Heavily delayed flights can be an absolute nightmare when it comes to trying to relax ahead of your holiday. And sadly for myself, it's something I've encountered twice this year.
While privileged enough to have gone abroad a few times in 2024, a trip to Spain for my dad's 60th in June saw our party and thousands of other travellers delayed across two terminals due to a major technical issue at Manchester Airport.
With our flight being one of the first of the day, we were among the very few lucky ones to actually leave the airport - albeit without any of our bags, which turned up three days later.
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Last weekend gave us a similar experience, this time heading back from southern France after a few weeks overseas.
Arriving at Béziers Cap d'Agde Airport after a lovely fortnight in the country, everything was going smoothly ahead of departure to travel home. That was until we were about to step foot on board the flight.
Just metres from the Ryanair plane taking us back to north west England, we were all ushered back inside our departure lounge.
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'There's a technical issue with the plane, it's going to be at least two hours,' we were told by staff. We were later told an engineer was being flown out from Italy to Beziers on a private jet to examine the potential issue. That two-hour window seemed pretty ambitious.
After realising we were going to be there for a good while, it was time to use the day job to my advantage.
Journalists across the country write about Martin Lewis on a daily basis. I can't remember the last week where I didn't see his name crop up in the agenda, with myself often reporting on the latest advice he and his Money Saving Expert (MSE) team have put together. In writing about it you learn from it, often without even realising.
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It's seen Lewis become a bit of a financial beacon across the UK, especially in a time where the cost of living has hit so many people so hard. Every penny counts.
So, sat on the departure lounge floor with my three -year-old - thank God for Disney+ and Wi-Fi - we Googled four sacred words: Martin Lewis flight compensation.
The top result took us straight to the MSE website on this issue, which explains how you qualify for compensation after a delay as well as how much you might be entitled to.
Those flying from the UK and EU have some of the strongest compensation rights in the world when it comes to delays. The likes of bad weather wont see you claim anything, as its not the airline's fault. But an issue with the plane? Yep, we were pretty confident this would fall under the remit of a successful claim.
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Going by the advice on MSE, and with the flight less than 1,500km as the crow flies, my wife, son, and I were looking at a potential pot of £660 compensation if the delay was more than three hours.
The critical thing here is that the delay has to be three hours after the estimated arrival time. If your plane takes off three hours and 10 minutes late but makes up time in the air to land less than three hours delayed, you're not going to be able to claim successfully.
After a few hours of delays, Ryanair gave us €4 per person for refreshments. Given water was €3.10 and sandwiches cost more than €6 each, it didn't really cover anything of real sustenance per person. But it was something, and I always think it's about seeing the positives in such a situation. Why get yourself more wound up?
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Anyway, a few more boring hours followed and a total delay of more than four hours. Then, finally, we were told the plane was ready to fly.
Now for the important bit, compensation.
Ryanair were really proactive, emailing us after two hours of delays to inform us of our rights in line with EU law and apologising for the unexpected delay to our flight. This included a summary of what we might be able to claim, too, just like there is on the MSE website. Physical copies of these were also handed out, no doubt influenced by the dwindling phone batteries and zero plug sockets available in the departure lounge.
After getting home a lot later than we had estimated, we lodged our claim the next day. Within 48 hours, Ryanair got back in touch with us to confirm our compensation claim had been successful and would land in our bank within 21 days. Given Ryanair is based in Dublin and therefore uses the Euro, a total of £629.33 had been authorised, which converts to €750.
Fair play, really. Was it uncomfortable and frustrating? Yes. But I can only commend Ryanair, with their proactive approach to compensation rights commendable whether that be a legal requirement or not.
And while we were never told exactly what the technical issue was, I think we'd all rather be delayed due to experts checking a potential issue with a plane than doing the opposite instead.
Our claim was processed in a more than reasonable time, showing that if you do qualify for compensation due to delays, it really can be quite a simple process following advice from the likes of Martin Lewis and even airlines themselves.
Topics: Ryanair, Martin Lewis, Travel, Holiday, Money, Originals
Tom Earnshaw