Ryanair charge to change flights as less 7 days to depart, despite it being government enforced

waamo

unforeseen said:

waamo said:

Ryanair don't appear to be cooperating very well with track and trace services either https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/jul/28/berlin-couple-test-positive-for-coronavirus-after-manchester-visit

So they haven't given the Germans any feedback. So what? The Germans don't  need to know who was on their incoming flight, Ryanair just contact the people through the UK system which they probably have done. There is no evidence they haven't apart from the Germans whinging that they can't get an answer

It was flying from Manchester to Germany with German nationals on board. I can see why the German tracing people might want to know who was on that aircraft and not be very happy at a lack of cooperation.

Streaky_Bacon

10jennyb said:

Ryanair not cancelling their flights, not sure why so i finally managed to speak to someone today after trying to contact for 36 hours, who has told me that to change my flight out on 31 July i will be charged as its less than 7 days to departure

Ryanair brought in a policy of free changes, to tempt people to make new bookings with confidence.

Did you book after the new policy was introduced? (it sounds like you did)

It certainly wasn't made clear in their public announcement that there was a "last 7 day exclusion" which would obviously make a mockery of the idea that the change was so that you could "book with confidence".

I would contact them again, point out that you believed that you could change fee free, and ask them where they made you aware of the 7 day exclusion.

It may well be buried somewhere in their small print, but it may well be considered to be unfair and/or a misrepresentation to very strongly emphasis a benefit and then hide a very serious exclusion in the small print (especially when that exclusion completely undermines the benefit).

Such terms may well be unenforceable.

Court of Appeal in Tilden Rent-A Car Co.  v. Clendenning, 1978

In modern commercial practice, many standard form printed documents are signed without being read or understood.  In many cases the parties seeking to rely on the terms of the contract know or ought to know that the signature of a party to the contract does not represent the true intention of the signer, and that the party signing is unaware of the stringent and onerous provisions which the standard form contains.  Under such circumstances, I am of the opinion that the party seeking to rely on such terms should not be able to do so in the absence of first having taken reasonable measures to draw such terms to the attention of the other party, and, in the absence of such reasonable measures, it is not necessary for the party denying knowledge of such terms to prove either fraud, misrepresentation or non est factum.

https://toyourdefence.com/EN/small-claims/breach-of-contract/onerous-term-contract

These contracts known as 'contracts of adhesion', which allow for very little negotiation, often contain onerous terms, or clauses, that limit the rights of the purchaser.  Thankfully, the law, generally, disallows the enforcing of onerous terms where a reasonable opportunity to review such terms or clauses was lacking or where the party providiing the contract document failed to call extra-special attention to the onerous terms or clauses.  Accordingly, a party entering into such a contract may be able to successfully argue against enforceability of the contract, or at least, the onerous terms.

mattyprice4004

BDL2 said:

I know some people have to travel to Spain, essential trips, people returning home etc.  But Ryanair should not leave holiday makers who have no valid insurance (Due to FCO advice) to choose between loosing all the money on the flight or travelling without insurance. They might not legally have to provide an alternative flight or voucher but as I said any decent company would look after their customers.

You're talking about Ryanair, the cheapest of the cheap and a company who have been on the news many, many times for poor customer treatment. 
Their online reviews show that their contempt for customers is still very much alive - they're rated 1.3 out of 5 on Trustpilot. 

Ultimately, if you want top-drawer customer service you need to pay more to book with someone like Jet2 (have always been helpful for me) known for providing over-and-above service. 

I don't go to Asda, buy Smart Price beans then complain they're not as good as Heinz  

Edit: To clarify, I do use Ryanair but I have the bare minimum of expectations, and I'm prepared to lose the money I pay for flights if anything goes wrong / sort myself out if I end up stranded somewhere.