Missed Flight Refund

houman1979

We missed a flight with Ryan Air just by a couple of minutes. Now, we asked them to refund government imposed taxes but they told us that there is no government taxes in this ticket as it is an international flight! As far as I know there are government taxes everywhere and so it seems meaningless.

Anyone know if they are just trying to not make a refund or their claim can be true? I've already made a complaint and want to know if they are right, I will escalate the matter to a regulator.

Thanks in advance.

Voyager2002

Good luck!

If you do get a refund out of Ryanair you will deserve a place in the Guiness Book of Records!

houman1979

But are they right in their claim? Can I make a complaint through the regulator? Actually, they are terrible and it was a nightmare and I am more than happy to pay £50 more but with a better airline (their tickets were not cheap at all in our case just the flight hour was good). We were at the boarding gate at 6:07 and the flight was at 6:30. The staff told us that the last bus is gone and so you cannot be boarded. I am sure if it was with a better airline, they would have boarded us.

unforeseen

If you have to get bussed to the aircraft then regardless of airline you would not have been allowed on.

They can't magic up transport at will. By the time they found transport and got you there it would have been doors closed and ready for pushback

houman1979

Thanks but still I dont know if they are right that there is no government taxes? Is it possible that something is not taxed in this country? All other flights I had (with BA or Emirates or Qantas) had taxes imposed.

IAmWales

houman1979 wrote: »

But are they right in their claim? Can I make a complaint through the regulator? Actually, they are terrible and it was a nightmare and I am more than happy to pay £50 more but with a better airline (their tickets were not cheap at all in our case just the flight hour was good). We were at the boarding gate at 6:07 and the flight was at 6:30. The staff told us that the last bus is gone and so you cannot be boarded. I am sure if it was with a better airline, they would have boarded us.

Most would not. Do you realise how much it costs when takeoff is delayed, even by minutes?

Why were you late?

How much APD did you pay, where were you flying from/ to? If only £13 then any admin fee will cancel that out.

zerog

There is Air Passenger Duty on most flights which depart from a UK airport although there are some exemptions for Scottish and Northern Irish airports.

This should be £13 for Ryanair flights. Sometimes, Ryanair pays the taxes on behalf of the passenger (airport fees are usually about £15-£30 so if a Ryanair flight costs less than £20 they have actually paid the fees for you and made a loss, which they hope to get back from scratch cards and food sales)

As I have never flown Ryanair, I don't know how successful getting a refund of these will be, but Ryanair could impose a service fee for processing refunds.

If the flight did not depart from the UK there could very well be no taxes to refund

houman1979

It was to an EU destination, So it is only APD? I once traveled by BA to Asia and it had couple of government taxes totaling about £80

IAmWales

houman1979 wrote: »

It was to an EU destination, So it is only APD? I once traveled by BA to Asia and it had couple of government taxes totaling about £80

Long haul routes attract a £73 tax rate, short haul only £13. I can't think of any other tax that could be reclaimed on the UK originating sector.

Caz3121

Ryanair flights would indeed be £13 APD departing the UK. On flights from outside the EU to the UK there would be £0 APD
Ryanair charge a £17 admin fee to process APD refunds so that wipes it out

Voyager2002

houman1979 wrote: »

We were at the boarding gate at 6:07 and the flight was at 6:30. The staff told us that the last bus is gone and so you cannot be boarded. I am sure if it was with a better airline, they would have boarded us.

I once missed a flight on Air France in this way: I reached the gate area in time to see the bus go (after horrendous queues to get through security...). Air France, however, did not charge me to put me on another flight back to England.