Refunding woes: just my tuppence worth...

Dinarius

I booked a return Dublin > London flight with Aer Lingus.

I cannot now make the return leg of my journey. I have to change it.

Changing it online with Aer Lingus will cost €40 on top of what I've already paid for the ticket (€50 over the phone). Using the flight on another date will cost the same €40.

Just cancelling that return leg of my journey will result in a refund of government taxes only; nothing more.

Simply not taking the flight, and booking a single return flight, from the SAME London airport, with Ryanair will cost €20.97.

Go figure, as they say.

Is it any wonder we read about Aer Lingus' travails.

That said, Ryanair may cancel my flight! :cool:

Seriously, wakey, wakey Aer Lingus.

D.

Ps. And I discovered all of this via a 1890 call. See my other thread.

mirwillbeback

In fairness to both companies, I've dealt a lot with them on separate issues over the past month.

The Ryanair chat service has been very efficient to me, albeit a 10-20 minute wait to get connected. Sorted out a few issues (40 person kids football trip) very easily and quickly.

We were due to fly with Aer Lingus to Portugal last month, but due to my fathers illness and passing we were unable to go. We figured we would lose the cost as not insured, but Aer Lingus we incredible from start to finish. How they dealt with us, how understanding they were and the fact they refunded to the penny what we paid. Absolutely great they were.

Tendency to always hear the bad, but cannot fault my experiences with either.

ssmith6287

Book your flights with paypal. You get a full refund regardless, as long as you havent checked in.

**should note, ive never availed of this but have been advised in the past, so hopefully im not lying **

ct5amr2ig1nfhp

What is your consumer issue?

Or are you just having a rant because you have a choice in what airline to fly? That's shocking. EI should immediately cancel their service and give FR a monopoly. That will ensure prices stay low and increase competition.

I bought a bottle of evian water today for €2.50. I then discovered I could by the SAME H20 in Lidl for 25 cent. Seriously Evian...wakey wakey.

Dinarius

ssmith6287 wrote: »

Book your flights with paypal. You get a full refund regardless, as long as you havent checked in.

**should note, ive never availed of this but have been advised in the past, so hopefully im not lying **

I fly to London a lot.

If that's true, you're on my Christmas card list for life! :P

Thanks.

D.

dudara

Not really a Consumer Issue. Moving instead to Aviation & Aircraft

dudara

Dinarius

How this is not a consumer issue is beyond me.

It has zip to do with the workings of the aviation industry and everything to do with the cost to the consumer.

D.

ssmith6287

Dinarius wrote: »

I fly to London a lot.

If that's true, you're on my Christmas card list for life! :P

Thanks.

D.

as long as you post cash in your christmas cards ill happily accept

L1011

ssmith6287 wrote: »

Book your flights with paypal. You get a full refund regardless, as long as you havent checked in.

**should note, ive never availed of this but have been advised in the past, so hopefully im not lying **

This isn't true

Dinarius

L1011 wrote: »

This isn't true

Which makes it even more of a consumer's issue, IMHO.

D.

L1011

Dinarius wrote: »

Which makes it even more of a consumer's issue, IMHO.

D.

It isn't, you may want to look at what forums I moderate!

Ryanair are currently undertaking a huge sale due to the reputation damage caused by the cancellations. Aer Lingus are not suffering 'travails' either

cml387

Dinarius wrote: »

Which makes it even more of a consumer's issue, IMHO.

D.

The fact that you can a get a similar service cheaper from another supplier is good for you and demonstrates that the market is working.

A real consumer issue would be if you had a choice of only two airlines and the ticket price was identical for both carriers (as used to be the case in Ireland).

Dinarius

cml387 wrote: »

The fact that you can a get a similar service cheaper from another supplier is good for you and demonstrates that the market is working.

A real consumer issue would be if you had a choice of only two airlines and the ticket price was identical for both carriers (as used to be the case in Ireland).

IMHO, a real consumer issue is anything which minimizes the effect on the consumers' bottom line.

If Aer Lingus had the wit to allow me to change the flight, to a similarly priced (or cheaper) flight, without penalty - I wasn't asking to be switched to a premium "red eye" flight - they wouldn't have lost a customer.

Worst case scenario, in the future, I can walk away from a €20 Ryanair charge. But, walking away from Aer Lingus' €60+ (single fare) occasionally, is a different matter.

Right, liabilities, competitiveness etc., etc., ALL translate in some way to the bottom line. So they are all consumer issues, in my opinion.

D.

Deep Thought

ssmith6287 wrote: »

Book your flights with paypal. You get a full refund regardless, as long as you havent checked in.

**should note, ive never availed of this but have been advised in the past, so hopefully im not lying **

How do you pay with Paypal, Never saw that option on either site?

ssmith6287

Dinarius wrote: »

IMHO, a real consumer issue is anything which minimizes the effect on the consumers' bottom line.

If Aer Lingus had the wit to allow me to change the flight, to a similarly priced (or cheaper) flight, without penalty - I wasn't asking to be switched to a premium "red eye" flight - they wouldn't have lost a customer.

Worst case scenario, in the future, I can walk away from a €20 Ryanair charge. But, walking away from Aer Lingus' €60+ (single fare) occasionally, is a different matter.

Right, liabilities, competitiveness etc., etc., ALL translate in some way to the bottom line. So they are all consumer issues, in my opinion.

D.

But you paid for the ticket so technically they didn't loose a customer

Deep Thought wrote: »

How do you pay with Paypal, Never saw that option on either site?

The moderator person said it doesnt work so ive obviously been told wrong. The person that told me works for paypal though so maybe they were just tryna flog a subscription

Captain_Crash

Deep Thought wrote: »

How do you pay with Paypal, Never saw that option on either site?

Its one of the options in a menu when paying, Ryanair also levy an additional charge for the pleasure.... and I can categorically say that if you pay with PayPal you wont get your money back should you decide you don't want to fly.

Sheeple34

Dinarius wrote: »

If Aer Lingus had the wit to allow me to change the flight, to a similarly priced (or cheaper) flight, without penalty - I wasn't asking to be switched to a premium "red eye" flight - they wouldn't have lost a customer.
D.

If you want this option I believe there are flexible tickets that you can purchase that allows for this.
Were you not told about this change fee when you made your decision to book with Aer Lingus? I'll answer that. Yes, you were.
You say they have lost a customer but I bet if the price is right the next time, you'll book with them again.

737max

L1011 wrote: »

Ryanair are currently undertaking a huge sale due to the reputation damage caused by the cancellations. Aer Lingus are not suffering 'travails' either

Aer Lingus do have a sale on at the moment too. I used it to book flights for February and March of next year. The prices while higher than Ryanair were low enough to induce me to book in advance.

Dinarius

ssmith6287 wrote: »

But you paid for the ticket so technically they didn't loose a customer

I'm self-employed.

The best advice I was ever given was; "The only good business is repeat business."

D.

devnull

I reckon I've took about 100 flights in the last 5-6 years or so, mostly Ryanair and quite a few Aer Lingus along with about half a dozen Wizz Air, and 3 Easyjet flights and a few airlines (BA, Luft, AF etc) I've flown with once on business.

Ryanair despite the fact I've flown with them the most have had little contact with customer services or need for complaint, I've contacted them twice about a death close to a flight and they've been happy to refund/re-arrange without any quibble once there was severe delays due to a runway closure and they moved my flight and another time there was bad weather and the reallocated my flight, no complaints, but I've rarely had to contact them as everything has run like clockwork. Al

Aer Lingus are great a lot of the time, however I've had more bad experiences with them than Ryanair. Once I was refused on board an aircraft as they said I had already checked in (gave someone else my boarding pass!), an issue relating to a diversion which meant we arrived 24 hours late and provided no assistance and given misleading info to cover their own back (which I successfully made a claim against them about) and the odd issue with crews with bad attitude (one told me that they are discussing union business so they cannot help me for the next 20 minutes) and seat assignments (three times I was booked in an extra legroom seat and at the gate I was assigned a random cramped seat on an A319 whilst off duty staff took my original seat and AL wouldn't refund me the extra I paid for a seat I couldn't use.

Wizz Air were a complete disaster and honestly I will never fly with them again, the culture of leaving the cockpit door open for a fair amount of periods, inviting random people into the cockpit and damaging my luggage twice, being frequently late and the staff being too interested in flirting rather than looking after their customers put me right off. That's before you take into account one flight where we were landing and all the bags were flying out of the overhead lockers as the crew didn't check them before we started the final descent as they were still too busy snogging each other!

Easyjet I only flew with three times but they were fine as were the others.

Fol20

Dinarius wrote: »

IMHO, a real consumer issue is anything which minimizes the effect on the consumers' bottom line.

If Aer Lingus had the wit to allow me to change the flight, to a similarly priced (or cheaper) flight, without penalty - I wasn't asking to be switched to a premium "red eye" flight - they wouldn't have lost a customer.

Worst case scenario, in the future, I can walk away from a €20 Ryanair charge. But, walking away from Aer Lingus' €60+ (single fare) occasionally, is a different matter.

Right, liabilities, competitiveness etc., etc., ALL translate in some way to the bottom line. So they are all consumer issues, in my opinion.

D.

I honestly dont understand why you are annoyed.. basically you bought a flight and signed up whatever t&c aer lingus have.. You then cant make your flight and you want aerlingus to front up the entire cost of you changing your mind while even though the same thing might happen with ryan air, your not happy because of the cost difference. Why did you go with Aer Lingus if you knew the price difference for flights to begin with.

Your right is that you can still go on the flight at the date and time you booked
Your liability is your own as its not them rejecting the flight,its you. If it was reversed like ryanair right now. everyone would be up in arms looking for compensation due to cancel flights. Should aer lingus be looking for compo from you,i think not.Competitiveness is true and as others have mentioned, the market is operating correctly when there are different prices between different companys. You may not like paying extra for one specific flight that you have looked at but on some occasions i have got flights cheaper through aerlingus rather than through ryanair(not too often but it has happened). The beauty of it is that it is up to the consumer to spend their money in anyway they see fit which is how it is working right now.

kevinandrew

devnull wrote: »

Wizz Air were a complete disaster and honestly I will never fly with them again, the culture of leaving the cockpit door open for a fair amount of periods, inviting random people into the cockpit and damaging my luggage twice, being frequently late and the staff being too interested in flirting rather than looking after their customers put me right off. That's before you take into account one flight where we were landing and all the bags were flying out of the overhead lockers as the crew didn't check them before we started the final descent as they were still too busy snogging each other!

I've flown with Wizz 14 times this year and never had a major problem, the routes I fly them on compete directly with Ryanair but they always tend to get my business. In my experience the fares are often cheaper, especially if you are in their discount club, the flights are usually on time, aircraft comfortable and the staff are helpful. 

I've never seen the cockpit door left open, if one of the pilots needs the bathroom a member of cabin crew will enter the cockpit and close the door behind them while the other stands in the aisle blocking anyone from approaching, I usually fly with Lithuanian based crews and they appear very, very strict in guarding the cockpit during the flight. 

They are a flirty bunch though, not just with each other but with passengers too! Never to the extreme you've described but still quite noticeable. 

I have heard that they are absolutely appalling when things go wrong, there was a major schedule screw up at Luton this summer and they got some awful press for it but I've avoided drama like that for now.

crisco10

I don't see the issue here either

Also fairly confident that if the OPs original flight was Ryanair and he tried to change it then it may have been cheaper to book one way aer lingus.

Personally, I'm a frequent flyer with aer lingus and aside from a terribly run frequent flyer scheme I've had no issues with them. Always get me there reasonably on time with good service.

devnull

kevinandrew wrote: »

I've flown with Wizz 14 times this year and never had a major problem, the routes I fly them on compete directly with Ryanair but they always tend to get my business. In my experience the fares are often cheaper, especially if you are in their discount club, the flights are usually on time, aircraft comfortable and the staff are helpful.

Having to pay extra for a membership for a club to get the best fares is not something I agree with because I think that such fares should be open to everyone on a first come first served basis as they are with virtually other airline, the club is just used to extract further revenue out of people under the pretense they are gaining 'extra' savings which was later further pushed along this road by restricting sales to discount club members.

Then you have the whole situation with their baggage until recently which generally always made a flight which was sometimes quite close to Ryanair a good chunk more expensive, because of the fact you can only take a small bag on board whereas Ryanair allowed a normal sized bag as well as a small bag.

I also don't like the fact that when things go wrong or are heavily delayed the company then tries to pretend that they do not have to give you compensation or support under EU261 guidelines and it's your fault for not taking out their delay warranty product, which is essentially saying, pay us a tenner more if you are late and we'll pay you compensation, which is essentially profiteering from passengers fears over delays and as it was pointed out to me, the attractiveness of that product increases the more unreliable Wizz are.

I've never seen the cockpit door left open, if one of the pilots needs the bathroom a member of cabin crew will enter the cockpit and close the door behind them while the other stands in the aisle blocking anyone from approaching, I usually fly with Lithuanian based crews and they appear very, very strict in guarding the cockpit during the flight. 

My crews who I had issues with were Hungarian and Polish crews, I'm sure that the ones that I was less than impressed with were not the norm and they have many good crews as well like the ones I had before the last two flights I took with them and it was only two crews I had the issue with but when you had one bad crew with a terrible attitude you think it's a one off, when the next flight you take with them has similar issues as well and the airline simply couldn't care less when you report them, it put me right off using them.

The tickets would have to be either ridiculously cheaper than other airlines or on a route that other airlines will not serve with no other alternative to tempt me back.

Tenger

This thread is getting locked.
It's more about the OP having a rant and it could get into airline bashing pretty easily