Ryanair brands UK consumer survey on Covid-19 refunds as ‘fake news’

Almost eight in 10 Ryanair passengers surveyed in Britain said they were dissatisfied with the customer service they received while trying to get a refund, Which? survey found
Ryanair brands UK consumer survey on Covid-19 refunds as ‘fake news’

None of the Ryanair passengers surveyed received their refund within the legal time frame of seven days after cancellation.

Ryanair has branded a survey "fake news" after it was rated among the worst airlines for customer service by a consumer survey of British customers seeking refunds for cancelled flights amid the Covid-19 crisis.

The survey was carried out by consumer organisation Which? and asked almost 1,800 people in Britain who had had a flight cancelled after March 16 to rate their level of satisfaction with major airlines during the refund process.

Almost eight in 10 Ryanair passengers surveyed said they were dissatisfied with the customer service they received while trying to get a refund, while Virgin Atlantic fared even worse, at 84%, among those surveyed.

The survey also revealed a third of respondents who had a flight cancelled by the two airlines waited more than three months for their refund.

None of the Ryanair passengers surveyed received their refund within the legal time frame of seven days after cancellation.

Which? said its survey showed one in four Ryanair passengers were satisfied with the refund offer when they did receive it.

Only 16% of Virgin Atlantic passengers were satisfied, however. 

Ryanair branded the survey “fake news”. It claimed that Which? had "repeatedly make false claims about Ryanair.”

Irish Travel Agents Association (ITAA) chief executive Pat Dawson said travel agents were still encountering issues with Ryanair and other airlines in receiving refunds with some money outstanding “for up to nine months”. 

Mr Dawson said customers were entitled to a refund within seven days under EU law if their flight does not take off.

He said that ITAA was requesting that the Oireachtas Travel Committee would address the issue of refunds.

He said that any monies owed passengers should be paid back. 

“We're going into another cycle of flights now and we have moved hundreds of thousands of people from last year to this year. The same number of people could come into the same issues, yet again," Mr Dawson said.

Ryanair has in the past said that it had cleared “an unprecedented volume” of customer flight changes, cancellations and refunds and almost all non-online travel agents refund requests had been dealt with via cash refunds or vouchers.

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