Airspace closed in Northern Europe

Ryanair just (22 minutes ago) realized they cannot win, did a poodle and now complies with European regulations.

The Guardian said:
Ryanair backs down on paying passengers' costs
Ryanair says it will comply with EU rules and pay stranded passengers' costs having previously said it would only cover the cost of the original ticket

No-frills airline Ryanair today backed down on plans to break EU rules by limiting payouts to customers caught up in this week's flight chaos.

The Irish airline had said that passengers who had spent money on hotels and food as a result of having their flights cancelled or delayed would only receive a pay out up to the value of their original ticket, despite an EU regulation which clearly states that airlines must reimburse disrupted travellers for unexpected expenses.

However, after coming under pressure from consumer groups Ryanair said it would comply with regulation EU261 and pay "reasonable receipted expenses" to all passengers.

Sadly this robs me of the opportunity to gloat at Ryanairs funeral.
 
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Ryanair just (22 minutes ago) realized they cannot win, did a poodle and now complies with European regulations.



Sadly this robs me of the opportunity to gloat at Ryanairs funeral.

To be honest, I'm half-thinking Ryanair just kicked up a fuss for the free publicity. It's their usual MO.
 
Ok in all fairness, I see no reason what so ever why YOU should have been allowed to have an overweight bag but someone else isn't. Everyone needs their stuff. It makes no difference if it's "textbooks" or "bricks." Rules are rules. You aren't any more special.

Yeah, well if i had known I was going to fly ryanair I would have had less than 15kg, I was meant to fly with easyjet which allow 20kg, so i had packed for them, but when i got to the airport the flight was cancelled, so easyjet transfered us onto the ryanair flight, there were quite a few students like me who were all under 20kg, but over the 15kg, and easyjet wouldnt fit the bill, and the ryanair people weren't understanding at all considering we were students that wanted home (me especially it was my dads birthday the next day) and we had lots of textbooks and notes for revision over the holidays. I never said I was anymore special, I was trying to point out that their regulations are too tight and their stupid weight allowance is too low, and they arent understanding under any circumstances.
 
Sounds to me like Easyjet fail. You paid them for 20kg, you didn't get a 20kg service from them. Pay Ryanair, sue Easyjet for the money.
 
Sounds to me like Easyjet fail. You paid them for 20kg, you didn't get a 20kg service from them. Pay Ryanair, sue Easyjet for the money.

This. As other people have mentioned on here, the airline should cover all costs involved in getting you to your destination. This should include penalties/fees incurred due to differences in regulation.

And from memory, I flew Jetstar (our big budget airline) and had a bag that was 2 kg over and they just noted it on the system and didn't charge me. That and the fact they are pretty lenient on cabin baggage sizes makes me appreciative of our budget airlines (Virgin Blue is pretty good too- they have the little TV screens in the back of the seat with the flight info for free!). Mind you, Tiger Airways was pretty Ryanair-ish from when I flew with them. That and they decided to up and cancel all services to our regional airport with no warning and little compensation (you lost booking fees, admin fees, taxes etc so you only got about 20% of your ticket price back) because they decided it was no longer "profitable" to run services to/from there. This after they promised local council that they would build a major hub there and help with the expansion of the airport over the next 10 years. Thanks for nothing Tiger.
 
to be honest...

i don't think the airliner companies should pay for the accomodation for their customers. If it were because their plane broke down, yes. but not for a volcano!

when the birdflue struck, butchers weren't forced to buy you other meat either...

don't know who should pay tbh

iceland?
 
to be honest...

i don't think the airliner companies should pay for the accomodation for their customers. If it were because their plane broke down, yes. but not for a volcano!

when the birdflue struck, butchers weren't forced to buy you other meat either...

don't know who should pay tbh

iceland?

The EU regulations are clear - the airlines pay.

Is that right in a case like this, when it's not their fault? Shrug. No, it's not fair on the airlines, but then again it's not fair on the passengers. On this occasion, the airlines should pay - the law is clear. However, there should probably be a debate on the law, in relation to natural disasters.

If it were me I'd look at changing the law so that travel insurance companies pay in future, or at least try to set some kind of 'minimum service level' into their policies that cover unforeseen natural disasters, as at the moment every single person has completely different levels of cover.
 
Bone, you should move to the US. The guidelines here (there are no laws, only guidelines) are just that. The airline only pays for lodging if the delay is their fault. So called "acts of god" aren't covered.
 
when the birdflue struck, butchers weren't forced to buy you other meat either...

If I ordered a piece of meat and paid for it, then the flu strikes and wipes out the animals my meat was destined to come from... then yes, the butcher should get me my meat. I paid for it, I want it. Now. Me Hungry.



Nothing to be had from those deadbeats :dunno:
 
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This. As other people have mentioned on here, the airline should cover all costs involved in getting you to your destination. This should include penalties/fees incurred due to differences in regulation.

And from memory, I flew Jetstar (our big budget airline) and had a bag that was 2 kg over and they just noted it on the system and didn't charge me. That and the fact they are pretty lenient on cabin baggage sizes makes me appreciative of our budget airlines (Virgin Blue is pretty good too- they have the little TV screens in the back of the seat with the flight info for free!). Mind you, Tiger Airways was pretty Ryanair-ish from when I flew with them. That and they decided to up and cancel all services to our regional airport with no warning and little compensation (you lost booking fees, admin fees, taxes etc so you only got about 20% of your ticket price back) because they decided it was no longer "profitable" to run services to/from there. This after they promised local council that they would build a major hub there and help with the expansion of the airport over the next 10 years. Thanks for nothing Tiger.

JetBlue over here has free satellite TV for every seat. Something like 40 channels. They're not particularly expensive, either.

I watched the World Cup last time I went to Florida.
 
To be honest, I'm half-thinking Ryanair just kicked up a fuss for the free publicity. It's their usual MO.
Tend to agree with you here, however the sneaky win for Ryanair is positive cash flow.

All the airlines that did the right thing and organised and paid for hotels & meals have already shelled out the money to the hotels and continue to do so.

Ryanair have not spent a penny on this yet. Also, they have stated they will pay reasonable, receipted costs. Now the problem was those passengers who were lucky enough to book in to a hotel themselves, were being charged over the normal rates. (i.e. not reasonable.)

The passengers who tried to hire a car on a one-way hire (Madrid airport to northern France), were getting charged 2000 euro for a two day hire. Again, not reasonable.
How much do you think Ryanair will refund them, not much I fear.

Additional wheeze, they will make the process long and complex, such that I suspect many people will give up, if they have a fairly low costs to recover.

The trick now is for Ryanair to appear to be doing the right thing. :(
 
Translated from news ticker: "EU spokeswoman Helen Kearns warned Ryanair in a press briefing on Thursday that the airline must abide by european law and offer full compensation to their customers." "Kearns added that travellers should demand reimbursment through their national aviation authorities."

I think there's still lots of room to sue the socks of Ryanair and have a bunch of eurocrats bury them in a Belgian tulip field.
 
Translated from news ticker: "EU spokeswoman Helen Kearns warned Ryanair in a press briefing on Thursday that the airline must abide by european law and offer full compensation to their customers." "Kearns added that travellers should demand reimbursment through their national aviation authorities."

I think there's still lots of room to sue the socks of Ryanair and have a bunch of eurocrats bury them in a Belgian tulip field.
What the aggrieved passengers should do is use the internet for a collective legal and media action. The main object would be to get as much of their out of pocket expenses plus some extra compensation for being fucked around by Ryanair in being left to fend for themselves. If they are smart, they ought to have a negative media campaign against Ryanair to keep the pressure on them.

On a positive point, I should add that certain airlines did look after the passengers very well, according to first hand (i.e. arriving passengers.) accounts shown on BBC News.

These are Emirates, Cathay Pacific, plus tour operators Thomas Cook and Thomsons, well done to all of them. I am sure that other airlines did well for their passengers, but I have not heard of them myself.
If you have, then please name and praise them here.
:)
 
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British Airways flew stranded passengers in Beijing to New York, put them up in a 5-star hotel with an amazing view and gave them money for food.

It was essentially a mini holiday for those passengers as they were there for 5 days iirc.
 
Some vacationers who returned from their holidays were featured on the TV, I remember one family who praised Fritidsresor (better known in the rest of Europe as TUI) and I'm sure there were more good PR for other companies that I missed.
 
Some vacationers who returned from their holidays were featured on the TV, I remember one family who praised Fritidsresor (better known in the rest of Europe as TUI) and I'm sure there were more good PR for other companies that I missed.
Yes, TUI are the parent company of Thomson & First Chose holidays. :smile:
 
Heh, I just read up on TUI and they were a mining company! Now they do tourists! Now that's reinventing oneself! I just learned the clever bit of their logo as well, now it cannot be unseen.
 
*Ramseus wonders what a TUI looks like*

Hehe, heh, hehe, the logo graphic is a T a U and an I. Heh.
 
What the aggrieved passengers should do is use the internet for a collective legal and media action. The main object would be to get as much of their out of pocket expenses plus some extra compensation for being fucked around by Ryanair in being left to fend for themselves. If they are smart, they ought to have a negative media campaign against Ryanair to keep the pressure on them.

On a positive point, I should add that certain airlines did look after the passengers very well, according to first hand (i.e. arriving passengers.) accounts shown on BBC News.

These are Emirates, Cathay Pacific, plus tour operators Thomas Cook and Thomsons, well done to all of them. I am sure that other airlines did well for their passengers, but I have not heard of them myself.
If you have, then please name and praise them here.
:)

Of course they would. Look at the prices of their tickets!
 
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