Stranded in Italy by RyanAir should we sue?!

[Plentifulpenguins]

My husband and I are in our late 40s flew to Perugia for a much-desired holiday after my terminal cancer diagnosis as a final hurrah and we were due to stay at a hotel there. We flew with RyanAir to Perugia but 15 minutes from landing they said we were diverting to Bologna for weather reasons and then changed it to Pisa. We landed in Pisa which is 4 hours from Perugia, at 9pm, and assumed Ryanair would help us get back to Perugia. They told us they’d put us all on a bus but when we cleared security there was no bus!!!!!!!!!!! Im not well enough to drive and my partner is unable to drive so we couldn’t get a car hire.We waited until midnight trying to call taxis, hotels and Ryan air and nobody would help as there were no hotels available and over 100 passengers stranded including a couple with a newborn baby!!! In the end we and several others slept on the floor outside the airport because nobody from Ryanair was around and there was nowhere in the airport or neighbouring places to stay!!!!. At about 4am we managed to get a taxi and paid 675 euros to go to Perugia, and have almost arrived. I can’t even get hold of Ryanair and was just told via an automated email to put a claim through their online system. AIBU to bring legal case against Ryan air because they couldn’t even provide any alternatives and just left us stranded?? Does anyone even know how to do this or whether I’m wasting my time?

That sounds awful! I’d put a claim in on the online system first.

also whilst you’ve had a terrible time please try and park this for now and enjoy the rest of your holiday if you can

What a bad start to your holiday. Hope it improves now.

Will your travel insurance cover these extra costs?

You can’t expect anything from RyanIr, they’re terrible to customers and staff. You’ll be able to claim on your travel insurance. Please say you have some?

It’s not about ‘suing’, it’s about claiming back any costs incurred and perhaps some compensation for the hassle.

You can do that after the holiday so try to put the bad start in a box for now, and enjoy your holiday.

This is exactly what travel insurance is for. Did you try their emergency helpline or just rely on Ryanair (who will probably try to bat any claims straight back to your insurance anyway)?

That is appalling OP

Keep receipts for everything - especially that very expensive taxi. You'l need proof of any costs you've incurred as a result of their fuckwittery. I hope you have a nice holiday when you get to Perugia. Go to Grom and have a lovely icecream.

That's absolutely shocking.
Put a claim in and draft an email to a solicitor - then put it to the back of your mind and try to enjoy the rest of your well needed trip

Sounds awful, I would put in a claim to Ryanair and see how it goes, could be complicated to sue as they are based in Dublin. I hope you get some rest and relaxation on your holiday. Good luck

£675 euros? Why didn't you get the train?

I had similar with Ryanair and some passengers left the terminal building when in fact there was a side room that they wanted us to wait in for our buses. No signage or anything and some people missed it completely. You might find there were buses for those who remained inside.

I am very sorry about your diagnosis op and sorry that you are having such a rotten travel experience.

If you want a response from Ryan Air you might have to contact them via social media but not anonymously, do it through Twitter, or contact a newspaper who will publicise your case for you.

And contact your insurer as others have suggested. I hope you are able to enjoy the rest of your holiday with your DH.

It's really not what insurance is for. Airlines cannot just dump a plane load at an alternative airport and expect insurers to foot the bill.

OP, I hope you arrive safely and have a lovely holiday.

It’s not an ‘easy’ train ride at all with luggage etc, you have to go into Florence then change again part way along to get to Perugia. Plus the OP isn’t exactly in rude health!

Sorry to hear that

Put a claim into the system, listing your medical issues.

Focus on enjoying your holiday

If you have any problems with the claim then get citizens advice to help when you get back home.

"It’s not an ‘easy’ train ride at all with luggage etc, you have to go into Florence then change again part way along to get to Perugia. Plus the OP isn’t exactly in rude health!"

Changing at Florence is as easy as the airport is with luggage. For less than £20 each it's much preferable to sleeping at the airport and then stressing about £700 in a taxi! Or else there is the bus, direct from Pisa. It's about £7.

Ryanair will hopefully reimburse the cost

"you have to go into Florence then change again part way along to get to Perugia"

You don't change again after Florence for Perugia. And there is a bus to Florence Central which leaves directly outside the terminal at Pisa airport.

According to EU rules, a flight which is diverted to another airport, which does not serve the same town, city or region as the airport for which the booking was made, has to be treated as a cancelled flight. By landing in Bologna instead of Venice the airline cancelled your flight to Venice, since the Bologna airport does not serve the same town, city or region as the Venice airport. You have the same rights as in case of a flight cancellation; in addition, you can claim the costs you incurred for getting to Venice.
Had the airline provided for your onward transport to Venice, e.g. by bus or taxi, the flight would have been considered delayed

This.

The destinations given are obviously different, but this is taken from the EU website. According to this, Ryanair effectively cancelled your flight, so you can make a claim for this, plus expenses. I suppose the only woolly area is whether they will say the 'cancellation' was due to extraordinary circumstances (weather), but I find it hard to believe they don't still have a responsibility to get you to your final destination, whatever the circumstances of the diversion.

This is exactly what travel insurance is for

Um. no it's not. Ryanair have a duty of care, it's not for travel insurance to make up for their shortcomings. That said, if you get no joy from Ryanair, you could possibly try your travel insurance.

I think there are quite a few steps before you can get into suing them. Start with making a claim on the ryanair website. Keep receipts of everything!

You can’t expect anything from RyanIr, they’re terrible to customers and staff

You can expect them to follow their legal responsibilities. No more than that, I agree, but they have rules that all airlines must follow.

Twitter is your friend here.
I would also contact the national UK newspapers about this.

Firstly really sorry to hear about the circumstances behind your trip and sorry to hear about what happened last night.

In the event of a diversion coaches/buses for a couple of hundred passengers can rarely be organised at the drop of a hat, it usually takes time to organise. I certainly wouldn't expect to clear arrival formalities straight away and find a fleet of buses to be waiting outside the terminal.

In the case of one Ryanair diversion I'm aware of from family the aircraft ended up at an airport about 200 km from where they were supposed to go. In that case coaches to final destination were arranged by the airline but they took a couple of hours to organise.

Are you able to find out from e.g. social media if Ryanair organised coaches for anybody on the flight or if everybody was dumped?

nobody from Ryanair was around

Not really surprising, most airlines use sub-contractors for ground handling these days ( e.g Menzies) so it's quite possible there would be no Ryanair company staff around, which wouldn't help.

Only other advice I can give is keep all receipts with a view to pursuing this when you get home.

Good Luck

Share the story with a newspaper but also put in an online claim. If they reject it, take it to the Civil Aviation Authority.

Easyjet cancelled one of our flights recently and all remaining flights that day were booked so we were left stranded in another country. Managed to get a hotel but when I put in a claim, Easyjet refused to compensate us for the hotel stay. I referred it to the CAA who ruled in our favour and we got the money back.

So the easiest way is still two changes, bus to Florence then the train. I’ve done it myself but the direct trains don’t run all day and it can be more of a Piss (a)about. Certainly late at night or early morning you’re going to have difficulty.

i don’t travel with a lot of luggage or have a terminal illness, either.

There's a train from Pisa airport to the main station in Florence.
I hope you get sorted OP
For those suggestion claiming on travel insurance, the OP, sadly, has a terminal diagnosis and it may be that they have chosen to travel without insurance. I would never advise this but can fully understand why someone in their position would do it.
I hope you don't let it spoil your trip.

I've been on a Ryanair diverted flight and a BA one. In both cases, whilst it wasn't immediately clear what was going to happen to us, buses did arrive and take us back to the original landing airport. I landed in Pescara very late one winter Sunday and it did take a couple of hours (as you might imagine for a last minute diverted flight) for the coaches to arrive.

The weather up there is shocking at the moment, there are reports of 7 deaths and 3 missing people this morning due to flash floods etc.
Obviously, we don't always think straight at these times, but had it become clear in due course that coaches weren't coming (where did the other passengers go? What did the staff at Pisa advise?) the sensible idea would be to go to one of the hotels near the airport and then move on this morning.

Not sure what will happen if there WAS a coach and you didn't get it. That may be when your insurance will be needed. I'm no huge fan of Ryanair but I doubt they would get away with not providing a solution to stranded passengers.

This happened to us in Kraków, Ryanair left approximately 400 people stranded by cancelling a couple of flights.Again, weather was given as excuse but I had been taking screen shots of weather apps in region and knew this wasn’t accurate.In our case, they put us on buses to bring us to another airport. Buses turned back after an hour’s journey , back to airport, and guess what, not a Ryanair official in sight!
My advice, keep EVERY receipt. Log your complaint, but you will get an email denying responsibility from them . Persevere, as probably 90% of people don’t and hence, this works for Ryanair most of the time. You may need to contact the travel ombudsman of the country (Italy in your case) and file your complaint through that office. There are some agencies online that will fight this case for you. We persevered through the Polish ombudsman’s office and eventually Ryanair had to reimburse us for the cost of hotel, meals and 2 flights to each to get home. It took 2.5 years but got back €700 each! Good luck with your claim.