Flight brought forwards

peterwhit

Hello

Ryanair brought our flights forward by over 11 hours such that the new time was 0555. We were not prepared to disrupt our weekend away in Austria to get up in the middle of the night and lose a days time. In Dec 2021 the EU courts ruled that such action should mean that the carrier has to provide an alternative flight with another carrier. Ryanair has refunded our flights but we had to book Austrian airlines at extra cost to ourselves. Ryanair has refused verbally to pay the difference and not responded to my written complaint. All claim templates are based on delayed flights so what shall I do next please? 

Sandtree

How much notice did they give?
Was it the same flight number and therefore a reschedule or did they cancel your flight and just rebook you on an earlier flight in which case the flight number would have changed?

Not sure what EU case you are referring to and if it was about earlier landings rather than delays.

eskbanker

Presumably the case is this one, in which bringing flights forward was equated to cancellation:

https://curia.europa.eu/jcms/upload/docs/application/pdf/2021-12/cp210226en.pdf

Assuming that the flight concerned falls within the scope of the EC261/2004 regulations (which it should if from an EU country) then on the face of it, the court judgment would seem to compel the airline to offer an alternative flight under Article 8.1(b), at no extra cost to the passenger, with compensation also possible if insufficient notice was given.

In terms of enforcement, a chargeback or section 75 claim may work if the purchase was funded by card, or a travel insurance claim, or ultimately small claims action....

Westin

However we are talking about Ryanair.

I suspect they will deny your claim, ignore your correspondence and put up a defence in the small claims court should you take it that far.