Couple left baffled after boarding Ryanair flight – and landing in the wrong country 780 miles away
A COUPLE who had booked a Ryanair flight to Denmark were left stunned after they ended up nearly 800 miles away in France just days before Christmas.
Simon Forster and Emma Schofield had planned a yuletide trip to Copenhagen from Manchester but landed in Paris instead.
After gliding through passport control the penny dropped when an immigration officer greeted them with a cheery "bonjour", Manchester Evening News reported.
Simon said: "The shock of landing somewhere near Paris when you're supposed to be going to Copenhagen was ridiculous.
"I would like to understand how on earth this happened."
The couple were already stressed after battling pre-Christmas queues and chaos at Manchester Airport, with hundreds of teary-eyed passengers forced to ditch their festive holiday plans after missing flights.
Simon, a CEO at branding agency Robot Food, fumed that the chaos contributed to them boarding the wrong budget airline carrier.
He said: "The queue for security was absolutely enormous and we were all crammed in like cattle.
"It seemed as though we were going to miss our flight.
"As soon as we got there I said 'we should have just got a train up to Edinburgh instead'."
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"When we got past the shampoo police we got out into the airport and there was a last call for Copenhagen.
"It was already past the departure time so we just legged it to the gate.
"We got there and three Ryanair staff asked if we were there for Copenhagen.
"There was a red plastic link chain directly ahead and to the right, so we turned to the left and to the plane that was there.
"We got on and there were only about six other passengers, which was not surprising because so many people were missing flights.
"I did show the stewardess my boarding pass and she said 'oh, don't worry about it'. I was dripping in sweat.
"Our seat numbers were free so we sat down.
"We landed in less time than we expected and as we walked into the airport I thought I didn't recognise it and I go to Copenhagen quite a lot.
"We were greeted at passport control with 'Bonjour' and it became apparent that we were in France."
Ryanair's refund policy
Ryanair tickets are generally non-refundable.
If your flight operated and you didn’t travel, you’re not entitled to a refund.
Even if you had valid reasons for deciding not to travel, the carrier still won't give you your money back.
In rare instances where Ryanair has cancelled your flight, failed to operate the flight reasonably according to schedule or you were denied boarding, you may be entitled to a refund in accordance with the applicable Passenger Rights Regulations.
You may also be entitled to a refund if an immediate family member who is not travelling with you dies within 28 days of your booked flight or if you or someone on your booking is seriously ill or passes away before your trip.
Simon continued that he and his girlfriend went through security, and found a guy who spoke English who they shared a taxi with into Paris.
He added: "It was now after 11pm and France wasn't letting UK travellers in from midnight so we were advised to book a hotel quickly.
"I had no 4G so one of my colleagues booked us in to a hotel near the Eiffel Tower for the evening."
The incident, which happened during the Covid pandemic in December 2021, saw the couple decide to cut their losses and stay in the city of love for the weekend before returning home on rival carrier easyJet.
Simon wrote to Ryanair to demand an apology as well as a refund for flights, hotels and taxis after the couple say they splurged nearly a grand during their time in the French capital.
The airline told him to fill out an online complaint form, which he did on December 21.
He continued: "After spending hours calling Ryanair and filling in online forms, my complaint is showing as 'solved'.
"I was told on the Monday that I would be contacted in three days. I called again on the Friday and someone hung up on me."
"It really was a s**t show. Just the fact we tried to show our boarding passes and were told 'don't worry about it'.
"You wouldn't think that could happen these days. If you put passengers on the wrong plane to the wrong country, you expect an apology."
Ryanair did not provide a comment, but for background stated: "It is each passenger's responsibility to ensure they board the correct aircraft.
"There are several touchpoints throughout the passenger journey which inform passengers of the aircraft's destination, these include: [ensuring] flight number and destination are clearly printed on the passenger’s boarding card, [ensuring] flight number and destination are called out in the standard boarding PA and [ensuring] flight number and destination are mentioned in the welcome PA on board."
At the time, many caused by hours-long queues through security checkpoints.
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Some holidaymakers fainted, others say they witnessed "mini stampedes" and many more say they were left "stranded" when flights took off without them.
Airport bosses had issued apologies - bemoaning that queues were "longer than we would have hoped".