'Ryanair didn't let us fly for something we didn't do - our holiday was ruined'

29 July 2023 , 09:36

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Louise, 19, and friends were refused boarding on their flight home. (Image: Louise Mckernan)

A group of friends say their holiday to Magaluf was ruined after they were rejected at the boarding and ordered to pay €100 (£85) to get back to the UK.

Louise McKernan and her friends had just spent a week in Magaluf. The group of four arrived at Palma de Mallorca Airport on Sunday, July 16, scanned their boarding passes at security, and headed to the gate.

When they reached the gate, they claims that staff said they had checked themselves out of their flight and therefore wouldn’t be allowed to board - something the friends denied was possible. Louise claims the reason they were rejected was due to overbooking by Ryanair, which the budget airline denies.

(Louise Mckernan)

Three of them stayed in Magaluf for two extra nights after being refused boarding. (Louise Mckernan)

Speaking to the Manchester Evening News., Louise said the friend who booked all the flights “didn’t touch the app whatsoever” between security and the gate. “If we had checked out and our boarding passes were invalid, how did we get through security?” she said.

Ryanair argued the party was “correctly refused boarding”. However, this was not the end of their woes - upon reaching the customer support desk, they were ordered to pay a €100 (£85) missed flight fee to board one later that evening.

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One member of the group, who was sick at the time, took the flight and paid a fee which Louise claims was upped to €180 (£154) without warning. A spokesman for Ryanair said the passengers were offered a missed departure fee of €100 (£85) which they declined. “The customer service woman switched off her microphone behind the glass and threatened to call the police on us,” Louise claimed.

Louise described the nightmare situation (Louise Mckernan)

Louise with her friends (Louise Mckernan)

“She was laughing and I turned around and said ‘You’re just being nasty, you’re just being unhelpful’. Our parents had to send us the money to allow us to stay there for the extra two days.” Ryanair denied that a staff member laughed at the party, turned their microphone off and threatened to call the police.

“It did ruin the holiday because obviously we were there for a week and we stayed in Magaluf and we were constantly going out,” Louise said “At the airport, you expect to go home, so when someone turns around to you at the last second and says you’re not going home, what do we do now? Louise has written a complaint and hopes to receive compensation for her missed flight, new flight and hotel costs.

A spokesperson for Ryanair told Manchester Evening News: “These passengers were correctly refused boarding from this Mallorca to Manchester flight (16 July) as they did not present valid boarding passes at the boarding gate. These passengers un-checked themselves for this flight online on 15 July and failed to check themselves back in and generate new boarding passes for this flight the next day. Customers can check-in online, free of charge, up to 2 hours before their scheduled departure time or can pay a late check-in fee at the airport – neither of which these passengers did.”

The Mirror contacted Ryanair for comment.

Paige Oldfield