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Date Published: 21/04/2020
ARCHIVED - Ryanair passengers angry about vouchers instead of refunds
Under EU law passengers are entitled to a refund, a rerouting at the earliest opportunity or a rerouting at a later date
As soon as European nations began imposing lockdown restrictions and closing their borders to international travellers it became inevitable that airlines would very soon find themselves facing financial difficulties.
In March Willie Walsh, the head of IAG, commented to the FT “The situation is going to be quite dynamic in the next few weeks. There are many airlines out there who are severely stressed with little or no cash resources.”
Sydney-based CAPA Centre for Aviation said in a report that “Many airlines have probably already been driven into technical bankruptcy or are at least substantially in breach of debt covenants. By the end of May 2020, most airlines in the world will be bankrupt.”
And then most of Europe went into some form of lockdown, thousands of flights were cancelled, borders closed and just a smattering of flights left operating as stranded passengers tried to get home.
Now in the sixth week of lockdown in Spain and with more than 170,000 dead and nearly two and a half millon reported Covid cases worldwide, the realisation is dawning amongst both airlines and their passengers that we’re all in for a “long haul” with this Covid virus and that our travel is likely to be severely disrupted for some time to come.
For the airlines this is disastrous news.
Not only do they have significant loans against the purchase of very expensive aircraft, they also have enormous operating costs and high staffing liabilities, depending on the endless circle of pre-bookings and in-flight extras to keep their revenue flowing, but this circle has been unceremoniously smashed into smithereens by the Covid crisis.
When the crisis first began Ryanair boss Michael O’Leary was bullish about the airline’s prospects of surviving the Covid pandemic, “The Ryanair Group has strong liquidity, with strong cash and cash equivalents of over €4bn as at 12th March” the company said in a statement, to say nothing of nearly 300 aircraft valued at about $8 billion to $10 billion.
But weeks later, as the crisis continues and talk is rife of a “second wave” in the autumn when the weather cools down once again, a mad scrabble is underway to maintain liquidity and hold onto cash reserves for as long as possible.
One of the easiest ways of keeping funding costs down is by not refunding money paid in advance for flight bookings, passengers effectively financing the airline instead of the banks, and angry passengers are now reporting that instead of refunds they are being offered vouchers instead.
In fairness to Ryanair, they're not the only ones and irate customers of several other airlines, ferry companies and travel agents are reporting the same situation; the only slight glimmer of light being for those who booked using a credit card and are pursuing claims through that avenue.
It's a real dilemma; if the airlines are forced to give all of us refunds they'll probably go bust. If we don´t push for a refund they might go bust anyway and we lose our money. If we sit tight and take a voucher we might not be able to fly regardless as there may not be any flights if Covid virus isn´t brought under control. If we take a voucher we're effectively financing the airline. If the airlines we habitually use
go bust we'll probably end up paying a lot more to fly with somebody else...if there's anyone left!
Decisions, decisions!!
Ryanair appears to have upset an awful lot of customers this week
EU Regulation EU261/2004 is designed to protect passengers in a number of ways and further information is provided below about the legislation. Passengers are NOT entitled to compensation unless their flight was cancelled less than 14 days in advance, but they ARE entitled to either a refund, a rerouting at the earliest opportunity or a rerouting at a later date.
Social media is awash this week with furious passengers, who do not want to change their flights due to the uncertainty about when they will be able to fly, so want a refund, but have been offered vouchers with a one year validity instead.
Many are angry because they feel that they are being “strung along” by the airline which is using delaying tactics to hold on to their money, by first claiming that the claim was being processed, then offering vouchers instead of refunds and finally not only making it difficult to obtain a refund but also telling passengers there will be a considerable delay before they receive the refund.
What is happening:
Passengers on cancelled flights were offered the chance to re-book another flight or request a refund. Passengers were given case numbers and subsequent attempts to make contact were met with automated ‘we are very busy due to Covid-19’ messages.
Some passengers opting to seek refunds were sent emails promising refunds within 14 working days.
Subsequent update emails told passengers that their refund requests were “currently in the queue and will be processed.”
But instead of making the promised refund the company is now sending vouchers and telling passengers requesting their money back that they will now have to wait until the end of the Covid crisis before they can expect to receive any money.
The email says, “Over the past months the spread of the Covid-19 virus has caused many EU governments to impose flight and/or travel bans which grounded over 99 per cent of Ryanair’s flights.
We are doing everything we can to support our customers, our people and protect jobs. We are ready to return flying when Covid-19 is defeated, hopefully sooner rather than later.”
The email then offers clients vouchers for the “purchase of Ryanair flights and other services at any time over the next 12 months”.
However, anyone wanting to obtain a refund is warned that they will not receive an immediate refund as “our customer care agents are required to work from home to limit the spread of Covid-19 virus, payment security restrictions prevent us from processing refunds as quickly as we would like to”.
And then offers a link for those who wish to request a refund to do so, which is full of information about the use of vouchers and only briefly touches on the subject of refunds.
It suggests that if people do not wish to accept the voucher and want to move their flight or request a refund, they should follow a link embedded in the email. “If you do not wish to accept this voucher option and wish to move your flight or request a refund, please click here to contact us”.
Readers are then confronted with:
“You can request a cash refund however bear in mind we will place your request in the cash refund queue until the Covid-19 emergency has passed”
Unable to actually speak to a customer service advisor, clients are directed to a chatbot via the Ryanair webpage to try and request their refund, which again, delays any repayment of money.
Typical comments from social media(there are thousands of them out there for anyone who cares to search):
“Understand their position but these tactics are appalling. They need to ask for government bail out not to deny innocents customers the refunds they are entitled to”
“it wouldn't have bothered me so much if they were honest at being and said there would be a long delay, but I was told I would receive a refund within 7 days and then it was the end of April and now when staff return to work.”
“My daughter got same e mail today issuing a voucher and when she went to access a refund again it said u can’t apply twice it’s a joke !!”
“I think they are just trying to get everyone to settle for a voucher, but I'm not prepared to do that and will fight it all the way. Firstly because there is no way of knowing right now when it will be safe or even possible to travel and secondly because if Ryanair go bust then I'm not sure where we will all be at”
“We were due to fly out on 4th of April, flight was cancelled on 20th of March and I completed form to obtain a refund. Subsequently I have received emails which imply that my refund hadn't been received so I phoned up several weeks ago and was informed that my refund was in progress. Now today I have received an email with a credit voucher. The email contains a link to choose a refund instead but when I click through there is no way to request a refund. I've tried calling them but they appear unable to accept any calls and just ask me to call back later. The online chat bot service can't handle individual queries... I'm at my wits end. Understand that a wait may be necessary but can't seem to get any reassurance that at a refund is actually in process.”
“I managed to get through yesterday and they have told me that a full refund will be issued when the staff return to work.”
So passengers are technically being offered a refund which means they are complying with EU legislation, but customers are finding it almost impossible to get their hands on the cash.
What is Europe-wide EU261/2004 regulation ?
“Regulation (EC) No 261/2004 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 11 February 2004 establishing common rules on compensation and assistance to passengers in the event of denied boarding and of cancellation or long delay of flights.”
This EU regulation aims to protect passengers and those on package holidays against long waiting times or flight cancellations, which the airline had the power to prevent.
It covers:
• Delayed or cancelled flights, overbooking or denied boarding.
• It includes compensation of between €250 and €600 per person depending on the flight duration.
• Assistance for delayed flights
• Airlines must inform passengers of flight delays and cancellations and their rights
You are entitled to compensation in the following cases:
• Delays: Your flight must have arrived at its destination 3 or more than 3 hours late
• Cancellations: If you have been informed of cancellation less than 14 days before departure
Sometimes, under EU regulation, flight disruption does not qualify for compensation as the cause behind it was deemed to be an “extraordinary circumstance”. This is when it the disruption is out of the airline’s hands, and therefore not their responsibility, which can include closure of airspace and land borders.
Unfortunately for most of us, this means that the airlines are not obliged to pay compensation for cancelling flights for than 14 days in advance.
The European Commission has stated that cancellations due to measures by public authorities intended to contain the pandemic, to protect the health of crew or even for the reason that flights would otherwise depart empty all fall under the “extraordinary circumstances” definition.
This means that almost all cancellations as a result of COVID-19 will, unfortunately, rule passengers ineligible for compensation from airlines.
But regardless of the cause of the cancellation, the airline must offer a full refund, re-routing at the earliest opportunity or re-routing at a later date at the passenger’s convenience but of course at the moment “the earliest date” could easily mean “several months from now”.
RIGHT TO REIMBURSEMENT OR RE-ROUTING (From Ryanair terms and conditions ref 261/2004
If your flight is cancelled, you are entitled to choose between: a) reimbursement pursuant to Article 8(1) of the Regulation within seven days, by means provided for in Article 7(3), of the full cost of the ticket at the price at which it was bought, for the part or parts of the journey not made and for the part or parts already made if the flight is no longer serving any purpose in relation to the passenger’s original travel plan; or b) re-routing, under comparable transport conditions, to your final destination at the earliest opportunity; or c) re-routing, under comparable transport conditions, to your final destination at a later date at your convenience, subject to availability of seats
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