Warrington vs Catalans away

Quote: Thelonius "All those happy to have booked and paid with Ryanair - a word of caution.

We booked a two week break with Ryanair about this time last year flying into Girona on a Tuesday, staying in Tossa for two weeks and flying back again the Tuesday two weeks later. We were then using Catalan Sports Tours to transfer upto Perpignan for the day.

Several weeks later I received an email from Ryanair advising me that the return flight would no longer be on the Tuesday and, unless I wished to cancel the flights for a full refund, it had been moved to Wednesday. Reluctantly accepted the change and paid an extra £120 to the hotel for the extra night.

Several more weeks went by and I received another email from Ryanair, this time advising me that my outbound flight had been moved from the Tuesday to the Monday, again I had the option to accept it or cancel the flights for a full refund. I contacted the hotel and for an extra night the cost had gone up to £360 so we decided that as there were no guarantees that Ryanair wouldn't dump on us again we decided to cancel for a refund and rebook with Easyjet into Barca.

The full refund was also a joke. When we booked it was cheaper to pay in Euros than Sterling, so I used my prepaid Euro mastercard to pay. When I received my refund this Euro payment had been transfered into Sterling at the rate at the time of booking, then transfered back to Euro at the rate at the time of cancellation meaning I lost another £50.

Taking into account the extra night in the hotel, lost money from airport parking and transfers, more expensive flight into Barca and more expensive transfer to Tossa as well as the lost money from the 'full refund' we estimate that Ryanair changing flights cost us an extra £500 for a family of four (not including the extra spending money needed for the extra day).

If you're booked with Ryanair, don't count your chickens just yet!'"

That could possibly happen with any other airline booking this far in advance