help ! daughter stuck in Berlin due to strikes

Pollycat

TELLIT01 said:

WLM21 said:

I suggested going to the airport and kicking up a storm ... they'll have to help then. 

That's the last thing she should do.  All that will achieve is p***ing off the staff there and make them less inclined to help.  Be polite, the problem isn't being caused by the people she will see, but they are the people she needs to help her.

In fact, worst case scenario would be the airline banning her from travelling with them at all for being abusive to staff.

I think this is probably the worst case scenario:

Wonka_2 said:

WLM21 said:

I suggested going to the airport and kicking up a storm ... they'll have to help then. 

You think this is the answer ? And this will magically get her a flight ?

It's more likely to make her look foolish and potentially get her arrested

'kicking up a storm' is never a good idea when you need help.

beckierosee

Hi, 

Me and my two friends were in a similar situation due to the strikes. Ryanair cancelled our Monday flight back to Manchester due to the strikes and airport being shut and their earliest next direct flight would have been the 1st May...

After about 4 hours on the phone with different ryanair operators they confirmed we could book a connecting flight with EasyJet in order to get to the earliest flight they had back to Manchester which was from Copenhagen. Ryanair's policy is that if they do not have a flight within 48 hours of original departure time then they will cover other travel options. (We were also asked to ensure this was the cheapest option for travel and that the hotel was cheap but convenient for us and provide proof e.g. flight costs/booking.com costs once we claim). We did also go to the airport on Sunday as we kept getting disconnected on the phone however the airline staff just directed us back to customer service and said they could not hep us. 

Did your daughter and friends speak to Ryanair customer service about other flights from Germany and surrounding countries that they could get on Tuesday? If there was not another option either with them or with another airline then Ryanair should pay for the train and expenses caused by the reroute. 

I will be submitting all of our receipts and payments as well as chat conversations with Ryanair in our claim via there website as from others experiences they seem to be quite difficult to get the money ack especially since this is "exceptional circumstances" and not covered for compensation only expenses. 

Hopefully your daughter can get some reimbursement for the train journey from Ryanair!

CKhalvashi

WLM21 said:

sheramber said:

Berlin airport is shwing as operating.

Ryanair flights are showing as operating today to London and Manchester but nothing for Newcastle until Tuesday

Does she have a ticket for today to Newcastle?

I told her about flights operating today.
I suggested going to the airport and kicking up a storm ... they'll have to help then. 
Her original return was to Edinburgh tomorrow morning.
She's with two friends and they've decided to book train journeys home to London, then will travel up to newcastle
thanks for your help

Or she'll come against OH (a pilot for a different airline) on an occasion like this who won't tolerate any abuse towards the ground crew. She worked in restaurants from age 14 (in summer) until about 8 years ago and these skills are very transferrable with abusive passengers.

She's just read this next to me and said 'I think you're going to be far happier flying with different airline today'.

Ryanair should offer an alternative, Ryanair's general way of dealing with this is to allow the user to self-select a new flight at their convenience, so as long as she selects the first available flight (or at least the first available day) she will have no problem claiming any additional expenses.

The live chat team I've found to be quite helpful on the rare occasions I've needed to deal with them. Some others don't share this opinion, but it may be the case that Ryanair deem a train to Newcastle as not being similar to a flight to Edinburgh. Within 100km unless it's the closest airport flying to that destination is the definition OH's airline uses, and I can see this being reasonable in court. Newcastle is more than 100km (it's about 150) from Edinburgh.