Ryanair cancellation costed me over £300. Can't I really get any compensation?
Sorry in advance for the long post!
Flight: Stansted - Gdansk, Friday 27th July, 18:50
We arrived at the airport and the flight (originally scheduled for 18:50), was delayed to 19:15. When we arrived at the gate the aircraft was there, but Ryanair said there were "operational issues" so we had to wait until they got resolved. They asked us to sit and wait, which we did for hours. Finally we boarded around 22:00. At 22:19 (3h29min after the original scheduled time), the pilot told us the only available take-off slot they were given was 1:20 and were going to try to improve it. Some minutes later they said the flight had to be cancelled as they could not bring the slot forward, as the airport was busy due to the "weather" (I have a picture from the plane where you can see it wasn't even raining...).
I claimed EU261 compensation to Ryanair, and they rejected it saying it was due to "weather conditions" whilst the Ryanair staff at the airport made it very clear during over 3h that the delay was due to "operational reasons", and even their staff were encouraging us to apply for compensation when we boarded the aircraft late. The likely reason is that they did not get a slot because they airport was busy and they had delayed the flight by a few hours, and used an earlier drizzle that evening to blame the weather.
The earliest they could rebook us was Monday 30th to Warsaw (Gdansk was sold out), so this incurred in not only extra transport to come back to London, but cancellation costs to pre-booked transport and accommodation in Poland. I talked to my travel insurance company, and they said that, as Ryanair rerouted us (even if it was days later and to a different destination), it was considered a "delay" and they could not refund the cancellation costs. They said I should claim these to Ryanair.
With the EU261 rejection letter they offered to pay the expenses caused by the cancellation. I sent them a document with the extra expenses:
- The new train tickets to go back to London and to the airport on Monday.
- Cancellation cost of my hotel in Gdansk, taxi and train to Warsaw
However they replied and also refused to pay any expenses. Not even the non-prebooked ones, like the extra train tickets!
So the summary is:
- Due to their delay, Ryanair ended cancelling the flight, making us waste a day at the airport and also 3 days of holidays, as they could not rebook us.
- Ryanair blames the weather to avoid paying the 1000€ EU261 compensation (4 passengers x 250€).
- Both my travel insurance and Ryanair refuse to pay the extra £300 spent in new train tickets and cancellations.
Is there anything else I could do? I'm using FlightRight and AviationADR so they try to claim these from Ryanair, but after Ryanair’s attitude I doubt they get anything. Any other suggestions please?
From now on, I’m not flying Ryanair again!