Should I take any further action to get a refund or is Ryanair telling me I just have to wait?

Question

Follow up on this question of mine.

I have received an e-mail from Ryanair informing me of the cancellation of the flight.

This e-mail, invites me to accept a 12-months valid voucher (which could be however converted to a full refund after those 12 months anyway), but is also reads the following:

If you do not wish to accept this voucher option and wish to move your flight or request a refund, please click here to contact us.

That link, however, only relates to the voucher, and not to the plain refund. (The Chat bot doesn't help, as it never answers.)

Answer 1

On the page you linked it says the following about refunds:

• Customers who choose not to accept a free move or voucher will receive their refund in due course, once this crisis has passed. Over the coming weeks and months, we will be working hard to process refund requests as quickly as we can.

Therefore, it looks like you need to wait until you request you refund or accept a voucher.

Under article 8 of Regulation (EC) No 261/2004 it states that reimbursement must be made within 7 days:

• reimbursement within seven days, by the means provided for in Article 7(3), of the full cost of the ticket at the price at which it was bought, for the part or parts of the journey not made, and for the part or parts already made if the flight is no longer serving any purpose in relation to the passenger's original travel plan, together with, when relevant,

Article 7(3) states:

• The compensation referred to in paragraph 1 shall be paid in cash, by electronic bank transfer, bank orders or bank cheques or, with the signed agreement of the passenger, in travel vouchers and/or other services.

You can pursue it further, but I think they have so many customers in the same position as you, there is no point.

Therefore, you must agree to a travel voucher or you are entitled to a refund.

Answer 2

In intending not to perform its obligations under its contract with you, the airline is already in breach of contract, and by failing to issue a refund in seven days in violation of EC 261/2004. You wouldn’t accept this from another business—imagine if you bought a new TV online only to get an email, “we can’t deliver the TV you paid for, but here is a voucher for maybe a similar TV next March if we’re still in business”.

If you bought this ticket on a credit card I would raise a chargeback request with the issuer. If the cost of the ticket exceeded £100 and your card was issued in the UK, you can proceed directly to a section 75 claim against the issuer for the merchant’s breach of contract. Either way, Ryanair will string you along, so make that the card issuer’s problem.