Flight delay and cancellation compensation, Ryanair ONLY

JPears

You maybe entitled to 2 sets of compensation. Your original flight from Beziers may have been cancelled, not re-routed to Montpellier.

The flight you were supposed to get from Montpellier may have been a normal scheduled flight, not a redirected or replacement flight.

So potentially your first flight was cancelled. Your re-routing flight was cancelled or you were denied boarding.

Unfortunately Ryanair have a habit of dumping their problems on others, including passengers and leaving them to it. Which they shouldn't.

milton1970

Hoping someone can help - rather than me wade through 379 pages 

Is there an email address for Ryanair compensation claims rather than having to send by snail mail to Dublin ?

Have used the resolver tool but now need to send formal letter I assume ?

TIA

onashoestring

milton1970 said:

Hoping someone can help - rather than me wade through 379 pages 

Is there an email address for Ryanair compensation claims rather than having to send by snail mail to Dublin ?

Have used the resolver tool but now need to send formal letter I assume ?

TIA

No letter required - submit claim here : select compensation only 
https://onlineform.ryanair.com/gb/en/eu-261

danandjens_worldtravels

I had a delayed flight 3hrs 15mins from Berlin to East Midlands on 9th September FR1639.

RA have refused the claim stating Following a review of your claim, we regret to advise that no liability to compensation arises under the EU261regulation, as your flight was delayed due to restrictions of the airspace imposed by air traffic control
, outside Ryanair’s control.

I’m not sure what the delay was caused by as we were never told.  Staff on the plane said something about a lightning strike in the morning and that plane not being able to be fixed.  The stricken plane was apparently at East Midlands and went to Gatwick where it could not be fixed.  I overheard most of this and it’s was pretty disjointed, so I don’t know exactly what happened.  They also told us it was the fourth flight of the day and they’d been working since 6am.  

The flight we were on flew from East Midlands to Berlin while we were waiting.  And all other flights, including RA appeared to take off and depart on time from Berlin while we were waiting, this is why I strongly doubt it’s to do with air traffic control.

I want to continue the claim, my question is, DO I need to and if yes, HOW do I establish it wasn’t due to air traffic control? 

Is the lightning strike relevant to me if it happened to another plane/flight at another airport? (Could it be classed as outside of RA control?).

Any help as to how much I need to do and how to do it is greatly appreciated. 

Westin

"I had a delayed flight 3hrs 15mins from Berlin to East Midlands on 9th September FR1639"

Keep in mind that it is the delay in the arrival time that matters, not departure. 

"RA have refused the claim stating Following a review of your claim, we regret to advise that no liability to compensation arises under the EU261regulation, as your flight was delayed due to restrictions of the airspace imposed by air traffic control
, outside Ryanair’s control.

I’m not sure what the delay was caused by as we were never told.  Staff on the plane said something about a lightning strike in the morning and that plane not being able to be fixed.  The stricken plane was apparently at East Midlands and went to Gatwick where it could not be fixed.  I overheard most of this and it’s was pretty disjointed, so I don’t know exactly what happened.  They also told us it was the fourth flight of the day and they’d been working since 6am."  

I think a lot of hear-say can probably be discounted.  RyanAir do not have a maintenance base at LGW so I doubt that overheard comment was correct anyway.  

"The flight we were on flew from East Midlands to Berlin while we were waiting.  And all other flights, including RA appeared to take off and depart on time from Berlin while we were waiting, this is why I strongly doubt it’s to do with air traffic control.

During bad weather, particularly if you mention storms, ATC will place restrictions on flights.  Just because you have blue skies over BER or other flights to other airports are leaving, does not mean that there are not weather related ATC delays.  ATC flow restrictions can happen over any point in the airspace between the two points.

I want to continue the claim, my question is, DO I need to and if yes, HOW do I establish it wasn’t due to air traffic control? 

Is the lightning strike relevant to me if it happened to another plane/flight at another airport? (Could it be classed as outside of RA control?)."

A lightning strike is of course possible (as is ATC issues) and I am sure you are pleased that the airline would carry out a maintenance check to make sure all well before loading you up and flying you on the aircraft. 

Any help as to how much I need to do and how to do it is greatly appreciated. 

Sometimes, things happen.  RyanAir's explanation of ATC impacting your flight is possible. It is hard to sometimes dispute otherwise. Not all delays qualify for compo.

eskbanker

c'est_moi said:
I am hoping that I will be able to claim all of the train/ taxi/ airfares back from Ryanair. Would we also be able to claim the 250euro compensation per person which would go some way to covering for the food, car parking, Liverpool to Manchester costs? Does anyone know?

https://www.ryanair.com/content/dam/ryanair/help-centre-pdfs/eu261-notices-v15/EU261 for United Kingdom - EN.pdf outlines your rights, namely compensation, rerouting/refund and care.

Compensation will be due unless the cancellation was due to extraordinary circumstances beyond their control, so that will come down to the reason for the diversion of the inbound flight, e.g. was it weather related perhaps?

While airlines are technically obliged to offer you a choice between rerouting and a refund, in the real world they'll often expect you to do the legwork of arranging the alternative travel, but they're still on the hook for the cost, so I'd claim for all of those travel costs relating to the extended journey from Beziers airport to Manchester airport.

Finally, the right to care costs should also be claimed, i.e. food/drink, etc.

Out of the costs you list, only the additional car parking is unlikely to be reclaimable from the airline, but as you say, compensation would cover that if applicable....

c'est_moi

Nick_L91 said:

Hi, new to forum, apologies if this is in the wrong space. If anyone is able to assist/ has been a similar situation, it would be great to hear from you. Thank you in advance! 

We had a flight booked with Ryanair (Beziers Cap D'Agde Airport to London Luton) on Saturday 10th September. Whilst waiting at the airport, we were told our flight had been delayed by 2hours. No further updates were provided. We were then told our flight had been re-directed to Montpellier Airport and that it would depart at 9pm.

One bus turned up, which we were unable to board. We were then told that a second bus would not arrive for another 1.5hrs, due roughly at 7/7.30pm, which with a 50 minute drive to Montpellier airport, would place us very close to the new departure time. Whilst waiting for this bus, we were then told that the replacement flight had been cancelled.

For reference, Beziers Airport is very small, with no Ryanair representatives. A representative from the airport announced that no accommodation or transport etc. would be provided and that the next Ryanair flight out from Beziers to Luton would be Tuesday - effectively leaving us on our own. With minimal phone battery/ signal, we attempted to source a hotel/ taxi/ new flights: 

From a new flight perspective:

• No new/ available flights within 24hr period. Looking further out, those that existed either had not enough space, a very long journey way or were on a different airline at extremely high cost. Our jobs required us back in work this week - we were not able to wait for a new flight on Monday/ Tuesday

From accommodation perspective: 

• No accommodation within immediate area. We therefore made a decision to travel to nearest big city where there would be more options for accommodation as well as transport. We booked ourselves a hotel for the night here at own cost 

Next steps:
As explained, we had to be back in UK this week. With no available flights (vs. some very expensive options with other airlines) We made a decision to get a train back to the UK. 

Overall, the accommodation, food and drink and transportation has cost us an additional £710. Is there any re-course for this? The EU flight cancellation compensation seemed confusing as it was based on the delayed time of a new flight (yet we ended up taking a train home). As for compensation from Ryanair, will they compensate additional expenses? 

Apologies for the very long post - really a bit lost with this and really can't afford the additional money, but it was our only option. 

Thank you for any help in advance! 

Sorry - quoted the wrong post in my last post - Nick L19 - have you made any progress with your claim?

plucas100

Hi all,

My partner and I were due to fly back from Palma to Bristol on Aug 5th at 21.45. (FR8245). The flight was cancelled whilst we were waiting in the departure lounge for a gate announcement. After a stressful treasure hunt looking for the Ryanair desks we were eventually rebooked to fly to East Midlands the following day (no guaranteed space on flights to Bristol until the Tuesday(!) and children waiting at home after 3 days with Nana). 

Staff at the customer service desk were dishing out details of how to go about claiming compensation under the EU directives, and informed us that the cancellation was due to aircrew being over their allowed hours.

I have submitted claims for both compensation and expenses and finally got a reply from Ryanair last week. The reply to the expenses claim appears to suggest it is going to be processed, although they asked for a reply with bank details etc - all of which they already have from the original claim form. However the reply to the compensation request says that we are not entitled as the cancellation was due to the weather. As far as I'm aware there were no other cancellations in terms of Palma departures (the weather was clear). 

Does anybody know of a simple way to check the records for arrivals and departures for Palma and Bristol please? 

Also, is it standard that the airline will pay expenses in a case like this but then refuse compensation?

Many thanks for any answers or advice. 

Paul

eskbanker

plucas100 said:
However the reply to the compensation request says that we are not entitled as the cancellation was due to the weather. As far as I'm aware there were no other cancellations in terms of Palma departures (the weather was clear).

If the reason for the aircrew being out of hours was weather delays, then this may be considered extraordinary circumstances - the weather issue may not have been at Palma as such but somewhere en route.  I'm not aware of any way of checking flight records from 6/7 weeks ago other than via paid subscriptions to services such as FlightRadar24, where only the most recent week's data is accessible FOC.

plucas100 said:

Also, is it standard that the airline will pay expenses in a case like this but then refuse compensation?

Not standard as such but normal practice when they assert that the reason for the cancellation is extraordinary circumstances, which removes any obligation to pay compensation, whereas valid expenses must be reimbursed regardless of reason.

gLoggy

I'll try to make this brief.
Within the last couple of weeks, I have had 2 different FR flights delayed >3 hours beyond the scheduled arrival times.
The reason given at the time for delays were:
1st flight: Knock on delays with aircraft and also approx 2 hours waiting for the re-fueling truck at 1am - apparently they missed their refueling slot and at STN, at that time,  there is only 1 truck.
2nd Flight: Knock on delays with aircraft and then when it did arrive, the existing crew would not have been able to fly the return flight as they were out of hours so we had to wait around 90 minutes onboard until new crew arrived.

I applied through their portal for compensation with the following response for both:
Following a review of your claim, we regret to advise that no liability to compensation arises under the EU261 regulation, as your flight was delayed due to restrictions of the airspace imposed by air traffic control services, outside Ryanair’s control.

It doesn't surprise me in the least that this is the way they deal with it.
However, this is my question and is aimed at any veteran Ryanair claims 'experts'.
As a matter of principle, I have no issue following up on both these claims. €250 times 2 is not unsubstantial.
I strongly believe I have a solid case for both
However, I am wondering if it is just worth the hassle, the frustration, the hair pulling, the raised blood pressure.
Maybe life is too short to pursue these ( I am sure this is what FR are hoping).
Do FR ever engage or rollover in these type of claims or do they keep the same story forever until people just drop it?
Any input based on experience would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks in advance - gLoggy