* Ryanair * Ryanair * Ryanair *

Diarmad

ben.schlomo wrote: »

I started typing Ryanair Custom......and the number was on the screen by the time i got to the m in customer. Sounds like you should have been more prepared to me, surely you would have known when booking what youre requirements were if you needed extra assistance.

They were told of the requirements when booking. There were no additional requirements.

Diarmad

L1011 wrote: »

Sounds like you arrived at the airport far too late even without the special assistance requirement.

No we were on time

Diarmad

antix80 wrote: »

Sure, you've had a bad experience. For whatever reason you neglected to contact ryanair's customer service, instead attempting to resolve the issue at check-in, despite arriving too late. But to use your kids and imply there is some sort of discrimination, well that's just nasty and dishonest.

You are making up your own story....if you have a child who is disabled Ryanair forces manual check in and this carries a charge of €45 for all persons travelling. There is no way around this unless the people at check in use their discretion. Some do (as Ryanair said they should) but in Malaga on this occasion they did not.

L1011

Diarmad wrote: »

No we were on time

On time for pax who had checked in, if even.

Everything you've given us so far is someone desperately trying to deflect their own cockup on to the airline. You didn't follow the checkin procedure for special assistance and arrived too late and are bitching about the charges from both cockups. Live and learn - don't try blame someone else.

cdeb

Diarmad wrote: »

It mentioned nothing about baggage. Perhaps you had difficulty reading it?

No difficulty at all, but thanks for the sarcasm

It mentioned one restricted item, and people are hardly restricted items.

As everyone else has said, I think you ****ed up yourself; sorry. You've completely avoided everyone telling you how easy it is to find the Ryanair number when you said it took you ages. That's telling imo.

Diarmad

gctest50 wrote: »

https://www.ryanair.com/ie/en/useful-info/help-centre/faq-overview/contact-us/Contacting-customer-service/special-assistance-numbers

Your post doesn't make it look like you are as organized / responsible as you should be

That wasn't the number to call....assistance WAS already organised

Diarmad

cdeb wrote: »

No difficulty at all, but thanks for the sarcasm

It mentioned one restricted item, and people are hardly restricted items.

As everyone else has said, I think you ****ed up yourself; sorry. You've completely avoided everyone telling you how easy it is to find the Ryanair number when you said it took you ages. That's telling imo.

It wasn't sarcasm. You expressed something as fact when you clearly hadn't read the message properly.

The customer service number is NOT easy to find on the Ryanair website and yes you have to go outside their website to Google search for it - which we did. In my opinion, if Ryanair wanted people to call their call centre they would also give the number within the message. Why would Ryanair not give their number? Why, when you click on 'contact us' on the Ryanair website does it not give a contact number.

There was no restriction due to luggage - sorry but you are just mistaken. I'll say again for perhaps the 4th or 5th time - the restriction was placed because the boys have autism and required assistance which we notified Ryanair of when booking the flights the previous week. This isn't even being argued by Ryanair. They accept that they placed a restriction on online check in because the boys have autism and needed assistance. Other people have travelled with autistic children but perhaps they didn't need such assistance.

Diarmad

MarkR wrote: »

I've flown Ryanair with my son, who has autism. No extra charges . They were all quite helpful actually. Sounds like individual circumstances issue.

Did you need assistance getting your son on the plane?

the groutch

is there a reason why you didn't try contact Ryanair in any way in the period between the failed online check-in and when you arrived at the manual check-in at the airport?

Diarmad

Diarmad wrote: »

Well done you. Our experience was not so good.

Because you didn't do what you were supposed to do. It's very simple, we rang up, checked in ( both ways, by the helpful customer service person)
With no issues whatsoever.
I'm afraid it's entirely Your Own fault

Diarmad

cdeb wrote: »

It takes two seconds to find details of the call centre with google.

The screenshot you put up (since deleted) indicated the reason was one item of restricted baggage. If so, that's a different issue.

I imagine you're hardly the first person to travel with Ryanair in these circumstances, and if every such person had to pay E45/person, we'd have heard about it by now. I still suspect there's something a bit amiss in your story.

Not sure why my responses were deleted. I guess moderators don't like it when they are shown to be wrong.

cdeb

Diarmad wrote: »

Not sure why my responses were deleted. I guess moderators don't like it when they are shown to be wrong.

For the record, I'm a moderator in the chess forum. That's why it says "Chess" under "Moderator" beside my posts. This is not the chess forum - so I'm not a moderator here, and can't delete responses.

But wouldn't be the first time you read something wrong and jumped to the wrong conclusion, eh?

I suspect you ticked a box wrong somewhere - maybe declaring some item of luggage wasn't yours by accident; something like that - which meant that you had to go through manual check-in. (Or you could have tried to check in online again of course)

The customer care number is very easy to find on the Ryanair website. Seriously. Even if it wasn't, just google "Ryanair customer care" and a number shows up, as well as a link on the Ryanair website to "Help Centre", which has various numbers to call depending what country you're in.

The fact that Ryanair rejected your appeal strongly suggests you simply did something wrong.

I don't think there's a company in the world that attracts more negative publicity than Ryanair, and the idea that they're charging E45 per person for special assistance and no media outlet has picked up on this is simply not believable.

I appreciate that it was ultimately a pricey error, but ultimately this does appear to be your fault.

ZENER

Why is it so difficult for anyone here to believe the OPs story ? This is a classic case of Ryanair deliberately making it difficult for a passenger - no customer care number provided on their website.

They've done it since they were formed and will continue to do it as long as it pays for poor Michaels stable fees. Ryanair started a race to the bottom for air travel that is still ongoing. I have no problem accepting what the OP claims actually happened, I've seen it first hand everyday at their checkin for over 25 years.

The only thing I'd criticise the the OP for is actually using Ryanair to begin with.

My 2c.

Ken

ZENER

ZENER wrote: »

Why is it so difficult for anyone here to believe the OPs story ? This is a classic case of Ryanair deliberately making it difficult for a passenger - no customer care number provided on their website.

They've done it since they were formed and will continue to do it as long as it pays for poor Michaels stable fees. Ryanair started a race to the bottom for air travel that is still ongoing. I have no problem accepting what the OP claims actually happened, I've seen it first hand everyday at their checkin for over 25 years.

The only thing I'd criticise the the OP for is actually using Ryanair to begin with.

My 2c.

Ken

Because many people on here, myself included have travelled with ryanair with special needs kids.
It's explained on the website what you need to do, when you ring them they are more than helpful.

Skid X

Diarmad wrote: »

So I was due to travel back from Malaga to Dublin on Sunday 2nd October. When I went to check in - unlike Aer Lingus online check in Ryanair had imposed a restriction preventing me from checking in online.

We arrived at the airport, placed our bags on the belt and when asked for our boarding passes I showed the screenshot which indicated that this had been prevented by their system.

The agent then wanted €45 per person to do a manual check in. He delayed and delay asked us to take our bags off the belt, to go to the Ryanair sales office pay €225 (for 5 passengers) and bring back the receipt.

We had to take our bags off the belt and then when I ran to the sales office the woman there informed me that check in was now closed and we had to pay €500 for the next flight 7 hours later.

You didn't ring customer service when you got the message asking you to do so.

You tried to drop off bags knowing you weren't checked in.

You clearly left it far too late to arrive at the airport, despite knowing you were not checked in.

cdeb

ZENER wrote: »

no customer care number provided on their website.

As others have said, it's very easy to find contact numbers on the Ryanair website. The "Useful info" page has a section on special boarding assistance, and links to the various phone numbers depending on what country you're in.

(I can't link right now as the site seems to be down - for me, anyway)

And that's before we look at the fact that the issue on the screenshot posted was "1 restricted item", which seems to be a separate issue.

I would be fairly sure that if Ryanair were pulling this sort of stunt regularly, it would have been all over the media before. Instead, people with similar experiences are saying it didn't happen to them, and everything here is pointing to the OP making an unfortunate mistake,

Diarmad

Diarmad wrote: »

It wasn't sarcasm. You expressed something as fact when you clearly hadn't read the message properly.

The customer service number is NOT easy to find on the Ryanair website and yes you have to go outside their website to Google search for it - which we did. In my opinion, if Ryanair wanted people to call their call centre they would also give the number within the message. Why would Ryanair not give their number? Why, when you click on 'contact us' on the Ryanair website does it not give a contact number.

There was no restriction due to luggage - sorry but you are just mistaken. I'll say again for perhaps the 4th or 5th time - the restriction was placed because the boys have autism and required assistance which we notified Ryanair of when booking the flights the previous week. This isn't even being argued by Ryanair. They accept that they placed a restriction on online check in because the boys have autism and needed assistance. Other people have travelled with autistic children but perhaps they didn't need such assistance.

The "Contact Us" tab at the bottom of the Online Checkin page has all the details needed to contact either via online live chat or phone numbers for every country they serve.
Your situation was unfortunate, but you must accept some responsibility for the events.

rubadub

ZENER wrote: »

Why is it so difficult for anyone here to believe the OPs story ?

It would be in the media as said. There are loads of online articles about ryanair and wheelchair levies & charges, and those costs were far less than what the OP is suggesting he is forced to pay.

The media would lap this up, the OP might well be able to sell the story, except that it's quite obviously a non-story.

MOH

In fairness, if Ryanair are preventing online check-in and telling passengers to contact them I'd expect that message to include the relevant contact number. It's not immediately obvious from their website, and the number isn't the same as the first contact one you get googling it.

ZENER

It's interesting that if this was about Aer Lingus there'd be uproar and claims of an over unionised and over-priced behemoth not caring about it's customers and quotes offered from M'OL calling for the dismantling of Aer Lingus.

Anyway I've said what I wanted to say, I'm out.

Ken

cdeb

No, I'd say there'd still just be people calling out the issues in the OP, to be honest.

ytpe2r5bxkn0c1

ZENER wrote: »

It's interesting that if this was about Aer Lingus there'd be uproar and claims of an over unionised and over-priced behemoth not caring about it's customers and quotes offered from M'OL calling for the dismantling of Aer Lingus.

Anyway I've said what I wanted to say, I'm out.

Ken

Not at all. You're missing the point being made by most here and it has nothing to do with which company is involved.

MOH

MOH wrote: »

In fairness, if Ryanair are preventing online check-in and telling passengers to contact them I'd expect that message to include the relevant contact number. It's not immediately obvious from their website, and the number isn't the same as the first contact one you get googling it.

You mean like this? https://www.ryanair.com/ie/en/useful-info/help-centre/faq-overview/contact-us/where-are-you-calling-from

MOH

Deleted User wrote: »

You mean like this? https://www.ryanair.com/ie/en/useful-info/help-centre/faq-overview/contact-us/where-are-you-calling-from

Huh? I didn't say it wasn't on the site, I said it wasn't immediately obvious.

You have to dig from the main page through Info > Contact us > pick from a range of a dozen options > click a link to get to telephone numbers > choose a country.

I'm not saying the OP is right, I'm just saying that rather than make the customer wade through that, if there's a message saying "you can't check in online because of blah, you need to call us" it should really say "you need to call us on 12345678". Or at least link to the country list page, within the correct contact section.

cdeb

While I agree that the number could be shown clearer, it's not exactly really well hidden either.

I think the OP is very much talking up how hard it was to find it.

Diarmad

bubblypop wrote: »

Because many people on here, myself included have travelled with ryanair with special needs kids.
It's explained on the website what you need to do, when you ring them they are more than helpful.

With respect, that is just ridiculous. The Ryanair customer service person we spoke to in Dublin said that this shouldn't have happened. Manual checkin is required when you are travelling from Spain with children needing special assistance - end of. This has nothing to do with luggage like someone else suggests. The charge of €45 was imposed because we needed manual check in and because of the extensive delay this caused, we missed the flight. (The guy had to fill in forms, we had to go to the Ryanair sales office, and we had to pay and then bring back the receipt). This took over twenty minutes and again the Ryanair customer service agent in Dublin said that this should have been waived. We were not late for the flight.

By the way Ryanair did not organise any assistance getting to the airplane - we did directly ourselves. When we took our flight later that day Ryanair had none of us sitting together and there was chaos getting other passengers to move so that two non-verbal 5 year old autistic boys wouldn't have to sit on their own with strangers.

So much for more than helpful!!!!

Fred Swanson

This post has been deleted.

Diarmad

cdeb wrote: »

As others have said, it's very easy to find contact numbers on the Ryanair website. The "Useful info" page has a section on special boarding assistance, and links to the various phone numbers depending on what country you're in.

(I can't link right now as the site seems to be down - for me, anyway)

And that's before we look at the fact that the issue on the screenshot posted was "1 restricted item", which seems to be a separate issue.

I would be fairly sure that if Ryanair were pulling this sort of stunt regularly, it would have been all over the media before. Instead, people with similar experiences are saying it didn't happen to them, and everything here is pointing to the OP making an unfortunate mistake,

It doesn't say one restricted item - you misread that or made it up. It says

The trip you're trying to retrieve has (1) or more restricted elements. A customer service agent will need to checkin for you.

The restriction is imposed because the children needed special assistance. That's not being debated by Ryanair. I've said this five or six times now, not sure it's sinking in though.

Diarmad

Diarmad wrote: »

It doesn't say one restricted item - you misread that or made it up. It says

The trip you're trying to retrieve has (1) or more restricted elements. A customer service agent will need to checkin for you.

The restriction is imposed because the children needed special assistance. That's not being debated by Ryanair. I've said this five or six times now, not sure it's sinking in though.

Out of curiosity, On the outward journey, were you able to check in online?

Diarmad

Fred Swanson wrote: »

This post has been deleted.

No we were there over an hour before the flight....we queued up behind other people taking the same flight.