Ryanair APD Refund

[Aston100]

Hello.
I see Ryanair offer to refund APD but with an admin charge of £17
I’m disinclined to travel to Morocco. I am not sure what the amount of APD is, but I think it might be £13

So firstly, can anyone confirm it is indeed £13 for a band A destination in economy (i.e. your basic Ryanair seat).
Secondly, given the £17 admin charge, Ryanair would never provide any APD refunds to anyone? i.e. they’ve deliberately set themselves up in such a way that they aren’t liable to give anyone any money back for APD?

Tickets were cheap, so not overly bothered, but just trying to understand the principle here.

Thanks.

[ChrisC]

It is indeed £13.

Aren’t they supposed to refund airport fees as well?

[Aston100]

ChrisC wrote:

It is indeed £13.

Aren’t they supposed to refund airport fees as well?

Thanks Chris.
I found this article that only mentions government taxes, and the £17 charge to administer those: https://help.ryanair.com/hc/en-gb/articles/360017824978-Refund-Policy

I’m wondering in what kind of scenario would Ryanair be handing over any kind of refund for a cancellation that was driven by customer disinclination to travel. It sounds like there isn’t one and their admin fee would always be larger than any fees and/or taxes refund. Is that even allowed?

• This reply was modified 54 years, 4 months ago by .

[Tom2]

You can claim for all passengers within the booking with one admin fee.

• This reply was modified 54 years, 4 months ago by .

[Rui N.]

Aston100 wrote:

I’m wondering in what kind of scenario would Ryanair be handing over any kind of refund for a cancellation that was driven by customer disinclination to travel. It sounds like there isn’t one and their admin fee would always be larger than any fees and/or taxes refund. Is that even allowed?

Ryanair, like other airlines, has to refund all the money that was not for them (government taxes, airport levies, etc.) if the passenger does not travel and requests it. They are allowed to charge a processing fee.
(Of course, if they cancel the flight, they have to offer the option of a full refund, without any processing fees.)

That said, if you request such a refund from Ryanair, you’ll get the following response (quote from an actual email from them):

“In accordance with Article 4.2 of our General Terms and Conditions of Carriage, we refund only the government taxes that may be included in the ticket price and, thus, passed on to our passengers. Our prices do not include any other third-party fees and charges for costs we incur to provide our services (such as airport and security charges, maintenance fees etc.). We bear the costs for these services. All other monies paid are non-refundable.

As clearly indicated in the price break-down at the time you made your booking, the price for your flight does not include any government taxes, as we have absorbed the costs of these taxes in this instance.”

That is, they claim that your flight did not pay any taxes, all money paid is the fare. If there were any taxes or fees, Ryanair was so kind to handle that for you.
I think this is a BS response that would not survive a court case. I was too lazy to do so (not a lot of money it was), but someone should take them to court for this stuff, because I doubt this is lawful and it is a very curious interpretation of article 23 of regulation 1008/2008 – this states that airlines have to present the price inclusive of all taxes and fees and these have to be discriminated if “[they] have been added to the air fare or air rate”, and Ryanair simply shows the total price without any breakdown claiming that it’s all fare and they pay the taxes for you…

[Aston100]

Thanks, that is interesting.

[Aston100]

Been trying to get an answer out of them for 2 days through twitter. I gave up on the website chat bot as it just goes round in circles inanely.
I simply asked them how much APD / taxes I would receive as a refund if I cancel.
I am getting replies such as:
You cannot cancel a flight
We don’t know how much fess amounts
What do you mean APD?
Please see this guide to eu261
You can change your flights to another date
Yes we will charge change fee if you cancel

Honestly, this is one of the most frustrating engagements ever. It is almost as bad as trying to deal with Revolut and their appalling in-app customer service.
What kind of airline employs people who don’t know what APD is, or just randomly roll a pair of dice and look up a response from a table?

[Lady London]

I believe that processing fee is intended to frustrate the return of government taxes required by statute if passenger does not take a flight (for whatever reason,
which includes their own choice or airline cancellation ). Even if that result is not the intent of Ryanair, this is the result of their imposition of a processing charge. And so I believe it’s the same, legally, as if not returning the government taxes was the intent.

I believe this should be challenged in a court of law. I believe Ryanair would lose and be told that conforming with governing statutes is at their own cost and that they are not allowed to frustrate the mandate to return government taxes by introducing handling charges.

Trouble is, with Ryanair legally it’s whack-a-mole. I was once told Ryanair employs many more lawyers than other airlines. Presumably to invent the next set of their dodgy terms and conditions.

[Rui N.]

Lady London wrote:

they are not allowed to frustrate the mandate to return government taxes by introducing handling charges.

Being allowed to have handling charges is set in EU law. I assume it was transposed to UK law as well.

[Lady London]

Should still be challenged though due to its effect.

[Rui N.]

As my post above shows, the handling fee is the least of the problems of FR’s process in handling refunds of taxes and fees.

[Aston100]

As the tickets cost a pittance, I’m not motivated by refund of taxes.
However, I am quite interested to see how Ryanair can justify withholding the refund of said taxes.
Not getting anywhere with the twitter agents who I suspect are deliberately playing dumb.
So I guess we’ll never know.

If I was retired and had nothing better to do, I reckon I’d made a hobby out of this.

• This reply was modified 54 years, 4 months ago by .