Ryanair email: move your Travel date

I am booked to fly to Reus, Spain on 8th May and return 22nd May. Today I received an email from Ryanair, saying:
The spread of the Covid-19 Virus and associated Government travel restrictions, continues to have a negative impact on the schedules of all Ryanair Group Airlines. As a result of this we want to offer our customers as much flexibility as possible in relation to their scheduled travel plans. We are now offering you the following options in relation to your booked flight.
Change your flight to any date in next 3 months.
YOU WILL ONLY PAY THE DIFFERENCE IN FARE (flight change fee waived)
Flight date change only applies to the route you have already booked
Please do not try to change to another date in May.

Notice the word CANCEL is missing.
1. Should I wait for the flight to be cancelled, because I want a refund, not postpone my flight by a month? (I cancelled my hotel booking.)
2. Will Ryanair ever refund me, if I do not reschedule, as per offer in this email? Am I not entitled to a refund, since the flight is not going for a month? - No flights in May. (By the way, the return flight in June costs twice the original flight in May)

tiarnalamh said:

Should I wait for the flight to be cancelled

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tiarnalamh said:

No flights in May.

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Is the flight cancelled or not?

You'll be entitled to a full refund only if the flight is cancelled.

tiarnalamh said:

I am booked to fly to Reus, Spain on 8th May and return 22nd May. Today I received an email from Ryanair, saying:
The spread of the Covid-19 Virus and associated Government travel restrictions, continues to have a negative impact on the schedules of all Ryanair Group Airlines. As a result of this we want to offer our customers as much flexibility as possible in relation to their scheduled travel plans. We are now offering you the following options in relation to your booked flight.
Change your flight to any date in next 3 months.
YOU WILL ONLY PAY THE DIFFERENCE IN FARE (flight change fee waived)
Flight date change only applies to the route you have already booked
Please do not try to change to another date in May.

Notice the word CANCEL is missing.
1. Should I wait for the flight to be cancelled, because I want a refund, not postpone my flight by a month? (I cancelled my hotel booking.)
2. Will Ryanair ever refund me, if I do not reschedule, as per offer in this email? Am I not entitled to a refund, since the flight is not going for a month? - No flights in May. (By the way, the return flight in June costs twice the original flight in May)

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Ryanair will email you to tell you that the flight is cancelled, assuming that they cancel it which is highly probable, and offer you an opportunity to get a refund at that time. If they do not cancel the flight, you can reschedule to a later date. They're trying to avoid refunds where possible.

Their flight to Rheus is not yet cancelled, so you probably need to sit tight till they officially cancel. Flights up to May 7th are cancelled so yours should be on the next traunch of cancellations. Only then can you apply for a refund.
I note their email is "offering the following options" They have only offered one.

Thank you all.
Black Sheep, I never noticed it was only one option and not plural. Well spotted! Also you caused me to look again at the detail in my email. It came from their marketing email address and not itinerary@ryanair.com
So Slim, I believe you are right. Marketing are trying to avoid refunds.

I believe the best approach is to do nothing, wait for the flight to be cancelled, and collect your refund. If you’re a frequent flyer, the 10% enhancement from the likes of Aer Lingus isn’t bad, but I’d still prefer the cash.

I have many flights booked.

1. Ryanair last month (March) allowed me to change the date to the future on an existing flight that was NOT cancelled, so I took my best guess on an after Christmas flight. One I was nearly 100% certain would be needed. The flight was going to go unused anyway due to Covid so that was great.

2. Yesterday for a May flight they’ve offered me the same as the OP. As this is pretty useless to me, I’m waiting until the flights are cancelled. Which actually they are cancelled. But let that ride.

3. Aer Lingus are offering me a coupon plus 10%. I’m ignoring that and will get a refund when it’s ‘actually’ cancelled.

4. Another Airline is offering me a coupon/credit, so as I’ve better things to worry about I’m ignoring that. Low amount.

5. Our expensive flights with a non European AirLine in the summer I’m hoping to get a refund. But if allowed we are going on holiday.

6. We have a Halloween booking with Virgin, 1k deposit with another family, couldn’t care less if we lose 500. I just want this nightmare to be over.

On the bright side, we had four BIG holidays this year, and we managed two. Which is pretty spectacular odds. Time will tell if we make the summer and Halloween one. Right now the children only want what more than ANYTHING. To get out of this house and back to school. They don't care about Orlando anymore.

Message yesterday from Aer Lingus

1.	Change your flight without a fee You can change the date of your trip at aerlingus.com. We’ve waived our change fees, but please note that a fare difference may apply.
2.	Apply for a voucher We’ll send you a voucher for the full value of your flight, plus an extra 10%. So if your flight cost €200, we’ll send you a €220 voucher. Applying for a voucher is really simple – follow these steps. If you’ve already applied for a voucher, you don’t need to do anything further. Terms and Conditions apply.

Message from Ryanair yesterday

For Ryanair flights you could try this link (at your own peril if you mess something up):

https://refundclaims.ryanair.com/

Update becuase I did some cancellations/refunds today.

Ryanair

I decided to log into my Ryanair account. It's for Easter flights. One leg of that is cancelled the return not yet as the date is after Easter. But I can cancel on their website and get a refund. I think for just the outward journey. So I'll wait until the return leg is cancelled and just get one refund (I've a lot of flights so it's more conenient for me this way. )

Other European airline

One Easter flight with a return date today is cancelled. I was offered another date, plus voucher for extra, or a refund. As I can't predict the dates I took a refund. For another date I know I'll have to buy another ticket so I took the voucher, left them the money and will rebook at a later date.

Holidaybookings.com

They are extending the cancellation deadline for April (can't remember May) but my holiday is in June. I'll wait unti the end of this month and I will cancel the balance payment. I'm assuming they will be more options on this as this company strives to deal with these unprecedented times. Right now I'm not cancelling until I know we cannot go. Which is dependent on two countries travel restristions and Turkish airlines flying. I contacted the owners and they are up the walls as they cannot go their themselves, they are a lovely English couple. I can't change the dates as I know they are fully booked and we don't like full summer heat in July and August. And we are tied to school holidays etc as well.

I was pleasantly surprised when Ryanair offered a "free" change of flight to me for my trip to Manchester on St Patrick's Day, as the match i was going to was postponed so i switched to a date in October when I know there's something on in Manchester I might go to.
Unfortunately they've moved the goalposts a bit with my flight to Palermo in May, can only switch the flight to dates prior to August 31st which don't really suit, September would be fine. Hoping if I wait a bit another option might emerge.

I put in my refund requests for cancelled flights with Aer Lingus & Ryanair around the 18/19th March, Ryanair emailed yesterday to say I'm still in a queue to be processed and I haven't heard anything from Aer Lingus yet (which is fine, I understand they must have thousands of these to get through). Just wondering if anyone has received their refund yet & how long it took?

I am still waiting on a refund for my cancelled Ryanair flight for April.

I have heard nothing from Ryanair about a late May flight.....that is still showing for sale. However Ryanair have posted that they do not expect to have flights in May.

Ryanair have changed their refund policy as of today, it appears

If policy has changed I’ve no problem with vouchers. We need to support the airlines or when we all wake up from this nightmare we won’t have any airlines. Much and all as I love Irish beaches etc, two weeks in cold wet conditions on our annual family holiday holds zero appeal.

Coldwarrior said:

I put in my refund requests for cancelled flights with Aer Lingus & Ryanair around the 18/19th March, Ryanair emailed yesterday to say I'm still in a queue to be processed and I haven't heard anything from Aer Lingus yet (which is fine, I understand they must have thousands of these to get through). Just wondering if anyone has received their refund yet & how long it took?

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I submitted my refund request on 20th March. Today, I received a similar email. Seems like automated delaying of refunds which, when I submitted, were to be made within 7 working days, long past now. Subsequent, duplicate, email re same flight stated 20 working days.