Can Ryanair charge me additional £250?

By THIS IS MONEY
Updated: 09:09 EST, 7 December 2010

I purchased a Ryanair return flight ticket on my credit card for a friend to travel from Spain to London.

Ryanair woe: Are they entitled to use my credit card and charge £250?

It turned out that my friend did not have the proper passport/visa to enter the UK so she was held at immigration and then sent back to Spain with Ryanair.

I was shocked to discover on my Mastercard statement that Ryanair charged an additional £250 on top of the £150 I paid for the original return ticket.

Is Ryanair entitled to charge my credit card just because this card was used to make the original ticket purchase? Pete, Bow.

Pritie Billimoria of the Office of Fair Trading, replies: This would depend on the terms and conditions of the sale of the ticket.

If the terms and conditions state that it is each passenger's personal responsibility to ensure they have valid travel documentation and that any fines, penalties or expenditures incurred as a result of a passenger not carrying valid travel documents will be chargeable.

In this case the reader has contracted with Ryanair for a third party to fly.

The third party didn't comply with travel documentation requirements so was denied entry to UK, which terms and conditions state is non-refundable.

They also state expenditure is chargeable – expenditure here is the cost of the return flight.

The reader could potentially try to claim that the charge for the return flight is unreasonable in relation to the cost of the original flight.

This claim could be made in writing, with proof of posting and giving a deadline for response.