Ryanair refund thread

TraditionRules

I'm due to fly to Dublin (from Birmingham) on Friday for a weekend break with my partner. Out Friday / back Sunday.
Flights have been booked since February 7th. 
As we're self isolating (I'm in high risk category) & have been for a month or so now we're not taking the trip obviously.
Where do we stand though as the flight is currently still scheduled to fly & is showing as available to check-in?
I don't want to re-book as we were traveling to Dublin for a specific event which is now cancelled & won't re-scheduled. So re-booking on a random day in the future doesn't work for us. 
Do we stand a chance of flight vouchers? I'm doubting the airline will refund as the flight (both ways) are still scheduled to fly. Thus would we be classed as a no-show...even though FCO advice is not to undertake any non-essential travel?

bagand96

TraditionRules said:

I'm due to fly to Dublin (from Birmingham) on Friday for a weekend break with my partner. Out Friday / back Sunday.
Flights have been booked since February 7th. 
As we're self isolating (I'm in high risk category) & have been for a month or so now we're not taking the trip obviously.
Where do we stand though as the flight is currently still scheduled to fly & is showing as available to check-in?
I don't want to re-book as we were traveling to Dublin for a specific event which is now cancelled & won't re-scheduled. So re-booking on a random day in the future doesn't work for us. 
Do we stand a chance of flight vouchers? I'm doubting the airline will refund as the flight (both ways) are still scheduled to fly. Thus would we be classed as a no-show...even though FCO advice is not to undertake any non-essential travel?

If the flight is operating then unfortunately the airline doesn't have to do anything for you.  They've dropped down from 5/6 flights a day to just 1 - you're very unfortunate if both your booked flights are the ones operating. You could get in touch with them and see if they would cancel your booking and issue you a voucher.  It's worth asking - although Ryanair are not famed for being charitable.

Failing that - travel insurance?

bagand96

Martin is looking into this, I've seen it reported in other press too.

And talking of Twitter, Ryanair do seem to be engaging with people on there and getting people to DM them to be added to the refund list.  No idea if it will be effective or not, and there's still no timescale, but for those keen to reject their voucher and request a refund quickly it might be an option.

victoir_2

Same here.  Requested a refund nearly a month ago, got a couple of "we're busy, but we're on it" emails, which I was fine with, and now receive a voucher, not the requested refund.  I waited six hours on the chat yesterday, and 4.5 (and counting) today, without any contact with a real person.  Obviously I understand that there will be unprecedented demand, but making you jump through hoops to request a refund (that we're entitled to by law), then taking ages before issuing an unwanted voucher, and then making it incredibly difficult to request (again!) a refund is very poor.  Premier Inn refunded my hotel within 24 hours.....

This trip was a rebook of a Thomas Cook flight claimed back through Section 75!

TraditionRules

bagand96 said:

TraditionRules said:

I'm due to fly to Dublin (from Birmingham) on Friday for a weekend break with my partner. Out Friday / back Sunday.
Flights have been booked since February 7th. 
As we're self isolating (I'm in high risk category) & have been for a month or so now we're not taking the trip obviously.
Where do we stand though as the flight is currently still scheduled to fly & is showing as available to check-in?
I don't want to re-book as we were traveling to Dublin for a specific event which is now cancelled & won't re-scheduled. So re-booking on a random day in the future doesn't work for us. 
Do we stand a chance of flight vouchers? I'm doubting the airline will refund as the flight (both ways) are still scheduled to fly. Thus would we be classed as a no-show...even though FCO advice is not to undertake any non-essential travel?

If the flight is operating then unfortunately the airline doesn't have to do anything for you.  They've dropped down from 5/6 flights a day to just 1 - you're very unfortunate if both your booked flights are the ones operating. You could get in touch with them and see if they would cancel your booking and issue you a voucher.  It's worth asking - although Ryanair are not famed for being charitable.

Failing that - travel insurance?

I'd settle for a voucher this point to be honest. 
But how can you reach anyone to explain the situation? All phone numbers I've tried just lead to a dead end then hang up. 

rjhfandclf

The following two links at Which might help clarify some of the ‘legalities’ being bandied around.

https://www.which.co.uk/news/2020/04/ryanair-angers-passengers-with-vouchers-instead-of-refunds-for-cancelled-flights/

https://www.which.co.uk/news/2020/04/flight-cancelled-can-i-get-a-refund-from-my-credit-card/ 

These are helpful, but by no means conclusive. As far as the subject of this thread is concerned, Ryanair is not conclusively refusing to refund, which means that a CC refund is highly unlikely.

They are however deviously procrastinating and making the process extremely arduous. They are certainly breaking the law, but their extremely acute legal bods know that very few will bother to challenge them for such relatively small amounts. RA is also apparently not party to the CAA or other adjudication schemes.

We are all in an invidious position, unfortunately. This is doing them a lot of immediate damage, but they won’t care, as they know that it will be largely forgotten within months of resumed business. It is still a despicable disgrace though.

Sridout92

Hey  
Me and my now wife were meant to go on our honeymoon to Naples Flying out on March 16 2020 and returning the following Saturday, we had the flights all booked with Ryanair and then Covid struck (luckily we got our wedding on March 13th so it isnt all doom and gloom!). We however rebooked our flights before they were cancelled the day Italy went into lockdown, we was emailed by our hotel and informed to cancel flights as nothing in the area was open! So we paid a £140! booking fee and changed our flights to Nice. Changed our hotels free of charge and airport parking adaption free of charge. Roll forward to the 15th March we are driving up to Stanstead airport, we are around 5 minutes from the airport hotel we was staying in... What comes on the radio? BREAKING NEWS FRANCE IN LOCKDOWN. 

We spent that night canceling our hotel free of charge. But we could not do anything with the flights as the phone numbers were closed as it was a weekend, and we had to ring up/live chat to uncheck in from the flight in order to change to another flight. So we decided not to travel and instead had a staycation in the UK. 

During this time i have contacted Ryanair on live chat, tried phoning to no avail and messaged their complaints department. Everytime i got a 'its your fault' reply basically. Very rude at the same time! So i am wondering where i stand, i understand i probably do not have a leg to stand on in terms of a full refund (I tried arguing when i changed flights as the change fee was astronomical in my opinion), But im after some flight tickets in order to fly early next year for a late honeymoon! As you can imagine it has dampened the mood a little. I paid on debit card sadly to. 

Any help would be greatly appreciated. I have tried live chat, 5 hours with no reply, Ryanairs customer services should be illegal for such a big company! 

Aylesbury_Duck

Sridout92 said:

Hey  
Me and my now wife were meant to go on our honeymoon to Naples Flying out on March 16 2020 and returning the following Saturday, we had the flights all booked with Ryanair and then Covid struck (luckily we got our wedding on March 13th so it isnt all doom and gloom!). We however rebooked our flights before they were cancelled the day Italy went into lockdown, we was emailed by our hotel and informed to cancel flights as nothing in the area was open! So we paid a £140! booking fee and changed our flights to Nice. Changed our hotels free of charge and airport parking adaption free of charge. Roll forward to the 15th March we are driving up to Stanstead airport, we are around 5 minutes from the airport hotel we was staying in... What comes on the radio? BREAKING NEWS FRANCE IN LOCKDOWN. 

We spent that night canceling our hotel free of charge. But we could not do anything with the flights as the phone numbers were closed as it was a weekend, and we had to ring up/live chat to uncheck in from the flight in order to change to another flight. So we decided not to travel and instead had a staycation in the UK. 

During this time i have contacted Ryanair on live chat, tried phoning to no avail and messaged their complaints department. Everytime i got a 'its your fault' reply basically. Very rude at the same time! So i am wondering where i stand, i understand i probably do not have a leg to stand on in terms of a full refund (I tried arguing when i changed flights as the change fee was astronomical in my opinion), But im after some flight tickets in order to fly early next year for a late honeymoon! As you can imagine it has dampened the mood a little. I paid on debit card sadly to. 

Any help would be greatly appreciated. I have tried live chat, 5 hours with no reply, Ryanairs customer services should be illegal for such a big company! 

I don't know why you expected anything else.  You pay a bargain basement fee precisely because they don't have the customer service processes the more expensive airlines have.

In summary, because you didn't show for your flight, you're not entitled to a refund from Ryanair.

Have you spoken to your insurer?

Sridout92

Aylesbury_Duck said:

Sridout92 said:

Hey  
Me and my now wife were meant to go on our honeymoon to Naples Flying out on March 16 2020 and returning the following Saturday, we had the flights all booked with Ryanair and then Covid struck (luckily we got our wedding on March 13th so it isnt all doom and gloom!). We however rebooked our flights before they were cancelled the day Italy went into lockdown, we was emailed by our hotel and informed to cancel flights as nothing in the area was open! So we paid a £140! booking fee and changed our flights to Nice. Changed our hotels free of charge and airport parking adaption free of charge. Roll forward to the 15th March we are driving up to Stanstead airport, we are around 5 minutes from the airport hotel we was staying in... What comes on the radio? BREAKING NEWS FRANCE IN LOCKDOWN. 

We spent that night canceling our hotel free of charge. But we could not do anything with the flights as the phone numbers were closed as it was a weekend, and we had to ring up/live chat to uncheck in from the flight in order to change to another flight. So we decided not to travel and instead had a staycation in the UK. 

During this time i have contacted Ryanair on live chat, tried phoning to no avail and messaged their complaints department. Everytime i got a 'its your fault' reply basically. Very rude at the same time! So i am wondering where i stand, i understand i probably do not have a leg to stand on in terms of a full refund (I tried arguing when i changed flights as the change fee was astronomical in my opinion), But im after some flight tickets in order to fly early next year for a late honeymoon! As you can imagine it has dampened the mood a little. I paid on debit card sadly to. 

Any help would be greatly appreciated. I have tried live chat, 5 hours with no reply, Ryanairs customer services should be illegal for such a big company! 

I don't know why you expected anything else.  You pay a bargain basement fee precisely because they don't have the customer service processes the more expensive airlines have.

In summary, because you didn't show for your flight, you're not entitled to a refund from Ryanair.

Have you spoken to your insurer?

We was a no show based on advice from the countries we were staying in, also the Nice flights fell into the 'Free changeover' category, but we could not due to the fact THEY were not available to uncheck us in. 

How would i go about it with my travel insurance company?

Aylesbury_Duck

Ring them and explain the situation and see if they'll cover it.