AND SO IT BEGINS https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-53485673

And so what begins?

German pilots were given the choice of pay-cuts or redundancies. They chose redundancies.

The UK pilots chose pay-cuts.

Ryanair has been shutting bases, moving aircraft, and sacking/moving pilots for more than 30 years....

January 2020: Ryanair cuts over 200 jobs in Spain with closure of Canary Island bases
December 2019: Ryanair will close bases in Nuremberg, Stockholm
October 2019: Ryanair is closing a German base (Hamburg)
August 2019: Ryanair to close number of bases starting next year (Faro)
January 2019: Ryanair ‘threatened staff with closure of bases across Europe’
January 2019: New year, same threats to Ryanair pilots
October 2018: Lower traffic because of strikes: Ryanair closes Eindhoven and Bremen bases, reduces Niederrhein
October 2018: Ryanair to Close its Ibiza Base in Winter. “This Means War”, Union Reaction.
April 2018: Ryanair to reduce Greek domestic flights, close base at Chania airport
February 2018: Ryanair blames Air Tax for closing Glasgow airport base
June 2016: Ryanair attacked over Oslo base closure
February 2016: Ryanair closes Alghero and Pescara bases due to local tax hike
July 2015: Closure of Ryanair bases in Denmark
etc etc

"The firm said in a memo to pilots that its bases at Berlin Tegel and Dusseldorf airports were also at risk of closure by the end of the summer"


That's slightly disingenuous; Berlin-Tegel is closing permanently on November 8th, 2020, which is only a matter of days after the end of the "summer" season. As such, the base in Berlin-Tegel has to close. The new Berlin-Brandenburg airport will officially open on October 31st, with flights progressively moving from both TXL and SXF to BER over the subsequent days.

Mind you that the airport contractor (who sells you the bag, boarding pass etc. at the airport counter) may charge you an additional fee, as well.

I thought it was their base at Weeze Niederrhein (NRN), otherwise known as Düsseldorf for the geographically challenged, that was going to close. Seems a shame, as it is quite a nice airport although it is a fair hike from Düsseldorf (why not call it Duisburg?)

I think it's the only airport in Germany that charges you to merely drive up to the terminal (without parking). Not sure I would call that nice.

Does anyone know what Ryanair’s “free move” policy is for flight retimings of less than 3 hours?

On the schedule change email they offer a weblink to accept the new timings, or suggest calling to discuss moving the flight for free.

It would be great to know what the acceptable parameters are around moving the flight. Is it 3 days, a week, a month, or to the end of the booking window? (The latter would be ideal given the destination is not on the Irish travel green list).

Do they do that? I had no idea. It must have changed since the last time I was there which, admittedly, was probably around 4 years ago. That is exactly what a number of British airports do.
Driving up to the terminal, ok. But you can set somebody down somewhere, surely, or are you totally trapped within their system? Shysters.

As for the question on Ryanair vs. easyJet:

Ryanair is ULCC, easyJet is more of a traditional LCC. Ryanair is a bit more restrictive when it comes to hand luggage, its IRROPS handling is less customer-friendly, and it relies more on low-fee airports in non-central locations (e.g., Ryanair flies to BGY, easyJet to MXP; Ryanair relies primarily on STN in LON and SXF in BER, whereas it's LGW in LON and TXL in BER for easyJet).

They have exactly the same bag policy no? One bag only. I hate it.

Yes, in the sense it's a one bag policy on the base fare, but there are quite a few nuances on it. Firstly easyJet has the much bigger bag size:
easyJet cabin bag: 56 x 45 x 25 cm
Ryanair cabin bag: 40 x 25 x 20 cm
Wizz cabin bag: 40 x 30 x 20cm

Secondly all 3 airlines have various schemes relating to either bringing in a second bag in the cabin (usually involving the priority boarding supplement) or checking the bag. easyJet also has a scheme for checking in the first bag ("hands free"), where you can still take a "small item" up to 45x36x20cm and still take that on board. So if you have a standard way of travelling - in terms of bags - and you are disinclined to adapt that to LCC flying, then given the dimensions you will have various tactics in terms of baggage fees. So when you see a published are of 20€ or whatever, you will know that really means 40€ in your situation. But comparison is important, along with factoring airport travel costs, since a Ryanair 20€ fare can easily be more expensive than a 60€ Wizz fare, or indeed vice versa.

All 3 of these airlines aren't too mindless about sizes, as a very general rule, so they may turn a blind eye if your bag is a cm or two too large. But you cannot count on that, and they won't turn a blind eye to two decent sized bags on a single bag fare.

No, they don't, because the dimensions allowed vastly differ.

With easyJet, you're allowed one piece of IATA size, that's 56x45x25cm. Ryanair limits it to 40x20x25cm in its rules. That's less than one third the size by volume.

Plus Ryanair limits the cabin bag to 10kg, while Easyjet has no weight limit on cabin luggage.

On the upside, Ryanair seems to have a slightly better seat pitch.

not sure that i've ever seen Ryanair weigh cabin baggage.

Oh I have, I can assure. I have even helped neighbouring passengers by taking some items so as to even out the weight, such as a laptop.

Many times at check in and a few times at the gate.

I cancelled two bookings on May 20th and applied for refunds for both. Forms submitted fine. A week later Ryanair did the offering a voucher thing which I ignored. It said click to accept it, it also said “If you do not wish to accept this voucher and wish to move your flight or request a refund, please click here to contact us.”

Ryanair’s FAQ update now says
”

• By the end of July, all of May and most of June cash refunds will also be processed.”

Since mine was cancelled in May I’m concerned Ryanair haven’t done it as I didn’t contact them again after that email. Anyone else in the same boat or have any idea? Calling their free number just results in “we are busy” message and then it hangs up.

Same boat. I did my refund request for a cancelled flight on 5/15 and got the email trying to talk me into a voucher. I clicked the "click here" and there was nothing to do there except not click on the "accept voucher" link again. Still no refund despite their claim that they've processed them.

Same experience for several bookings. Not a dime refunded yet. Has anyone here received refunds for Ryanair cancelled flights?

I have a feeling it is possible they are deeming us all without consent as having accepted vouchers. I think that's how they are getting away with saying they have processed refund requests through July, etc. I think it's all baloney.

I'm just guessing but really is there any reason to give this company the benefit of the doubt on something like this?

Not only are Ryanair basically hanging up with the “we are busy” message on their free phone number, after a 5 hour wait in their live online chat I still didn’t get through to anybody. Maybe il try a non refund category and see if it’s quicker.

Had hopes for a successful chargeback with HSBC after reading of other (quick) successes, but no luck there either. Wasn’t encouraged by the phone agent there having no idea on the laws (only one flight was cancelled not both legs etc)

I wish I’d just gone down the small claims court route now, just purely for my own satisfaction and to not allow them to get away with this crap.

A recent cancellation from Ryanair said my refund would be processed within two weeks -- surely it won't be that fast?!

I have a booking TUF-DUB on Monday, the flight is going to go but we are already home by another route, is it possible to convert the value to a voucher. No change fees are available to Sept but can't make use of that option at this time due to Q and work.

I'm flying KBP-STN on September 11 and it's already saying the flight is sold out, as well as the Fridays surrounding it. Should I expect a cancelation?

Edit: It was canceled. Chargeback initiated.

A chargeback needs to be launched in a written form - not by a phone call, where it is so easy to fob off the cardholder.

Don't confuse "refund processed by Ryanair" with "funds paid out, and funds made available to you by your bank/card provider within the account".

Sure, but the time lag between the former and the latter is only a few days surely.

Simply not true.

`All mine have been launched with details taken over the phone with dispute reference number given in he same phone conversation.

I followed up by forwarding the reservation and cancellation emails I'd received from the airline.

You would hope so, but don't make the assumption that Ryanair are factoring in your bank's/payment processor's lead times into the timeline quoted.

Still nothing, so I have filed a chargeback request.

My chargeback with Ryanair a few months back was successful so I assume it will be again.

Debit card or credit card, and if debit which bank?

TSB credit card - though this time it was actually a Revolut card since it was a euro transaction that I charged to Revolut. As far as I heard from TSB, Ryanair never replied to the chargeback to my card, so hoping it'll be the same with my Revolut chargeback.

Ryanair has cancelled my flight PDL-STN on the 5/9 - they cancelled all flight for all of September and October even though they were flying in July and August! They don't have to pay compensation because they gave 3 and not 2 weeks notice, but there is still a right of rerouting.
There are still options to fly with Ryanair from PDL to LIS or OPO and then to STN, but they refuse to pay for both legs and say I have to pay for one of the flights even though legally they have to offer a rerouting to the destination at the earliest opportunity.

After being offered the voucher a while ago, recently I went to chatbot and wrote something like “Covid refund don’t want voucher”, that took me to an FAQ and there was a link there to another form which re-requests a refund and refuses the voucher. Have received the full refund a couple of weeks later (originally applied for it end of May)

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.