Ryanair-Questions, comments, bouquets & brickbats (Merged)
 

This morning I read a post on www.airlinequality.com written by someone who feels that he has been waiting too long to get a refund from Ryanair for cancelled flights.
I, too, am waiting to receive a refund from Ryanair and wonder if there are readers who can comment on just how long they had to wait (or have been waiting) to get their money back.
I'd welcome comments from those in the same situation with other airlines (I'm also waiting for a refund from easyJet).
P.S. The wording of the refund confirmation message from Ryanair intrigued me. It states: "...your refund application has been accepted. Once approved...." (my emphasis). The implication is that some will not be approved (otherwise why not use another word such as "processed"?). I did wonder in what circumstances would it not be approved....
The www.airlinequality.com poster mentions that he/she has had no response to emails. Does anyone know of a "live" Ryanair Customer Service (sic) email address?

Sounds to me like they should have used the word 'received' instead of accepted.

I can't speak for Ryanair but there are many reasons why a request for a refund would be refused. Also, I was under the impression that communication with their customer relations had to be in actual writing as opposed to email or telephone. I guess they figure that getting it together to write a letter, print it, sign it, pop it into an envelope, buying a stamp and posting it might be too much trouble for a percentage of their customers.

Again, I can't speak for Ryanair but I have spent some time in BA customer relations and it could take a good 4 weeks to get an acknowledgement out to a passenger complaint, then around 6 weeks to investigate and reply, then around 4-8 weeks to get a refund (different to a goodwill payment) out to a passenger, depending on the circumstances.

Ryanair fax number
 

You can Fax Ryanair at +353 1 5081702.

Let us know how you got on.

Good luck!

Wow, there were two words I never thought I'd ever see in the same sentence!!

Seat62K,
Who cancelled the flight Ryanair or you? How much did you pay for each sector?

Ryanair levy an adminisration charge for processing refund claims and it generally wipes out any refund amount totally! Also they will claim they are unable to refund any 'tax' charges as they are obliged to pay those to the airports concerned this is however a scam as the airports only invoice for actual passengers carried which means that Ryanair 'pocket' the tax charges for passengers who don't fly.

Would be interesting to know how you get on please update your post with news when you have it.

Good Luck.

Ryanair don't refund the full cost you paid them? Surely as the fees etc simply comprise part of the ticket price to the customer, they're in breach if they DON'T refund the full amount the customer paid - if the other conditions match?
:uhoh:

alcockell
 

This is something I have been pondering for a long while. I suspect Ryanair would be in breach of civil law by NOT refunding taxes and charges, and I would very much like to see them pursued in the small claims court (or Irish equivalent) and to be made an example of for the lying theiving :mad: that they are.

Any company is legally entitled to charge an "administration fee" for providing a service, and in Ryanair's case the administration fee always exceeds the taxes and charges that should be refunded in the case of a cancellation. The fee may be disproportionate, but that's the way it is.

You will never, ever get a refund from Ryanair if you have chosen to cancel a booking (and it is difficult even if they have cancelled a flight).

By the time you have faxed or telephoned you will have spent the cost you want back. I had badly damaged luggage and after making the claim I received an email to choose which suitcase I want and that they would send it to me . This was 3 years ago and I still do not have the case so suppect I never will . :ugh::ugh:

Same subject different outfit. I was interested to read this article in the Daily Mail.

Don't these low cost carriers come under the sale of goods act? It seems they are a law unto themselves when compensation is involved

Family who were left to drive 1,000 miles home by easyJet set to send in the bailiffs | Mail Online

I'd love to see the reaction when the baiilff appeared at the door of a loading aircraft and stuck the bit of paper on it! (I believe that's what they do as they can't nail a writ to the mast these days)

The one and only time I have bought a Ryanair ticket (a real cheapie STN-PIK-STN day trip, just to see what the FR experience was like), STN was fogged in in the morning. You can't buy an FR ticket for a same-aircraft return, so things started to get hairy when it looked like the aircraft taking us there was getting seriously delayed while the aircraft bringing us back was not. Eventually, it became obvious that we would misconnect at PIK, so I phoned FR to ask about cancelling (the queue at the STN ticket desk looked like it would be about three hours). After the agent had checked the facts of what I'd told her, she agreed to cancel and refund the booking, and all the money was back in my bank account three working days later.

If the systems are the same now as they were then, it sounds like any hold-up may well be in approving the refund, not in actually making it.

Ryanair-Questions, comments, bouquets & brickbats (Merged)
 

Has anyone noticed Ryanair have changed the names of all the UK airports they fly to? Rather than saying "Glasgow Prestwick" it's been changed to just "Glasgow"?

They have done the same with places such as Düsseldorf. I can expect this to cause a huge amount of confusion! :ooh: :ooh:

My original post wasn't clear. Sorry!
Ryanair cancelled my flight. This is why I thought it curious that the refund would need approval. Perhaps this is a standard response which is used in all cancellation cases, whether by the airline or by the pax.

Ryanair-Questions, comments, bouquets & brickbats (Merged)
 

I am not a big fan of Ryanair, but when my suitcase was damaged during a flight, they agreed to a repair readily and it was handled professionally - and pleasantly.

UK press (e.g., Daily Mail) today carrying Ryanair adverts proclaiming £1 flights but nothing on Ryanair website below £5.
Anyone know what's going on?
P.S. Please don't get me wrong - a £5 flight to anywhere represents fabulous value, in my view! Well, almost anywhere (I don't want to start a debate on "places I wouldn't want to fly to, even for free", although, come to think of it, that might make an interesting thread.......).

just booked

STN-DUB for £1 no taxes........

taking the wife for the day.....


with their "debit card" charge of £16 makes it £20 all in for two people.

now i know the debit card "charge" is a rip off but you can't argue with £20 all in for two people to dublin and back...........surley

320JI ...

Get yourself an Electron card (Halifax do one for their basic bank account, took me about 5mins to apply and a further week for Halifax to set up, no cost to open). The card fee from Ryanair is then nil, so you can enjoy (as I have done) flights for £4 return, for two, all-in.

I believe Easyjet also don't charge for Electron, so it's a good tip fopr anyone using lo-cos, as is having a Nationwide account for overseas (gets you interbank exchange rates, about 7-10% better than from Travelex, with no commission).

Ll

Mrs RIX has taken out an electron card specifically for the purpose of booking flights with FR - What a tagline ... "fly cheaper" :ok:

Personally, I wouldn't have taken them on over a cancellation due to weather.Simmern, BTW, is the district Hahn is in.
Story

Ryanair quotes a maximum of 12-14 working days to get refunds to the customer's card account. I've now been waiting longer than this, so it looks as if it'll have to be the Small Claims' Court.
Has anyone who's tried this - especially in relation to Ryanair and on what I can claim from Ryanair in addition to the fare paid - got any useful advice? Thanks.

For anyone who'd like to know, Ryanair has refunded, in full, the cost of my ticket. It took the best part of a month, though, and I don't understand why. Although I will generally defend Ryanair against the "you get what you pay for" type of criticism (instead arguing that with short-haul flights with legacy carriers you don't always get what you pay for) this is the first time I've felt that Ryanair's customer service has been poor. Perhaps the unit dealing with refunds is understaffed. If this is the case, airlines need to realise the degree to which quite small things can make a difference to how their customers perceive them. For example, I have been much less keen on BA since not receiving a meaningful reply from its Executive Club to an email I sent raising what were, to me, important issues. The adage that it's easier to keep a customer than to get a new one is one which airlines ignore at their peril!

Ryanair refunds
 

Had three flights suffer schedule changes in advance of travel by more than 2 hours so far this year. In each case they offered full refunds including taxes, charges and credit card fees. I got two refunds and changed flights on third occasion at no extra cost. The refunds took 21 and 32 days to turn up on credit card account.

Ryanair Refusing Electron Card
 

I tried to book a flight with Ryanair this morning using a Electron Visa card and I get pop-up window stating that the 'Account is invalid or too short'.

I know it is correct, as my browser keep the details by default.

Anybody else had a similar problem?

It's a waste of space trying to contact Ryanair over an issue like this.

I'll correct that.....It's a waste of space trying to contact them over any issue.

The office is supposed to be open at 8am, but they were still closed at 08.10 this morning.

The premium rate number gives out the non-usable tone. That's the very number that is given over their telephone voice message.:ugh:

Card refused
 

Made a number of bookins on an Electron card with no extra costs - i.e. online checkin, no luggage, no insurance and no priority boarding.

Get to 25 bookings, and then the system stops recognising my card as an Electron. Grrrr ! Can't even take MOL on at his own game ! :mad::{

BBC "Watchdog" Survey
 

One of the most significant findings, for me, of BBC television's airline survey for the Watchdog programme was that around 19% of the approximately 24,000 who chose to take part said that Ryanair is the airline they would not fly with again.
Bearing in mind that not all 24,000 would have flown Ryanair, this strikes me as a very high figure and, if valid, would appear to provide evidence for the view that the company needs, in particular, to think about how it treats passengers when things go wrong. Some of the comments on the "airline quality" website, if true, reinforce this.
I fly Ryanair a lot and although nothing significant has ever gone wrong I do have a slight anxiety when I travel that I might find myself stranded.
Perhaps Ryanair thinks that it doesn't matter if some passengers never return because there will always be "new" ones to replace them. I believe this to be shortsighted and not simply because the supply of "new" passengers is not limitless. I will no longer fly with a small number of airlines because of poor customer service and I tell others. I know people who will not fly Ryanair but who have never flown with the airline. Indeed, until a couple of years ago I was one such person.
Ryanair has significant strengths (e.g., fares, boarding experience (compared with rival easyJet), onboard service, punctuality, newish 'planes). If it addressed its weaknesses it could be truly great. I do not want the day to arrive when I, too, say that I will never fly Ryanair again.

RYANAIR -Credit Card Fees
 

Just booked flights for 4 people to Dublin using Mastercard and I was charged the following -

Flights - NIL
Tax - £25
Credit card fees - [B]£8 PER PERSON = £32 :mad::mad::mad::mad:

I have to say, this is a rip off!! I am in retail and the fees are never more than 2%

Now I know why they are still in profit!!

I know it's a pain the way they do that, but in the end are you going to get the flights anywhere like that price at another airline.

So all in all for FOUR people to travel you have paid just £58.00 - and you still are not happy? That works out at just £14.50 per person!

Next time you could try taking a train and ferry - that will cost a heck of a lot more than £58.00.

It has been said many a time on here that is you pay with an electron card then you don't pay a credit card fee. Therefore you could have had your 4 people flying for just £25.00.

And whilst this is news that you are travelling to Dublin, it's not really appropriate for Rumours and News!

It is not the point 'self loading'. There are still plenty of people out there wishing to travel somewhere believing they are in the process of getting a bargain and unaware of the standard Ryanair tricks / hidden charges schemes. I am not saying Ryanair are the only ones but there are clear rules on fair competition and clearly every time a government law comes out, they are the first to try and get around it. In nearly every element of their business there are hidden traps for the unwary. They may have a good on time record, but DO NOT make important plans with this company at the risk that they may cancel the flight with the minimum notice offering simply your €10 ticket as a refund.
:ouch::ouch:

I wouldn't complain about price, but the breakdown is interesting. I booked a similar flight two days ago:

Fare £0.00
Tax & charges £0.02
Credit card payment charge £8.00

So let me get this right your flight to wherever is costing you 32 quid and you are whining about it being too expensive ?:confused:
You were slugged eight quid for your credit card but your flight cost you nothing???? so presumeably if the flight cost you 8 quid and the credit card fee was nothing you would be happy then:hmm:
At the end of the day its the "drive away cost " you should be interested in anyway.
But I thought that the UK had banned all this nonsense about so called free flights and required airlines to show the real price of the ticket on their website as they are required by law to do over here in OZ.
However they still add on a credit card charge ( $3.00) when you buy a ticket which is not shown in the final price which does annoy me as well ;)

Yes it is the point, you are made aware of the total cost before you pay, how hard can it be, if you don't want to pay then you can go somewhere else :ugh:

£15 quid a person in very challenging times and your complaining???

I've just booked some flights on a low-co in Australia (Tiger) and feel ripped off by credit card fees. I'm happy about the overall price, no disputing that, but it has left a bad feeling. I know that the per sector, per person fee is ridiculously high and unjustified, especially given it's one transaction and the merchant isn't being charged more than 2%. Also, it was the ONLY option available to pay! Credit card fees should be nothing more than what the bank charges the company, and if there's no other option to pay, should simply be part of the advertised price up front. Feeling ripped off means that I have no desire to fly with them again, unless they are the cheapest option (which they cannot be all the time). I wish governments would legislate that if companies choose to charge extra for credit cards, it must be only to recuperate what it costs them, or at the very least offer alternative methods of payment without surcharges.

I just booked the other day for me and a mate to go to Dublin for the day, 4p total as I used my electron card :ok: No complaining from me!

It's worth that just to oggle the CC. :}

boardingpass, how can you be happy with the overall price yet feel ripped off?

I'm astounded that anyone could moan about such low total prices. Has the original poster any idea what identical flights would have cost, say, 20 or 30 years ago? Much, much more (and when wages/salaries were considerably lower)!
Quit complaining!! Chosen carefully, Ryanair fares can be an absolute bargain. Even after the credit card fee.