Ryanair not refunding

[z0nk]

Hi everyone.

I was supposed to fly from Madrid to Gatwick at 7.20pm on the 14th of January with Ryanair.

I checked the Ryanair site the night before the flight about 11.30pm and it said the flight was canceled due to snow and to click the appropriate link for a refund. Ok so I did that.

I checked back on the site about a couple of hours later and find they took the message about the canceled flights off and now the flight was back on. So I couldn't fly now as I had already put in my refund request.

Now I receive a templated email about 3 weeks later from Ryanair saying the ticket is non-refundable blah blah as it wasnt canceled.

Am I entitled to a refund? If so where can I go from here?

I have a saved copy of the web page with the news about the canceled flights and the refund link.

Thanks

[Hugh]

Originally Posted by z0nk

Hi everyone.

I was supposed to fly from Madrid to Gatwick at 7.20pm on the 14th of January with Ryanair.

I checked the Ryanair site the night before the flight about 11.30pm and it said the flight was canceled due to snow and to click the appropriate link for a refund. Ok so I did that.

I checked back on the site about a couple of hours later and find they took the message about the canceled flights off and now the flight was back on. So I couldn't fly now as I had already put in my refund request.

Now I receive a templated email about 3 weeks later from Ryanair saying the ticket is non-refundable blah blah as it wasnt canceled.

Am I entitled to a refund? If so where can I go from here?

I have a saved copy of the web page with the news about the canceled flights and the refund link.

Thanks

Welcome Z0nk,

I was wondering what happened next in Madrid,

You were in Spain expecting to travel to the UK-did you just change your mind and decide not to travel to the UK?

Ryanair had contracted with you to transport you on the 14th January to the UK.
You presumably wished to travel to the UK-what did you do after Ryanair said that you "could have a refund"?

If you had contacted Ryanair (assuming such contact is possible) some time earlier on the 13th January (or some time after booking but before the "announcement had been displayed on the website) and said "Please Ryanair -I have changed my mind about travelling to the UK on 13th January (The tapas here are much better than in East Sussex) and so therefore I would like my money back please-what would Ryanair say do you think?

Do you think they would say-" sure Z0nk-be our guests-just listen down the phone to the sound of us tearing up your contract of carriage."

If what you say is accurate and Ryanair has stated on the web-site that your particular flight was not going to operate and was "cancelled"-(and really it would be best to look at precisely what was displayed)-I personally think that this must be sufficient to amount to Ryanair telling you that your flight was cancelled-especially if you happened to see that annoucement and relied upon what that annoucement said.

Frankly I don't see much difference to a Ryanair employee at a gate shouting a similar annoucement out to passengers within earshot.

Now if the "web display" does amount to a declaration and communication of cancellation-then the flight that did in fact take place on 14th January. (without you as a passenger)-might just be regarded as another flight-that coincidentally bore the same label -i.e the same flight number.

Therefore-if it was me I would seriously be looking at claiming compensation for the cancellation of your flight (being 250 Euros) plus the refund.

In fact if I eventually travelled back upon another flight-and Ryanair had not offered me a satisfactory re-routing I would also look to claim the net difference in cost -if the "replacement" cost was higher than the Ryanair flight.

There was something that looked quite similar from another poster recently-this time in respect of an easyJet flight.

I wonder if this is just coincidence?
http://www.flightmole.com/forum/showthread.php?t=769