Dear Tripped Up,
Last March, my daughter and I were headed from Berlin, where she was studying, to Italy for her spring break. Our 8:50 p.m. Ryanair flight to Rome was delayed for several hours and eventually postponed to the next morning at 6 a.m. We were given the address of a hotel and told we would be reimbursed for it, as well as transportation and meals, according to European air passenger protections. The hotel was full, so we found an alternative nearby for 61 euros. As a backup plan in case our flight was canceled, I reserved a second “Flexi Plus” Ryanair flight for the next evening, for $908 total, that would allow us to postpone for a future date as long as we rescheduled up to 2.5 hours before departure. Our original flight did take off at around 9 a.m., so when we finally got to Rome, we tried and tried for two hours to rebook the backup flight for another trip in May on the Ryanair app, but the “confirm changes” button just wouldn’t work. So I got in line for customer service chat — I was number 200 — but the app eventually quit on me. I then called Ryanair, but the agent told me that to reschedule the flight by phone would cost 180 euros. I declined and decided take it up with the airline again — and file for expenses — when I got home. Neither went well. I got what appeared to be an automated (nonsensical) response about the app fiasco. And the reimbursement form Ryanair has online required I submit my bank account information with an IBAN code — which American banks don’t have. When I wrote in to ask about alternatives, what also must have been an automated response ignored what I wrote and directed me back to the same form, twice. I believe Ryanair owes me about 100 euros for the hotel, taxi and meal, plus a flight for two from Berlin to Rome. Can you help? Tere, Wellesley, Mass.
Dear Tere,
Ryanair owes you much more than that, unless the carrier is claiming the flight was delayed because of “extraordinary circumstances.” When flights are delayed three hours or more, European law requires carriers to compensate passengers at least 250 euros each, in addition to paying for meals, transportation and lodging.
You already asked for 100 euros to cover those costs, and your shortish flight qualifies you for the minimum 250 euros each, bringing the total of what Ryanair won’t let you access without that IBAN — or International Bank Account Number — to 600 euros, about $625.
When I reached out to the Ryanair media office in September, it offered me an initial response saying it would look into the issue, and then subsequently ignored multiple follow-ups, including a detailed fact-checking email a week before the holidays.
So you might be out of luck for that May flight to Rome. But I have a potential solution for the $625. You could open an account with an international financial services company like Wise, which offers multi-currency accounts — complete with IBAN numbers — for customers to receive payments in euros. If Ryanair deposits the money, you can either transfer that money into dollars within your Wise account (for under $3, in this case) or transfer it to your own U.S. bank account (for under $5).
It shouldn’t have been that difficult though — Ryanair is required by law to pay “by cash, by electronic bank transfer, bank orders or bank cheques,” according to legislation. There is no mention of excluding Americans or other travelers whose bank accounts do not come with IBANs (or, for that matter, who spell “checks” differently). I imagine Ryanair has a way to do it, if only a human being at the carrier would talk to either of us.
(A note here to say that I get a lot of nervous messages from Americans who balk when European companies who owe them money ask for their bank information. This is normal practice in Europe and many other parts of the world. As long as it is done by a reputable company over a secure platform, you should not be concerned.)
Now, onto the nonresponsive responses you received from Ryanair when you attempted to resolve your issues.
From the correspondence that you passed along, I cannot say for sure whether it was received by a real person or an automated system. But if it was a human, it was not a well-trained one.
When you filed a customer service request to explain you didn’t have an IBAN number so you couldn’t complete the claim form, Ryanair sent an email that read: “You have used the incorrect form to log your request,” and guided you, unhelpfully, back to the claim form. When you responded back on the same day explaining the issue again, you received another unsigned response directing you, again, to the same form you couldn’t fill out.
“Your query is now closed,” the email concluded.
When you wrote a separate request detailing your experience with the Ryanair app as you tried to change your Flexi Plus ticket, the response was no better. Whoever or whatever read it responded with a boilerplate letter about refunds — not what you asked about.
I think it’s worth speculating that the problems you experienced finding a trained human being to help you may be more common on low-cost carriers, of which Ryanair is one. We have come to expect and tolerate some combination of cramped seating, lean staffing, less convenient airports and fees for everything short of cabin oxygen in exchange for amazing prices. But cost-cutting can also affect the myriad and interacting systems every airline must design and maintain in order to manage its complex operations.
Nonsensical responses and buggy apps are hardly unique to low-cost carriers, of course, and things go right far more often than they go wrong. But when so many things go wrong all at once, it’s hard not to suspect you would have been better off with alternative travel plans. I also can’t help but point out the fastest route from Berlin to Rome by train takes about 14 and a half hours, roughly as long as this trip ended up taking you.
If you need advice about a best-laid travel plan that went awry, send an email to TrippedUp@nytimes.com.
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