The Ryanair Group intensifies the customer-unfriendly measures if the company itself cancels flight connections. The company is now rebooking other travel dates on its own initiative and no longer allows customers to rebook independently across the network.

Canceled bookings were originally able to postpone affected passengers for up to three months and could change them to any route served by the Ryanair Group. A few weeks ago the possible Rebooking period changed to 14 days. Now Ryanair is tightening the customer-hostile behavior again: The carrier is now stipulating new travel dates. If you do not agree, there is now no way around customer service, because the buttons for reimbursement and independent rebooking by the customer have been deactivated.

The service center can only be reached via web chat and a chargeable hotline. The latter is actually inadmissible, as an EU regulation stipulates that such calls must not cost more than a regular landline call. Ryanair is not an isolated case here, because a large number of airlines whistle to the regulation and set the customers pay hotlines in front of their noses.

With the “Ryanair Service”, passengers affected by cancellations are now experiencing “spring awakening” because rebooking on other routes or significantly later dates is only possible for a horrendous additional fee and the payment of the tariff difference. The only alternative would be a refund of the airfare. However, it was exactly this that could still be initiated independently online until a few days ago, but now it is necessary to contact the customer service, which is difficult to reach and acts more as an agency for getting rid of people.

Passengers affected by cancellations who really want or have to travel should not be put off by the low-cost airline's "customer service", because the right to replacement transport resulting from EU Regulation 261/2004 also applies if the cancellation occurs outside of the 14th Days deadline has occurred. Experience has shown that many airlines, especially Ryanair and Wizzair, try to avoid this legal obligation. Those affected should persist and, if necessary, enforce any additional costs in court. The consumer advice centers in Germany and the Chamber of Labor in Austria offer free initial advice.

AUA also uses an argument that is inadmissible according to the EU Commission

If the Ryanair Group cancels within the 14-day period, passengers should not be put off by the company's claims that there are no flights due to Covid-19. The passenger rights continue to apply and the EU Commission made it clear that Corona is not an exceptional circumstance. Nevertheless, airlines try to get rid of customers who want their compensation with this cheeky argument.

Austrian Airlines also makes use of this questionable practice, however, after consulting a lawyer, it relented without comment. In the case of cancellations made within 14 days of departure, passengers have the right to a compensation payment in accordance with EU Regulation 261/2004, unless there are exceptional circumstances. This could be an official flight ban, for example. However, only referring to the corona pandemic as an exceptional circumstance in order to avoid the legal obligation is inadmissible, which the EU Commission also made clear. Furthermore, compensation payments are not handouts that an airline can “offer”, but a legal obligation that should actually be met proactively.