of your flight FR3243 from Beziers to Manchester on the 22/05/2018 which was due to a Strike Action by French Air Traffic Controllers, outside of our control.[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]As this cancellation was unexpected and therefore outside Ryanair’s control we regret to advise that no monetary compensation is due under EU Regulation 261/2004.[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]We will always make best efforts initially to accommodate you on an alternative Ryanair flight. However, if you choose to purchase a flight with another airline, without prior agreement with Ryanair, this may result in you being unable to recover the cost of that ticket from us. [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]We trust that the above has been of assistance.[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]
[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]To which I replied:[/FONT]

With regards to your letter, I can confirm that Ryanair advised us to book a flight home with another airline as the earliest flight you could offer us was Sat 26th May. We were specifically told that we would be reimbursed for the cost of this new flight, plus reasonable expenses. Please see attached photos of the conversation confirming we were told this.


On my expenses claim ******, I have requested reimbursement of the cost of the flights home, plus reasonable expenses (travel to the alternative airport, and refreshments). As a separate issue to that of compensation, please can you advise as to the reimbursements of these costs as a matter of urgency?


I await your urgent response.

[FONT=&quot]
[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]To which they replied:[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]Dear Customer,

Your file has been resolved and closed on the May 27 2018 . Check your email for details.
[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]And when I go on the complain tracker it is showing as complete.
[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]
[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]IF Ryanair aren't legally obliged to pay us EU261 compensation, then that is one thing, but we have now shelled out for new flights, travel and refreshment costs that we wouldn't have had to pay if there were no cancellation, because that was what Ryanair advised us to do! And they are now seemingly refusing to pay up.[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]
[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]What is the best course of action from here?[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]
Thank you
[/FONT]

JPears

You are not due compensation under reg. 261/2004 as the cancellation was ATC related.
You are due a refund of the additional expenses incurred to get you home.
You need to download and read Vauban's most excellent guide and download a copy of regulation 261!!!8230;/2004 . The relevant sections are articles 7, 8, 9. To quote to Ryanair. This airline is a persistent offender in offender with regard to the law. They really don't give 2 monkies about the people who actually provide the income for the business. I increasingly wonder how they survive with zero customer service.

jjlothin

In the great snows of early March, Bristol Airport was shut down, my Ryanair flight home from Malaga to Bristol was cancelled and I was stranded for 3 days in Spain. Whilst that portion of the flight cost was refunded by Ryanair, I had to pay out several hundred pounds more to find my way back home (Ryanair themselves couldn’t offer a replacement flight for several days).

I tried, of course, to claim for this via my travel insurance: I now know that very few companies actually cover 'extreme weather events'! Then a friend suggested that I could try to make a claim from Ryanair under EU Regulation 261/2004. After repeated attempts to get them to even acknowledge receipt of the claim, I’ve just been informed that “as this cancellation was for safety reasons and therefore outside Ryanair’s control we regret to advise that no monetary compensation is due under EU Regulation 261/2004”.

However: on the very same day that I was trying to travel back to Bristol, my boss was booked on an EasyJet day return from Bristol to Belfast which, again, was cancelled when the airport was closed. Not only did he get the flight costs refunded by Easyjet, but when we put in a claim for expenses (travel to and from his home, travel to and from his destination in Belfast), Easyjet agreed.

Having already spent many hours working on this claim (and, in any case, secretly sympathizing with Ryanair’s position!), I was wondering whether anyone has had experiences that could make me think it was worthwhile pursuing things further.

luckwudaveit

I'm trying to complete Ryanair's claim form for rerouting costs following the French ATC strike. I intend to claim alternative airline costs, taxi from home to an alternative airport and taxi from airport to hotel due to missed transfer coach. I have a few questions:


The form is asking for IBAN. I'm struggling to find this in any documentation that I can upload. Can I just send a scan of my bank card?


The form isn't allowing separate lines for each of the expenses claims. Do I lump them together and explain so in the details box? This is complicated with the taxi abroad being in euros - I've just assumed it is GBP given the exchange rate anyway.


The reroute involved two flights. I have shown the origin airport correctly and the destination as [final destination] via [connecting airport].


For the receipts, can I embed a PDF in to a Word document, and copy images of the other receipts to that Word document?

jpsartre

luckwudaveit wrote: »

The form is asking for IBAN. I'm struggling to find this in any documentation that I can upload. Can I just send a scan of my bank card?

IBAN is your bank account number in a format recognised in oher countries. Check your bank statements, it's sometimes on there. Otherwise call your bank to get it.