Flight delay and cancellation compensation, Ryanair ONLY

plucas100

I feel your pain gLoggy, and I'm also suspecting that their M.O. is to fob people off with as many different excuses and technicalities as they can in the hope that customers give up.

Having thought they were going to pay my expenses claim once I jumped through enough of their hoops, today I was emailed with an offer of £12.63 (the sterling equivalent of what I spent at Palma airport on food and drinks) as 'full and final settlement'! Apparently the rest of my receipts were lacking the required information - although exactly what information is missing was left out of the email. Those receipts are for the Spanish taxi ride from the hotel they abandoned us at on the night of our cancelled flight and then a UK taxi ride to get us from Bournemouth to Bristol. In total over £200 of taxi fares. Naturally, I have declined their offer, and am waiting for a new reply. 

Has anybody had any success from calling them out via social media or do they know that their public image is so poor that they don't give a damn?

Mccheese_2

Hello,
Myself, husband and Aunt recently caught a RyanAir flight which was delayed for other three hours from take off. It landed within the three hours but due to lack of airside staff to navigate passengers to the terminal we were delayed 20 minutes over the 3 hour mark. I've put in request for compensation as this did impact heavily on our plans and we incurred financial penalties on car parking etc. I believe the time frame is based on at least one door being opened so we should be able to claim but will I need proof of this, and what would this even be? Only information I can see is time flight landed. Thanks in advance.

eskbanker

Mccheese_2 said:

Hello,
Myself, husband and Aunt recently caught a RyanAir flight which was delayed for other three hours from take off. It landed within the three hours but due to lack of airside staff to navigate passengers to the terminal we were delayed 20 minutes over the 3 hour mark. I've put in request for compensation as this did impact heavily on our plans and we incurred financial penalties on car parking etc. I believe the time frame is based on at least one door being opened so we should be able to claim but will I need proof of this, and what would this even be? Only information I can see is time flight landed. Thanks in advance.

The short answer is that I don't believe there is any independent, accessible and reliable source of such data, so you're in the airline's hands on that, although airlines are generally held liable for the actions of their contracted ground support agents, so they shouldn't be able to wriggle out of their responsibilities.  If you state which airport you landed at then other posters may be able to offer contributions about which agents (if any) support Ryanair operations there, but see what they come back with and post again if they're going to reject the claim....

JPears

And in future, if you're ever near a time limit of 3 or 4 hours delay, get your camera out with a time date and location stamp on, for recording the time the door opened.

housebuyer7

Hello,

Can anyone help me please? In August while at the gate of a small regional airport in France due to depart for the UK, an Airport member of staff came over the speaker to advise our Ryanair plane had been cancelled 30min before take off. There were only two flights that afternoon, another BA flight due to leave before had also been cancelled earlier. We were told there was no accommodation within 2 hours due to a sporting event. Upon looking online, all flights were full for the next few days but just about managed to get two seats leaving from a different airport and landing at a different airport with Easyjet. The total costs of our expenses for getting home due to the flight cancellation was around £1000.

I attempted to contact Ryanair before booking this flight but phoning (couldn't find a customer services line that went through to them), live chat (not working), and via my app (no option to rebook available). As so many flights were sold out and I had to get home I booked that flight. There were 500 people in the airport stranded and the customer services team at the airport said they couldn't help us as still had the full BA flight as they had been waiting longer. This was at 8pm at night. Fortunately for us, some strangers took us in for the night, so we aren't claiming expenses for food or accommodation.

I've submitted my claim to Ryanair for expenses and they responded as follows:

Along with the notice of your right under EU261, you were informed that you should contact us first and give us the chance to re-route you on a suitable Ryanair flight. If this was not possible, you would be allowed re-route to an alternative carrier and we would pay the difference in fare.
 
As you have not given us the opportunity to re-route you, we regret to advise that you are not entitled to alternative transport expenses.

We note you chose not to re-book with Ryanair but decided to apply for a refund of your cancelled flight. We have processed the refund as you requested, therefore, Ryanair has no further liability for your additional expenses according to EU261.

Please note, I have NOT requested a refund for my existing flight. I believe Ryanair should keep that money but refund me for all the expenses of getting home otherwise.

Please advise next steps as I would like to take this all the way, even if there is a possibility I may lose. 

eskbanker

Go back to them emphasising that you didn't apply for a refund of the Ryanair flight (do you have screenshots, etc?) and that you did attempt to contact them at the time (again, supporting evidence would help).

Keep pushing their customer services team and if it ultimately results in a final response that isn't acceptable, escalate to their ADR or small claims.

https://www.ryanair.com/gb/en/useful-info/help-centre/terms-and-conditions/termsandconditionsar_197583062

Note that, unless the cancellation was caused by extraordinary circumstances outside their control, you'd be entitled to compensation as well as reimbursement of incurred costs:

https://www.ryanair.com/content/dam/ryanair/help-centre-pdfs/eu261-notices-v15/EU261 for United Kingdom - EN.pdf

housebuyer7

I don’t have evidence showing I didn’t apply for a refund or evidence of me trying to contact them gah!! I was in such a panic at the airport it didn’t even cross my mind. I’ve tried to look back on my call log but only goes back as far as 2nd Sept. Will try and see if my mobile account shows outgoing calls even if they didn’t connect?

re the refund - if they issue this I could just claim my expenses minus the cost of the initial Ryanair flights but in the first instance will advise I have not requested this.

I am not sure of the reason for the flight cancellation - we were never told so haven’t attempted to claim compensation. I just want my expenses!

How many back and forth emails from now should I indulge in before going down the small claims route?

eskbanker

housebuyer7 said:

re the refund - if they issue this I could just claim my expenses minus the cost of the initial Ryanair flights but in the first instance will advise I have not requested this.

The danger of accepting a refund of your Ryanair fare is that they wouldn't then be obliged to reimburse your additional expenses - the regulations require that they offer you a choice of a refund or rerouting, so as soon as you accept a refund you effectively forfeit your right to rerouting expenses where these exceed the original fare, as here.

housebuyer7 said:

I am not sure of the reason for the flight cancellation - we were never told so haven’t attempted to claim compensation. I just want my expenses!

Claim the compensation anyway, it's a separate claim heading from the refund one, and the worst that can happen is that they reject it (which wouldn't affect the reimbursement claim).

housebuyer7 said:

How many back and forth emails from now should I indulge in before going down the small claims route?

As above, pursue until you get a final response - they won't be prepared to embark on endless to and fro either.  Technically you could sue at any time, but obviously it makes sense to get the final position of the other party (a court would expect this) and then you'd need to issue a letter before action to signify that you're ready to take things further.

JPears

I'm afraid this is typical of most airlines.  They abandon you at the last minute, ignore their legal obligations under the law and then lie to you when you make a claim.

There is nothing in the regulation/law that states you must contact them for re-routing. Indeed quite the opposite, they should do this for you. But they never do.

eskbanker

In their rerouting guidance document, the CAA make clear their view that if airlines fail to fulfil their obligations by proactively contacting passengers to offer the requisite options, then the affected passengers are entitled to make their own arrangements and reclaim from the airline:

6.7 As described previously, and as clarified in Rusu v S C Blue, it is the CAA’s view that it is the responsibility of the airline to be proactive in identifying suitable rerouting options and contacting affected passengers to expressly offer them the choice of options required by Article 8(1).. In circumstances where the airline has failed to contact affected passengers in a reasonable period of time, these passengers may then be justified in making their own arrangements and seeking reimbursement for the cost of doing so, so long as, consistent with the principles set out in McDonagh v Ryanair Ltd, the expenses incurred by the passenger were necessary, appropriate and reasonable to make up for the shortcomings of the airline in offering the passenger a suitable re-routing option.