Ryanair offering voucher refund instead of credit card refund

NicW23

Hi, I'm really hoping someone can provide some assistance with getting a refund back from Ryanair, which I have been dealing with since 19th January 2023.

In a nutshell, I purchased some flights for myself, my husband & two children using a gift card. Unfortunately, my husband found out that he could no longer travel on the same return flight so I contacted Ryanair customer services by phone to ask for advice. I was advised that they would need to split the booking to make the change. As we were talking, the agent split the booking & gave me a new booking reference for my husband's flight. The agent then advised that it would be cheaper for me to then make the change on the return flight online, paying £45 to make the change plus any difference in fare, which I understood. He also advised me that in order to 'release' this booking, he would send me a payment link to pay the amount of £259.02, which would be automatically refunded to me. In all honesty, I didn’t really follow why this had to happen, but I did trust the advice of the agent. I did as instructed and followed the payment link to pay £259.02, which I did on my American Express credit card. I then also went online to change the return flight for my husband & I paid the required £45 change fee.

When I had still not received the refund of £259.02 on my credit card by 25th January 2023 I contacted Ryanair customer service, which is where the attached correspondence starts. After my numerous phone calls & messages I am still not in receipt of this refund. I have been informed that the original agent I dealt with gave me the wrong advice & that the additional payment of £259.02 should never have been made. They have therefore confirmed that I am due a refund, but they are trying to do this by issuing me with a voucher. Several times I have stated to them that the amount of £259.02 was paid by credit card and that they need to refund back to the original method, but this has been ignored & I am really not sure what else I can do. Also, for your information, they have stated that a refund voucher has already been issued to me, but I have never received it.

This meant that I have spent hours of my time & incurred costs by constantly phoning the Ryanair customer services trying to obtain this refund.

To refund the charge of £259.02 back to the payment method used to pay this charge (my credit card) rather than offering me a voucher, which also never appears to arrive in my account! I accept that my original flight booking was made by using a voucher, but this issue relates to a refund of an additional charge, which was paid by credit card.

I have also logged this complaint through the Resolver website but have got no further along. American Express have also told me that they cannot help. I am therefore at a loss as to what I can do next, can anyone help?

Wonka_2

Firstly stop trying to use Resolver for Ryanair - they're not going to take any notice of it

Whether you like/accept it I suspect they'll use the excuse that the flights were all part of a single transaction albeit with differing payment methods and their T&C's allow them to refund in a certain order - of which they put Gift Card at the top of the list.

Why you can't see the credit on your Gift Card/credit balance is a different story that they should be able to answer

I suspect the cost/time in trying to persuade them to change their mind on the refund method is not going to me good use of either so unless someone comes along with a better suggestion I'd be accepting that you've paid for a nice future trip somewhere and start planning/looking forward to it 

onashoestring

On what basis have American Express said they can’t help ? Did you make a section 75 charge back claim ? 

born_again

onashoestring said:

On what basis have American Express said they can’t help ? Did you make a section 75 charge back claim ? 

There is no S75 claim as no breech of contract.

brianposter

"the original agent I dealt with gave me the wrong advice " so presumably there is a breach of contract. The contract is what was agreed at the time unless what was said was obviously erroneous.