Ryanair pledges fee waivers during Christmas as CMO advises against Christmas travel

Ryanair chief Michael O'Leary has said texts and emails from listeners claiming they have not been refunded were 'false' and 'untrue' and there was 'no backlog' in the airline’s refund department. File picture. 

Ryanair has pledged to extend the waiving of flight change fees for customers making bookings over the Christmas period to provide “peace of mind” to its customers.

The airline has come under criticism from passengers and business organisations, including the Irish Travel Agents Association, which said a lot of time has been spent since March “chasing refunds” from Ryanair and other airlines.

Ryanair said customers making bookings through December and January will be allowed to move flights with no additional fees up to September 30 of next year, provided the changes are made at least seven days prior to the departure date of the original booking.

Plans change, so in order to provide as much flexibility and confidence as possible for our customers, we have extended the waiving of our flight change fee for all December and January bookings 👇https://t.co/ZtGb0FSLZY

— Ryanair Press Team (@RyanairPress) November 20, 2020

The announcement also comes after Tánaiste Leo Varadkar last week advised Irish people living abroad not to book flights home for Christmas. 

"I know that’s difficult, I know that’s tough, but Christmas is six weeks away and it is too soon now for people to be booking flights to come home,” he said.

Chief medical officer (CMO) Tony Holohan has also advised Irish abroad not to make plans to travel home for Christmas, saying it would be regarded as “non-essential” travel.

The CMO said people coming back for the Christmas period could be experiencing a much higher level of infection which could be a “significant risk” to Ireland’s progress in curbing the spread of the virus.

Dara Brady, director of marketing and digital at Ryanair, said the extension of the waiver has been introduced to provide “as much flexibility and confidence as possible” for customers. 

Customers can now plan to see families at Christmas, or book Easter-summer holidays, safe in the knowledge that if plans change, they can move their flights without additional change fees.” 

While the waiver may offer some peace of mind to many people visiting home for Christmas, questions remain about the airline’s handling of refunds to customers whose flights were cancelled due to widespread travel bans enforced to deal with the spread of the coronavirus from March. 

Passengers and business organisations have said they spent a lot of time since March “chasing refunds” from Ryanair and other airlines. In a statement earlier this month, Ryanair said it has cleared “an unprecedented volume” of customer flight changes, cancellations and refunds.

It said the process has been frustrated by unlicensed online travel agents (OTAs) “many of whom provided false customer contact and fake payment details at the time of booking”.

“Despite the enormity of the task, almost all non-OTA refund requests have now been dealt with either via cash refunds or vouchers,” it said. Earlier this month, Ryanair boss Michael O'Leary told BBC Radio 5 Live the airline had “no customers outstanding who have requested a refund who haven’t received it” from the period of March to July.

Mr O’Leary said texts and emails from listeners claiming they have not been refunded were "false" and “untrue” and there was “no backlog” in the airline’s refund department.

The Irish Examiner had asked Ryanair for further comment but had not received it prior to this article being published.