[capetonianm]

On behalf of friends who were 3.5 hours delayed last week on a flight to Ireland, I made the EU261 claim online, and also had to add an extra fee of €50 charged by the car rental company for a late pickup.

It was the most convoluted and complicated process I have seen for doing so, clearly designed to throw as many obstacles up as possible in the hope that people would give up. It also points out that if anything is wrong in the submission, it could cause ‘lengthy’ delays in processing the refund. All of which is perfectly legal, but somewhat unfair.

First of all it checks the name against the booking reference and won’t let you proceed unless it is an exact match. That’s a smart idea, but there was a problem as there was a space between the two parts of the given name on the boarding pass but on the form they had to be run together.

There is a box to tick stating if it is an EU261 claim, but if you do that it skips to the next stage so you can’t add any supporting documents. To add supporting documents, you need to go back after submitting the claim, to modify it, which you can only do when you have received the email with the reference number, which took 24 hours to arrive.

It will only accept one supporting document, so if you had several receipts, you’d have to copy and scan them onto one document before uploading to the site.

When you get past that stage and enter bank details, it asks for an IBAN and a BIC. The BIC should not be necessary, since it only identifies the bank and branch, if you have the IBAN , and most people have no idea how to get theirs, as usually all that is needed (for UK) is an 8 digit account number plus a 6 digit sort code. Fortunately there are online IBAN/BIC converters.

It really is an obstacle course. Yet more proof of what a smart operator Michael O’Leary is ….. I can’t help admiring him. I can hear him saying :

“You can make a claim online, and if you do it exactly as per the instructions, you will get your claim paid in full within 5 working days. If you can’t do that, it’s not my problem.”

I have no doubt that he is right, but I wonder how many people get to the end of the obstacle course! It’s typical Ryanair, follow the instructions to the last dot and dash and it will be fine.

[MartinJ]

Sounds like Ryanair are back at their favourite pastime, which is effing people over. Luckily you don’t have to put up with their shenanigans. They can’t force you to use their online form. Just send a letter by registered post and include full name, address, account number, sort code, flight number, date, and booking code. State the delay (doors open is what counts, not landing) and your resulting entitelment to compensation. Remind them of their obligation to pay out within seven days and set them a final deadline (say 5 July). If they don’t pay, do an online money claim. No hassle and a pretty good chance of success. Good luck!

2 users thanked author for this post.

Montysaurus, capetonianm

[capetonianm]

That’s true, MartinJ, but I decided to do it online for a couple of reasons, the main one being to see how it worked, as a learning experience. The people don’t need the money, let alone urgently, and it will be interesting to see what evolves.

I did say, over a glass of wine, that if it works and they pay up in 7 days, my opinion of Ryanair will go up. Somehow I ……. oh .. there’s a flying pig outside my window!

[PhilipHart]

I received payment of my Ryanair EU261 claim exactly one week after I made my application online.

The quickest was Norwegian, who turned it around within 2 days!

The absolute worst was British Airways, who dithered and denied for months. In the end I made a claim through one of the legal companies, and got paid within weeks – albeit reduced by their processing fee. But immediately after that, BA had the unbelievable gall to say that they had reviewed my case, and would now be in a position to make the pay out! Too late, guys; goodwill already gone.

[canucklad]

It really is an obstacle course. Yet more proof of what a smart operator Michael O’Leary is …..Well said capetonianm

Be legally compliant, yet still treat every penny as a prisoner !!

My mate and his fiancé have had all sorts of trouble with their claim….

When it happened Brussels was covered in snow, Charleroi was operational and their inbound flight landed late at around 10.30 PM
They boarded, taxied and then returned to the gate. Advised that the aircraft had missed the 11.00 curfew. The crew also mentioned that they were getting close to their working hours limit !!

They disembarked to a now ghost like airport with one ground handling agent unsuccessfully managing the chaos of 180 + passengers now looking for accommodation 46km’s away from Brussels …

David tried to claim for compensation, and reimbursement for taxi’s back to where he could get an available hotel and the cost of enforced hotel stay.

Ryanscare blamed the weather in Edinburgh, then the weather in Brussels , then the curfew .

It’s now in the hands of a solicitor. I’ll add that due to a shortage of taxi’s , Davie and his girlfriend happily shared their taxi with other abandoned passengers as they headed back to civilization…i.e. Brussels !!

He’s still £500 + out of pocket for a weekend that originally cost them £200 each all in !!

[capetonianm]

Further to my original posting, they got their compensation (€250 x 2) earlier this week without any further intervention. I really don’t think that on this, one can fault Ryanair. They didn’t pay out the extra car rental fee of €50 but my friends are more than happy with the €500, and so am I as I get taken out for a nice lunch or dinner next time I see them!

2 users thanked author for this post.

Roman, PhilipHart

[victor77]

First of all it checks the name against the booking reference and won’t let you proceed unless it is an exact match. That’s a smart idea, but there was a problem as there was a space between the two parts of the given name on the boarding pass but on the form they had to be run together.

How do you finally get through the name with space?

I tried to remove all the spaces in my given name, but that didn’t work.

Thanks.

[Tom Otley]

Welcome victor77.
Thank you for your first post, and apologies for waiting for it to be approved.

[capetonianm]

I don’t quite remember but I think that the boarding pass showed :
PETER JAMES and I had to enter it as PETERJAMES
You may find the problem is with you family name. Do you have a double-barrelled name. Most carrier systems won’t accept punctuation within a name such as SMITH-JONES or O’REILLY. You may have to either leave a space or run the elements together.

Also make sure the names are the right way round. I often used to see agents had entered the family and given names in the wrong order.

1 user thanked author for this post.

Tom Otley

[christopheL]

@Capetonianm
I am happy your friends got there €250 compensation.
If they had travelled AF, they would have had the choice between a €250 (£224) cash compensation or a €350 (£314) voucher to fly AF again !
Last but not least : contrary to Ryanair’s website which has so many bells and whistles and options and gimmicks that you lose sight of the basic functionality, AF website makes it possible for you to ask for a compensation within one minute.

[capetonianm]

contrary to Ryanair’s website which has so many bells and whistles and options and gimmicks that you lose sight of the basic functionality,

Christophe, if you’re going to quote my comments, kindly stick to doing so in the correct context.

[christopheL]

I just wanted you to know that you can make more money flying AF than FR.
I may be wrong but it seems to me that you were complaining about the difficulty in claiming compensation on the FR website.
I thought you would be happy to know that some airlines are more customer focused than FR.
I asked AF for a compensation for a delayed flight on January 3rd and got the compensation on January 10th (a voucher of €350 which can be converted into a €250 cash compensation at my discretion).
Well done AF !!!

[capetonianm]

I agree with you that in this case AF have met their obligations fully and quickly and that deserves credit.

However, I don’t choose an airline on the basis of possibly making more money in the event of a problem. I choose on quality and reliability and although I won’t fly with FR or AF, I don’t think there is much to choose between the two. Both have had major labour relations problems and strikes.

I have always found AF excellent in the air, and have had some excellent and enjoyable flights with them, but unfortunately the CDG hub is a nightmare if you have to transit, or at least, it was last time I used it and I hope not to have to do so again.

[christopheL]

CDG has changed a lot and transiting there is now surprisingly easy provided you are using T2A, T2B, T2C, T2D, T2E and T2F.
Transiting to or from T2G is still a nightmare as this short haul termianl is isolated in the Far East of the platform.
For connection flights within Star Alliance airlines within T1 it should be OK (but I never experienced it)
There is still something which is awful at CDG : border controls. Probably the worst experience you can have in Europe.
As far as AF ground staff are concerned, please remember they are French. I have never had a bad experience with them, probably because I have the same background.
To be fair, my worst experience with ground staff has been with BA at LHR.
When things goes wrong, the cultural differences between nationalities make things very difficult.
French people are rude from à British point of view when British people are patronizing and hypocrital from à French point of view and we all should agree that one is no more right than the other. But it is (too ?) difficult, isn’t it ?

[esselle]

My fondest, if distant, memories of CDG are the moments when security shift changes took place.

Incoming/outgoing shifts stopped screening pax and instead embarked on the wonderfully French practice of shaking hands/embracing whilst offering “Bon apres-midi/soirée/appetit/journee/courage etc.

Lovely to watch actually and worth the two or three minutes it added to the process in my view.

Toujours la politesse

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cwoodward

[Author]

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