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I had a flight with Ryanair delayed for over 10 hours and had hotel cancellation (no-show), plus an extra fee from a car rental company because of after-hours pickup, but Ryanair is not willing to pay for any of that, just the usual €250 per person compensation.

And that’s aside from the fact that we lost a whole day of our vacation, which we will never get back, since my wife is pregnant and now we won't be able to travel again like that.

Should the compensation cover this? Or should Ryanair pay €250 plus expenses?

Edit: I did had travel insurance, called them but they only cover delays after 15 hours and only for accomodations, maybe mine wasn't the best one, but I chose them because of their health coverage, since wife is pregnant.

I did call both the hotel and the car company, that's why I got a fee for taking the car, otherwise I would have been left without any car, the hotel didn't budge, said they didn't had anyone at that time to let me in and couldn't issue me a refund.

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    Your travel insurance might cover these type of delay-related expenses
    – Traveller
    Commented Nov 20, 2023 at 13:32
  • @Traveller tried, they would only cover delays over 15 hours, I should've chosen a better one o guess
    – ForeverSJC
    Commented Nov 21, 2023 at 15:44
  • RyanAir is part of an ADR who it may be worth escalating to if the compensation offered is below what you should be entitled to. Alternatively you can escalate to the ODR. help.ryanair.com/hc/en-gb/articles/…
    – Tristan
    Commented Nov 22, 2023 at 13:13
  • Broadly, 'compensation' is one thing and 'expenses' quite another. The particular details of your specific case should be a question for your insurers, or failing them, your lawyers.
    – Robbie Goodwin
    Commented Nov 27, 2023 at 21:36

3 Answers 3

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Pretty much all airlines exclude coverage of "follow up damage from delays" explicitly in their terms and conditions and that appears to be legal. They won't pay and they don't have to.

In addition to compensation, the airline has "duty of care", which means they should cover reasonable expenses for food and accommodation until you have reached your final destination. Unfortunately the laws around this are not very crispy, so the airlines will often try to weasel out of it.

Ryanair being Ryanair: the likelihood of seeing an extra dime without dragging them into court is very low.

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  • We're talking about 130 euros extra, so I think Ryanair and other companies know that most people extras are low and they won't seek litigation because of this. Such a weird loophole we have here in Europe.
    – ForeverSJC
    Commented Nov 20, 2023 at 12:46
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    @ForeverSJC it's not really a loophole - it's a condition you agreed to when you purchased the ticket. No sensible company is going to agree to potentially compensate a customer for some completely unspecified and (to the company) unknowable amount - the risk to them is far too high. How could they know in advance whether you're booked into a hostel and taking an Uber or whether you're booked into a 5-star boutique hotel and rented a Maserati to tour in ...
    – brhans
    Commented Nov 20, 2023 at 13:34
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    This is the reason you the traveler have the option to purchase travel insurance to cover these unfortunate events. You know what your potential lost expenses might be, and the insurance you purchase would be priced according to the amount and the risk of a payout.
    – brhans
    Commented Nov 20, 2023 at 13:37
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    @brhans I don't think the weasel language in travel insurance policies is any better that that of the airlines. Most travel insurance have A LOT of exclusions, so you better read very carefully what exactly is covered.
    – Hilmar
    Commented Nov 20, 2023 at 13:58
  • @Hilmar exactly, the insurance said they only cover after 15 hours of delay, mine was 9 hours so no luck
    – ForeverSJC
    Commented Nov 21, 2023 at 14:14
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The airline should provide you few basic things: drink and food and ev. accommodation (depending on the duration of the delay and your conditions), but also an item most people ignore: necessary phone calls. People ignore this part, often because they preferred free wifi).

The 'no show" on hotel is your fault. You should call them (and also car rental) when you know about the delay, and so they will keep your room. It is a very important step to do (and you are not the only one who forget about it). Notify any person who may expect you about the delay. (or on past day: just the travel agency, they cared about the rest, and to give you the new plan).

EU compensation, and airlines terms and conditions, explicitly tell you that additional expenses are not covered. It was (and still) considered normal travel accidents. The compensation is a way to force airlines to put more care on passengers (and not just financial records). You notice it because you do not get compensation in case of strikes or exceptional events (which annoy us the same way): it is not about compensating you, but about punishing airlines (where measures and risk management can be done).

If your vacations were not very cheap, it is recommended to have some sort of travel insurance. Also consider that status of your wife.

The only way (in my opinion) to get a better deal: you should demonstrate that there were a quickest alternative but they decided not to transfer you to an other airline (which it is required). But it is not easy. Just being an early flight is not enough: it should have empty seats.

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    The no-show fee is not necessarily the traveller’s fault – some hotels charge it even if you let them know ahead of time. Similarly, the extra fee for picking up the rental after hours is often to cover the rental company’s extra costs for keeping staff on after normal closing hours and will be charged whether or not you inform them ahead of time. Also, you should ALWAYS have travel insurance, regardless of how much you’ve paid for your vacation. Not having travel insurance has permanently ruined many lives.
    – Janus Bahs Jacquet
    Commented Nov 21, 2023 at 12:15
  • How is the no show and the car rental fee company my fault ? They didn't had anyone available to hand me a car, I did call them in advance and they offered this "service" to store the car in a parking lot for a fee, so I sent them all my documents via email and they parked the car off-site... How is this my fault ? We did had travel insurance but it's only for health costs
    – ForeverSJC
    Commented Nov 21, 2023 at 14:05
  • @ForeverSJC it isn't your fault, but the airline didn't sign up for unlimited liability either. Someone has to pay and the agreement is the airline covers 250 of it and (sadly) you cover the rest
    – Richard Tingle
    Commented Nov 21, 2023 at 22:24
  • @JanusBahsJacquet We all know travel insurances promote "We refund in case of delay", then the extra small lines say "if delay is > 15 hours". OP's flight has 9 hours delay, he has no compensation. I've NEVER had any travel insurance and never paid for these out-of-priced and useless insurances. The rare times I had problems, I paid for that, but on the long term, that covers the price of these insurances (which, once again, are often (not always) useless)
    – AlexB
    Commented Nov 22, 2023 at 10:09
  • @AlexB: it depends on the prices and where you travel. To travel in many countries, you need some sort of travel insurances (required > useless). Also it gives you a single point of contact in your language. Contrary to car hire insurances (which are useless and very expensive), travel insurances usually are very cheap, especially if you can do just as add-on on your main insurances. It may not work for you, but you will get many horror stories.
    – Giacomo Catenazzi
    Commented Nov 22, 2023 at 10:22
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There are several aspects in EC261 when it comes to delays:

  • The duty of care means that, in some circumstances, among other things they need to pay for some of your expenses (hotel room, meals, transfers to and from the hotel) between the scheduled departure time and you arriving at your destination airport. They should also pay for costs incurred when they get you to a different destination. But once you get to your intended destination, the duty of care stops.

  • Compensation for your delay is a lump sump that should cover the inconvenience and extra expenses you may incur due to the delay. Sometimes it is quite in your favour (if you were just delayed and did not incur any extra costs), in other cases not.

Note however, that there are other avenues:

  • You could claim under the Montreal Convention (provided this was an international flight).
  • You could use your travel insurance.
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  • I did call the travel insurance and they say its only after 15 hours of delay, mine was "just" 9 hours
    – ForeverSJC
    Commented Nov 21, 2023 at 14:13
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    @ForeverSJC It is in those cases that one ends up reading the fine print to discover all those neat little conditions. Just to clarify: this is specific to your own policy. Others may have a shorter or longer threshold.
    – jcaron
    Commented Nov 21, 2023 at 15:21

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