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?

Hi All,

Flying from Luton to Beziers, France early Friday (23rd) morning.
Returning 2nd September.

Just wondering if any of you who are travelling on the proposed strike dates next week/September have heard anything from Ryanair?
I read somewhere in the news that if your flight is going to be cancelled they will let you know by text or email (and if you have heard nothing then your flight will go ahead) This of course could be at the last minute.

You can sometimes work out whether or not your Ryanair flight will be cancelled.

The strike involves UK and Ireland staff so you'll be affected if your flight is crewed by UK/Ireland staff.

If you are booked on the first flight of the day from a non UK airport (e.g. Valencia) your crew will be Spanish and it won't be cancelled. The return leg from UK to Valencia will also have the same crew so won't be cancelled.

If you are booked on the first flight of the day from a UK airport it is more likely to be cancelled because it will have a UK crew.

Ryanair’s Spanish crew have also announced strikes on September 1, 2, 6, 8, 13, 15, 20, 22, 27 and 28.

We are supposed to be flying on Thursday. It might not be until Thursday they announce the flights are cancelled. Absolutely fabulous. I told my husband to book with anyone but Ryan Air.

It’s not looking good

“The union now says: “Ryanair has blown the chance of finding a resolution before this week’s strike action.”

www.independent.co.uk/travel/news-and-advice/ryanair-strike-latest-pilot-walkout-passengers-stranded-cancel-flights-a9069661.html

Oh dear it’s not looking good

Does any one know- do they just offer you a refund or are they obliged to pay for the cost of a new flight? I am supposed to be flying from Faro to Southend on Friday and looking at rebooking for the middle of next week the flights are three times the cost of my original flight.

Also my DD is flying out to Bratislava on Thursday for the Bank holy weekend. If her flight is cancelled do they also refund the return flight as it will be pointless her going.

I saw on Ryanairs Twitter that anyone whose flight will be affected on Thursday/ Friday will by now have been informed by text or email. We are due to fly back Friday from Alicante and I'm keeping everything crossed we'll be OK. All wiped out from this holiday so don't forsee us being able to afford to fork out for new flights just like j. And the idea of hanging around and airport whilst they try and find us an alternative flight home (which they have to do I believe) isnt how I want to end our holiday

Well I made the decision to book an alternative flight back on Friday. It's a morning flight rather than evening and cost £170 but I would just rather not worry in my last two days of holiday. I don't trust Ryan air as far as I could throw them so would just rather be safe than sorry.

Now hoping that I get a text to say it has been cancelled! But hey ho if not. At least I can relax now. It was the last flight Of the day which would invariably be delayed if not cancelled so at least I will be home at a decent time and be able to enjoy the bank hol at home.

They have both the Irish and UK court cases taking place tomorrow don’t they? To try and get injunctions to prevent the pilots striking.

Whatever Ryanair are saying online, it won’t be true. They are still taking bookings for the strike days despite not knowing if the flights are going ahead. They can’t give any guarantee at the moment, they are just leaving it as late as possible before they have no choice but to cancel. Plenty of people in the same situation last year who found out that their flights were cancelled when they had already checked in.

Fingers crossed everyone gets what they want but I wouldn’t hold out much hope of getting a lot of prior notice about it.

I've heard nothing from Ryanair about our flights out on Thurs morning.
We made the decision last week to buy new flights out tomorrow (Wed) evening instead (cheaper than changing our original flights out). Will claim a refund if original Thur flights are cancelled.

Irish pilots’ strike blocked by Irish court.

Waiting to hear if UK court rules the same way, although I don’t know if circumstances leading to strike are the same.

5pm today for uk case outcome

Ryanair update on Twitter

Just an update we flew out of Alicante today no problems at all.
Friend flew into Alicante yesterday and her flight took off from the UK OK as well. They seem to of drafted in enough staff to cover disruptions
Hope everyone who was going or coming home on these dates got away with minimum disruption too

Let's see what happens on the 2nd, which is when we're due to fly back from Alicante...

We arrived in Béziers, France this morning - no problems whatsoever and all went to plan... but yes, let’s see what happens coming home on the 2nd. Hope everyone else’s travel has gone to plan too 😎

Has anyone actually been affected by the strikes then? We flew back this morning, and after a stressful holiday worrying and checking updates, everything was fine. Obviously grateful that we didn't get affected, but it still seems unfair that we were given such little information and spent our holiday stressed for nothing basically. We almost didn't go out of fear of being stranded, and I haven't actually seen any reports of anyone being affected!?

No it looks like they drafted in extra pilots to cover this weeks strikes. I wonder what will happen for the September UK pilot strikes. I did read that they may not have the option to draft extra pilots again due to working hour restrictions, not sure if that is true or not. As it stands unless Ryanair agree to go back into talks with the union then the September strikes are still going ahead. There is the added complication that all of the Spanish Ryanair staff are striking for 10 days in September too.

We cancelled our holiday because of all this so personally I am hoping the strikes go ahead in Sept just so we can claim some of the flight costs back

Just for your info, several crew were sent to the UK (out of base) from all across the network to operate the flights. UK based crew were assigned standby duties.
Ryanair also has contract pilots, as well as direct employees and MOL put out the 'threat' of downsizing before the strike!

I wonder how come so many flights were cancelled last year though? Unless they have staffed up this year anticipating more strikes because of last year. The irony being they will be making redundancies

It is way more complicated than that. Ryanair now own Laudamotion and Buzz, so instead of playing off bases against each other, they are moving to play airlines off against each other!

For example: "we're seeing tougher competition in Barcelona, so you need to take a pay cut. If you don't, we'll reduce the size of the base and move in planes from Lauda or Buzz" so back to management dictating conditions unilaterally

They have already announced 4 base closures for next year.

Do you think the flights will still go ahead in September on the strike days?

Just had email with link:
www.ryanair.com/gb/en/travel-updates/articles/ukpilotstrikesep2019

Yep we’ve lost £500 and missed out on a holiday if they won’t be cancelling the flights despite strike action being announced