Aer Lingus Claim

TechMe

Fact: If your passport is stolen while on holiday in England you are allowed to fly back to Ireland on your return flight with Aerlingus with just a letter from the UK police - a photo ID is not required.

Scenario: before going to the airport you are incorrectly informed by an Aerlingus representative over the phone that photo ID is required and as a result you don't attempt to board your flight and go to a hotel instead.

Query: In the event you subsequently learn that you could've boarded your flight should you be entitled to claim for the cost of hotel and food expenses and the change of fare fee charged by Aerlingus?

If this is rejected by Aerlingus are there any other options?

ytpe2r5bxkn0c1

Any proof Aer Lingus told you that????

TheDriver

I thought every airline could have their own rules regarding IDs?

TechMe

Alison Poor Ugliness wrote: »

Any proof Aer Lingus told you that????

Don't have any proof other than the fact that we called them on 2 occasions. They probably have recordings of the phonecalls. The supervisor who eventually admitted we did not need the photo ID was unsure himself until he discussed it with his team. He then said we were advised incorrectly and could've made our original flight...

TechMe

TheDriver wrote: »

I thought every airline could have their own rules regarding IDs?

I think every airline can make their own rules regarding ID. The problem we have is that we phoned ahead to ask what their rules are only to be given incorrect information which led to us spending an additional 24hrs in the UK and paying a change of flight fee. By their own rules we should have been allowed on our original flight with a police letter and no photo ID...

axer

TechMe wrote: »

Fact: If your passport is stolen while on holiday in England you are allowed to fly back to Ireland on your return flight with Aerlingus with just a letter from the UK police - a photo ID is not required.

Scenario: before going to the airport you are incorrectly informed by an Aerlingus representative over the phone that photo ID is required and as a result you don't attempt to board your flight and go to a hotel instead.

Query: In the event you subsequently learn that you could've boarded your flight should you be entitled to claim for the cost of hotel and food expenses and the change of fare fee charged by Aerlingus?

If this is rejected by Aerlingus are there any other options?

It doesn't matter what passport control etc accept, it is what the airline accepts. For example, you can fly to and from the UK and enter legally using just a driving license (and many other forms of ID) but yet Ryanair require a passport from Irish citizens as they do not recognise any other forms of ID from here.

This is from the Aerlingus website where you can see the agent was correct in what he/she told you with regards what was necessary to board one of their flights:

Travel between Ireland and the UK or UK Domestic travel

• Citizens of Ireland and the UK must carry some form of official photo identification. The following forms of photo identification are acceptable:
  • Valid Passport
  • Drivers licence with photo
  • International student card
  • National ID card / Government issued photo ID cards
  • Health Insurance cards with photo / Social security cards with photo
  • Bus pass with photo
  • Work ID with photo
• Citizens of Ireland and the UK under the age of 16, do not need a photo ID, if travelling with their parent/guardian.
• Citizens of countries other than Ireland and the UK must produce a valid passport and visa where applicable, for travel between Ireland and the United Kingdom.

Ryanair have:

THE ONLY FORMS OF TRAVEL DOCUMENTS ACCEPTED ON RYANAIR FLIGHTS ARE:

• A valid passport – (see below - */and ** below)
• A valid National Identity Card issued by the government of a European Economic Area (EEA) country. (Only the following EEA countries currentlyissue National Identity Cards acceptable for carriage on Ryanair flights: Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Finland, France, Germany, Gibraltar, Greece, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Italy, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Malta, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland)
• A valid German Government issued ‘Kinderausweis’ travel document
• A valid Italian ‘Certificato Di Nascita’ (for use by children under 16 years) which has been endorsed as ‘VALIDO PER L'ESPATRIO’ for travel on international flights, no endorsement is required when travelling on Italian domestic flights.. It is the passenger's personal responsibility to ensure that this document meets the requirements of immigration and other governmental authorities at the destination airport - see ** below.
• A valid Italian AT/BT card (for Italian domestic flights only).
• A valid UN Refugee Convention Travel Document – (issued in accordance with Article 28(1) of the 1951 UN Convention, by a Government in place of a valid passport.)
• A valid Convention Travel Document – (issued in accordance with Article 27 of the 1954 UN Convention for Stateless Persons, by a contracting state in place of a valid passport)
• A valid Collective Passport issued by an EU/EEA country

Ryanair does NOT accept driver licences, electoral/residence cards, family books, seaman books, a police report (issued in the event of travel document loss/theft), military ID cards etc. Expired or damaged forms of photo-id will not be accepted on any flight. Expired or damaged forms of photo-id will not be accepted on any flight.

I will accept your apology on behalf of Aerlingus.

TechMe

axer wrote: »

I will accept your apology on behalf of Aerlingus.

Unfortunately the rules change when you lose your passport while abroad and have booked a return flight with Aerlingus. Under these circumstances Aerlingus allow you to fly home with a police letter only - WITHOUT A PHOTO ID.

I'm not asking if I can fly with an ID or not - I'm asking if I can claim expenses back from Aerlingus after they gave us incorrect information by phone on the day of our flight leading us to miss our flight, then gave us the correct information by phone the following day. We flew home with Aerlingus with NO PHOTO ID but had incurred 24 hrs food and hotel expenses and a change of flight fee.

If we had been given the correct info in the first place (by the aerlingus rep) we could have flown on our original flight with NO PHOTO ID and just a letter from the UK police confirming that the passport had been stolen - just like we did the following day. So the Aerlingus rep made a mistake that led to us incurring expense...

If we can't claim off Aerlingus are there any other options?

axer

TechMe wrote: »

Unfortunately the rules change when you lose your passport while abroad and have booked a return flight with Aerlingus. Under these circumstances Aerlingus allow you to fly home with a police letter only - WITHOUT A PHOTO ID.

I'm not asking if I can fly with an ID or not - I'm asking if I can claim expenses back from Aerlingus after they gave us incorrect information by phone on the day of our flight leading us to miss our flight, then gave us the correct information by phone the following day. We flew home with Aerlingus with NO PHOTO ID but had incurred 24 hrs food and hotel expenses and a change of flight fee.

If we can't claim off Aerlingus are there any other options?

I am very surprised that they allow this since there are procedures already if someone loses their passport while abroad i.e. you are supposed to contact the Irish Embassy and get a temporary passport issued (€15 cost I believe) since there is no way for the airline to verify that the person is who they say they are.

Did you have to show any photo ID at all? Was there any trouble when you got to the gate for boarding?

It is possible that Aerlingus were just being flexible for you here so might be a good idea to check that out first to make sure it is a definitive otherwise you will end up suing an airline for being flexible. Their policy is pretty clear on their website anyway.

If it actually is their policy that you should have been allowed to board (i'm very skeptical that it is considering they have absolutely no way of verifying who you are) then the only thing you can really do is send a letter to aerlingus laying out your experience. How else will you prove anything?

TechMe

axer wrote: »

I am very surprised that they allow this since there are procedures already if someone loses their passport while abroad i.e. you are supposed to contact the Irish Embassy and get a temporary passport issued (€15 cost I believe) since there is no way for the airline to verify that the person is who they say they are.

Did you have to show any photo ID at all? Was there any trouble when you got to the gate for boarding?

It is possible that Aerlingus were just being flexible for you here so might be a good idea to check that out first to make sure it is a definitive otherwise you will end up suing an airline for being flexible. Their policy is pretty clear on their website anyway.

If it actually is their policy that you should have been allowed to board (i'm very skeptical that it is considering they have absolutely no way of verifying who you are) then the only thing you can really do is send a letter to aerlingus laying out your experience. How else will you prove anything?

Thanks Axer,

The aerlingus supervisor, who we spoke to the morning after our original flight, said that if we had a letter from the UK police stating that the passport was stolen we would be allowed to fly with no ID. So we went to the local police station and they gave us the letter - the police were very helpful and didn't require photo ID! As soon as we showed the letter to the Aerlingus check in staff that afternoon they immediately checked us in. Same thing at the gate. Same thing at passport security back in Dublin airport. So if we'd only known this before our initial flight then we could have got then letter in time flown home as planned. That's our issue - two aerlingus reps gave us incorrect information that led to us missing the flight and also tried to charge us €280 for another flight.

As you say however we don't have any hard evidence. Just feel a bit hard done by as it turned out to be a costly mistake and made an already unpleasant experience even worse... We've written to Aerlingus but don't have much hope

daheff

send in a registered letter detailing your complaint & copies of bills paid


they'll prob say no..but if you push them then you might get something


dont hold your breath though

Spidermany

I would have thought that IF you were entitled to anything it would only be for the passenger who's passport was stolen. Were more than one taken?

jor el

TechMe wrote: »

I'm not asking if I can fly with an ID or not - I'm asking if I can claim expenses back from Aerlingus after they gave us incorrect information by phone on the day of our flight leading us to miss our flight,

The Avation Regulator should be able to give a solid answer to this one. http://www.aviationreg.ie/
Unless anyone here has been in this exact situation, and successfully claimed, then any answer is likely to be speculative, as has been the case so far.

If you can claim, then I would imagine it will be like Spidermany says, and only the one that lost the passport will be covered. Anyone else that voluntarily stayed behind, when they could have travelled, would probably not be entitled to any recompense.