Ryanair Onward Travel Cost Not Refunded

bagand96

It's quite easy to understand that the airline (or their handling agent) might not be able to arrange 3/4 coaches at short notice at that time of night.

That doesn't however get the airline off the hook. They are responsible. 

OP your next steps are either ADR or Small Claims. In either you will need to make the case that your actions and expenses were "reasonable". A Letter Before Action may be enough to make Ryanair capitulate. 

greyteam1959

bagand96 said:

It's quite easy to understand that the airline (or their handling agent) might not be able to arrange 3/4 coaches at short notice at that time of night.

That doesn't however get the airline off the hook. They are responsible. 

OP your next steps are either ADR or Small Claims. In either you will need to make the case that your actions and expenses were "reasonable". A Letter Before Action may be enough to make Ryanair capitulate. 

I agree with your comments.
I believe they had a responsibility to arrange onward travel, in 1 hour or 5 hours.
They did not / could not / would not do so.
I think Aviation ADR looks like the next course of action.

Exodi

greyteam1959 said:

told by the Ryanair rep that we could claim back any 'reasonable expenses'

book a taxi to Leeds. Cost was £480.

I think we all knew where this was going...

It's perhaps unsurprising that they found £480 in domestic transport unreasonable.

OP landed at midnight, disembarked, got their bags, lets say 30 minutes and then waited an hour for the rep to tell them their was no coaches, so it's around 1:30am.

Taxi is around 3.5 hours, so get home at 5:00am, but at a cost of £480.

Alternatively, (using tomorrow as an example), you can do several routes which may involve tubes and trains (though generally end up on the LNER, departing around 5ish), getting you home at around 10:00am at a cost of around £75. You could even throw in a hotel and breakfast for ~£100.

I understand passenger convenience is a consideration (hence mentioning the hotel), but I'm sure most could appreciate that this doesn't trump all and it wouldn't be reasonable to charter a private helicopter to Leeds because it's slightly quicker.

Similarly, could the taxi have been shared with anyone to bring the cost down?

eskbanker

Hoenir said:

eskbanker said:

Hoenir said:

eskbanker said:

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!

Simply approaching it from the pragmatic perspective that "Dial A Coach" services are not available as far as I am aware. RyanAir may well have been able to eventually source a coach or indeed coaches but with what extended time delay.  Doubt that hanging around an airport for many hours would be acceptable to many passengers. They'd no doubt prefer to attempt to make their own way back. 

OP clarified that the coach option was taken off the table by the airline, so it wasn't the passengers choosing to do their own thing:

greyteam1959 said:

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 !!

Ok. I'll rephrase my earlier comment. What would you expect RyanAir to be able to do at that time of the night?  The rep on the ground is surrounded by a plane load of tired concerned passengers desperate to get home. This didn't mean that RyanAir wouldn't provide transport at all or indeed provide assistance in some hours time. Just not at that precise moment. Travel myself by coach frquently. Drivers are highly regulated as to hours. Another reason why there might be an extended delay in arranging suitable transport. 

Buddying up with other passengers would have reduced the taxi cost considerably on a per head basis. Would have enabled others to get back to Bradford in a timely manner as well. 

Yes, to be clear, I do understand that Ryanair can't necessarily magic up coaches in the middle of the night, but the part of my post that you omitted when quoting explains the point I was making, i.e. distinguishing between what's practical and what's required under the regulations!

The point about ride-sharing is undoubtedly true, but it still seems to me that if Ryanair wanted to impose such constraints (i.e. minimum of n passengers per taxi) then they should have given clearer guidance at the time, rather than arguing the toss after the event.  It would be interesting to learn of the opinion of a court if it got that far....

eskbanker

Exodi said:

Taxi is around 3.5 hours, so get home at 5:00am, but at a cost of £480.

Alternatively, (using tomorrow as an example), you can do several routes which may involve tubes and trains (though generally end up on the LNER, departing around 5ish), getting you home at around 10:00am at a cost of around £75. You could even throw in a hotel and breakfast for ~£100.

These costs won't be directly comparable because the taxi fare is that for the group whereas the train fare would be per person, and as we don't know the size or composition of OP's party, we don't know how many hotel rooms or train tickets would have been needed....

Exodi

eskbanker said:

Exodi said:

Taxi is around 3.5 hours, so get home at 5:00am, but at a cost of £480.

Alternatively, (using tomorrow as an example), you can do several routes which may involve tubes and trains (though generally end up on the LNER, departing around 5ish), getting you home at around 10:00am at a cost of around £75. You could even throw in a hotel and breakfast for ~£100.

These costs won't be directly comparable because the taxi fare is that for the group whereas the train fare would be per person, and as we don't know the size or composition of OP's party, we don't know how many hotel rooms or train tickets would have been needed....

You're totally right, but unless there was more than 3, it's still likely to be cheaper (which I'm minded to believe there was, otherwise Ryanair is pretty out to lunch with their offer).

If the OP was in a party of 4+ I'd be tempted to directly ask Ryanair how they propose 4+ people travel from Stansted to Leeds for £150 even not considering the time.

eskbanker

Exodi said:

eskbanker said:

Exodi said:

Taxi is around 3.5 hours, so get home at 5:00am, but at a cost of £480.

Alternatively, (using tomorrow as an example), you can do several routes which may involve tubes and trains (though generally end up on the LNER, departing around 5ish), getting you home at around 10:00am at a cost of around £75. You could even throw in a hotel and breakfast for ~£100.

These costs won't be directly comparable because the taxi fare is that for the group whereas the train fare would be per person, and as we don't know the size or composition of OP's party, we don't know how many hotel rooms or train tickets would have been needed....

You're totally right, but unless there was more than 3, it's still likely to be cheaper (which I'm minded to believe there was, otherwise Ryanair is pretty out to lunch with their offer).

If the OP was in a party of 4+ I'd be tempted to directly ask Ryanair how they propose 4+ people travel from Stansted to Leeds for £150 even not considering the time.

Yes, for the avoidance of doubt, I'm not saying that OP took the cheapest option, but conversely they're not obliged to, so any such financial evaluation after the event doesn't necessarily drive what should be considered reasonable in the circumstances faced.

Grumpy_chap

I was thinking about this thread and two possibilities that might change things.

First, the OP has claimed £480 for the taxi and been offered £150.
The OP mentions at the beginning "our flight" so that implies the OP was travelling with companions.  How many was that?  If there were three in the taxi, that fare would be £160 each.  Are Ryan Air only compensating the OP for their own portion of the fare (with an error in the maths) and require the other passengers to submit their own claims in addition?

I also find it odd that Ryan Air did not have some process to make onward travel arrangements, which might have included hotel and food if the necessary coaches were not available without delay.  
It does seem as though a rather poor situation had been reached if the Ryan Air staff had truly commented as abruptly as the OP indicated "They told us in no uncertain terms to find our own way home !!"  Is it possible there was a bit more to that comment being made than the OP has shared?

greyteam1959

Grumpy_chap said:

I was thinking about this thread and two possibilities that might change things.

First, the OP has claimed £480 for the taxi and been offered £150.
The OP mentions at the beginning "our flight" so that implies the OP was travelling with companions.  How many was that?  If there were three in the taxi, that fare would be £160 each.  Are Ryan Air only compensating the OP for their own portion of the fare (with an error in the maths) and require the other passengers to submit their own claims in addition?

I also find it odd that Ryan Air did not have some process to make onward travel arrangements, which might have included hotel and food if the necessary coaches were not available without delay.  
It does seem as though a rather poor situation had been reached if the Ryan Air staff had truly commented as abruptly as the OP indicated "They told us in no uncertain terms to find our own way home !!"  Is it possible there was a bit more to that comment being made than the OP has shared?

2 people in the party.
Ryanair are offering £150 in total.
So £75 each.
I can assure you that Ryanair did tell us to find our own way home.
Having told us several times that they could not provide any coaches for onward travel to Leeds.

RAS

The first train north is 05.20 and takes 3.5 hours. At about £55 per person.