Ryanair proves clueless about terms of its own Flexi Plus flight offer

theguardian.com:

I live off the state pension, so money is always tight. For my 70th birthday, a friend held a secret fundraiser for a “trip of a lifetime” to a French music festival that I’d always wanted to attend. Between them, my friends covered flights, accommodation and festival tickets. The only flights available from Manchester are with Ryanair and its website said there were only four tickets left for the provisional festival dates in September. I therefore decided to book return flights for £120 and paid an extra £146 for the Flexi Plus service, which would allow me to amend the booking if the festival dates changed. When they did change, I tried to put my flights back by a week, but was told I’d have to pay an extra £240 to do this.

A customer service rep told me that the freedom to change flights only applied if I was rebooking for the same day. My only recourse was to borrow £130 to make a new booking from scratch. I’m heartbroken and too ashamed to tell my kind friends I’ve lost £266 of their donations on the original tickets. PS, Todmorden

Yours is a confusing and concerning predicament, not least because Ryanair appears clueless as to what its overpriced Flexi Plus option actually offers. The fee for this service was 22% more than your fare. For that you get priority boarding, a reserved seat, two cabin bags and fast-tracking through airport security, as well as the option to amend the booking without a flight-change fee. Since a flight change fee is £45 each way, and a small cabin bag is carried free, you paid a needlessly high price for your peace of mind.

Flexi Plus terms and conditions on Ryanair’s website are unambiguous. If you amend your booking to a departure more than a day before, or after, your original date,