It’s a bit off topic from what I normally post about, but it’s it can be useful for everyone, freelancers or not.
I had a 6 hours delay on a Ryanair flight and instead of accepting the Ryanair flight refund (only the cost of the delayed ticket), I looked to get the 250 compensation using one of the “top” websites in google.
Well, I learn from my experience. I used the one called “flightreclaim”.
Flight reclaim review
So I put a claim through flightreclaim.co.uk
Then after an automatic email, no answer for a while until I got a phone call where they stated the 25% for their service and took all my details, making sure everything I already filled online was correct.
Then the claim started. It took about a month in total for me to get a refund from the airline company.
I was more focused on the 25% for them to send emails. I missed the admin fee plus VAT until I received the invoice from them…
However, they mention it on their website:
“There is absolutely no risk to yourself, it is 100% no-win, no-fee. If your case is unsuccessful, there is nothing to pay. However, if we are able to enforce your rights successfully, we then take our fixed commission of 25% (plus £25 admin fee) plus VAT. Find out more about what our clients say.“
Here are the details of my case:
Flight reclaim invoice
Payment Received in Euros
Total Payment Received – 250€
Success Fee @ 25% – 62.50€
Sterling Conversion
Success Fee in Sterling @ £0.89 > €1 – £55.63
Admin Fee – £25
Total Amount £80.63
VAT @ 20% – £16.13
Total £96.75
Ryanair refund received (in pound sterling)
£221.83 is the refund I received from Ryanair.
So it’s a bit far from the 25% I had in my mind, but it’s my own fault as the fees are indicated on the website. My bad.
This said the service was not super fluid either. You have to forward every email you received from the airline company. I had an email ping-pong email about the information I already sent (one or 2 days between each email, instant answer on my side). A few typos in their email too (template email?)
Discussion extracts:
“I am afraid that without an appropriate identification of your order we cannot asses your claim/complaint. I would like to request you to update your claim with (at least) your reservation number/e-mail address/name of the passenger and the date of the flight. “- Ryanair
“Thank you for taking the time to forward over this email from Ryanair and it has now been added to your file.
I will return to Ryanair and provide them with the specific information that they require, please do keep an eye on your emails for any other correspondence and if you do happen to receive anything, please do be sure to forward ot over to myself so I can keep your claim up to date.” – Flight Reclaim
“Thank you for forwarding us the details request in our previous correspondence, accordingly we wish to confirm that our Account Department will transfer the amount of 221.83 GBP (equivalent of 250 EUR per passenger) in full statement of your claim.” – Ryanair
“We are pleased that we have enforced your right to compensation and the airline are willing to process €250 in compensation.
As the airline have requested your account details, I would advise to reply to the below email providing the following:” – Flight Reclaim
“I gave you all of this…” – me
“Ryanair have requested for your bank details, please can you kindly forward over the following bank details to complainttracker@ryanair.com so Ryanair can process this payment as soon as possible:” – Flight Reclaim
Which I replied
“I already send you those details 8 days ago. See below. I let you take care of it with complainttracker@ryanair.com that’s why you are taking a fee on the process.” – me
But I still had to do it myself in the end…
Conclusion about Flight reclaim
I don’t really recommend the service. Bit overpriced and I don’t feel like it saved me that much time.
General morale, always read the fee section and do the math to know if you are really happy with it before to proceed.
Instead, I recommend Resolver
https://www.resolver.co.uk/
It’s free (no fee), does the same job
Raise it for free via Resolver
– Explains your rights to you
– Helps you prepare your emails
– Creates a case file for you.
No one to get on the phone. It’s just automatic emails and it does the job (I used them with another flight delay with TAP). It took longer to get the compensation (maybe linked to the airline company) but I keep the full amount of the refund, no middleman taking a (big) cut.