No compensation despite mega delay?: Airline simply changes times: Now Ryanair comments on the allegations of cheating
As a guest at a wedding, I really only wanted to spend a short weekend in France. But the return flight turned out to be an odyssey, as is currently the case for many travellers. And to make matters worse, Ryanair changed the arrival time of the flight. Apparently, the airline wants to avoid paying compensation. In a statement, Ryanair rejected the allegations, but did not address the central allegation.
French Nantes Airport last Sunday: Thousands of travelers were waiting for their flights, many people were sitting on the floor. I wanted to fly an open jaw flight from Nantes via Manchester on the way back to Hamburg.
From the of
Ryanair
The initial delay of one hour quickly became three hours. Will our connecting flight work out? No information. At 6:50 p.m., 3 hours and 10 minutes later than originally scheduled, boarding finally began. At that moment I received a 4 euro food voucher from Ryanar via SMS. Too bad I couldn’t redeem it anymore. Forget it, because that was the least of my problems.
Exciting, but no time right now?
With Ryanair: Stranded in Manchester
We took off at 7:15 p.m.: Exactly 3 hours and 5 minutes after the scheduled departure time. This is crucial, after all, as a passenger with a delay of 3 hours or more, you get back between 250 and 600 euros, depending on the distance. But the Ryanair app incorrectly reported the departure time as 6:50 p.m. Then I thought to myself: This could cause problems.
And indeed, when asked, a flight attendant told me that Ryanair usually does not pay any compensation. It would be better for us to contact the connecting flight airline, although they are not responsible for the missed connecting flight.
Even though our connection time in Manchester was only 2 hours 35 minutes according to the flight plan, we still hoped to catch the connecting flight. Instead of landing at 4.40 p.m. (English time), we landed in Manchester at around 7.30 p.m., where we still had to wait around 20 minutes on the plane. We were therefore only able to leave the plane at 7:47 p.m
(Editor’s note: Here it was initially stated that the landing took place at 7.47 p.m. We have made this clearer in the text).
The app showed that too, I took a screenshot of it. So exactly 3 hours and seven minutes late. Important, see above. And: According to an ECJ ruling, the arrival time for claims for compensation is the time from which the passengers are allowed to leave the aircraft through an open door (ECJ ruling of September 4, 2014, Az. C-452/13). We then sprinted through the entire airport to the gate of the connecting flight, unfortunately in vain. The plane had already taken off.
At that time, of course, there were no Ryanair staff to be found at the airport counter. After another 1.5 hours of waiting, the airline-independent airport staff informed us that they could not help us either. We should kindly book a hotel and a new flight ourselves.
I found that quite cheeky, after all, airlines are actually obliged to pay for accommodation and meals if the delay is more than three hours. So I quickly took cell phone screenshots of the flight times so that I could at least claim a refund afterwards. At 10pm we finally arrived at the hotel in Manchester and booked a return flight for the next morning. We finally arrived in Hamburg at 9:15 am on Monday, almost 13 hours late.
Ryanair changes arrival time to avoid paying compensation
But despite this enormous delay and the nerve-wracking return journey: The biggest annoyance was waiting for me in Germany. Because Ryanair had changed the arrival time in Manchester online to 19:27. The flight would have been delayed by only 2 hours and 47 minutes and no compensation would have been due. Is this a nasty trick by the Irish low-cost airline to avoid paying compensation?
That’s what Ryanair says about the cheating allegations
At the request of FOCUS Online, Ryanair’s press office said in dry words that the “departure time” had not been incorrectly stated. According to Ryanair, the flight from Nantes to Manchester was only delayed by 2 hours and 50 minutes. In its reply, however, the company did not even mention that the decisive factor in this case is the time of arrival and not the time of departure. Ryanair also did not answer the question of why the data changed in the app.
The airline only announced that the delay was due to a lack of staff at air traffic control, which was completely beyond Ryanair’s control. According to Ryanair, the affected passengers were informed of the delay and given vouchers for meals and refreshments. No word on the fact that those affected only received the meal voucher at the time of boarding, which is why it could no longer be redeemed.
Of course, as a passenger, I immediately tried to contact Ryanair via the hotline, but I was stuck in the queue for hours and couldn’t speak to an employee. The claim for compensation can be submitted to Ryanair online. I have found many testimonials online from those affected who apparently never received any payment from Ryanair. How such a well-known airline gets away with it remains a mystery to me. But I’m not giving up. I will contact consumer advice and continue to try to contact Ryanair. But I’ve had enough of flying for now.
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