London - We’ve all grumbled about extra charges on budget flights – for everything from choosing your seat to printing off boarding passes.
But when Lucas Marshall was landed with a £320 (about R7 000) bill by Ryanair for checking his family in, he decided to take a stand.
The father of four took the airline to court and, when Ryanair did not pay up, he sent bailiffs to its HQ.
Now he is celebrating his victory over the multimillion pound firm – and plans to display his £610 compensation cheque on the wall at home.
Mr Marshall, 34, had been travelling back from the Canary Islands with wife Michelle, 42, and children Lewis, four, Ellenor, seven, Lucy, 13, and Carly, 16, when he was unable to print boarding passes because of a problem with his booking reference.
With minutes to spare, he paid the fee for the boarding passes and checking in so his family did not miss the journey home.
To add insult to injury, his children were dotted around the aircraft on the flight and Ellenor, then six, had to sit next to strangers.
Mr Marshall, who owns a landscape gardening firm, said: “I don’t like getting walked over. The point is some people will get back and say, ‘I’ll leave it, I won’t bother.’
“But I thought that’s ridiculous. They take £300 off you for a piece of paper when really everything is already paid for.
“To me it was about the principle. I hated the fact that they forced me. I was at the end of the holiday and I was worried, I thought, ‘I haven’t got this money to spend.’
“You’ve got ten minutes to cough up the money. I said, ‘I haven’t got the money.’ They said, ‘You can use your credit card.’ It’s a case of them bullying you to get the money.”
When the family returned from the holiday to Fuerteventura in February last year, Mr Marshall, of Chapel-en-le-Frith, Derbyshire, sent letters to Ryanair’s English office and the firm’s HQ in Ireland – urging the airline to do “the sensible thing” and refund the money.
He had been charged £320 in euros for the costs of checking in at the airport and reissuing boarding passes, as well as an administration fee. When the airline did not respond to his complaints, he took his case to court.
Ryanair failed to reply to the court notice so the case was automatically found in Mr Marshall’s favour and bailiffs were sent to the headquarters in Stansted, Essex, to reclaim the money.
In December he received a £610 cheque – but he has still not had any apology from the airline.
Mr Marshall said: “They didn’t file an acknowledgement or anything – they just kept ignoring me all the way through. When I got the cheque I was absolutely over the moon and not for the money.
“It wasn’t about the money it was about the principle – it was, ‘You’re not walking over me.’ You can’t picture the bailiffs going in – I would have loved to have been there.”
Ryanair declined to comment.
Daily Mail