Our long-planned trip to Portugal next month has now been postponed due to the corona pox. Thai has cancelled our international flights and our son's UK wedding has been pushed back to the end of November (fingers crossed).

From what I understand the airlines have to provide a full refund if they cancel the flight, although Thai told me to expected a one to two-month wait for my refund as they are so busy refunding everyone else's hard earned (amazing how they take it in a nano second when you make the booking...).

Anyway, I'm hoping that Ryanair will cancel our flights to Faro and back and send us a refund, however I've read that they do not refund in the event of cancellations but that they are open to flight changes if made a month or more before the flight takes place.

Has anyone had any experience of this? The two "budget" flights for two people have cost me more than GBP600, so I don't want to lose this $$.

I've managed to cancel our hotel and car hire bookings so this is the last thing to tidy up.

Thanks in advance of any comments,

Richard

Hi
Odd you should mention Ryanair and flights from UK to Faro.
How about this,
So I returned to UK a week ago with Ryanair, last flight out of there back to Stansted..no problems (except no checks at Stansted on arrival which annoyed me)
This was just before the new lockdown and more restirctive policies brought in by the Govs of Uk and the EU.
Needing to get back to Portugal as soon as I could I saw no problem in booking the first available flights shown as at last week on Ryanair and Jet2, both of whom were showing a fully bookable timetable from 2th May, well despite me preferring Jet 2 they now cannot offer any departure times that I can acheive, so it had to be Ryanair. SO booked and paid for the flight, realising that there was a possibility that the flight would be cancelled, but that I would be offered another flight if that was the case.....the cost was £60 all in inc 2 cabin bags etc.
Well today I thought I would check the flight as I had received a confirmation by email that the flight was confirmed (not sure why I received that on 2nd April)....
So looking at the schedule flight page I find that the flights for the 2/3/4/5/6 and 7th May did not show at all......erm so why did I recieve a confirmation of the flight only this morning??
So I think to myself I will change the flight back to the 11th, the next flight I could catch, as it looks to me that this flight will be cancelled, the price on the schedule shows £39.99 plus if you want to take a normal cabin bag there is a surcharge of £21.00, making £61.00.....now this is the catch, when you look to change your flight the price that comes up for the flight is not £39.99 but £65.99 and that there is a difference of £25.00 to pay, plus any fees that will show on the next page
But the price if I was to just book it on the normal booking page is £39.99+£21 = £61.00 end of ....as I have already paid £60.80 for the flight I find it hard to justify paying again.

So I started a chat on Ryanair site......of course all I got out of that was......This flight has not been cancelled..!!! And of course that is correct as indeed I just recieved a confirmation of it, so I asked wny I could not now book this flight if I wanted to today as it does not show up.....answer, All flights are liable to change due to coronavirus !!

So I am guessing that they get people to buy flights, keep your money, they then know how many people want to fly and will just cancel the flight at a later time nearer to flight time and as such the change of flight charge which they might well make free at some time again, is irrelevant as they increase the actual seat cost, knowing how many people want to go.. of course this could go on and on as they escalate the cost and all you get back if you cancel is your money back (at some future date) and pay for a new flight at inflated prices..
So I do not know what to suggest to you,,,,of course when ther estriction is lifted IMO there will be a stampede and price will shoot up further......thats the capitalist solution!!

I had a flight booked in April
i was given the choice of a refund or a changed date.

Yes but that is only after they officially cancel the flight, which in my case they have not yet done, although I am assuming they will at some stage.
Question is ...did they offer you a flight at the same time and at the same cost??

Ba have done similar offering a future travel voucher or change of flights, trying to change to a future date and they say no availability yet checking on ba. Com there is lots of available seats.

Soo have to ask for voucher which takes a week and most likely availability will be gone by the time voucher arrives.

How difficult is it to process a refund??

Seems its beyond British Airways capability to do it in a timely fashion.....

At least the sun is shining

I had a return to the UK in April booked with Ryanair, back in January they arbitrarily changed my outward journey date. I booked with easyJet for the original date and cancelled my Ryanair flight as it had moved more than three hours and I was entitled to, refund received.

Now my return journey (spoiler alert: I didn't go) is cancelled but when I apply for a refund the computer says 'No' as I've already had a refund! Yes, but only for part of the original booking. Now doing battle with Ryanair 'customer services'.

After reading how long people had been on the Easy Jet customer service line with no answer I took the voucher, still waiting for second one though (had two flights cancelled)

Like Scott47, I received an email saying that my flight had been cancelled which I was due to take on the 15th of April. Went onto the website as directed, put in the information requested and told that the refund will be in my bank within a week.

This does not mean to say that I will get the money. Will wait and see.

Keep safe

JohnB

It seems the airlines are resisting the refund of cancelled flights. https://www.nytimes.com/reuters/2020...s-refunds.html

I'm waiting on a number of refunds from Ryanair for 3 different bookings, the earliest of which is almost 2 weeks old since I completed their online form. Has anyone actually received their refund yet?

I am still waiting for the refund into my Credit card account after 3 weeks.

this should be outlawed by the EU.....its robbery, they should not be allowed to take money for something they cannot defintaley be able toprovide as ordered, its that simple. And if that means the website is clear of bookings until authorised to fly by the relevenat authroities then so be it. Then we all take our chances but sure of getting what we have paid for.

It is. Under EU law they have 7 days to give you your money back, see here.

By your experience that is totally ignored by Ryanair.
But in any event that is not the point, people make all sorts of other arrangments that follow from making a flight, any and all of which are put into chaos. A simple refund (even if they pay it) does not take care of that.....Its c;lear what they are doing, offer something and see what the uptake is, then you have the demand known for the product, you can then manipulate the prices when the offer is real....should be banned by the EU.....

Just a thought, if Ryanair does not refund purchased tickets is it the case that they only retain the actual ticket price and not the extras, such as the added costs of luggage, priority queue fees and so on? Also, the mention of coupons or vouchers is interesting. When the airline industry gets going again we will make our trip to Portugal and so we will need those flights to and from the UK, so having a voucher for later on would be OK for us. Can anyone throw any light on this?