Refund came through on its own two days ago so my chargeback was ended as it was not needed.

Hey guys - Ryanair cancellation question again.

I had a 6am flight from Edinburgh to Tallin booked with Ryanair and they cancelled it at 11pm the night before. They offered a refund or re-routing. I looked online and booked an alternative flight on Lufthansa, Edinburgh -> Frankfurt -> Tallin for the same day as the original flight. The original flight was £14 and the new flight was £250. Obviously I'd like Ryanair to pay me for the second flight instead of a refund. Do you think they will accept that and how should I pursue it?

Ryanair today notified me of cancellation of my flight EDI-TLL on 16 Sep.

The email subject is "Ongoing government restrictions have forced the cancellation of your flight"

This seems untrue - I can see no government restrictions prohibiting flights between UK and Estonia as of today (there is a quarantine requirement for some arriving passengers in Estonia, but that is nothing to do with operation of the flight).

The Ryanair chat agent was unable to tell me which "government restrictions" had caused cancellation of the flight - all they could say was "the flight has been cancelled due to Covid". :rolleyes:

The email also says "As you have been given over 14 days’ notice of this cancellation, no entitlement to EU261 compensation arises" which is clearly not true - it is less than 5 days notice.

I reckon the flight has been cancelled for Ryanair's convenience and I am therefore entitled to EUR 400 compensation because the flight is >1500 km.

Is my thinking correct?

The Estonian government restricted flights to Estonia to depart from a few European cities. There seems to be a blanket policy of not awarding EU261 compensation if the airline can cite covid.

from Tallin Airport website.31.08.2020

• Berlin (EasyJet, AirBaltic)*
• Dusseldorf (Ryanair)*
• Edinburgh (Ryanair)* 
• Frankfurt (Lufthansa)* 
• Helsinki (Finnair) 
• Copenhagen (AirBaltic)* (from 02.09)
• London (AirBaltic, Ryanair, EasyJet)* 
• Milan (Wizz Air, Ryanair)*
• Minsk (Belavia)*
• Oslo (Norwegian, Air Baltic)
• Paphos  (Ryanair)* 
• Riga (AirBaltic)  
• Warsaw (LOT)* (from 01.09)
• Vilnius  (AirBaltic)  

and then changed

04.09.2020

• Berlin (AirBaltic)* 
• Dusseldorf (Ryanair)* 
• Frankfurt (Lufthansa)*  
• Helsinki (Finnair)  
• Copenhagen (AirBaltic)* 
• Stockholm (Air Baltic)*
• London (AirBaltic, Ryanair, EasyJet)*  
• Minsk (Belavia)* 
• Oslo (Norwegian, Air Baltic) 
• Paphos  (Ryanair)
• Riga (AirBaltic)   
• Warsaw (LOT)* 
• Vilnius  (AirBaltic) 

The Government of the Republic decided to extend the restriction of routes departing from Estonia to and arriving in Estonia from countries with high risk of corona infection also to fall and make exceptions to Warsaw, Copenhagen, Frankfurt, Riga, Helsinki and London, which will be kept open regardless of the infection rate in the country.

Interesting. Where is this information to be found in official channels?

Ryanair (at the time of writing, 01:45 BST on 12 Sep 2020) is still selling flights from/to Edinburgh to/from Tallinn on 20 Sep, 23 Sep, 27 Sep and 30 Sep.

If you believe this, and i you would like a free rebooking to anywhere on the Ryanair network within 90 days (with no fare difference, according to the email I received), I would recommend booking one of these flights.

Can you change the origin too when rebooking, or only the destination?

"1.Change your cancelled flight (for free)

Due to the COVID-19 emergency, we are allowing customers to change their cancelled flight to another date or time on the original route or to any other route within our network and any date within 90 days before or after your cancelled flight. There are no change fees and you do not have to pay any fare difference."

The issue of rebooking yourself on to another airline has not been tested by CJEU under EC261/2004, the relevant regulation for this area. There is wording in the regulation that suggests it is the intent, there are people in this forum who will tell you it definitely applies, the CAA has in the past said it is reasonable to do this if the alternative on the originating airline would result in a delay greater than 24 hours. So your best bet is to claim it in writing from Ryanair. If they don't pay then you can then try complaining to the CAA (Ryanair no longer has a dispute resolution process), then you would be down to using the Small Claim system against Ryanair. Which is as much hassle as that implies.

Thanks, because flights were only allowed through certain cities in my case Frankfurt I hope I'd have a stronger case as there were very limited options to be rerouted.

There is some information on the Estonian Ministry of Foreign Affairs website - vm.ee/en/information-countries-and-self-isolation-requirements-passengers

It looks like each Friday they publish a list of Cities that are allowed to fly into / out of Estonia. It sounds like Ryanair are waiting until that weeks list is published and then emailing all passengers and telling them the flight is cancelled. It's pretty scummy of Ryanair because if a flight is banned at the start of September it's more than likely going to be banned for the whole month and they could tell you to make alternative arrangements sooner!

As only certain cities can fly to Tallin, I think I can prove that there was no alternative to the route I took out of Edinburgh via Frankfurt, guess I will start writing a letter to Ryanair.

https://www.valitsus.ee/en/news/gove...l-restrictions

I booked, it's only 16GBP return. In the worst case, I will lose 16GBP, or maybe get a 16GBP voucher I can use on another flight.

Free rebooking without paying the fare difference already worked for me in different circumstances - Ryanair advertised such free rebooking for tickets with travel dates between July-August (even if the original flight was not canceled). And indeed, I successfully rebooked a flight FRA-PMI-FRA to a later date without paying the fare difference, all travel dates (even with way higher prices) were available for free.

My flight EDI-TLL was canceled as expected and I got a mail advising that I could indeed change it to another date and also to any other route on the network without paying the fare difference. Rebooking via the website doesn't work though - it allows to change the date, but not the route. Guest I'll need to chat with the support about it...

I successfully rebooked the canceled flight EDI-TLL-EDI to a 6x more expensive flight FRA-LPA-FRA on a different date by contacting the Ryanair chat support (the return flight, albeit not canceled yet, was rebooked as well). I had to wait about 10 minutes for a human agent on chat, the agent was very helpful and made no trouble. So I can confirm this trick does actually work.

Sadly, I forgot to ask the agent if the rebooking itself had to be done before the original flight date (their regular FAQ on rebooking says so, but maybe there are special rules for Covid-related cancellations).

Has anyone ever bought an extra seat?

https://www.ryanair.com/gb/en/useful...a-large-person

I’m not a “large person” but I’ll to fly to Italy in December. I’d normally fly Alitalia but I’d rather fly direct this time.

It seems to be as simple as buying to tickets, but which fare should I buy? If I buy the basic fare, will I then be able to add extras only for one passenger?