Ryanair currently allow 2 free changes for bookings before 30 June if you change 7 days before travel. I wonder what 7 days before means exactly, calendar days or to the time and date?

Better to assume the least favourable outcome.

I would never recommend waiting til the last minute to change any ticket on any airline, by the way; best to do it as soon as it becomes clear you have to. If you wait til the last minute, you leave yourself open to having non-responsive websites or busy call centres frustrate your attempt to get your change in before the deadline expires.

But certainly, do not use this "offer" as a reason to book a ticket which from the outset you already have no intention of travelling and which you intend from the outset to change for "free" later. You still have to pay the fare difference so ensure that you don't treat this "offer" as if it is some generous facility by which you, or any other traveller, can outsmart Ryanair and benefit from in ways unintended.

I'm ashamed to admit I did just this, but in a different context. (train)

I saw the "free changes" in big, bold letters. So I booked the cheapest train and then tried to change to the actual train I wanted, only to find out that I had to pay the fare difference. No ultimate harm, other than to my pride, since I ended up paying what I always was going to have to pay...

If you don't read all of the fine print, you are just giving at best an interest-free loan to the airline / train company...

Yes it’s a case of looking carefully as the wording is not always clear. A free change can mean exactly that - nothing more to pay - or it can mean no fees to make the change but you have to pay the fare difference.

Eurostar also offers free changes but you need to pay any fare difference for example and change 7 days in advance (but with 7 days you can change for a fee and fare difference)

Aa to the OP my personal policy is not to include the day of travel in the 7 days at all as it then avoids any mess with is it 168 hours before departure. So if I was flying on a Saturday I would cancel no later than the previous Saturday.


it is something that the travel trade could make clearer. BA Holidays give you a date by which you need to pay the balance of your holiday by which is 3 weeks before departure but they actually give you the specific date you don’t have to guess. And that 3 weeks doesn’t include the day of departure.

A payment deadline is something in a different league, though; miss the payment deadline, and you presumably lose both your deposit, and the chance to go on holiday for the agreed price! It's a deadline by which something must happen (if not, something else happens as a result); in the OP's case, it's not a requirement that they must change the ticket, or react in any way before any particular time limit.

I was using it as an example where a company gives a “must do by” deadline and it doesn’t rely on a customer having to work out dates and times.

So for the OP Ryanair should be very specific about what it means by 7 days before the flight to make a change.

Is that 7 days including or excluding the day of travel? Or do they actually mean 168 hours before and is that checkin close time or departure time? It’s then down to the passenger if they then want to change their flight or not.

But at least they would have clear information on what they need to do by when if they do decide to change.

My hotel bookings with IHG give both a time and a date by which I can cancel for free. Very specific info I can use.

No vague “day before” or “24 hours before”

I have one that states “cancel by 4 pm on Tuesday 31st August” for a stay that night. Another booking is cancel by 6pm on Monday 26th October for a stay starting on the 28th. And it also says that it’s the local time at the hotel. So that October one is 6pm Amsterdam so I have until 5PM UK as my latest decision point.

The point I’m trying to make is that if an airline or hotel is giving passengers an option to change then they should give specific deadlines. It ensures both sides know the rules of the road and will stop any arguments,

Did you really think it was that easy? If you could do that the railway would only be selling their super cheap tickets...

I've done "same day changes" on BA where I booked the cheapest flight of the day and then changed to the flight I actually wanted, even though it was almost full.

With COVID, state of emergency / lockdown, restrictions for travelling between regions, a brand new train operator, etc.... I don't think it's completely unreasonable to assume that one could change dates.

But yeah...

I had Ryanair tickets London Stansted - Alghero for early October which I decided not to go, I changed it for a flight which going to be canceled, paid a bit for Ryanair hidden extra for increased seat and lagage cost. Once the new flight was canceled I got a full refund, original price plus extras.

The question is: how do you know which flight going to be canceled by Ryanair? I placed my bet on London Stansted - Podgorica, as Montenegro is in the red zone for Uk, with little chance those flights would operate any time soon.

Those flights are still on sale for October so this gamble might still work for some. Even if you missed 7 days window or your flight is not eligible for a free change, once a new flight is canceled you got back the whole amount including any change fees you paid earlier.

In May I bought super cheap tickets to Poland (for June) where I saw FR kept cancelling/postponening the resumption of flights. Sure enough, cancelled by FR a few weeks after - and I rebooked for much more expensive Spain flights. Now it is more difficult to predict because I believe FR is operating most routes by now.

My tickets to BUD in late June were not cancelled though so these tickets were lost (I didn't want to rebook and pay much higher fare); not a big loss. At that time Hungary had really strict entry rules, but I guess I forgot that Fifa Euro Cup matches were played in Budapest at that time. Anyway it was only two 5 Euro tickets.