The holidays will not even have had time to start for little Jacob. This 4-year-old Briton had to travel to Alicante to see his grandmother in Spain. A journey he had to make by plane, via a Ryanir flight from Liverpool. But his parents, unable to free themselves, had still decided to let their son go on vacation with his uncle, aunt and cousin.
Jacob being a minor, his reservation had to be linked to that of his uncle (who already had his tickets, editor’s note). “These were separate bookings. So my brother paid £400 (around 476 euros) for Jacob’s tickets and then called Ryanair to link his booking to ours,” Jacob’s uncle Ben told the Mirror. A step that they will never have succeeded in doing despite the various instructions from the airline.
“We were told we had to verify it via a website, which we did. We received no further instructions. It did not work. We tried to call for help but nothing,” he adds. Discouraged in the face of failure, the families decide that they will make liaison reservations at the airport on the day of departure.
no staff
Except that once they arrived at the airport, vacationers had a very bad surprise. “The woman at reception told us that there were no Ryanair staff at the airport, which we couldn’t believe. There were back and forths! But in the end, we had to make up our minds to ask my brother to turn around and come get Jacob. “says Ben.
In tears, the 4-year-old boy therefore had to say goodbye to his cousin, his uncle, his aunt and his vacation dreams. He then left the airport and returned home. “It was terrible, the kids are the same age and were so excited, holding hands at the airport and laughing and saying they can’t wait to see their grandma…”
Contacted by the British media, a spokesperson for Ryanair explained that Jacob’s case was a terrible mistake. “As it is not possible to add a child under the age of 16 to an existing flight booking, this child had to make a separate new booking which had to be ‘linked’ to the booking of the supervising adult before the travel. However, the handling agent at Liverpool Airport failed to link this passenger’s booking and wrongly refused him travel from Liverpool to Alicante on July 28. »
Liverpool Airport therefore agreed to compensate Jacob’s family.