Ryanair bars customers who claimed refunds via chargeback last year

Ryanair, the budget airline famous for cheap flights and added fees have once again found themself in hot water. This time they were caught barring customers who had claimed refunds via credit cards last year following an investigation by Money Saving Expert (MSE).

Ryanair were still running flights during lockdown 2020, but travel restrictions prevented many would-be holidaymakers from actually flying anywhere, even if they had booked. The Irish airline operated a strict no-refund policy but this didn’t prevent some people being able to reclaim the money they spent on flight via the chargeback scheme available on some credit cards. 

It’s one of the reasons why booking things on credit cards can be such a good idea (assuming you can pay it back of course). As the credit card companies saw that no service had been offered in exchange for the money, they returned the cash to the customers. 

The customers in question then booked separate flights in 2021 and were informed they could not board unless they paid back the original amount they were refunded. The figures they were required to ‘pay back’ were as high as £600 and in one instance the request was made only hours before they were due to fly.

One of the main issues raised is that these customers were able to book flights without any problem initially. Ryanair only got in touch to try and claim their money back prior to boarding or when changes were needed to be made. The fraud department even got involved on at least two occasions. 

Naturally, Ryanair has defended their position as a ‘no-refund’ airline and highlighted their t’s and c’s. The section in question reads.

“We may refuse to carry you or your baggage on any flights operated by an airline of the Ryanair Group, if… you owe us any money in respect of a previous flight owing to payment having been dishonoured, denied or recharged against us.” 

Unfortunately, this isn’t the first time that similar accusations have been levied at Ryanair. MSE reported in May that airline staff had told customers who used chargeback to claim refunds they would be banned from flying. This was denied at the time.