Ryanair has launched a new ‘non-charm offensive’ targeting customers who got credit-card refunds for their planned trips last year when government orders banned them from flying, although the flights were not canceled. The budget carrier has told them they’re not welcome on Ryanair again until they refund the refunds.
In some cases, the passengers have only been notified at the last minute before boarding new flights.
Ryanair isn’t complaining about the refunds it made, under government rules, for canceled flights; it’s going after passengers who had booked non-refundable tickets which they couldn’t use because either their own government banned them from getting aboard, or other governments banned them from arriving.
Many of those, refused refunds by Ryanair, turned to their credit card companies for a chargeback, and the card companies agreed that the flight was a ‘service not rendered.’ Ryanair disagrees; their position is that the customer should have used the ticket even though they were legally banned from doing so.
Since Ryanair has no recourse against the credit card companies, they are pushing back against their customers, a plan which is not likely to win them friends, although the company’s often super-low fares in the past have managed to overcome anger over seemingly arbitrary rules and fees.
I have avoided BA since the beginning of last year, after they treated us abysmally over cancelled flights at the start of the pandemic. Ryanair has been on my blacklist for several years – not because of any particularly bad personal experience with them, but because of the way they treat customers in general. It’s called ‘shooting yourself in the foot’.