Ryanair has banned customers who got their money back from credit card companies after they missed non-refundable flights over COVID-19
- Ryanair said it's banned passengers who claimed refunds for flights they missed because of the pandemic.
- The flights were non-refundable, which the airline said was clearly stated in its terms and conditions.
Ryanair has banned passengers who claimed refunds from their credit card companies for flights that they missed because of COVID-19 lockdowns, the airline said Tuesday.
The crux of the dispute lies with the flights being non-refundable, which a Ryanair spokesperson said is "clearly outlined" in the airline's terms and conditions agreed by the customer at the time of booking, per The Guardian.
The airline said that these passengers "unlawfully processed chargebacks from their credit card company" and that fewer than 850 people are affected by the new measure, according to a Ryanair statement to Insider.
Banned customers who want to fly Ryanair again must first "settle their outstanding debt" before being allowed on board, said the airline.
"This regretted restriction applies to only a tiny fraction of Ryanair's 150 million passengers annually who chose to unlawfully break their booking agreements with us," the airline added.
The announcement was first reported by finance website MoneySavingsExpert, which wrote that some passengers were told they couldn't fly until they returned the costs of their refunded tickets, ranging from $545 to $857.
These passengers told the site they recently bought Ryanair tickets with no issue, but were stopped from flying when they tried to check into their flight or make a change to their bookings.
Guy Anker, MoneySavingExpert's deputy editor, wrote in the article: "This is outrageous from Ryanair. Some may have sympathy for the airline, given it incurred the costs of the original flights that went ahead that passengers chose not to take. However, it's used up any sympathy by the way it's treated holidaymakers afterwards."
Ryanair previously said it wouldn't refund passengers for flights still operating during the pandemic, but would allow them to change their flights to a later date or give them vouchers.
Last week, the UK's Competition and Markets Authority closed its investigation into British Airways and Ryanair over whether they had broken the law by not offering refunds for customers who couldn't fly because of COVID-19 restrictions.
The regulator said the law regarding ticket refunds wasn't clear when it came to such situations, and called for it to be clarified. Andrea Coscelli, the chief executive of the Competition and Markets Authority, said he believed customers who couldn't fly because of the pandemic should be given full refunds.