Ryanair’s management of direct communication with those affected by its flight cancellations in September and October began with an SMS. In it, he warned me that he had sent an email. This was on Monday 18, shortly before 11:00 p.m.:
There I thought: «Shit, it touched me”, but hey, I took it with pragmatism and left it to manage the next day, assuming that at that time everything would be very saturated. And it was late ;).
The email in question from Ryanair is very correct. I read it first thing on Tuesday (September 19, 2017) and thought, “Wow, that’s a big shit about cancellations, but they have cured the reaction well«. All well explained. Apologies. Two clear options: either change the flight at no cost or refund the money. With links to the direct contact of Reservations or to the online customer management chat. And even link to the rule on passenger rights for the issue of compensation. And final, with apologies again. of book
Where is the problem? Let’s go step by step.
Link to reservations is a generic
Where it takes you is not to some kind of reinforced special equipment to attend to the thousands of affected people who know very well that they will need to change their flights. It takes you to the Contact «front page» of its website, with its thousand options, none of which is, of course, a telephone, let alone free (900) or «standard» (91 – 93), not even special rate (902). Unable to find a phone.
He told me: “Come on, there must be some option that responds to the issue of cancellations”… The most similar ones:
- Other types of claims: No. Standard contact form to Ireland.
- Contact customer service: “Okay, this is it.” More options. There is one for “Flight change query” (Remember that it was in the “I want to change the flight” option, not in the refund me the money option). I went in there:
- Online chat: It doesn’t work (I comment on it in the next point)
- change reservation: takes you to the Ryanair website, no special help
- Contact Form: In this option you think that Okay, at least you can explain your case and have someone read it to them… Well, no. It is a form with predefined reasons, without an open field option to explain the problem. The closest thing to the extreme case of cancellations is “Issues related to flight changes” and it provokes a response, of course, automated with more generic information, FAQ type, which is useless in this specific case. No answer, of course.
- You still want to talk to us: Well, you think a phone will be there, right? Well no: it takes you to a section, where in a pure example of circularity there is a “Contact” option that gives the same options as at the beginning.
Chat doesn’t work
All of Tuesday the 19th was useless. I don’t know if it was because too many people used it or for whatever reason, but I’m talking about everything on Tuesday, morning and afternoon. And, at least, Wednesday until the moment I write, 9:30 a.m., unused, like this:
They didn’t even put you in line to wait an hour. The whole process is closed.
Flight change not working
Assuming that I would not have any support from anyone at Ryanair, I set out to do it on my own. I clicked on the following link in the email, to change the flight, according to your instructions. It takes you directly to the Ryanair checkin. There it does not alert you directly of which is the flight with problems. If you have more than one reservation you have to check one by one. Ok, minor problem. I click on an affected one.
Voucher, at the communication level of posture, a 10. Alert in red with the incident notice and even details exactly that there is one canceled and the other unaffected.
And then the options: Request a refund or change the flight.
Attention: this table shows what will be my main conclusion: in Ryanair’s conversion code and orientation, a yellow background is “click” and a white background is “bah, if you are a loseclick here».
Ryanair wants you to ask for a refundnot the change of flight.
But let’s continue. I insisted on my intention to change the flight.
It asks you which flight you want to change. You can choose: only one way, only return or both. Here now could default to the affected…but it doesn’t. We choose the canceled one: one way.
It allows you to search for a new flight on the same date.
It gives you options. In my case, lucky me, there is the option of leaving on the same day, even early riser. Ryanair points out that it is much more expensive than the original flight, but that it save life, not charging you the difference. Eye, with a super confusing message:
“No charge will be charged for flight change or fare difference (so far so good) until you confirm the flight change and provide the payment details”
Que?? That means that does not charge … until the end but that in the end charges the change and the difference in rate? From my experience, it seems not. But I can’t swear to it… because, spoilers, I couldn’t finish the flight change. But let’s continue…
I accept that same day flight and continue. He makes me choose a seat, as in the usual purchase. If I catch more expensive seats, that is what he charges.
I get to the last step: Confirm and pay. I confirm: change outbound flight, but not return (not affected). Although there is a difference in rates, he does not charge me anything… Ok, I will confirm.
…
…
And nothing happens.
Literally.
The page stays as it is. It does not give an error, nor does it accept. Neither hot nor cold.
You think: Maybe he has accepted it. You open Ryanair in another tab… and no, your flight is still the old one.
Looking for alternatives: Tests in hidden mode browser. Any. It will be by the browser (Google). It doesn’t make any sense, because I usually use the web from that browser, but still, I try Firefox. Either. The same thing happens, it stays strung up.
And so on Tuesday and so on Wednesday morning (until the time I write).
Could it be that they are saturated? Could be. I guess everyone is trying the same thing.
Money back DOES work. Chance?
My mind perverse and horny try the last link in the email, the one from money back. Faced with the vagueness of the first to fix the matter and change the flight: generic contact, chat that does not work, go to the web, look for your flight and try to change it…
If you want your money back, it’s a silver bridge: a landing made ad hoc for the matter, where your reservation number is loaded by default, the flights are preloaded and you can easily choose to return one or two flights for one or two passengers.
silver bridge.
Ryanair does not want to change your flight, it wants to refund your money
Conclusion: Ryanair, faced with its massive flight cancellations, does not stitch without thread. Prefer to return the moneyof the flights you have purchased surely cheapbefore inviting you to go on an alternative flight more expensive than you will not be charged, but that could be sold to another. Those affected are an opportunity cost to sell the most expensive alternative flight on presumably close dates and with presumably more expensive fares than those of the sold and canceled flights.
I suppose that many will have had a different experience, that someone will have accessed the chat and managed to change their flight. I want to think that by insisting I’ll be able to change mine too, that at some point your chat will come back to life and your website will work. But this will not invalidate the previous conclusion and the fact that for at least 24h (and counting) their solutions were practically useless.
Bonus pack: compensation
Ryanair’s email ended with a to the possible indemnities derived from their cancellations. Reading those conditions, I have a feeling that they are not ready, next. For the cancellations for which they will have to pay compensation, they are for the first ones, those that caught them “by surprise”, let’s say, but so they took the bull by the horns and they launched the mass cancellation, save dough. How?
One more time, the worse you are, the better. By making your massive cancellation plan so long in advance, you save compensation if you notify two weeks in advance (it’s my case, oh!). So in that case, by proposing an exchange or refund… holy Easter.
Make even more assumptions: let it be weekdays and two weeks, but offer alternatives; or that less than a week’s notice is given but the offered alternative arrives at the destination a few hours apart.
By this I mean that, if the information you send is true (how to trust it…) many people are getting excited that they can afford an “expensive” airline because they have compensation from Ryanair… and You probably won’t get any compensation.more than that change or return.
Other cases of mismanaged reputation
Another case of poorly managed reputation on the Internet were:
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