It was actually the second time to use Lufthansa, and it had been the first time since 2019. Then the COVID spreaded, and the Ukraine war began, and coincidentally Lufthansa was the only option. (In more detail, I was supposed to use Finnair, but they cancelled, and though I changed to JAL, they cancelled the flights, too.)
As it had been three years since the last time when I used Lufthansa, there were some differences.
I think the flight took 1.5 ~ 2 hours from Tallinn to Frankfurt.
When I used Lufthansa in 2019, the transit was also Frankfurt, and they gave me sandwiches as snacks at that time. I remember that since there are two flights on one way, I got sandwiches four times. (I got so full. 😂)
However, at some point, they changed their services, and this time they gave me only a 300ml bottle of water and a piece of chocolate.
I searched this information beforehand, so the expectation was low, and yet it wasn’t personally acceptable because I was too hungry at that time. 😂
As for the flight from Frankfurt to Tokyo Haneda, even though it was the same Europe-Japan connection, the flight between Kansai airport and Amsterdam, which I used in 2016 was better.
They gave me better snacks. 😂
Twice.
However, they might also have changed their service, too.
On the other hand, on the way to Tokyo, Lufthansa gave me only drinks and meals. There were no snacks. Although the meals had no problems, I was kind of disappointed because Lufthansa is one of the popular airlines.
For dinner, they gave me options: pasta or beef. If I eat flour products, my belly bloats, which I really didn’t want in the plane, so I chose beef. However, there was still bread. 😂 The beef was served with rice though. 😂
Until I fell asleep, I tried to manage this hunger with juice which I barely drink in my daily life. Meaning that, I was that hungry.
As for the breakfast on Lufthansa, I had yoghurt, a sandwich as well as chocolate biscuits. I’m not sure if it was because I was kind of paralysed or wasn’t moving that much, such a light meal made me feel full. Therefore, for a drink with breakfast, I had black coffee. Regarding yoghurt, there were some flavours, and the crews distributed it to us randomly. I got a cherry flavour. 🍒
Perhaps since lots of people prefer the window seats, when booking flight tickets without any additions, most likely I will get aisle seats. The positive point is that I don’t have to care about others to go to the bathroom. On the outward journey, the bathroom itself was close to my seat as well.
However, it was hard to recline my seat, and I had to press the button extremely hard. This is a negative point.
On the Lufthansa plane, the movie selection wasn’t that good, and the screen didn’t work well either.
Considering the outward journey, I thought it might be a good idea to use ANA spending a little more money, or use JAL which would be cheaper than Lufthansa if available. So far, KLM is much better than Lufthansa overall. 😂 (Though I don’t think there is a connection by KLM between Kansai and Tallinn.)
b. Star Flyer
The airline that I used last on the outward journey was ANA’s cooperative airline: Star Flyer. It was a domestic flight. On the plane there was a charging port, a footrest, a drink service and a screen that worked better than the ones on Lufthansa.
Plus, luckily, I had a window seat, and was able to see Mt. Fuji without snow.
Lots of travelling exhausted me, so I slept a lot until I saw Mt. Fuji. When the crew asked me for any drink, I thanked them, but refused it because I was half asleep.
Star Flyer didn’t have many movie options, but I was too sleepy anyways, so it was not problematic. Besides, the flight between Tokyo and Osaka is usually one hour.
Since Star Flyer is ANA’s cooperative airline, my impression was better than Lufthansa.
2. Homeward journey
a. ANA
It was ANA for the homeward domestic flight. The plane was bigger than Star Flyer’s.
Due to the turbulence, they offered the customers only cold drinks. (They explained so in the plane.)
There is Tanjiro from “Demon Slayer”.
There was no screen on the ANA plane.
However, time flew by, and I landed in Tokyo so fast though it took more time than the outward journey.
b. Lufthansa
For some reason, I felt the meals on the Lufthansa from Japan was better than the one on the outward journey.
For the first meal on the homeward journey, they asked me for chicken or pasta, so I chose chicken. It was something like fried chicken with tartar sauce, and better than the beef with rice that I had on the outward journey.
On the plate, there was sushi too. My expectation was low as soon as I saw it, so I didn’t get shocked even when I ate it. 😂
For the second meal, there was a big sandwich with veggies and cheese as well as kit kat. If it had been a hot sandwich, the cheese would have melted, and it should have been more tasty, but it was cold. I couldn’t complain about this because it was a sandwich on the plane.
As for the screen or the movie selections were as bad as I explained earlier.
On the Lufthansa plane on the homeward journey, the flight from Tokyo Haneda was delayed, so I was worried about the next flight, but I could somehow arrive at the boarding gate in time to go to Tallinn. However, that flight was also delayed.
Lufthansa this time disappointed me because it was not as good as KLM, and I liked the previous services on the short-haul flight on Lufthansa.
In the future, if there are no other options, I would use Lufthansa, but if the price is still acceptable for me, I would prefer ANA or JAL next time. Also Finnair can be an option too. (I want to try it.)
★Summary
The flight between Germany and Japan takes around 12 hours, but including everything such as transit and waiting time, it takes more. Yes, it exhausts me in general, but still I like long-haul flights. Plus, it’s not always tasty, but the plane meals are special, and I can have a chance to watch a movie that I usually don’t watch. It’s fun overall.
Let’s see which airlines I will use for the next trip to Japan. ♪
In March 2022, in order to go to Japan for the first time in two years, I booked flights. Since I wanted to bring two suitcases, I booked flights on Finnair, but they cancelled my flights owing to the Ukraine war and COVID. Due to the fact that they didn’t have any alternative flights, I decided to go to Japan by JAL.
However, after booking the flights, the flights by JAL were also cancelled. What was worse, there were troubles after that.
This time I am going to tell you a story about the troubles that I experienced.
After Finnair cancelled my flights, and they refunded me, I booked JAL’s flights.
I always looked for reasonable flights on Skyscanner, and this time I found flights offered by Mytrip. I used Mytrip because I have used Mytrip when I went to Sweden in March 2022 too.
Without knowing that My trip is infamous.
2. JAL’s flight cancellation and booking alternative flights on Mytrip
Although I booked JAL’s flights for my September trip on Mytrip, they cancelled the flights in June.
Since I booked them via Mytrip, I proceeded for alternative flights via My trip as well. I bought the flight tickets specifically on Mytrip Sweden, and they offered only phone support for English speakers. I rang them, and explained. Then the male support agent proceeded rebooking the alternative flights . He told me to wait a few days as I would not get a confirmation email immediately.
3. Mytrip’s “process”
However, I still got nothing after waiting a couple of days. My spam box didn’t have anything either. I called Mytrip again, and this time a female support agent answered me. She told me it was still in its process, and to wait a few more days.
I waited another few days, and yet there was nothing. I called My trip again, and a different male support agent answered me, saying
“There is no flight ma’am.”
Excuse me?
I asked him
“What do you mean there is no flight?”
He said
“There is no available flight now, ma’am.”
His wording was making me furious.
“I’m not talking about now. I asked to rebook the alternative flights last Sunday, and I’m asking why it’s still not processed!”
“There are no available flights now, ma’am.”
Can I speak to a different support.”
“Unfortunately, there is no available flight now, ma’am.”
I wanted to say “Can you not understand English,”
I thought this would be endless, so I hung up the phone, and called them again. Then another male support agent answered me. I explained everything, and he said
“Just a moment, ma’am.”
On his telling me that, the phone was hung up.
Sometimes I’m too stupid to understand the situation, so I thought “Is there calling line unstable?” 😂 Then I rang them again, and this time a female support agent answered me. I explained the same, and she said
“Let me check, ma’am.”
And she hung up the phone.
This is obviously deliberate.
I tried once more, but another female support agent did the same.
Whereas I tried making it clear, nothing was successful, so I called them again, and then a different support agent answered me. This time I requested a refund.
After experiencing being hung up, I googled Mytrip, and found that it was an infamous travel agency. Because of that, I asked him how long it would take to get refunded when I requested the refund.
He said around five days.
Of course I got nothing even after five days.
4.Help request to consumer information centres
While I was googling reviews about Mytrip, I found one review in which a guy planned to take a lawful sanction, so I googled such a thing further in Japanese. Then one article was in the first page of the Google search result that in such a case we could ask a consumer information centre in Japan.
I checked the proper wording for a consumer information centre in English.
Since I booked flights on Mytrip Sweden, I looked for a consumer information centre in Sweden, and found it. What is better, I found a fact that they handle consumers’ complaints in the EU. (The consumer information centres in the EU corporate one another.)
a. Consumer information centre in Sweden
I contacted the consumer information centre Sweden on this webpage.
I explained the same things as written above, and attached screenshots of Mytrip Sweden’s phone number (and small translation as it was shown in Japanese) as well as copies of emails of purchase confirmation of tickets on Mytrip and of flight cancellation notice from Mytrip in PDF as proofs.
I did this one weekend, and unexpectedly they replied to me so fast.
However, since I lived in Estonia, they told me to contact the consumer information centre in Estonia. They gave me Estonia’s contact information, so I messaged the consumer information centre in Estonia in the form.
b. Consumer information centre in Estonia
The consumer information centre in Estonia responded to me fast too.
As an additional proof, the person-in-charge of my case asked me to send them a bank statement of the purchase of the flight tickets.
She gave me a few of Mytrip’s email addresses, and asked me to contact Mytrip and JAL as well.
I had already contacted JAL when I requested a refund to Mytrip immediately, but perhaps because of the summer time (when people travel a lot), JAL responded me quite late. However, they replied to me when I was about to contact them again.
As for My trip, one of the email addresses that the Estonian person-in-charge gave me didn’t work. The other one worked finely.
In the EU, the refund process has to be done within two weeks in principle, therefore she told me to contact her again if there was no answer in two weeks after emailing Mytrip.
As you can imagine, I didn’t get anything from Mytrip after two weeks.
On the 15th of August, 2022, the person-in-charge in the consumer information centre in Estonia notified me that my case was registered on their end, it would take time because the consumer information centre in Sweden is relevant, and she promised to contact me if there is anything from My trip.
Three days after that notice, Mytrip replied to me by using one of the email addresses that the person-in-charge in the consumer information centre in Estonia gave me. My trip also said it would take time.
5. To get the refund
Here is a timeline of messaging with the consumer information centre in Estonia.
a. 28 Sep
The person-in-charge in the consumer information centre in Estonia told me that Mytrip would send me an email about the refund. On the 29th of September, I received an email from Mytrip that their refund would be done with no fees as my rebooking request was not processed in fact.
The email also mentioned that it would take time, but no exact amount of time was not described.
b. 19 Oct
The person-in-charge in the consumer information centre in Estonia asked me about the situation, but there was nothing. Then she contacted the consumer information centre in Sweden, and told me to wait one more month.
The person-in-charge in the consumer information centre in Estonia also told me to let her know after one month or receiving the refund.
c. 26 Oct
Mytrip notified me that I would get the refund within five business days.
d. 27 Oct
This morning, I confirmed the refund from My trip, so I contacted The person-in-charge in the consumer information centre in Estonia to notify her.
Finally everything was completed.
Although it took four months, it was better than waiting more months or even years, and what was better, it was solved thanks to the consumer information centre in Estonia.
★Summary
When I looked back on my travel history, I also bought the flight tickets to Japan in 2019 on My trip.
On one hand, I think I could use My trip again as I could get the refund by asking in the consumer information centre, and tickets are cheap. On the other hand, the refund process took a long, so I won’t probably use Mytrip or even a travel agency in general again.
If you buy flight tickets on an airline’s website, I think it’s better overall, so I think I will buy flight tickets directly from the airline’s website in the future. Maybe I will uninstall the Skyscanner app too…. What is more, in fact, I use Google flights.
When it comes to travelling, one of the (personal) fun is flights! I love the excitement when getting on a plane, and being at an airport. As a student, I often had rough sleep at airports (mostly in Europe) but I didn’t do that this time.
The airlines that I used this time were Ryanair, the king of European LCC, and SAS (Scandinavian Airlines) that seems to be frequently used for travels in Northern Europe.
Also, since I travelled during the pandemic time, and there were some unusual processes and rules at the airports/airlines due to COVID, I will explain them (although I hope it won’t happen ever again).
When it comes to an airport in Stockholm, it should be Arlanda airport! It’s an international airport, where planes to many cities in foreign countries depart and arrive. It’s a pretty big airport, but not complicated.
When arriving at Arlanda airport and heading to the centre of Stockholm, basically you just need to follow the instructions displayed in the airport, but those are not shown for every step. At some point there was no guidance. I have used Arlanda a couple of times before, and yet I couldn’t remember the way to the bus stop. (I remember the way to the station.) So here’s how to find an aircoach to the centre of Stockholm.
In Terminal 5 at Arlanda airport, there is a yellow convenience store called Pressbyrån, and around there the display on the ceiling and on the floor is gone. However, I just decided to go forward and passed Pressbyrån. Then it was connected to Sky City and other Terminals. From somewhere there you can see the display guidance to the bus stop again, so just walk ahead.
At that time, I missed an aircoach to Stockholm just in front of me, but it is a capital city, so after only 15 minutes, another one came. So I didn’t wait that much. When going to the centre of Stockholm, it was bus stop 7, but I believe you should check before getting on it because there are buses to other directions from Arlanda airport. (The aircoach that I used is called Flygbussarna, and I will talk about this later separately.)
b. Landvetter airport
At Landvetter airport in Gothenburg, there is a digital display that shows the next three departures of Flygbussarna at the baggage reclaim area. So you don’t have to check your phone in how many minutes the bus will come, or remember the timetable (particularly for those who often make detailed plans).
Additionally, Landvetter airport didn’t look so big from the bus, but when you go inside, you may feel how big it actually is. When entering the inside of the airport, you will immediately see lots of check-n counters, and on the right facing the check-in counters, there are escalators to the security check and gates.
In the area of the security check, there is a bin box for an excess amount of liquidy stuff, and free 1L bags for a bunch of small liquid stuff. (At Tallinn airport it costs.) It was a super early morning, and there were not so many people, so the security check didn’t take time.
I reckon there were not so outstanding characteristics for this airport, and I’m not sure if you can have a rough sleep there.
2. Ryanair
Next, this is about the airlines that I used for this Sweden trip. The first one is Ryanair. When it comes to travelling in Europe, many people choose Ryanair. However, as a warning, some airports are specifically for Ryanair (or possibly for LCC), which are located somewhere unbelievable, so be careful when booking. Regarding Sweden, for sure Stockholm has. However, there shouldn’t be any problems between Tallinn and Stockholm because it should be connected (mainly) with Arlanda airport. Once, not from Tallinn, but I have used Stockholm Skavsta airport. It was ridiculously far from the centre, and the flight time was weird, so I had no choice but to stay at a nearby hostel/hotel as at Skavsta airport as you can’t have a rough sleep at Skavsta airport.
i. From a Schengen country (Estonia) to an EU but not Schengen country (Ireland) (Updated: July, 2022)
For the trip to Ireland in June, 2022, I used Ryanair again!
Ireland is registered as an EU country, but not as a Schengen country. When I lived in Ireland as an exchange student (from 2015 to 2016), I needed to print out a boarding pass, and get a visa check at a Ryanair check in counter at Dublin airport whenever I used Ryanair. This time I bought tickets for two people together, I also talk about checking in in such a case. (I added “Updated: July 2022” for the additional sections so you can find the updates easily.)
a. Do I need a visa check to fly from Estonia to Sweden?
When I was an exchange student in Ireland, I always needed a visa check, but where I currently live is a country in the Schengen area. In addition, it was the first time to travel abroad since 2019, so I completely forgot what kind of procedure I needed, and I had to check it.
There is an article on my website in Japanese, in which I wrote about my trip to Scotland in 2019, but since Brexit has been over, the situation is different. It cannot be any reference, and I felt like a travel beginner.
So, I contacted Ryanair.
If you need a visa check, you are required to get a stamp at a visa check counter at an airport, and for this it’s essential to print out the boarding pass. If not needed, I wanted to use Ryanair’s app (or the PDF file), so I contacted them. The descriptions below are replies from Ryanair.
1st contact: I recommend you to print it out just in case! → I’m not asking what to do for “just in case”. 2nd contact: If you see a QR code, you don’t need to print it out! → I see the barcode too. 3rd contact: No need to print it out! → I want to know the reason.
Yes, I asked the same question three times because this Ryanair’s page sounds like I would need it everywhere I use Ryanair.
So, I eventually asked a Ryanair crew at Tallinn airport, and she said I didn’t need it because my travels are within the Schengen area. Yes, that’s what I wanted to know! What I wanted to know was “if the travel is within the Schengen area”! In other words, if the travel is not within the Schengen area, I need a visa check!
You may be wondering why I didn’t print out the ticket just in case. This is because Ryanair’s free check in opens 24 hours prior to the flight departure, and I had to arrive at the airport before the printing shop opened.
Anyways, if you are a non EU/EEA passenger, but travel within the Schengen area, you don’t need a visa check!!!
Let’s keep this in mind. We may travel more often like before as almost no COVID restrictions are there these days as of June 2022 (although monkeypox is concerning us…)
i. Ryanair’s visa check in (Updated: July 2022)
In the trip to Ireland in June, 2022, one PDF included information for both of us with one boarding pass. My page didn’t have any barcode or QR code, instead there was “VISA CHECK”.
When I saw it I was like “Huh?” Not because of “VISA CHECK” description. When I lived in Ireland, after checking in online, the PDF file had a barcode. That’s why I needed to print it out, go to the check in counter at airports, and get a stamp on the printed boarding pass.
Then, when I went to Ryanair’s check in counter at Tallinn airport for the first time to go to Ireland since 2019, I showed the printed paper without any barcode as well as my passport, and they issued that wide boarding pass!!
Also later I found that I didn’t have to show the printed paper. It actually makes sense because at online check in I need to register my passport number, and there is no point to print the file out as they don’t put a stamp on it and even if they do, I still can’t use it as long as I don’t have any barcode or QR code. (I tested this without showing the paper, and it worked.)
When going to Dublin from Tallinn, the flight departure was at 3 in the afternoon. Only I went to the airport by myself to get the visa check done. And when I met my boyfriend at the security check gate, he saw my classic wide boarding pass, and asked me “Why do you have that boarding pass and I have only the file??”, having a little sad/disappointing face. 😂
My boyfriend’s boarding pass. Since he’s an EU citizen, he already had a barcode.
When leaving Ireland, we went to the airport together. I’m not sure whether it was because he was behind me, and yet the check in staff member issued two boarding passes.
The boarding pass issued at Tallinn airport had not Ryanair’s logo but Tallinn iarport’s logo.
He looked happy. 😂
I’m happy for you.
After this experience, I thought Ryanir’s service was partially improved.
For non-EU citizens! Don’t forget to get a visa check when travelling between a Schengen country and a non-Schngen but EU country. You can know if you need it in the PDF file you will get after online check in.
b. Mask
When I travelled to Sweden this time, throughout Europe each country had gradually lifted COVID restrictions, and yet some airlines had different regulations about COVID.
In case of Ryanair, wearing a mask was required, but any mask was basically fine. I used UNIQLO’s cloth mask that my mum sent me during the pandemic, and it was acceptable in Ryanair.
c. How to check in online in Ryanair when having purchased tickets for more than one person (Updated: July, 2022)
This time I bought the tickets for two with my Ryanair account, but I found that I could not check in first, send the online check in link to my boyfriend, and let him check individually. (I contacted the Ryanair support and asked.)
So I asked him to send me necessary information by showing the screenshot of the check in page on Ryanair’s website. Then I completed checking in for both of us, and got a boarding pass.
Again, be careful, you cannot check in online separately when buying tickets with someone together.
3. SAS
In this trip, I had four flights, and three of them were run by Ryanair, but when I went back to Estonia, I used SAS. I have also used SAS before, and I think it was also a trip to Sweden…
a. Name display
This time I booked a seat in SAS on an online travel agency called Mytrip (because they offered the cheapest price), but the name display was strange, and I contacted SAS as I didn’t want to get rejected for the flight.
Then, they said I needed to contact the travel agency as my booking was done through them, so I contacted Mytrip. They said the name display was fine (that the title and my first name had no space between them).
However, I was still concerned, so I contacted SAS again. I explained the whole process of this, and they said there was no need to change as it was shown like that due to the system. I thought about why I was worried a lot, and at the same time, these ping-pong contacts were pretty annoying. I wished they had written such information somewhere on their website.
b. Mask
SAS also required us to wear a mask.
On the second day in Stockholm, which was Saturday, a wonder popped up in my mind in the afternoon; do I need a mask? So I googled, and found that SAS did not accept a cloth mask! You may wonder why I didn’t research before travelling, and yet I didn’t have such “capacity” to do in my head.
I quickly searched if there was any pharmacy around the hostel. Even in Estonia I had never bought paper or surgical masks, so I was worried if the supermarket that I found had paper masks, but it turned out that there was a pharmacy in the same building.
Just in case, I went to both the supermarket and the pharmacy, and yet the price was the same, so I decided to buy at the pharmacy as they sold black masks that looked better (more fashionable) than the blue ordinary surgical masks.
This is an extra story and it’s about a case of LOT Polish airline, but at Landvetter airport in Gothenburg, I was waiting for my flight in front of a gate which was open for passengers to LOT Polish’s flight. When the gate was about to close, two people who looked like a couple were running towards the gate, but since they didn’t have paper masks, they were rejected to onboard.
However, they were lucky.
Coincidentally a man who went through the gate one step earlier had a bunch of paper masks, and noticed them, and gave them a few.
I learnt we had to be careful when the situation in the whole world is remarkably different than usual.
c. Check-in
Lastly, this is also related COVID. I kind of remembered how to check in for SAS. I like rectangular classic shaped boarding passes which I could get from the self-check-in machine at an airport, but this time SAS required passengers to submit some COVID-related documents beforehand.
Some people seemed to be able to upload documents in advance, but this method was not applied for those who have lived in Estonia, and I had to go to a check-in counter in the airport.
In fact, when I went to Arlanda airport, all SAS’s check-in counters were for check-in luggages by themselves, and no staff were there.
So I asked an SAS lady who was guiding business-class passengers, and explained, but she also looked like “what is that?”, so she let me go to the lane for the business passengers.
Then, at a business counter, I explained what the SAS support told me before coming to the airport, and showed my COVID certificate. Then the staff issued me a boarding pass, and I could go forward.
I was so concerned….
★Summary
To conclude, this article was about a compilation of the information on the airports and airlines that I used for this Sweden trip.
I guess maybe some day this article will be in vain because of the time with COVID. In 2022, since I’m using Dublin airport, Frankfurt airport, Tokyo Haneda airport as well as Kansai airport (as of June 2022), I might write some articles about those airports too. But as for the airports in Japan (or even Frankfurt airport), the article/s might be published in 2023.
Before Estonia got panicked owing to COVID-19, I roughly checked if I could change the flight on easyJet and figured out that it seemed possible to do without any change fee unlike Ryanair at that time. However, I hadn’t got any email about it so I wasn’t sure and didn’t do anything. (I was so suspicious.)
Then, on Friday the 13th when Estonia got panicked, I checked easyJet’s website again and found the announcement regarding flights due to COVID-19. To summarise what they said, any passengers had rights to change their flights without any change fee and need to pay the difference in case the postponed date tickets are more expensive, which is applicable up to two hours before the flights.
Sounds so good.
So this time I’m talking about how to change the flights on easyJet. There was nothing that big so the article is way shorter than the ones as for Flixbus or Ryanair.
1) You know, access it
First of all access easyJet’s website and log in there. You cannot proceed anything without logging in. After logging in, you will see the information regarding the flight/s that you have booked so click “Change flight” below the information.
2) Search alternative flight/s
Next, search the alternative flight. This UI is not really good because you need to select the date not from the calendar form but from the pulldown form. Anyways, once you selected the destination and date of the alternative flight, click ”SEARCH NEW FLIGHTS” and go next.
3) Pay for the difference
It would be amazing if you found the best flight for you at once but as repeated in the previous articles I was supposed to travel in multiple countries so I had to consider the overall and total fees and the available flight dates on both Ryanair and easyJet. This means I had to go back to the previous page on easyJet several times as the UI on easyJet was really bad!
On easyJet’s website you have to change the date by repeating going back to the previous page. That was quite irritating. Besides, you finally can see the price by clicking “CONTINUE” in this step. Ryanair is the better for sure in terms of UI. (Yeah it’s my occupational side effect in a sense.)
4) Finish the change process
After confirming the alternative flights and getting ready to pay, you can pay by card like always. The image below is after the payment.
Considering the unnecessity of the help (centre), easyJet was easier to use but taking into account the flight change, Ryanair was more user-friendly.
Anyways the route for my trip in August was almost determined. All I will have to do is to rebook the buses and and accommodations!
Previously I talked about how to change the booking on Flixbus. As mentioned there, I planed to ride on Flixbus day after the day that I was supposed to attend the concert in Stockholm, Sweden from the nearest bus stop of the hostel to Stockholm Arlanda airport.
However, COVID-19 made the concert postponed, accordingly to which I had to change the flights and the booking dates of the hostel. The last necessary change was the booking on Flixbus. Then I changed the date of the ride on Flixbus. Strictly speaking, as also described in the article, they treated my ticket as cancellation and then gave me a voucher code valid for one year.
It’ll be implemented in August so I still haven’t “rebook” the ride on Flixbus as of today (22/March) but anyways everything was alright because I could change the rest of the necessary steps. Moreover, when COVID-19 made whole Europe in panic, I summarised my personal news in another article, I said that I was supposed to travel in some countries after travelling Sweden.
Thus, there have been subsequent cancellations and changes of flights and bookings of accommodations since COVID-19 affected all the plans in March. This time I summarise how to ask for help and change flights on Ryanair that I was supposed to use after travelling in Sweden.
Ryanair’s help centre has a chat support, which is open at 6am (GMT) but I couldn’t connect any agents for a while even though I accessed the website at 6am (8am in Estonia), which is probably because of every government’s announcement and subsequent cancellations of flights by COVID-19.
For the reason above, I tried to access Ryanair’s help centre on Friday afternoon, 13th of March again. Ryanair’s help centre is similar to Flixbus, which makes the customers to solve the problems by themselves first but perhaps many of you would miss or lose yourself on Ryanair’s website.
1) Search anyways
As mentioned you might miss Ryanair’s help centre so let’s go to the website anyways. If you don’t go, nothing will start. (Obviously.)
2) Contact them!
Once you accessed Ryanair’s website, scroll down the screen. Then you’ll see “Contact us” in really teeny-tiny letters so click it.
3) “Let’s chat”
After clicking it, you will see the button “Chat Now” in the section of “Let’s chat” so click it. If you read the description properly, you will understand; it does not mean that you will be connected with the agents immediately after “starting” the chat.
The chat bot will answer you so let’s try if it can solve your problem by entering some word or asking questions. Given that chat bot is meaningless even after entering the word or nothing happens, type “Help”.
4) Need a human support?
Once you entered “Help” in Ryanair’s chat bot, it shows multiple options for you so try and find the most suitable one for your need. If you couldn’t find any help there, scroll down the chat and select ”I Need To Speak with Support”.
5) Be patient
After selecting it, you will be required to enter some necessary information and then added to the support “queue”. In comparison to Flixbus, you don’t know how many people are queueing in front of you on Ryanair. Therefore, I couldn’t make any progress even though I spent the whole morning and didn’t know the situation at all.
However, I successfully could get connected with some agent in the afternoon so I asked them, who said that they charge all the passengers in case we wanted to cancel or change the flights as usual because there was no change in terms of the flights to and from Germany as of the afternoon on the 13th.
On the other hand, British Airwaysalready announced that they cancelled or would do something for the flights to and from Germany as of then but Ryanair cancelled flights a few countries including Italy.
(By the way you can access Ryanair’s help centre mentioned above from here.)
Next day, Saturday, on the 14th of March, I got an email from Ryanair, where they would not charge the passengers in March for changing the flights without any changing fee. In case the alternative tickets that the passengers would choose are more expensive the ones that they had, they needed to pay for the differences.
Therefore, the next section is about how to change the flights on Ryanair.
★ How to change the flights on Ryanair
Once you’ve decided to change the flights on Ryanair, go to Ryanair’s website and log in so as to change the flights. (On Ryanair’s website you also may choose Facebook or Google to log in.)
1) Open My Bookings
After logging in, the screen already should be My Bookings, which is correct. It’s like the image above and if it shows your flights, everything is alright.
2) Choose flight to change from “Upcoming trips”
On the top of My Bookings you see your flights as “Upcoming flights”. If you click the flight that you want to change, you will go next.
Once you logged in, you also can easily ask the chat bot for help.
3) Change the booking
I selected the flight from Tallinn to Berlin here because I had three flights and two trips in total. To change your flight booking, click “Manage Booking” on the top right corner of the screen.
4) Change the itinerary itself
If you click “Manage Booking”, you will see the options that you can make changes with so select “Change your flight”.
5) Choose the flight/s
I bought a round trip ticket for Tallinn and Berlin so here it shows two tick boxes for each so that I could make changes for each flight. I ticked both boxes since I wanted to have all the flights in March in summer but in case you want to change one of the flights of the round trip, you can tick just one of them. After that, click “Select” and go next.
6) Select the date (destination)
Furthermore, you may change both or either flight date and/or destination but as for the destination I cannot 100% guarantee if you can change because I changed only the flight dates. As mentioned earlier, since I had multiple flights for one trip on another airline (easyJet) too so I changed the flights between Tallinn and Berlin, taking into account the prices of another flight on Ryanair or on easyJet that I was also supposed to use.
7) Pay the difference
Once you decided the flights, the last thing you need to do is pay. Usually Ryanair charges you some as a change fee but I paid for the difference between the prices of the new flights and the flights that I was supposed to take without any change fee as said due to COVID-19.
It’s easy isn’t it?
It’s true that it was actually hard to rebook flights because I had multiples but I did the right thing on the previous night – to wait a bit longer until Ryanair announced something. It’s good to be patient.
Now I’m super looking forward to the trips in summer. Really.
zooks.ee 