How to get a Ryanair cash refund - COVID flight cancellation

Inchworm

Do not give up claiming a full cash refund.  Take legal action if you have to.  To anyone who missed flights due to shielding - you can get your money back through the courts.  My family of 4 were booked to fly to Crete return in July 2020.  My husband was advised to shield due to having leukemia so we missed the flight on this basis.  I pursued a small claim through the Irish Court using the European Small Claims process.  Ryanair's lawyer originally contacted us and offered us a full refund with vouchers - but we turned this down as my husband was not likely to be able to travel safely in the near future due to ongoing concerns about Covid.  The court case was very delayed due to the pandemic.  I contacted the court periodically to ask when the case would be heard and I was repeatedly told it was 'just about to go to court', but unfortunately this never actually happened.  About 1 month ago I decided to ask the court about their complaints process.  Within a week the case was passed to a manager and a court date was set.  Ryanair agreed to a full cash refund the day before it was due to go to court.  This says to me that they knew all along that legally they should refund the money.  It took about 20 working days for the money to come through, but today we have received every penny owed to us.  My advice - keep calm, pursue the claim legally, keep written records of all correspondence/ telephone conversations etc, keep politely pushing the claim forwards, ask about the complaints process if you don't get anywhere and do not be put off by anyone delaying the process or saying you don't have a claim.  It's your money - you have a legal right to it - and they know it!

eskbanker

Inchworm said:

Do not give up claiming a full cash refund.  Take legal action if you have to.  To anyone who missed flights due to shielding - you can get your money back through the courts.  My family of 4 were booked to fly to Crete return in July 2020.  My husband was advised to shield due to having leukemia so we missed the flight on this basis.  I pursued a small claim through the Irish Court using the European Small Claims process.  Ryanair's lawyer originally contacted us and offered us a full refund with vouchers - but we turned this down as my husband was not likely to be able to travel safely in the near future due to ongoing concerns about Covid.  The court case was very delayed due to the pandemic.  I contacted the court periodically to ask when the case would be heard and I was repeatedly told it was 'just about to go to court', but unfortunately this never actually happened.  About 1 month ago I decided to ask the court about their complaints process.  Within a week the case was passed to a manager and a court date was set.  Ryanair agreed to a full cash refund the day before it was due to go to court.  This says to me that they knew all along that legally they should refund the money.  It took about 20 working days for the money to come through, but today we have received every penny owed to us.  My advice - keep calm, pursue the claim legally, keep written records of all correspondence/ telephone conversations etc, keep politely pushing the claim forwards, ask about the complaints process if you don't get anywhere and do not be put off by anyone delaying the process or saying you don't have a claim.  It's your money - you have a legal right to it - and they know it!

Re "This says to me that they knew all along that legally they should refund the money", it says no such thing - it simply means that in your specific circumstances they chose not to continue with the court process.

However, the shielding scenario you describe is unrelated to the subject of this thread (where the airline cancelled flights and therefore is legally liable to refund), and in any case it's an ancient thread from 2020....