Originally Posted by
Aviatrix
The tinyurl is definitely dead - I suspect it's just cached on your machine.
However, I did get to the URL using the other link, and it would appear that this is a link off the Catalan (!) version of the Ryanair web site which I presume they must have forgotten to update when they changed their rules. The link that comes off the UK version of the web site makes no mention of having to have been born in the EU/EEA, and when you book from the UK then it's obviously the UK version that counts.
I think I now have a fairly good idea what may have happened, and I suspect it may have been incompetence rather than malice... my guess is that Ryanair DID have this restriction once upon a time, that they (quietly) abolished it when it was pointed out to them that it was illegal (you just cannot discriminate against British citizens based on their place of birth), and that they forgot to tell their staff at STN that they had abolished it.
If things are as I suspect then Patti might even stand a chance of getting her money back without having to fight for it... (or am I being too optimistic?)
I think this post is the most realistic.
I expect the same service and comfort from Ryanair as I would from expect from Stagecoach or National Express. And in this expectation I've never been disappointed. In fact, Ryanair on the whole have been very good to me, and I've flown with them a lot.
I've had my own AWFUL experience when trying to get a bus one evening from Cartagena to Murcia in Spain. I was on my own (a female) and very young. The guy at the counter kept insisting that there was no bus to Murcia even though I'd researched the timetable. Nothing doing, I was out on the streets, no access to funds, condemned to stay out all night... anything could have happened, I felt very unsafe. A taxi driver saw my distress and assured me that the bus to Madrid certainly stopped at Murcia. I went back, there was a different guy at the desk and he sold me the ticket I needed. The previous guy was at the bus inspecting tickets as people got on. "So? No tickets to Murcia, huh?" His incompetence didn't even prick his concience, and yet no-one has ever put me in greater danger than this guy did.
Did I stop using coaches after this experience? Of course not!!!
I fully believe that it was sheer incompetence that created this problem for you
Pattimyself. If you contact Ryanair and can put forward all the facts, I don't doubt that you will find them to be sympathetic. They may even arrange some kind of reparations.
At the very least, you will be pointing out a problem with communications that could help to prevent them treating someone else in the same way.
Best of luck!