Earlier, I wrote a post talking about my hassles in trying to get British Airways to refund me 25,000 Avios for a flight where I paid for business class but due to a flight cancellation I was (involuntarily) rebooked into economy.
While I was researching for that post, I came across an article on Flyertalk about a lady and her daughter who had planned a trip from Liverpool to Belgium to celebrate the mother’s 60th birthday.
As it turned out, that was right after the recent Paris attacks, where Paris and Belgium had both raised their terror levels to the highest level possible, and now the lady no longer felt safe in traveling. As quoted in the Daily Mail – “Most of these ladies are aged over 60 and are simply too frightened to travel, given the week’s events. There would be armed guards on the street”
Getting a refund of the £2,000?
They had booked their tickets on ultra low cost carrier Ryanair, and applied for a refund of their £2,000 in ticket prices. Ryanair refused the request, stating that they were still flying their regular schedule to Brussels, and per their refund policy, they only offer refunds in case of a death of an immediate family member, grave illness or death of the passenger, charge increases after booking, and cancellations or delays of more than three hours.
Personally I’m glad to see that they offer a refund in case of death of the passenger!!!?!
So who’s right?
I was glad to see that a majority of the commenters in both the Flyertalk thread and the Daily Mail article both seemed to agree with Ryanair. Personally that’s how I think I feel as well. Yes, it would have been NICE for Ryanair to refund the money, I by no means think that it is a requirement, and certainly based on Ryanair’s reputation I am not surprised!
£2,000 is a lot of money, but one other thing to think about is that was for 27 passengers. If you look at it that way, each passenger is only out about £75, which is ~$USD110.
So what do you think? Who’s right? Should Ryanair refund the £2,000? Or are these passengers just out of luck?
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Dan Miller travels with his wife and 6 (SIX!) children. He loves to help families travel for free / cheap, especially larger families. If you are looking for help, drop him an email at 
£2,000 on ryanair? did they book the whole plane???
unfortunately i agree with the airline. the rules are clear. would travel insurance have covered this?
ah, sorry, read the linked article that specified there were 27 pax.
Some travel insurance might, but I find that most insurance companies like to weasel out of actually PAYING claims…