2 PNR Issue and LastMinute.com and Ryanair doing my heed in

Tornadotone

Afternoon - looking for guidance on what I can do with the following issue:

My daughter booked 3 x return flights Edinburgh to Lisbon for a Hen Party departing on Friday 18 April and returning on Monday 21 April.  After about 3 weeks she received an email from LastMinute.com advising that Ryanair had changed the inbound flight from Monday 21 April to Sunday 20 April.  She thought that 2 nights away was too short so declined the change to the return flight with the intention of booking another location for the Hen Party.

However, despite booking a RETURN trip in good faith with LastMinute.com she was informed that she had 2 separate PNRs (ie 2 separate flight bookings) and that LastMinute.com would only refund the cancelled inbound trip as Ryanair had not made any changes to the outbound flight which was non-refundable.

I have spent over 10 hours on web chat with LastMinute.com trying to get them to ask Ryanair for a refund for the outbound flight as my daughter, in good faith booked a return trip with LastMinute.com, however I have got absolutely nowhere.  This is doing my heed in.

At the moment she has 3 single flights booked from Edinburgh to Lisbon on 18 April that she will not use and no way of getting her money back (nearly £500) - please help as I do not want her to lose the money and for LastMinute.com/Ryanair to keep her money!

Also I hate the idea that LastMinute.com have beaten me!!!!!!!

sheramber

I think Ryanair only sell one way tickets and their tickets are non cancellabke.

bagand96

sheramber said:

I think Ryanair only sell one way tickets and their tickets are non cancellabke.

Whilst they only sell single fares, it's in the sense of pricing, and no convoluted fare rules like legacy airlines.  However if you book a return journey with them at the same time, the outbound and inbound will be on the same booking (PNR) like any other airline. So in situations like this when they cancel a flight, passengers can also have the unused sector refunded as well.

It's very odd that LM would have booked it as two separate reservations.  Problem you'll have is Ryanair will just see it as that and may not have any obligation to refund.  Whilst if booked direct you might be able to get them to see sense, the problem you have is LM.com stuck in the middle who can't be bothered.

Just to check was it a flight only booking, no accommodation included?

Tornadotone

bagand96 it was flights only thank you.

bagand96

Tornadotone said:

bagand96 it was flights only thank you.

Ok was worth checking, a package would have given additional rights.  I hate to be that person but the advice is generally to book direct with an airline and not via a third party OTA, but this is especially true for Ryanair.

Have you tried Ryanair chat?  I'd go into it without mentioning LM but saying that reservation XXXXX is cancelled, and now you're left with a useless outbound reservation ZZZZZ (assuming LM have provided you with the PNRs).  See if there's any chance they'd entertain a refund, unlikely but may be worth a try.  

Tornadotone

bagand96 said:

Tornadotone said:

bagand96 it was flights only thank you.

Ok was worth checking, a package would have given additional rights.  I hate to be that person but the advice is generally to book direct with an airline and not via a third party OTA, but this is especially true for Ryanair.

Have you tried Ryanair chat?  I'd go into it without mentioning LM but saying that reservation XXXXX is cancelled, and now you're left with a useless outbound reservation ZZZZZ (assuming LM have provided you with the PNRs).  See if there's any chance they'd entertain a refund, unlikely but may be worth a try.  

Bagand96 thank you.  Went to Ryanair chat and they agreed that they would look at the refund until they realised that my daughter had booked directly with LM and advised me to ask LM to seek a refund for the outbound flights.  LM continue to state that there has been no change to the outbound flight, it is a separate PNR and it is a non-refundable flight.  I have no idea why she ended up with 2 PNRs but it may cost her £500!!!!

mtc95

Could an option be to stick with the original plan of going to Lisbon and book an alternative flight back on the 21st?  Skyscanner show EasyJet could fly her Lisbon to Edinburgh with a change at Bristol on that day.  Not ideal and not particularly cheap either (just over £200 pp) but at least she could still use the outgoing flights and not lose the £500.

Tornadotone

mtc95 said:

Could an option be to stick with the original plan of going to Lisbon and book an alternative flight back on the 21st?  Skyscanner show EasyJet could fly her Lisbon to Edinburgh with a change at Bristol on that day.  Not ideal and not particularly cheap either (just over £200 pp) but at least she could still use the outgoing flights and not lose the £500.

MTC95 many thanks.  They have decided to go to Madrid and sadly you can only change Ryanair flights within the same country - so she is still stuck with 3 unwanted flights.

bagand96

Tornadotone said:

bagand96 said:

Tornadotone said:

bagand96 it was flights only thank you.

Ok was worth checking, a package would have given additional rights.  I hate to be that person but the advice is generally to book direct with an airline and not via a third party OTA, but this is especially true for Ryanair.

Have you tried Ryanair chat?  I'd go into it without mentioning LM but saying that reservation XXXXX is cancelled, and now you're left with a useless outbound reservation ZZZZZ (assuming LM have provided you with the PNRs).  See if there's any chance they'd entertain a refund, unlikely but may be worth a try.  

Bagand96 thank you.  Went to Ryanair chat and they agreed that they would look at the refund until they realised that my daughter had booked directly with LM and advised me to ask LM to seek a refund for the outbound flights.  LM continue to state that there has been no change to the outbound flight, it is a separate PNR and it is a non-refundable flight.  I have no idea why she ended up with 2 PNRs but it may cost her £500!!!!

Couple of thoughts:

- Ryanair don't like OTAs and have a booking verification process https://www.ryanair.com/gb/en/lp/explore/verification-hub I think this is more for getting accurate passenger contact details (because OTAs mask these) but would it worth trying this? If your daughter could get the booking reconciled onto her own Ryanair account, she may be able to get them to at least provide account credit? 

- Get screenshots of Ryanair chat saying they'd consider a refund and provide that to LM to try and persuade them to do something?

- Or try an alternative method to reclaim the funds. They're not UK based so small claims court action might be hard. Maybe a credit/debit card claim? Make the argument that LM are not fulfilling their service obligations as the agent for a) not booking a return flight when selling one; and b) not processing a valid refund request that the airline are willing to fulfil.

The last point is a long shot, might be hard to make it stick, but as a last resort? 

Voyager2002

Has she asked Ryanair about arranging satisfactory return flights?

Incidentally, the journey from Madrid to Lisbon is not impossible and can be enjoyable...

Tornadotone

Voyager2002 said:

Has she asked Ryanair about arranging satisfactory return flights?

Incidentally, the journey from Madrid to Lisbon is not impossible and can be enjoyable...

Thanks - they offered flights on the Sunday - had we known that she would not get the refund for the outbound flight she would have accepted the Sunday flight - she assumed that the return trip would be refunded.