Ryanair: why can't I simply surrender an unused £20 booking?

sheramber

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6680507/ryanair-why-cant-i-simply-surrender-an-unused-20-booking

If they resold the seat people would complain that they were getting paid twice for the seat.

Bigphil1474

My OH had a Ryanair Flight booked a couple of years ago. Unfortunately their dad died about 3 days before travelling so they weren't gonna go. Rang Ryanair to cancel and they said just don't show up for the flight. We did claim a refund which they did pay, minus a reasonable admin charge, so seemed a bit daft to us.

zagfles

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82110310#Comment_82110310

I flew Ryanair a few weeks ago and there was an announcement at the gate that the flight was overbooked and they were looking for a volunteer to not fly and offering compensation/alternative flight. So it seems they do overbook.

la531983

Hmm. Someone needs to tell Simon Calder then.

Did they swap planes to a smaller one maybe (not all their planes are the same size) at short notice?

zagfles

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82119972#Comment_82119972

It was only one seat so I doubt it. I wouldn't take what Calder writes as gospel, ISTR he's written rubbish in the past.

Though I guess it might have been something like a seat was needed for a staff member who needed to get to the destination to crew for another flight

HillStreetBlues

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82119985#Comment_82119985

It's possible the flight wasn't fully booked, but they swapped to a plane with less seats and was one seat short.

la531983

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82119985#Comment_82119985

They may have sold 190 seats on a Boeing 737 Max that seats 197, and had to be swapped out at short notice to a Boeing 737-800 that only seats 189.

Or a seat may have been made out of commission due to a dodgy seatbelt.

Or a host of other reasons

eskbanker

From a quick search around, I can't find anything particularly credible either way about Ryanair and overbooking - if they genuinely do have a policy of not doing so (as opposed to enforced aircraft changes) then it's surprising that they don't advertise this prominently as a competitive advantage?