Subterfuge by budget airline? Missed flight - was charged for transfer

Question

Recently I attempted to catch a flight from a London airport on Ryanair.

I arrived at departures reception 25 minutes before the flight, 11.35am - my ticket was scanned. Then I proceeded thru security check-in and quickly ran from the departures lounge to the gate.

Unsurprisingly I missed the flight, arriving at the gate 10 minutes before take-off time, 11.50am - the passengers had boarded and the plane was taxiing to the runway.

I was kept at the gate for an hour before staff finally accompanied me from the departures area to the information desk.

I handed over a transfer fee of hundred and ten pounds to the ticket clerk at the information desk.

This is the crux of my posting:

After the details of my payment were entered into the computer by the ticket clerk, the clerk responded to a phonecall where he claimed "she should pay the fee as she arrived at the gate at 12.10pm".

It seems the caller was disputing the necessity of the payment with the clerk, as I had been registered arriving at the departure reception at 11.35am, where my boarding ticket was scanned.

I got to the gate 10 minutes before midday. There is a 20 minute difference between this time and the 12.10pm claim of the ticket clerk. A sufficient time difference for the budget carrier to charge me the full cost of the transfer.

The budget airline benefited from their mistake of thinking I got to the gate at 12.10pm rather then before 12.00pm.

My question is:

If I find myself in a similar difficulity again, what is the best approach to challenging the budget airline about the disputed time I arrived at the gate? Could I have encouraged the gate staff to support my claim?

Answer 1

While they shouldn't have lied like that you legitimately missed your flight anyway. Airlines always require you to be at the gate some number of minutes before the flight, usually at least 10.

Departure time is when they plan to actually move the aircraft. They have to get everyone seated and all the luggage stowed, the last possible boarding has to be some minutes before the departure time in order to accomplish this.

Next time you should allow more time!

Answer 2

With no evidence at hand, I had little grounds to argue my claim for a transfer flight without the expensive fee.

If I am in a similar situation again, a photograph with both the flight information and clock-time displayed at the gate, would be evidence to hedge against claims that I had arrived at the gate sometime after 12.00pm.

A photograph with the gate clock displaying 11.50pm would have curtailed the ticket clerk from citing 12.10pm as the time when the passenger first met the gate staff. The fee requested would not have been incurred if the correct time of 11.50pm was considered by the information desk.

This may seem a pedantic point but for the airline it is not: Ryanair benefited financially from the inability of the passenger to assert the earlier time.