Anyone had this happen???

[beatfreak]

So.....I'm on my puter, booking tickets with Ryanair. I go through the whole process and finally click the final purchase button....up comes the screen that says give us patience (I think up to 45seconds)...so I wait. Not sure how long, but eventually instead of recieving a confirmation page I get one that says our database is too busy or we may be having some other problems. It recommends trying back later, or starting the search over again. I tried starting over but just recieved the same "too busy" page. No big deal, I just take care of some other stuff for a bit. So I eventually go back, do the search, find the same flight, same price, etc.....book it, everything goes fine, get the confirmation page. ..

But just now I have checked my email to see that I was billed seperatly for two tickets on the same flight for the same passenger. I tooled around the website and couldn't find an email address to write, only phone numbers which I'm planning on calling tomorrow (their time, I'm in the Eastern US), although I'm not sure which country to call or even if it'll even be the right department.

I'd like to get rid of the ticket all togeather, but I'm guessing since they seem shady on even contacting them that the likelihood is low....Anyone know if maybe a credit would be offered? Or just info on the correct way to handle this would be appreciated.

Thanks for your reading time! Hope everyone is enjoying life, even in spight of little difficulties like the above! Take Care

Steve

[madamtrashheap]

Ah, bless Ryanair!

It happened to me years ago, so do what you're going to do and call them with the two reference numbers, explain what happened and it should be fine (a refund on the extra ticket). Just don't take no for an answer and also keep in mind that it's the middle of the night in the UK so they often update their website then and this may have caused the issue with "busy page" coming up (like banks that reconcile around 2am and your ATM card appears to not work then). It's not that they are shady about being contacted (believe me, I'm not defending them at all!), it's that they keep their overhead costs down by having less staff on the phone and more on the website to process things. If you've found the numbers, I'm guessing they'll be Ireland based ones (if they start with +353 then it's Ireland, +44 is the UK), just dial whatever international access code you need to get an international line from your country. i.e from the US you'd dial 011 then country code (eg 353) then rest of number without the first 0 if there is one.

Good luck!

[me]

one nice thing about paying by credit card is that you aren't stuck with the bill in such occasions.

if ryanair isn't cooperative with fixing the problem, talk to the bank which issued your credit card. they certainly have more leverage with ryanair than you.

or, did you use a debit card?

EDIT: if you haven't called yet, FYI there are dial arounds that can save money on an overseas call. the one i often use is 101 6868 (i dial those numbers before 011). that way, a call from Dallas to UK is just 7.9¢ / min.

- d

[pointofnoreturn]

You'll have a better chance of getting a refund if you used a credit card rather than a debit card. Keep calling them till they issue you a refund.

P.S. Buy a $5 calling card to save costs on overseas fees. I always use a Bell $5 prepaid calling card (got a $5 bonus by signing up on their online site for a total of $10) to make my international calls.

[me]

pointofnoreturn said:

You'll have a better chance of getting a refund if you used a credit card rather than a debit card. Keep calling them till they issue you a refund.

yeah. with a debit card, i suspect you're sol.

[beatfreak]

I finally got on the phone with Ryanair directly in Ireland....they were immediatly helpful and understanding. Without question they took care of the problem!

[madamtrashheap]

Great news beatfreak - glad they were helpful and you got it sorted. There's hope for Ryanair afterall!!! ;D

[WillTravel]

I'm amazed - it's so rare to hear happy stories about Ryanair (but then I guess people usually don't say much if everything goes fine). I'm glad it worked out.