Ryanair > Route no longer on sale but no advice of cancellation

Frontera2

I'm booked to travel with Ryanair from Toulouse to Lille in early September. Looking at the Ryanair site, this route isn't being sold until the end of October so I suspect there's a very high chance my flight won't be operating, yet I've not yet received any advice of cancellation.

I want to look at alternative arrangements and ideally would like to get the refund from Ryanair so I can use the money to make alternative arrangements, perhaps by hiring a car 

I've tried the Ryanair chat bot but no-one ever responds and I sit in a queue for eternity.. Any suggestions on what I can do? 

Frontera2

Just an update to this...
Managed to reach their Chat service..
1) Flight is no longer on sale, but not formally cancelled yet - so I can't claim a refund for cancellation until is is.
2) I can change the dates / route but only within France, I can't change it to a France - UK flight (We were flying to Lille for the train to Calais and ferry back to Dover from there) 
3) Because 2 isn't available to me, but because the flight isn't formally cancelled - I can't cancel / refund

Only option is for me to rebook the new flight I want at my expense and then claim back a refund of the difference between that and the original flight, but the will also levy a flight change fee which hardly seems fair

Ganga

Why not book the new flight and wait for the original being cancelled then claim a refund ,no flight change fee to pay.

Frontera2

This is what Ryanair said in their chat: 

If you wish to change the flight from international to domestic, you need to make a new reservation and then contact us back to request a refund of this flight.

14:06

But the flight change fee will be deducted from this refund. If the flight change fee is more than the refundable amount, no refund will be made.

Sharon87

Frontera2 said:

This is what Ryanair said in their chat: 

If you wish to change the flight from international to domestic, you need to make a new reservation and then contact us back to request a refund of this flight.

14:06

But the flight change fee will be deducted from this refund. If the flight change fee is more than the refundable amount, no refund will be made.

If you cancel now you'll have to pay the fee. If they cancel the flight you won't have to pay the fee. It's all about being patient. I knew my Ibiza flight would be cancelled by Easjet, but it wasn't  until a week or two before the flight that it got officially cancelled. You can make alternative arrangements now and then when they cancel your flight claim the refund (and wait the many weeks/months for it!) So you can risk booking a new flight/transport method and risk is not getting cancelled and then having to pay the fee.

martindow

Toulouse to Lille is quite feasible by train.  SNCF were running fairly frequent services when internal French flights were almost non-existant.  Is Dover your final destination?  If so Toulouse- Paris and then Eurostar to Ashford might be a another option.