Ryanair Onward Travel Cost Not Refunded

greyteam1959

On January 5th 2025 our flight from Alicante to Leeds Bradford airport was diverted to Stansted & landed at midnight.
After around 1 hour of waiting the Ryanair representative told us that there were no coaches available to take us to our destination airport, Leeds Bradford.
They told us in no uncertain terms to find our own way home !!
Great.
We decided, after being told by the Ryanair rep that we could claim back any 'reasonable expenses', to book a taxi to Leeds.
Cost was £480.
We got a credit card machine receipt at the time.
We put a claim for the taxi fare & sent the credit card receipt we received at the time.
We received an email back to say the card machine receipt was not acceptable & that we needed a fully itemised, dated & timed receipt.
That was Ryanair's response after nearly 2 months.
We contacted the taxi company & they email us a fully itemised, timed & dated receipt for the fare.
The date & time etc was the date we booked the taxi.
Ryanair are now saying this is not acceptable !!
Their response below.
As mentioned in the previous email, without receipts issued by the provider at the moment of the purchase we are not in the position to reimburse any expenses.

I don't think that this is acceptable.
What are other peoples views on the situation ??

Hoenir

greyteam1959 said:

We decided, after being told by the Ryanair rep that we could claim back any 'reasonable expenses', to book a taxi to Leeds.
Cost was £480.
What are other peoples views on the situation ??

Reasonable being the operative word. I'd suggest not. If every passenger on the flight claimed in the same manner the total cost would be stratospheric. 

eskbanker

Hoenir said:

greyteam1959 said:

We decided, after being told by the Ryanair rep that we could claim back any 'reasonable expenses', to book a taxi to Leeds.
Cost was £480.
What are other peoples views on the situation ??

Reasonable being the operative word. I'd suggest not. If every passenger on the flight claimed in the same manner the total cost would be stratospheric. 

In isolation you may be right, but in the context of being stranded 200 miles from home in the middle of the night, by a company that was ignoring its legal responsibilities to take care of travel arrangements (rather than just reimbursing), what would you suggest would have been more reasonable?

The fact that it was expensive to fulfil their legal obligations isn't the passengers' problem!

saajan_12

Hoenir said:

greyteam1959 said:

We decided, after being told by the Ryanair rep that we could claim back any 'reasonable expenses', to book a taxi to Leeds.
Cost was £480.
What are other peoples views on the situation ??

Reasonable being the operative word. I'd suggest not. If every passenger on the flight claimed in the same manner the total cost would be stratospheric. 

If the flight landed at 12am, a taxi may have been the only transport in operation, with no regularly scheduled coaches or trains available. Getting a hotel plus public transport in the morning may end up around the same given the £480 presumably covers a couple of people, and not necessarily reasonable to expect from the passenger to wait that long. Every passenger wouldn't have to claim the same if Ryanair put on one big coach for 50+ people at a time. 

In any case, Ryanair don't seem to be disputing that taking a taxi in principle is unreasonable.. just quibbling the proof of the cost, ie a receipt that was issued at the time. 

bagand96

A card machine slip is not a receipt of sale.  It just shows that you paid that company that amount of money, it doesn't say what for.  Ryanair are saying they want an itemised receipt to prove the cost was £480 for the taxi STN-LBA at that time/date.

That said, with a retrospective itemised receipt, as well as the card machine receipt then it's hard to see why they should refuse.  Your next steps are either to go to Small Claims Court, or Alternate Dispute Resolution (ADR).  Ryanair do partake in an ADR scheme operated by Make a complaint about Ryanair | Airline ADR EU 

Grumpy_chap

Has the OP asked the taxi firm for a receipt retrospectively?
It is not unusual for taxi firms to e-mail a receipt.

eskbanker

Grumpy_chap said:

Has the OP asked the taxi firm for a receipt retrospectively?
It is not unusual for taxi firms to e-mail a receipt.

As they did here - from OP:

greyteam1959 said:

We contacted the taxi company & they email us a fully itemised, timed & dated receipt for the fare.

Grumpy_chap

eskbanker said:

Grumpy_chap said:

Has the OP asked the taxi firm for a receipt retrospectively?
It is not unusual for taxi firms to e-mail a receipt.

As they did here - from OP:

greyteam1959 said:

We contacted the taxi company & they email us a fully itemised, timed & dated receipt for the fare.

OOPS - I missed that.

If RyanAir are simply refusing on the basis of the receipt being retrospective, that is unreasonable IMO.
That does seem to be the case from the OP's notes.

Unless the OP has paraphrased RyanAir's refusal and there is a reason stated either that the taxi was an unreasonable choice, or the taxi fare was unreasonable for the distance.
That does not seem to be what is being stated, especially by reference to the emboldened text within the OP.

daveyjp

I've read similar from Ryanair that they require a very specific receipt if you want a refund.

You would never know those terms at the time and I suspect even if you did and met all their 'conditions', they would then find another 101 reasons not to pay up.

greyteam1959

Ryanair have been back in touch & deemed the £480 taxi fare to Leeds excessive & offered £150 in full & final settlement.

eskbanker

greyteam1959 said:

We decided, after being told by the Ryanair rep that we could claim back any 'reasonable expenses', to book a taxi to Leeds.
Cost was £480.

Was there any discussion about what constituted 'reasonable' in those specific circumstances?  Presumably there was a planeload of people all in the same boat of wanting to get back to Leeds/Bradford, so ideally the rep should have clarified which options would be reimbursable, even though that still wouldn't stop their employer playing hardball after the event if it was just verbal dialogue....