Not a happy bunny

[ian in lancs]

Should be in Venice now for our 23rd wedding anniversary! Instead I'm at home 'cos the flight has been cancelled due to the 'weather' (sic) - Managed to cancel 3 out of the four nights at the hotel buit Ryanair wont pay up for 'meteorological conditions incompatible with aircraft operations' so I'm £270 out of pocket. Oh well I'll see what our annual travel policy will pay out.

Great we've got 5 days off work that'll be wasted.

[Ordinary Bloke]

Sorry to hear that, 5 days not necessarily wasted though...

[pokethepope]

ian in lancs said:

Should be in Venice now for our 23rd wedding anniversary! Instead I'm at home 'cos the flight has been cancelled due to the 'weather' (sic) - Managed to cancel 3 out of the four nights at the hotel buit Ryanair wont pay up for 'meteorological conditions incompatible with aircraft operations' so I'm £270 out of pocket. Oh well I'll see what our annual travel policy will pay out.

Great we've got 5 days off work that'll be wasted.

?????

[Wacky Racer]

Better to be out of pocket than dead, it's only money....

Remember 1958....Manchester United and Munich..........

[ian in lancs]

I commuted weekly to and within Sweden/Scandinavia for 6 years and despite severe weather we never had a flight cancelled. Also more recently almost weekly flights to/from Munich. Again never had a cancellation for weather. There was about an inch of snow at John Lennon airport and they had the de-icer rig out and the runway was cleared. Domino effect of flight changes impacted crew hours so flight cancelled. This country is pathetic! Ryanair had a real problem probably 3-4 flights worth of passengers decending on one service desk with a single rep.

I had no problem driving out of the airport - the roads were clear.

[Iain328]

ian in lancs said:

I commuted weekly to and within Sweden/Scandinavia for 6 years and despite severe weather we never had a flight cancelled. Also more recently almost weekly flights to/from Munich. Again never had a cancellation for weather. There was about an inch of snow at John Lennon airport and they had the de-icer rig out and the runway was cleared. Domino effect of flight changes impacted crew hours so flight cancelled. This country is pathetic! Ryanair had a real problem probably 3-4 flights worth of passengers decending on one service desk with a single rep.

I had no problem driving out of the airport - the roads were clear.

Much sympathy for your predicament. Had something similar a few years ago with BA & a day lost on a 10th Wedding Anniversary trip due to aircraft malfunction (although we did get compensation).

Sadly I think the domino effect & lack of customer service you describe is largely the product of running a business on very tight margins because customers demand cheap prices. In this respect, we pretty much get what we deserve in this country.

Edited by Iain328 on Tuesday 3rd February 00:01

[Jasandjules]

ian in lancs said:

Should be in Venice now for our 23rd wedding anniversary! Instead I'm at home 'cos the flight has been cancelled due to the 'weather' (sic) - Managed to cancel 3 out of the four nights at the hotel buit Ryanair wont pay up for 'meteorological conditions incompatible with aircraft operations' so I'm £270 out of pocket. Oh well I'll see what our annual travel policy will pay out.

Great we've got 5 days off work that'll be wasted.

I am sure you can find something to do for five days......

[Captain Cadillac]

I know, why not fly out later today or tomorrow, this way you'll have 4 days of Holiday instead of fk all?

Wow, wonderful idea!

Thank me later.

[Lord Pikey]

Wacky Racer said:

Better to be out of pocket than dead, it's only money....

Remember 1958....Manchester United and Munich..........

SHHHHH!!!, Im flying out of Munich in the Morning

LP

[Nimbus]

ian in lancs said:

some stuff.................... Ryanair............. some more stuff

See, there's your problem... ^^^^^ you get what you pay for..

Ryanair are great when everything works, but the slightest problem, or delay and they'll cancel the flights and you're fecked...

Did they not offer you your money back, and the chance to rebook on a flight thats already full, or else costs triple what you paid ?

Funnily enough I was reading something else from an acquaintance, who was meant to fly for a week to the sun yesterday, but obviously couldn't due to the snow / ice..
He had a crappy day at the airport, but at least his airline have laid on extra flights today and tomorrow to get their customers away.

You'll get the square root of feck all from Ryanair..

[Grey Ghost]

Nimbus said:

ian in lancs said:

some stuff.................... Ryanair............. some more stuff

See, there's your problem... ^^^^^ you get what you pay for..

Ryanair are great when everything works, but the slightest problem, or delay and they'll cancel the flights and you're fecked...

Did they not offer you your money back, and the chance to rebook on a flight thats already full, or else costs triple what you paid ?

Funnily enough I was reading something else from an acquaintance, who was meant to fly for a week to the sun yesterday, but obviously couldn't due to the snow / ice..
He had a crappy day at the airport, but at least his airline have laid on extra flights today and tomorrow to get their customers away.

You'll get the square root of feck all from Ryanair..

Ryanair to Venice is cr@p. My BiL, his other half and their daughter went via Ryanair to Venice last year. Their return flight was cancelled "due to operating difficulties" which meant they had no hope of a return flight for at least 2 days, more likely 3 as those flights were almost full already. Ryanair offered them a hotel for the duration (but nothing else with regard to compensation) but it was a truly awful one they had seen walking round Venice previously. Also the taxi fare from airport Ryanair use to central Venice was about £60 each way so they managed to get a room in a central hotel for one night and I had to book them all single tickets on BA so they could get back the next day. This cost c£700 but was better than both of them losing 3 paid days each on their contract rates.

If I was you and you want to go to Venice book your flights with BA a few weeks in advance and then relax and enjoy a flight into a more central airport with an airline than can cope with "operating difficulties" without causing you to lose 3 days of your life.

Ryanliar would be a better name for the Irish lot !!!

[mechsympathy]

ian in lancs said:

There was about an inch of snow at John Lennon airport and they had the de-icer rig out and the runway was cleared.

So you want BAA to run and maintain a de-icer rig for the one occasion in 5 years that's it's necessary?

Congratulations on the 23 years BTW.

[ian in lancs]

mechsympathy said:

ian in lancs said:

There was about an inch of snow at John Lennon airport and they had the de-icer rig out and the runway was cleared.

So you want BAA to run and maintain a de-icer rig for the one occasion in 5 years that's it's necessary?

Congratulations on the 23 years BTW.

They had the de-icing rig out. I watched them de-icing planes and clearing the runway. IIRC you can't hold an operators licence without the equipment so yes.

[king arthur]

Look on the bright side, when all this snow melts there will be parts of Britain that look a bit like Venice anyway.

[HD Adam]

Did you ask them what "'meteorological conditions incompatible with aircraft operations" actually means?
I had a flight last week from Minneapolis where it was minus 15 C and snowing.
The runways were clear and there were no delays at all.

[ian in lancs]

HD Adam said:

Did you ask them what "'meteorological conditions incompatible with aircraft operations" actually means?
I had a flight last week from Minneapolis where it was minus 15 C and snowing.
The runways were clear and there were no delays at all.

Having worked on and around aircraft for 33 years it means **** off we're not compensating you because it's a get out clause that the EEC have in the rules that we helpfully bribed them to include. HTH

[phil1979]

Congrats on the 23 years!

stter on the flight though. Is it worth jumping on Eurostar and spending 4 days in Paris? Might be quite nice in the snow?