Some disturbing news are surfacing about Ryanair as the low cost carrier apparently started to ban people who got pandemic related refunds for flights through a credit card chargeback.
These refunds were initiated in the early stages of Covid when airlines had huge piles of refund requests and in some cases flat out refused to return the money to people.
Those passengers who paid for their tickets with a credit card have the option to request the credit card company to cancel the payment transaction due to no service received such as when an airline cancels the flight and doesn’t offer a refund of alternatives.
As The Guardian reported last week Ryanair is now taking punitive action against customers who took this path.
Ryanair has been accused of barring passengers who pursued chargebacks against the airline during the pandemic from taking new flights this year – unless they return their refunds.
An investigation by MoneySavingExpert (MSE) has found that holidaymakers who sought refunds from their credit card provider have faced last-minute demands of up to £600 if they want to board a Ryanair plane.
During the lockdowns, Ryanair carried on flying many of its routes even though most tourists were in effect barred by government rules from travelling.
The airline refused to refund affected passengers unable to travel, leading many to successfully seek chargebacks from their credit card company, in particular American Express.
Three of those passengers, who went on to make new bookings with Ryanair to travel this year, have been told they can only fly Ryanair again if they return the sum reclaimed. One passenger was given this ultimatum just hours before they were due to fly.
MSE said in at least two instances Ryanair’s fraud department had demanded the refunds of between £400 and £630. MSE said it has seen dozens of similar cases on its consumer forum and on social media.
Ryanair has defended its stance, claiming it has always been a “no-refunds airline” when the flight went ahead and that its terms and conditions allow its position. In May last year MSE reported that some Ryanair staff had threatened to blacklist passengers who used chargeback to get a refund, something the airline denied at the time. …
As much as I hate to say it but in some if not all of these instances Ryanair actually has a point and legal standing to take action as they did in principle, even though the fashion in which it was executed was rather poor.
It seems that these passengers in question managed to get chargebacks approved by their banks – especially Amex which has been very good with these requests compared to other, random card issuers.
However in order to request a chargeback a customer should make a truthful declaration on what grounds it is initiated. When the airline keeps flying to the destination and the booked flight operates then there are no grounds for requesting a cash refund or charge back the transaction.
The inability of the passenger to travel based on government regulations such as the border closures we still experience in some case doesn’t qualify as a reason for refund even under EC261/2004.
When an airline cancels the flight however the passenger is entitled to a full refund. Some airlines have been good with it, some others have handled it terribly and then there are others that had their necks broken by the financial bottleneck and declared bankruptcy with passenger funds gone.
… A Ryanair spokesperson said: “Ryanair flights that operate as scheduled are non-refundable – this is clearly outlined in Ryanair’s T&Cs agreed by the customer at the time of booking. They state that we may refuse to carry you if you owe us any money in respect of a previous flight owing to payment having been dishonoured, denied or recharged against us.”
Last week the Competition and Markets Authority dropped its investigation into whether British Airways and Ryanair broke the law by failing to offer refunds to customers who could not legally take their flights because of restrictions. It said at the time that the airlines should have given them their money back. …
This case ended as the UK regulator has dropped its investigation into whether British Airways and Ryanair broke the law by failing to offer refunds to customers who could not legally take their flights because of coronavirus restrictions and in a summary said the airlines should have given them their money back.
This “should” sounds more like a moral obligation than a legal one, especially in the light that the CMA said it was scrapping its investigation because of a “lack of clarity in the law [which] makes it insufficiently certain that it would be able to secure refunds for customers”. The regulator said the protracted time a court battle would take, coupled with the uncertainty of winning, meant it could no longer justify the expense of pursuing the case.
It suggests there is no definitive legal basis to claim refunds from airlines based on closed borders which is essential for the case carriers now try to make.
Some of them offer or have offered flight vouchers for voluntary cancellations when passengers realize they can’t travel but this is at the discretion of the carrier. If you’re claiming a chargeback despite the flight operating then that’s basically a form of theft from the company. Just like in some jurisdictions (such as Germany) it’s not permitted to claim a chargeback from a bankrupt carrier because only the insolvency administrator is entitled to distribute leftover funds to creditors.
Conclusion
Ryanair has banned customers who previously initiated chargebacks from all future flights until the repay their debt to the carrier for flights that did operate but weren’t able or willing to take.
Despite being legally in the right it’s obviously wrong for Ryanair to execute this debt collection in the fashion they did, letting passengers know at check-in that they were barred from flying. A legal notice by mail or email would have been more appropriate, although less punitive.
Perhaps this website should post a blacklist of airlines and hotels that travelers absolutely should avoid, with links to your articles detailing why. It seems like this airline had worked hard to earn that prize.
Hallo, was ist mit den Millionen von Kundengelder die Ryanair unterschlagen hat, weil der Kunde den Flug nicht angetreten hat… Auch aus welchen Gründen auch immer, die Steuern und Sicherheitsabgaben werden in den Fall nicht and den Staat oder Flughafen abgeführt sondern von Ryanair einbehalten. Die Steuern und Gebühren gehören den Passagieren und Ryanair hat es ohne Bearbeitungsgebühren zurück zu erstatten.
Ich wäre wirklich dankbar wenn jeder Passagier der einen Flug nicht antreten konnte sich so dass Geld zurück holt.
Ich möchte auch gerne wissen wie Ryanair das buchungstechnisch verbucht….als ungerechtfertigte Bereicherung.…?
Boycott, and sue for 100,000,000,000.00 dollars.
BAN ALL RYAN AIR publicity on your page and make them INTIMATELY aware that they are being recommended as an AIRLINE TO AVOID CONDUCTING BUSINESS WITH…I for one will NEVER BE DOING ANY BUSINESS WITH THEM!
I would be happily let this airline ban me. With their cheap service, bad reputation and arrogance in dealing with their customers in this situation that is not the fault of these customers at all, who in their right mind would want to use this airline in the future?
While not a regular Ryanair customer, on my few flights, I’ve found them to deliver EXACTLY what you are paying for… cheap flights that leave and arrive on time, without any fuss.
It is More complex in my opinion. First of all when chargeback is processed it is not the bank that issued the card to decide if chargeback is successful. Merchant so Ryanair has a possibility to reject it. If client got money it means that either Ryanair screwed up (didn’t respond to request, responded with ignorance and/or insufficient information) or acquirer or their bank screwed up or decided Ryanair’s response was not sufficient. So client for sure is not to blame.
Second of all it is difficult to blame clients for not flying when governments discouraged it, you had to go through quarantine longer than stay and your insurance in this case was invalid.
Third of all I am quite certain Ryanair made those flights so they don’ have to return money and profit from it.
And last, but not least COVID was extraordinary situation and many companies including Ryanair used as an excuse not to behave in normal way according to law and T&Cs. For example Ryanair was not giving money back for cancelled flights.
So to be honest I don’t see Ryanair actions as justified.
Sebastian, I can’t agree with the paragraph: “as much as I hate to say it but in some if not all of these instances Ryanair actually has a point and legal standing to take action as they did in principle, even though the fashion in which it was executed was rather poor.” The problem is, although the flight did operate, these passengers were banned from travelling, either by the departing or arriving government’s laws..
The problem is that it is not airline’s responsibility to make sure that the passenger is allowed to travel to the destination at the time the ticket is purchase. It is only checked at the airport.
Sebastian please stop posting content as definitive if it is your personal opinion only, particularly in subjects which you have no clue about, like law.
Whilst in English law there might well be a question on whether an airline operating a flight that the passenger is no longer lawfully allowed to take amounts to upholding the contract – or whether frustration would not be much more applicable.
But in other jurisdictions consumer protection legislation is much stronger than in English law, and in your own example Germany there is legal protection allowing passengers to ask for a refund in case a flight can no longer be taken due to regulations – regardless of whether the airline operates it or not.
Your comments in this post are plain false. You should remove them altogether or make clear this is your personal opinions as a non educated (legally, I mean) writer on the subject. Otherwise rwaders may start to believe you’re right.
I’m with Sebastian and Ryan Air on this one. My only surprise with the article was that there was no mention of TRAVEL INSURANCE. For sure some of the people with tickets decided they didn’t want to take the flight to avoid the risk of covid and/or to avoid quarantine and Ryan Air should not be the ones to foot the bill.
I think that some forget the individual responsibility. All the readers know that we have been very clear that passengers have been eligible for refunds for services that airlines have canceled for various reasons when they have been pushing funny money instead.
The cases referred to were when flights operated but passengers chose not to travel. It was not Country closing the borders but Portugal banning weddings with more than X people. The passengers asked Ryanair for refunds and were correctly refused as borders were open and flights operating. The passengers then instituted a chargeback and the card company simply refunded.
At the beginning of the pandemic I had 8 sectors booked with Ryanair who refused a refund, even though the flights were cancelled. I instituted chargebacks with Amex who refunded and, in due course, Ryanair refunded and Amex debited. Simples.
If the flights were canceled, you are eligible for a refund. This is crystal clear.
First of all, as mentioned by many others, one should not offer a personal opinion of the legality of a situation — particularly one that is not black and white — as “fact” — not even if you were an attorney in the qualified jurisdiction. You can and should state this is your own opinion.
Secondly, I do believe that Ryanair has a point, as you mention. But so do their customers, and I think their case should also be stated.
Third, requesting a credit company to investigate a charge is not fraud. You make your case, the credit card company lets the merchant make its case, and then the credit card company decides, being well-aware that it is subject to local laws, and to lawsuits. Local laws generally favor the consumer, who does not get to write, change or disagree with the terms and conditions, no matter how unfair or one-sided they may be. Ryanair didn’t make its case well (or at all) and lost.
Most of all, you fail to understand this is an issue that ultimately is going to be litigated in the “court of public opinion.”
Even if Ryanair were 100% right — and I disagree with you that they were — the heavyhanded way in which they (once again, arbitrarily, in an authoritarian fashion) amplified the public relations nightmare that is ensuing.
I, for one, will never fly a rude, cheap, airline, but having said that, I’ve only flown four miserable segments on Ryanair, and I am not in their target demographic. Perhaps there are customers who will be delighted to fly a discourteous, penny-pinching, arrogant, airline, who suffer from some sort of “battered wife syndrome” or for whom a flight that’s a few pennies cheaper is worth groveling and losing dignity. For those clients, if they pick Ryanair as it is, wonderful! But I suspect there are many who will avoid flying Ryanair.
You get what you pay for with Ryanair.
Inane post.