Sybarite
Well-known member
I have been away for the last week and thought that I would vent my bile on you poor scuttlebutters. My experience with RyanAir
I needed to return home to see my aging Mother in N.Ireland. I look up the Ryanair site and find return flights : Beauvais – Dublin – Beauvais for €37.98. Fantastic! However, add on the taxes and this becomes €65.61 – still excellent value. But then there is € 5 for a euro handling charge - hey what’s this ? France and Ireland are both Euro zone countries. OK naughty but what the heck. In France it would be illegal ( Ryanair is not a financial establishment and therefore cannot charge credit card costs to the customer) but where, territorially speaking, does the internet transaction take place?
I turn up at Beauvais with a passport that is three months out of date but with a valid French ID card and driving license. I have previously been informed by the UK authorities that there is a toleration period of one year after the passport expiry date. The counter clerk hesitates, checks my documents with her supervisor and gets the OK. End of story ?
Oh but no… on the return journey I am refused entry to the plane. I mention that my overdue passport was accepted on the way out with no indication that it would not be accepted on the return. They tell me that they cannot refuse to allow a person to return home. I told them that I am not from the Republic of Ireland and it is not my home. They tell me that the French authorities would refuse me entry. I have travelled many times on overdue passports in the past and know this to be patently untrue. All they do is suggest that one renews it quickly.
I told them about my Carte de Séjour - my French ID card - and they said that this was only a carte de residence which potentially allowed me to reside in France and gave no proof that I was actually residing there. They were not interested in the fact that the payment was by a French credit card drawn on a French bank or any of the various other proofs that I had with me : eg cheque book with my French address on it.
I told them that I did not need a card to indicate that I had the right of residence as this was enshrined in European law and so the card I had was a French identity card (acceptable under their - Ryanair's own rules). This was also what I showed a gendarme if he asked to check my identity. To no avail.
I pointed out that all flights were cancelled for the following day (air controllers’ strike in France).and that it was too late at this stage to get flight with another company. They said that they would only rebook me on another flight if renewed my passport in Dublin. However the passport authority would only issue me with an urgent passport if I had the ticket to show the departure date. Earliest possibility of a flight booking was Friday provided I paid an additional €60!! – and two nights in a hotel at Dublin rates.
When I invoked the (serious) possibility of going by boat the counter hostess had the bloody cheek to tell me “There is no need to be smart …”
The end result. So as not to be blocked indefinitely in Dublin, I fly Aer Lingus to London (€89.95) spend the night there with my sister and get the Eurostar back today ( Single fare = £149 Return fare = …£149). On checking through French immigration at Waterloo, the French controller smiles and suggests I get my passport renewed…. I check by phone with Ryanair at Beauvais to see whether the coaches are still running from Paris to Beauvais – which they confirm. My car was still at the airport. After struggling with my cases across Paris (no chance of a taxi with the strikes) I arrive at the bus depot to find no coaches in point of fact are running. So finally find a taxi to Beauvais at €150.
From the original € 38.98 I therefore end up with a bill in excess of €550. BLOODY RYANAIR! Throughout, there was absolutely no sense of compromise, of trying to find an acceptable solution or any indication that they understood or cared for the consequences of obliging somebody to miss a flight with an impending strike. I suppose the attitude is that with their prices they don’t have to give a fig for the client.
It's late which doesn't improve my humour.
Back to boats
John.
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I needed to return home to see my aging Mother in N.Ireland. I look up the Ryanair site and find return flights : Beauvais – Dublin – Beauvais for €37.98. Fantastic! However, add on the taxes and this becomes €65.61 – still excellent value. But then there is € 5 for a euro handling charge - hey what’s this ? France and Ireland are both Euro zone countries. OK naughty but what the heck. In France it would be illegal ( Ryanair is not a financial establishment and therefore cannot charge credit card costs to the customer) but where, territorially speaking, does the internet transaction take place?
I turn up at Beauvais with a passport that is three months out of date but with a valid French ID card and driving license. I have previously been informed by the UK authorities that there is a toleration period of one year after the passport expiry date. The counter clerk hesitates, checks my documents with her supervisor and gets the OK. End of story ?
Oh but no… on the return journey I am refused entry to the plane. I mention that my overdue passport was accepted on the way out with no indication that it would not be accepted on the return. They tell me that they cannot refuse to allow a person to return home. I told them that I am not from the Republic of Ireland and it is not my home. They tell me that the French authorities would refuse me entry. I have travelled many times on overdue passports in the past and know this to be patently untrue. All they do is suggest that one renews it quickly.
I told them about my Carte de Séjour - my French ID card - and they said that this was only a carte de residence which potentially allowed me to reside in France and gave no proof that I was actually residing there. They were not interested in the fact that the payment was by a French credit card drawn on a French bank or any of the various other proofs that I had with me : eg cheque book with my French address on it.
I told them that I did not need a card to indicate that I had the right of residence as this was enshrined in European law and so the card I had was a French identity card (acceptable under their - Ryanair's own rules). This was also what I showed a gendarme if he asked to check my identity. To no avail.
I pointed out that all flights were cancelled for the following day (air controllers’ strike in France).and that it was too late at this stage to get flight with another company. They said that they would only rebook me on another flight if renewed my passport in Dublin. However the passport authority would only issue me with an urgent passport if I had the ticket to show the departure date. Earliest possibility of a flight booking was Friday provided I paid an additional €60!! – and two nights in a hotel at Dublin rates.
When I invoked the (serious) possibility of going by boat the counter hostess had the bloody cheek to tell me “There is no need to be smart …”
The end result. So as not to be blocked indefinitely in Dublin, I fly Aer Lingus to London (€89.95) spend the night there with my sister and get the Eurostar back today ( Single fare = £149 Return fare = …£149). On checking through French immigration at Waterloo, the French controller smiles and suggests I get my passport renewed…. I check by phone with Ryanair at Beauvais to see whether the coaches are still running from Paris to Beauvais – which they confirm. My car was still at the airport. After struggling with my cases across Paris (no chance of a taxi with the strikes) I arrive at the bus depot to find no coaches in point of fact are running. So finally find a taxi to Beauvais at €150.
From the original € 38.98 I therefore end up with a bill in excess of €550. BLOODY RYANAIR! Throughout, there was absolutely no sense of compromise, of trying to find an acceptable solution or any indication that they understood or cared for the consequences of obliging somebody to miss a flight with an impending strike. I suppose the attitude is that with their prices they don’t have to give a fig for the client.
It's late which doesn't improve my humour.
Back to boats
John.
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