Ryanair :(

[Tivoli]

Hi :-)
I'm brand new here and just rolling up my sleeves to start a fight with Ryanair.
Wish me luck!
I'll say more about it another time if anyone is interested but I don't want to bore you when I've only just got my feet inside the door.
Cheers!
Tivoli

[dogtired]

Re: Ryanair

[enaid]

Re: Ryanair

Hi Tivoli, we never get bored of watching a good scrap unwind and the more you tell the more we may be able to help.
and Good Luck
Enaid x

[Tivoli]

Re: Ryanair

Well this is a nice and friendly place isn't it :-)
I'm still at the scurrying around (sniffing out?) seeing who is available to help and so far I have pinged consumer watchdogs at the Guardian and also AirHelp :-D I'd never heard of them before. I promise you I will be back soon to let you know how it plays out :-)
Cheers!
Tivoli

[Amethyst]

Re: Ryanair

Have you read the guidance on MoneySavingExpert ( http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/travel/flight-delays - are you are looking at flight delay compensation of some sort ? ) There really is no need to use a commercial company that take 25% of your compensation.

[Tivoli]

Re: Ryanair

Thanks for this link Amethyst, I'll look into it :-)
Cheers!
Tivoli

[Tivoli]

Re: Ryanair

OK, here's the story, it's not a straightforward delay, though perhaps it classifies as a cancellation I'm not sure. I am English but I live in Greece and this means that my statutory rights are not necessarily the same as they would be if I lived in Britain. Ridiculous I know but I have been told that this is the case.
In a nutshell;
On 18th July my husband and I purchased tickets from Thessaloniki to Dublin for flights on 27th October 2015. It is not possible to fly directly from Thessaloniki to Dublin so we purchased easyJet tickets from Thessaloniki to Gatwick and Ryanair tickets from Gatwick to Dublin. Normally we don't bother with travel insurance but since we have experience of Ryanair cancelling flights and leaving people stranded we decided that on this ocassion we would buy travel insurance as well. EasyJet sent us a copy of our travel insurance policy along with the offer to cancel the policy and refund all of the money if we decided within 14 days that the policy did not suit our circumstances. Ryanair did not send us a copy of our insurance policy and neither did they even tell us with whom we were insured.
Also on 18th July we purchased tickets to return from Dublin to Thessaloniki. Because of flight schedules it was not practical to return via the same route and so we chose to fly from Dublin to Rome Ciampino on 5th November 2015 and from Rome Ciampino to Thessaloniki on 6th November 2015. Both of these flights were with Ryanair and for each of them we purchased travel insurance.
On 5th August Ryanair sent us an email informing us that our flight from Rome to Thessaloniki was being brought forward by a day and would now be flying on 5th November. On 6th August I contacted Ryanair customer services via their 'LiveChat' service. I pointed out that their schedule change meant that we would be departing from Rome before we had arrived there and could they please change the other flight as well. In a conversation that took over 90 minutes including long silences and many swerves away from the question, I was finally informed that Ryanair's fee for changing the flight was in fact the cost of two new tickets. I was however told that once we had failed to turn up for the flight we could be sent a 'No Show' letter and then we could claim from the travel insurance.
So on 6th August we purchased two more tickets from Dublin to Rome Ciampino for 4th November again including travel insurance.
Having returned home and having pressured Ryanair we finally received our 'No-Show' letter and were also given the email address of the insurance company. On 7th December 2015 we were finally informed by the travel insurance company that the policy we purchased does not cover us for Ryanair changing our schedule to the point where we are forced to purchase additional tickets.
This means that Ryanair customer services told me lies. Is this legal?

Even if this is within the law, given that Ryanair had a full 3 months advance notice of this, you would have thought that if they had an ounce of moral fibre they would have changed our flights at no cost.

[enaid]

Re: Ryanair

EasyJet sent us a copy of our travel insurance policy along with the offer to cancel the policy and refund all of the money if we decided within 14 days that the policy did not suit our circumstances. Ryanair did not send us a copy of our insurance policy and neither did they even tell us with whom we were insured. ??????? did you or did you not get policy docs?

Ryanairs ins https://www.ryanair.com/doc/insurance/policy-cz.pdf

[Tivoli]

Re: Ryanair

No, we never received copies of insurance policy documents from either Ryanair nor their default insurers Intana. It was really quite a struggle to find out from Ryanair the name of the company with whom we were insured.
We have now heard back from AirHelp who obviously think our claim is a tiny bit 'not-as-straightforward-as-they-would-like' so they have dropped us like a hot potato - bless 'em. They have pointed us in the direction of the 'National Consumer Agency' but I imagine that they will be reluctant since our home does not fall under the category of 'National'.
Meanwhile I have found the nano-dot portal for Ryanair complaints and have sent them one directly - watch this space!

[Tivoli]

Re: Ryanair

I do not believe this just happened! As expected, Ryanair stood shoulder to shoulder with their Terms & Conditions when I complained. So I complained a second time, explaining that I am a granny and that I was visiting my grandchildren and that whilst that in itself does not deserve preferential treatment, how would they feel if their employer treated their own granny in such a way. Would they feel proud to be working for such a robust business or would they feel sick to their stomach? And I got this response
"Dear Tivoli, We acknowledge receipt of your e-mail dated 16^th December 2015.
As per our Terms and Conditions, agreed at the time of booking, Ryanair, as a point to point airline, do not permit the booking of onward flight connections via our reservation system and do not sell through fares. We also clearly state the following in our Terms and Conditions:
"Ryanair do not offer, and cannot facilitate, the transfer of passengers or their baggage to other flights, whether operated by Ryanair or other carriers. Passengers should therefore not book onward flights with Ryanair or indeed any other air or surface carrier."
It is each individual passenger's responsibility to ensure that they arrive at the airport of departure in sufficient time to continue their onward journey, even in cases where it is another Ryanair flight. Given the above, we regret that we are not in a position to offer compensation.

However on retrieving your reservation number ABCXYZ, we wish to confirm that, as a gesture of good will, a refund of €79.96, representing Flight Tickets has been processed by Ryanair back onto the card holder (Tivoli) Visa Debit Card, last 4 digits “****” used for this payment. Your bank may then take 5-7 working days to process this refund amount back to your account.
Furthermore we wish to confirm that the remaining amount of €37.98 represent the Travel Insurance that you have purchased at the time of booking. Therefore we recommend you to contact the insurance department directly at: claimseu@oneclaims.com"

RESULT!

[jtpr88]

Re: Ryanair

I do not believe this just happened! As expected, Ryanair stood shoulder to shoulder with their Terms & Conditions when I complained. So I complained a second time, explaining that I am a granny and that I was visiting my grandchildren and that whilst that in itself does not deserve preferential treatment, how would they feel if their employer treated their own granny in such a way. Would they feel proud to be working for such a robust business or would they feel sick to their stomach? And I got this response
"Dear Tivoli, We acknowledge receipt of your e-mail dated 16^th December 2015.
As per our Terms and Conditions, agreed at the time of booking, Ryanair, as a point to point airline, do not permit the booking of onward flight connections via our reservation system and do not sell through fares. We also clearly state the following in our Terms and Conditions:
"Ryanair do not offer, and cannot facilitate, the transfer of passengers or their baggage to other flights, whether operated by Ryanair or other carriers. Passengers should therefore not book onward flights with Ryanair or indeed any other air or surface carrier."
It is each individual passenger's responsibility to ensure that they arrive at the airport of departure in sufficient time to continue their onward journey, even in cases where it is another Ryanair flight. Given the above, we regret that we are not in a position to offer compensation.

However on retrieving your reservation number ABCXYZ, we wish to confirm that, as a gesture of good will, a refund of €79.96, representing Flight Tickets has been processed by Ryanair back onto the card holder (Tivoli) Visa Debit Card, last 4 digits “****” used for this payment. Your bank may then take 5-7 working days to process this refund amount back to your account.
Furthermore we wish to confirm that the remaining amount of €37.98 represent the Travel Insurance that you have purchased at the time of booking. Therefore we recommend you to contact the insurance department directly at: claimseu@oneclaims.com"

RESULT!

Theres constantly big court cases going through the UK court system, some big some small. moneysaving website is a great resource, but doesn't really cover much in terms of the most recent landmark ruling, Evans V Monarch, which would help a lot of people out if they cited it when making a claim! A laymans terms explanation of the ruling can be found here:

http://marvelta.com/flight-delay-com...atest%20ruling

I would cite that, it shoots down a lot of the "extraordinary circumstances" that airlines use as excuses.

[Tivoli]

Re: Ryanair

Thank you jtpr88 for your input. The fact remains that Ryanair were not citing 'extraordinary circumstances'. The whole shooting match is well covered by their terms and conditions, which frankly, are piss-takingly barbaric.

[jtpr88]

Re: Ryanair

Thank you jtpr88 for your input. The fact remains that Ryanair were not citing 'extraordinary circumstances'. The whole shooting match is well covered by their terms and conditions, which frankly, are piss-takingly barbaric.

To clarify, the same article also mentions part of ryanairs terms and conditions (worth a read), we all know we are supposed to read them, but how often do we?
The important takeaway is that the terms and conditions state, you only have 2 years in which to make any legal proceedings against them. Which is 100% against your rights under the statute of limitations. In the UK its 6 years, for example. The point is you could quite easily argue, their contract and terms and conditions mean very little as it violates your rights.

Do you have a copy of the conversation with their agent on live chat? If their rep has poorly advised or mislead you Im sure a judge would find in your favour.

Ultimately, they rearranged in 3 months in advance, from what I have understood? So it couldn't be argued that it was within 7 or 14 days of the scheduled departure and was a "cancellation".

Do you still have an open dialog with ryanair?

[Tivoli]

Re: Ryanair

No. They returned my money and I thanked them. I didn't add them to my Christmas card list though.

[MattCutts]

Re: Ryanair

I think there is an online campaign to get these fees refunded, for those who join the lawsuit online, the link is http://sue.casehub.com/2WNqOB9