I'm taking Ryanair through the small claims court

Upsidedownandaround

Good luck but unfortunately I think you will need it if you are relying on the Frustration of contract route.

As I understand it any event which frustrates a contract cannot be reasonably foreseeable.

It's difficult to argue that it wasn't reasonably foreseeable that you would be prevented entry to Spain due to travel restrictions brought about by the coronavirus pandemic when you were prevented from entering Spain due to to travel restrictions brought about by the coronavirus pandemic at most a couple of months before you purchased the flight tickets and entered in to the contract

If you had booked pre-pandemic then you would have a reasonable argument in my view.

GingerTim

@CKhalvashi are you in the pocket of Big Travel?

sheramber

The OP would have saved himself a lot of trouble of he had taken out travel insurance that covered him for being unable to travel due to government restrictions.

CKhalvashi

GingerTim said:

@CKhalvashi are you in the pocket of Big Travel?

Unfortunately not Tim

MiserlyMartin

Ryanair bars passengers from flying unless they repay pandemic ‘chargebacks’

An Irish woman who tried to check-in for a Dublin-bound Ryanair flight at the start of October was barred by the airline until she repaid a refund she had sought from her bank for an earlier Ryanair flight she had been unable to take because of Covid-19 travel restrictions.

Ursula Barry was one of hundreds of customers who were blocked from checking in for Ryanair flights that had been booked and paid for because they sought so-called chargebacks from their banks in place of a refund processed by the airline.

The airline gets worse....

eskbanker

MiserlyMartin said:

Ryanair bars passengers from flying unless they repay pandemic ‘chargebacks’

An Irish woman who tried to check-in for a Dublin-bound Ryanair flight at the start of October was barred by the airline until she repaid a refund she had sought from her bank for an earlier Ryanair flight she had been unable to take because of Covid-19 travel restrictions.

Ursula Barry was one of hundreds of customers who were blocked from checking in for Ryanair flights that had been booked and paid for because they sought so-called chargebacks from their banks in place of a refund processed by the airline.

The airline gets worse....

The chargeback recovery situation has been published on this site too, and is discussed on this thread, inducing some opinions like yours and of course others who see it differently:

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6304115/news-story-ryanair-bans-passengers-who-got-covid-chargeback-refunds/p1

CKhalvashi

MiserlyMartin said:

Ryanair bars passengers from flying unless they repay pandemic ‘chargebacks’

An Irish woman who tried to check-in for a Dublin-bound Ryanair flight at the start of October was barred by the airline until she repaid a refund she had sought from her bank for an earlier Ryanair flight she had been unable to take because of Covid-19 travel restrictions.

Ursula Barry was one of hundreds of customers who were blocked from checking in for Ryanair flights that had been booked and paid for because they sought so-called chargebacks from their banks in place of a refund processed by the airline.

The airline gets worse....

I read this earlier.

I don't agree with how they're going about getting the money as I believe this should be done either at booking or as soon as possible after, but agree they are entitled to do this.

Good on a company for standing up to such blatant fraudulent actions by a minority who don't wish to read terms and conditions.

michael1234

CKhalvashi said:

MiserlyMartin said:

Ryanair bars passengers from flying unless they repay pandemic ‘chargebacks’

An Irish woman who tried to check-in for a Dublin-bound Ryanair flight at the start of October was barred by the airline until she repaid a refund she had sought from her bank for an earlier Ryanair flight she had been unable to take because of Covid-19 travel restrictions.

Ursula Barry was one of hundreds of customers who were blocked from checking in for Ryanair flights that had been booked and paid for because they sought so-called chargebacks from their banks in place of a refund processed by the airline.

The airline gets worse....

I read this earlier.

I don't agree with how they're going about getting the money as I believe this should be done either at booking or as soon as possible after, but agree they are entitled to do this.

Good on a company for standing up to such blatant fraudulent actions by a minority who don't wish to read terms and conditions.

I don't see how not reading the terms (or agreeing to them) amounts to fraud.

I would advise anyone in the first instance to seek a chargeback.

eskbanker

michael1234 said:

I would advise anyone in the first instance to seek a chargeback.

And it's poor advice just like that that got these Ryanair customers into the situation they found themselves in!  It makes far more sense for customers who don't board non-cancelled flights (for whatever reason) to research where they stand contractually and/or legally before taking any action - obviously some choose not to do so, but they have to accept any consequences of such rash behaviour.

If the merchant breached its contractual obligations and attempts to resolve the issue fail, then it's the customer's right to seek redress via chargeback, but many seem to leap in regardless, in the mistaken belief that it's some sort of 'silver bullet' panacea.

Having said that, merchants should challenge chargebacks within the prescribed timescales if they're going to, so Ryanair got that wrong....

Markh5096

Good on a company for standing up to such blatant fraudulent actions by a minority who don't wish to read terms and conditions.

I don't see how not reading the terms (or agreeing to them) amounts to fraud.

I would advise anyone in the first instance to seek a chargeback.

I copied Ryanair’s terms and conditions into a Word document, as part of my research. 20,676 words, apparently. I very much doubt that it’s just a ‘minority’ who don’t read them.