RyanAir diverted flight
Returning home from Krakow we were flying back to Bristol that was being hit by a storm. I saw on trusty Facebook early in the morning that Bristol Airport was closed and knew we were going to be in for a long day.
Nothing was mentioned at Krakow airport but we were delayed 45 minutes. It wasn’t until we got to Bristol that we started circling and the captain mentioned that the winds were currently too high to land and we were in a queue waiting, he would update us in 10 mintues. 10 minutes passed and he updated us again still waiting wind is still too strong so we will keep circling. After half an hour it was decided to land at Birmingham Airport which is about 97 miles away from Bristol.
I am pretty lucky in all the flight I have done I have never been re-routed and I didn’t have anything urgent to get back to so looking at it positively we landed safely and it was just the inconvience of having to then get back to Bristol. There were reports of how planes had to land sideways so I am glad this didn’t happen to us.
Considering Birmingham is only 97 miles away from Bristol and it was still experiencing the same storm we seemed to land OKish. It was quite a rocky landing the plane going from side to side and I did feel quite queasy like being on a rollercoaster my stomach was turning over but we landed and that was the main thing.
Before we even got off the plane I had received an email from Ryan Air apologising for the diversion and the EU261 regulations were attached. These are the European rights in the event of denied boarding, flight delay or cancellation.
It took us about 1 hour to get off the plane as three planes were diverted and we had to wait for the other two to get the lugguage and passengers off first. The captain was really apologetic and I understand that safety was paramount I just feel it was dealt with in a chaotic way considering even I knew 10 hours before the airport was likely to be closed due to the storm.
In the terminal there was one man trying to herd us all onto coaches unfortunately there was obviously a delay in getting coaches available. We didnt really know what was going on. This is the bit that annoyed me. I am disabled I was also travelling with my disabled mother no extra support was offered we were really struggling, mainly from having to stand for 1 hour. It was a total of 6.5 hours until we got back to Bristol airport.
I contacted Ryan Air as per the email knowing that I probably wouldn’t get compensation and I didn’t really want compensation as I felt Ryan Air did everything they could but I wanted to see the process and I was actually quite impressed.
I talked to Ryan Air customer service online and they advised below
“Please keep the receipts of your additional meal, travel and accommodation expenses and send copies to the Customer Service Department by attaching them to the following form: https://eu261compensationclaims.ryanair.com/ for reimbursement. They will review your claim and answer you via e-mail.”
I then asked what happens if we had no addional expenses as at the end of the day they did put a coach on and got us back to the airport and I am not really interested in compensation I am doing it mainly as a research purpose as I want to know what actually happens in these situations
Read More : What is it like to fly with Ryan Air
“If you do not have receipts with which you wish to apply for a reimbursement, then you can fill a form on the following link, which is for eu261 Compensations: https://eu261compensationclaims.ryanair.com/
Our customer service department will check the reason for the delay and they will inform you via email, whether you are entitled for a compensation”
So I have filled the form in and have been told I will be informed within 10 days. The form was pretty straight forward the only thing that I was slightly concerned about was it asked for my bank details including IBAN and BIC numbers, I only know these from dealing with invoices. Would someone who holds a general bank account even know what these were? I am sure if I didn’t I would not even bother filling the form in as these could not be left blank and you could not make a number up as I tried this as it is invalid number
I actually feel that apart from a little chaos at Birmingham end everything was done and handled professionally, the weather is not under control of the airline and they could have left us stranded in Krakow which I think might have been more stressful as at least they got us as close to home as they could and it was just the inconvenience of loosing a few hours that we suffered and nothing else so well done Ryan Air.
I was contacted within 3 days with a letter stating as it was due to factors out of Ryan Air control we were not entitled to compensation. I already knew this but am happy with how quickly and professionally Ryan Air contacted me. For once this is a positive review of Ryan Air as they seem to get so many complaints. I am happy and always have had an OK flight with Ryan Air and will continue to use them in the future.
