Ryanair changing flight time - unable to claim refund

abff

I got an email from Ryanair today telling me that the departure time of a flight I have booked to Faro in April has been changed from 11:15 in the morning to 8:00 at night. I have already arranged transport from Faro airport to our destination.

Apart from the inconvenience of losing nearly half a day, I will have to pay extra for the transfer from the airport because of the late arrival time in Faro (11 p.m.).

The email tells me I can claim a refund and gives a link. I filled in the required information twice and both times got an error message. Then I went into the website and filled in all the flight details, including my name and phone number and I am getting an error message telling me that I need to provide this information. I'm now made three attempts and keep getting the same message.

With all the recent charm offensive from Michael O'Leary and the facelift to the Ryanair website, I mistakenly believed that things were getting better for Ryanair customers. My experience today makes me feel like tearing out my hair and using unparliamentary language to describe how I feel about them

Any suggestions as to what I should do next? Call their helpline and spend more than the cost of the flight failing to get a straight answer from them? Probably not the best strategy.

galwayjohn89

I'd give them a ring. Same problem happened to me few years back. Rang them sorted in a couple of minutes.

abff

Vuzuggu wrote: »

I'd give them a ring. Same problem happened to me few years back. Rang them sorted in a couple of minutes.

Thanks Vuzuggu, but if I ring them, do I not have to use a premium rate line? I don't want to have a large extra charge on my phone bill because they can't get their act together.

schemingbohemia

Took 30 seconds to find this customerqueries@ryanair.com

abff

schemingbohemia wrote: »

Took 30 seconds to find this customerqueries@ryanair.com

Thanks. I went through the customer service link they sent me and couldn't find any email contact option. Where did you find it?

Anyway, I'm sending them an email to that address and hopefully this will get it sorted.

Thanks again.

abff

endofrainbow

perhaps try a different browser?

schemingbohemia

Here http://www.ryanair.com/ie/questions/contacting-customer-service

I just googled ryanair customer email

Jamie2k9

Continue to try it or call there call centre, you will get the refund but don't they offer you a transfer to another flight or are you just going to book with Aer Lingus instead?

abff

I sent an email to the address provided by schemingbohemia and got a reply saying that we would receive a refund within 7 or 8 working days. In the meantime, we booked flights for 5 p.m. on the previous night with Ryanair for exactly the same price.

abff

I was quick enough to get on here to criticise Ryanair, so it's fair that I should report back to say that my refund was processed through my credit card yesterday - 2 working days after my email to them. This is a lot quicker than I expected and I guess it's evidence that they are working on cleaning up their act as regards customer service.

spurious

abff wrote: »

I was quick enough to get on here to criticise Ryanair, so it's fair that I should report back to say that my refund was processed through my credit card yesterday - 2 working days after my email to them. This is a lot quicker than I expected and I guess it's evidence that they are working on cleaning up their act as regards customer service.

Their arbitrary cancellation of the Krakow Dublin flight last night would suggest not. They obviously wanted a crew in Warsaw so a plane load in Krakow got it in the neck. Funny to watch the Ryanair representatives scarper - we knew something was up when they legged it and sure enough after almost four hours of a nonsense game saying we were delayed, they cancelled it - at one in the morning.

Jamie2k9

spurious wrote: »

Their arbitrary cancellation of the Krakow Dublin flight last night would suggest not. They obviously wanted a crew in Warsaw so a plane load in Krakow got it in the neck. Funny to watch the Ryanair representatives scarper - we knew something was up when they legged it and sure enough after almost four hours of a nonsense game saying we were delayed, they cancelled it - at one in the morning.

Did the inbound flight arrive in Krakow of diverted?

spurious

Jamie2k9 wrote: »

Did the inbound flight arrive in Krakow of diverted?

Went to Warsaw - no idea why - flights continued to land and take off in Krakow. If the idea had been to get the Krakow people to Dublin and not just to end up with a crew in Warsaw - we could easily have been bussed up to Warsaw, as the Warsaw people were to Krakow.

Still, I get to come to lovely Warsaw and fly home tomorrow with Aer Lingus, who even at short notice worked out cheaper than I had paid for the Ryanair flights months ago. The free market. Hopefully I get my refund soon.

Jamie2k9

spurious wrote: »

Went to Warsaw - no idea why - flights continued to land and take off in Krakow. If the idea had been to get the Krakow people to Dublin and not just to end up with a crew in Warsaw - we could easily have been bussed up to Warsaw, as the Warsaw people were to Krakow.

Still, I get to come to lovely Warsaw and fly home tomorrow with Aer Lingus, who even at short notice worked out cheaper that I had paid for the Ryanair flights months ago. The free market. Hopefully I get my refund soon.

I see, just you say you were not told the flight was cancelled until around 1 am, Krakow airport know about it at 10.50 as they tweeted it was cancelled. If that was the case you should take issue with FR's lack of information.

spurious

My sister who flies much more often than I do watched the 'delayed weather/air traffic' excuses swap about and build while we sat in a snow-free, fog-free Krakow and she predicted very early they would cancel the outbound flight as it looked to her like they wanted a crew in Warsaw. They got it.

It was amusing though, to see the Ryanair staff in Krakow scurry about, put on their little blue coats and leg it well before the poo hit the fan, leaving the announcement to filter through people's texts from relatives before they announced it over the PA system.

I can laugh about it now having navigated the vagaries of the Polish railway system and its blonde-haired fearsome ticket ladies, but it wasn't funny for the many families with children, or the people needing to get back to work.
Flights seem to be doing OK today in Warsaw, in and out, even with snow.

Warsaw airport a bit desolate though.

abff

Yes, it's all part of the Ryanair experience. I guess that's the downside of cheap flights.

I go to Portugal about four times a year and I always prefer to travel with Aer Lingus. However, I usually end up flying with Ryanair because either (a) their flights are much cheaper or (b) the times of the flights are much better.

If the times are broadly comparable, I will be happy to pay a few quid extra to fly with Aer Lingus. However, I still end up flying with Ryanair around 75% of the time.

In winter time, there's a particular problem with Aer Lingus in that their flights leave Dublin at 6:30 a.m. I'm sorry, but getting up at 4 a.m. to head off on my holidays just does not work for me. Even the 10 a.m. flight home is not great, but at least that's doable if needs must.

Jamie2k9

abff wrote: »

Yes, it's all part of the Ryanair experience. I guess that's the downside of cheap flights.

I go to Portugal about four times a year and I always prefer to travel with Aer Lingus. However, I usually end up flying with Ryanair because either (a) their flights are much cheaper or (b) the times of the flights are much better.

If the times are broadly comparable, I will be happy to pay a few quid extra to fly with Aer Lingus. However, I still end up flying with Ryanair around 75% of the time.

In winter time, there's a particular problem with Aer Lingus in that their flights leave Dublin at 6:30 a.m. I'm sorry, but getting up at 4 a.m. to head off on my holidays just does not work for me. Even the 10 a.m. flight home is not great, but at least that's doable if needs must.

If you book in advance with EI it will be the same if not a little than Ryanair, up until a few weeks ago EI were well cheaper than FR for next JUly

abff

Jamie2k9 wrote: »

If you book in advance with EI it will be the same if not a little than Ryanair, up until a few weeks ago EI were well cheaper than FR for next JUly

Good point. And I do try to book with AL in high season. Part of my problem is that I have an apartment over there, which I try to let as much as possible in order to defray community charges, property taxes, etc.

In high season, I tend to wait until around March in order to see what bookings I get before booking my own flights. By that time, there's nearly always a big difference in price between AL and RA.

It's a bit of a balancing act I guess and difficult to get right every time.