Hi - I have a flight booked in January on FR. It was cancelled yesterday by Ryanair, so I'm attempting to use the free move facility. The flight is showing as cancelled in the MMB screen, and there's a message during the process of flight selection saying that charges will be removed on confirmation. I'm booking the same flight in Mid March to the one I had booked in mid January.

I'm shown a fare difference and a change fee, and this persists right up until the moment I am asked for credit card details and to confirm payment, which I'm loathe to do in case it gets charged. Nothing doing with customer support or chat, I just get thrown off that (not surprising on Christmas Eve I guess).

Any idea what should happen? Should I be being charged fare difference?

As soon as you try to rebook to a date outside of the +/- 14 days permitted period you will be charged fare difference and a change fee if you rebook yourself online. You should use the chat feature on the webpage and let a customer service agent change your travel date. This is how I have done it numerous times this year following FR cancellations. Eventually you will get through the queue to chat with an agent so just be patient.

Despite the permitted rebooking period stated in the cancellation email from FR, most agents have no issues rebooking you to a date outside the +/- 14 days window; if an agent refuses to rebook you for free, end the chat and try again with a different agent.

Thanks, I have the exact same problem and here the answer is, as always! My destination doesn't even have any flights within 14 days. Will try the chat tomorrow and see what happens.

And only +/-14 days on the same route is illegal anyway

It is not +/- 14 days on the same route. It is rebooking to all FR routes!; that is the sweet spot of FR cancellations. And often the chat agents will even agree to rebook you outside the 14 days window.

Yes I know, it�s why I wrote �same route�. This policy has been in place since Q1 2020.

Just received an email with a 6-hour schedule change for ORK-EDI flight in May and stated promise of free change within +/- 1 day. However, logging into the booking engine and grabbing a flight 5 hours sooner, it doesn�t allow a change unless $112 fee is collected. I�ve started a chat (it�s off hours in �ire so hoping for response tomorrow.) This would be very easy code to program into the booking site (more reputable airlines do so) but FR is choosing not to. Seems sketchy to me to say the least. Thoughts about best way to proceed when in US Central Time zone?

I have a slightly different issue. My flight, and the entire route, have been cancelled. There are no direct flights on any carrier. Can I ask to be re routed on another carrier with a stopover? The EU legislation seems to indicate so, but I have not had any luck with the chat function.

The simple answer is yes, but I suspect FR will (wrongly) refuse rerouting on another carrier.

Thanks for your response, which I thought was true as well. The problem is that the new flights are much more expensive and I am hesitant to incur this without knowing if I will be re imbursed. I can also change the FR flight to another destination free online and buy the second leg separately but will then be out of pocket with no hope for re imbursement.

flydrive have a read of this topic: EC261 claim against RyanAir - do I have a chance? for some more information on this issue. Please come back if you have any further questions or would like any additional help. I have set out the law in that topic and it may prove useful and you might get a positive outcome.

Thanks that makes for sobering reading and accords with my reading of the legislation as well as my understanding of how this is dealt with in practice. In my case the route has been suspended by FR and there are no FR options. There are indirect options on other carriers, but the cost now is a magnitude of 5-10 times the original flight cost. If I don’t get re imbursed it makes sense for me to pay myself to get to London cheaply and then change my FR cancelled flight to use from London to get to my final destination. It will cost me in time a day rather than 1.5 hours, but I don’t think I have the stomach for challenging this, given previous intractability with FR. The chat ended with them saying they would not re imburse me and my only option would be to file a complaint. Going on the website they only give me the option of refund or free change to any FR flight in the system. Which is kind of crazy, considering the law specifies final destination and they simply say you can take 1 FR flight from anywhere to anywhere. Although as mentioned by others, other airlines are not any better. BA would not offer any flight in their system so maybe I should just take what I’ve been offered and move on. I hate giving in, but I’ve got bigger battles to wage right now.

Sorry, but you will get nowhere with this. I can almost guarantee you that FR will not rebook or reimburse costs if you book on your own.

You should reconsider your destination (FR has a generous rebooking policy) or travel to STN to get a FR flight from there - or accept a full refund.