Ryan Air strikes

[Untamedtoad]

Meant to be returning from Spain (Valencia) on 23rd Aug, and it's just been announced this is now one of the proposed RyanAir pilot strike days. I'm now wondering whether or not to go ahead with the trip. Am meant to be travelling solo with 2 young children, and the thought of being stranded abroad is scaring me. I can't find any info as yet as to which flights are likely to be affected, it just says flights operated by UK pilots. Was really looking forward to this trip, but was anxious about it being my first time abroad with dc and without dh, and just wanted it to go as smoothly as possible. Will be set to lose about a grand if I cancel now, as didn't take out cancellation insurance, and have already paid non refundable deposits for kennels/cattery, airport parking, paid for hotel in full, and flights. Wwyd?

If your flight is affected, they will email or text you to tell you how to rebook or get a refund.
When they do, I would rebook to a flight a day earlier if possible, so you don’t have to mess around with customer services to get compensation for hotels etc.

The 22nd and 23rd August are both affected.

I am due to fly on 22nd August from UK to Eastern Europe. The next flight is 2 days later. If there is a strike, will I automatically be transferred to that flight?

We're flying back from Alicante on 2nd September. (the other set of strike action dates)
I'm kind of relieved we're flying out before 23rd. We're just going to go and let it pan out.
Not sure if I should be doing the online check in for the return trip yet though.

We're flying back from Alicante on the 23rd with Ryanair. They weren't my first choice by a long shot, but came out far cheaper for us overall.
We've saved so hard and have looked forward to this holiday all year so we're going. I'm hoping it will be resolved by then or worse case I assume they'll have to find us an alternator flight home. Not ideal but I'm trying very hard not to let it ruin our family holiday.
Has anyone had any experience of this before? We've obviously been very lucky this is the first time we've had any trouble with potential cancelled flights.

We are due to fly home from Spain with Ryanair on 4th Sept. Our tour operator has told us today that we may not know if the strikes planned in Sept are going ahead until we are already in Spain. Because they only tell you maximum 2 days before your flight if it is being cancelled, sometimes less. They have said they are obliged to get us home in event of a strike but cannot say when we would get another flight, where it would fly from in Spain or which UK airport it would fly us to. Could be days waiting for any flight if there is a backlog of flights and people waiting. If you are able to wing it and potentially wait a few days for a flight to come home it could be ok but plenty of horror stories online about how this experience goes with Ryanair. We have to be back home on 4th so we are probably going to cancel our holiday but we only have until this weekend to do so and get some money back. Ryanair are still selling these flights and telling people that the flights are still going ahead, apparently there may be a decision tomorrow but I wouldn’t hold out much hope. They cancelled 400 flights last year.

Ryanair now saying they can inform you the flight is cancelled up to two hours before it’s due to depart. Then you have to pay for another flight and then claim it back

And apparently the union have until Friday to confirm the strikes. Assume Friday as in tomorrow

WWYD?

I'd be really hoping I did NOT get notification of the cancellation in the next few days.
Why?
Because if your flight is cancelled and you have NOT been notified 14 days ahead, then you will be due €250 per person compensation under EU rules

www.caa.co.uk/Passengers/Resolving-travel-problems/Delays-cancellations/Your-rights/Am-I-entitled-to-compensation-/

Not only that, Ryanair will still be responsible for getting you back home, so DON'T accept a refund. In addition they have a 'duty of care' to feed and accommodate you until they can fly you back.

These rules apply to flights originating in the EU and I have claimed several times. The compensation rules also apply to flights delayed by more than 3 hours.

As these are crew strikes, rather than ATC strikes Ryanair are responsible.

Think positive €1000 for a family of four to put to your next holiday. ;-)

There is a whole Facebook group dedicated to people who were left stranded and haven’t received any money from Ryanair .

If it were just me and husband I would go and wing it because but I can’t face that level of hassle and uncertainty that comes with cancellations (have done it before) when children are involved who also need to be back at school

I have never had any problem claiming from Ryanair, although the staff at the airport fail to give out claim forms to passengers. A tactic to keep them in the dark IMO! But the forms are available on their website:
eu261compensationclaims.ryanair.com/

I did have a problem with Qatar Airways, who initially declined the claim for €600 per person compensation, which included two children, but they paid up on appeal as we had evidence of the reason for the flight delay. The kids loved an extra days holiday with a night in a 5* hotel.

Dithering whether to amend one of my flights and just pay for another night's hotel to salvage my weekend away or wait & see whether our flight is actually affected. Unsure....

@rrg1 I was hoping the same, but RyanAir are saying that the EU compensation laws won't cover this instance as the strikes "are out of their control"!? They're just giving the same automated response to anyone trying to contact them "that all flights are scheduled to fly as normal" when they clearly know this is not the case. It's absolutely devastating, and going to affect so many people. This is my worry, being stuck at the airport with 2 very young children and missing work, and other important engagements we have over the weekend we're due to return, and ultimately having to find ourselves a different flight home, at the cost of who!? Some of the alternative flights I've seen flying from Valencia on the day and day after we're due to return, have awful 14 hour stop overs making the entire journey 16 hours long, would we be expected to except a place on this sort of flight as technically they'd be fulfilling their duty to get us home?! Plus not being there with my partner to share the stress and load will be awful. Think we're just going to have to cut our losses and ditch the holiday. Absolutely gutted though. Thanks for all your replies.

Surely someone, somewhere in RyanAir must know which flights are likely to be affected, and equally which ones are unlikely to be... Why can't they share these details, so customers can make a more informed decision as to what to do? Just seems so unfair to keep so many thousands of people in limbo so close to their travel dates. I understand strikes happen, and they can happen within any airline, but the way they're not really acknowledging it, and keeping customers so in the dark about it all is truly disgraceful. I'm really shocked they can get away with this to be honest. For all I know there's no chance my flight will be affected, and I've had days of stress and uncertainty for nothing. Why can't they share which airports/routes are going to be affected? Someone must know or be able to work it out!? They must know which pilots are flying which particular routes, so can surely work out which routes AREN'T going to be disrupted. At least to give some customers peace of mind!?

So glad you started this thread, OP. We’re due to fly out to France on one of the affected days in August and I have no idea what to do.

If we book ourselves into another flight, would they have to give us compensation? And refund the cost of the original flights?

The new flights will have to be Ryanair too cos they’re the only airline who fly to where we’re going.

Unfortunately no one will know which flights will be affected until the staff either turn up or don't turn up. So the airline are not able to give any advance notice.

I'll just leave this thought here though - Ryanair have an appalling reputation for customer service. Imagine what it must be like working for them. I can't say I blame the pilots at all - for years it was a sackable offence to be a union member in Ryanair even though it is a fundamental employee right in the UK. They've got a whole lot of grievance stored up!

@backinthebox But they know which pilots aren't in the union, so their flights won't be affected surely? And alot of their pilots are contracted and not u.k based, so again, those routes won't be affected, so surely these flights could be confirmed as safe in advance to help out a small majority of customers at least. @rainatnight unfortunately if you make alternative travel arrangements RyanAir definitely will not have to compensate you a penny. If you're changing flights to book with them though, I'm sure you can do this on your online log in page, you will have to pay extra though, but if I had this option would be doing it for peace of mind for sure.

You are not obliged to tell your employer if you are in a union or not, and in the past Ryanair have disallowed union membership as a condition of their contract of employment. This was found to be unlawful, and pilots were allowed to become members of a union. But since you don't have to disclose this information to your employer, how many do you guess will have done? Fwiw I have nothing to do with Ryanair, but am just stating the obvious. Ryanair is not going to have any idea which pilots are in the union and which aren't, so they cannot tell you which flights will be affected. Even if they could, they wouldn't because it would cause meltdown if they gave out any information in advance. Negotiations can continue right up until the night before a strike date - the recent Heathrow ground worker strikes were called off at the 11th hour.

MOL is playing games with his staff, as usual. He has already threatened base closures and staff lay offs. Letter:

cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune.org-vbulletin/1136x640/3be1f229_d156_4d66_8184_e53babec5fa3_0825d7f0afd2090500f1321a7a0c2c178998df52.jpeg

The vote for strike action was by UK pilots who are BALPA members, , although RYR also employ contractors, so will, if it goes ahead, effect a few flights and they will draft in other crews. MOL has a policy of 'divide and conquer' so pilots from other bases often have no choice to cover for their colleagues who choose to strike.
The EU rules on compensation and duty of care are clear, even though Ryanair may choose to tell you otherwise. They will try to tell you that you cannot claim as these were 'extraordinary circumstances', but these circumstances are NOT. BALPA have given RYR advance notice.

'extraordinary circumstances' apply if ATC went on strike, or an act of terrorism etc. Things that are not within the control of RYR. The dispute with crews has been ongoing, so is within the control of RYR.

For flights to or from Spain, there is a brilliant government appeals service, which is free, should RYR decline a legitimate claim:

www.seguridadaerea.gob.es/lang_en/particulares/cancelac_retraso/default.aspx

eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=CELEX:32004R0261:en:HTML

Know your rights

@rrg1 thanks for that, very useful info. It seems so unfair they can try and wiggle out of compensation, when so many passengers are going to end up having their plans destroyed by this. Was promised answers by today, but still nothing, so not holding out much hope of finding anything out in advance now.

We cancelled today. Just decided to cut our losses, if we cancelled today we got a partial refund, if we left it any longer we got nothing.

Nothing here from last years strikes gave me any belief that they will give plenty of notice for cancellations or that they will get you home as soon as they can or repay you your money.

www.facebook.com/groups/263759814405650/?ref=share

A year later and people who were affected by strikes last year are still battling with Ryanair

Yes it is worrying if you have not experienced this situation before, but if you know your rights and the process involved, you may get knocked back with a claim, then you will have to appeal.
I have not done that in the UK, but I have done it in Spain, and won.
Ryanair offer low fares and try to keep costs as low as possible and trying to avoid paying compensation is just another part of their business model.
Seriously, no need to panic and cancel, unless of course you NEED to be back or serious consequences will ensue.

We are flying with Ryanair next week. At the moment our flights shouldn’t be affected - we are due back the day before the first strike. The strike notice reminded to get some insurance in place so we are a bit more protected if something does go wrong.

Are they likely to add to/change the dates?