We're talking early morning departures involving 3 aeroplanes almost together. It's crisis point just getting your own flight away on time- nobody would be available on minimum staffing to weigh up a sob story and get authorisation from above! The plain fact is for what they wanted, they chose the wrong airline at the wrong time. You should regard Ryanair as nothing but a bus ticket on a bus service- they do cheap mass travel. If you wanted the fuller service, you should have bought on their flights, and hopefully something may have been tried. People have such expectations of Ryanair, but you have to agree that when things go wrong, you are on your own, under the care of Ryanair. There is a limit to how much you can expect from your cheap ticket.