Horrible Ryanair Policies

[PurpleNotebook]

Having to cancel Christmas flights due to a ds with positive Omicron test. So stupidly had bought Ryanair. The 'free change fee' is a load of caveated baloney, only flights bought before Oct, only for travel before Dec 31st 2021.

It will cost us £90 per person (six of us) to change our flights to a later date in 2022, even though the flights will cost considerably less than the original flights. We've spent £650 already, and are not flowing in money, this was a big outlay for us, and we trusted them - so stupid to accept the 'No Change Fee' banner they fly all across the site without getting it'd be caveated into uselessness for anyone changing a Christmas period flight.

I will never, ever, ever, ever, ever buy Ryanair again.

It's giving away your money in these unsettled times. BA etc might be more expensive but you are not signing the money away for good should things change, so it has to be worth the difference - the BA flights were 20% more which seemed a lot but now seems a bargain compared to this lot. So upset by this, and so foolish too for buying them.

Will not make the mistake of ever ever buying Ryanair again.

Would your travel insurance not cover this?

Yes - surely your travel insurance will cover it

Surely this is why you have travel insurance?

This is why you get travel insurance.
And check Ts and Cs around stuff like cancellations and changes.
It’s not Ryanair’s fault you didn’t.

Ok, this is promising - talk me through the insurance situation. If I get it now pre-flight it'll work?

Oh OP I'm sorry, that must be so frustrating. But yeah, they are cheap for a reason.

Travel insurance would only work if you got it before your ds got sick. Next time but it at the same time as you book the holiday and, again, check the t&c very carefully.

I sorry this has happened to you but thanks for the thumbs up as we were going to book though them
I hope you get it sorted and your son gets better soon

I really don’t like the company. But I don’t understand what they have done wrong. If you were outside the timeframes of their flexible booking terms then it becomes a case for travel insurance.

Of course you can't buy insurance now if your son has already tested positive.

Surely everyone knows this is what Ryanair is like? They look cheap on the face of it then add hundreds on to the cost in the small print, their service is beyond shit, their staff are rude, and Michael O’Leary is a self entitled twat.

Anyone knows that booking Ryanair they’re likely to get shafted, but this is the price you pay for going with a substandard airline.

Bearing in mind this is the company which wanted to charge disabled passengers for the use of a wheelchair to their aircraft until they were prevented from doing so legally.

i hope you can resolve this on your travel insurance, but if not and you haven’t bought the tickets I just wouldn’t bother.

@PurpleNotebook

Ok, this is promising - talk me through the insurance situation. If I get it now pre-flight it'll work?

Travel insurance would only work in this case if the policy had been bought prior to the positive covid diagnosis. You can’t buy insurance now as it will be a pre-existing condition.

I really cannot stress how important it is to get travel insurance when you book a holiday. That's the point of it, so if you can't travel they cover you.

Ah, I see you’ve already bought the tickets.

Well, sorry it’s come to this but sadly this is an expensive lesson learned.

Surely you must have booked travel insurance when you booked the holiday?

Do you have cover with your bank>?

They treat their staff like shit too.

I have limited sympathy for people booking foreign holidays 20 months into an international pandemic without consideration to restrictions/rules changing/testing challenges... Ryanair is not at fault because your son has covid.

@PurpleNotebook

Ok, this is promising - talk me through the insurance situation. If I get it now pre-flight it'll work?

You can't insure against something that's already happened. Ryanair have done nothing wrong here

Just don't do the change. Book new flights for the dates that suit you, if the change fee plus fare difference is going to be too expensive. I did this recently. Change fee was 50 quid. New flight was 12 quid. While it's annoying to let the money for the original flights go, if it's going to save you money, then it works out. Plus you can claim back the taxes on the unused flights.

Your travel insurance would have covered this, as others have said - but you need to take it out when you book. They won’t cover you for things that have already happened.

BA were pretty poor last year too, and Ryanair are well known for being cheapest but having a lot of exclusions and rules to follow… it’s why they are so cheap.

But really this isn’t an airline issue, it’s an insurance one. You’d have been able to claim any costs relating to your DS testing positive if you were insured.

So you didn't read the terms and conditions and you didn't get insurance. OK, your choice to take those risks.

Just looked at the no fee change information on the Ryanair site and it's quite clear what the terms are. So not sure how you were tricked. Ryanair are a low budget airline so no frills is their whole model. If you want flexibility or extras, you have to pay premium or get travel insurance to cover the additional risk

Just a general warning; be careful to read the T&C of your policy if you have insurance with your bank. I found that ours didn't cover cancellation due to covid reasons prior to travel. I had to buy a separate policy for that. The bank policy only covered covid related issues after arriving at the destination.
As pp have said, always sort your insurance at the time of booking, not later.

You should always get travel insurance as soon as you book your flights/holiday. It won't do anything now.

@PurpleNotebook

Ok, this is promising - talk me through the insurance situation. If I get it now pre-flight it'll work?

You needed to get the insurance before a claimable situation arose.