A grieving mother says Ryanair denied her refund because her son’s death missed the deadline by a day, and it felt like ‘a slap in the face’

Tina McDermont and her husband had a flight booked from Newcastle to Alicante, Spain, on Aug. 30 for a four-day trip when their 18-year-old son, Billy, died in an accident she hasn’t described publicly, according to the New York Post. She canceled the trip and requested a £350 refund from Ryanair, assuming, she said, that there “wouldn’t be an issue” given the circumstances.

Ryanair told her the claim fell outside its bereavement policy, which allows travel credit only when an immediate family member dies within 10 days of the scheduled flight. Billy’s death missed that window by a single day. “I hit these barriers because of this 10-day policy that I hadn’t been aware of,” McDermont said. “If he’d died a day later, I would’ve got my money back. It’s a blanket policy, but it isn’t human.” She said the decision felt “like a slap in the face.”

McDermont called the money “chicken feed” for a company Ryanair’s size and said the funds were meant to help cover funeral costs. She contacted the airline again to appeal, without success. A Ryanair representative confirmed the policy’s terms, saying the bereavement occurred outside the 10-day window and that McDermont “was provided with the documentation required to submit a claim through their travel insurance provider.”

What the law actually says about cases like this

A similar case surfaced in 2024, when another UK woman said Ryanair charged her roughly $140 to amend a booking after her sister died before a planned trip. Airline refund policies like this one sit inside a legal framework UK regulators have tested against Ryanair specifically before. Under the Consumer Rights Act 2015, a contract term can be challenged as unfair if it creates a significant imbalance against the consumer and wasn’t negotiated individually.

The Civil Aviation Authority’s 2019 review of airline contract terms named Ryanair among the carriers it pushed to improve customer-facing terms. Separately, the CAA spent more than three years pursuing Ryanair through the courts over its refusal to compensate passengers hit by 2018 pilot strikes. The airline had argued the strikes counted as “extraordinary circumstances,” but the High Court sided with the regulator, and the Court of Appeal upheld that ruling.

That doesn’t mean McDermont’s specific case has been found unfair by any court or regulator, and no legal action has been reported in connection with her claim. A UK passenger who feels an airline hasn’t resolved a complaint properly can escalate it to an approved alternative dispute resolution body once the airline’s own process is exhausted. Ryanair is listed by the CAA as a participant in AviationADR, one of the schemes certified to handle exactly this kind of dispute outside of court.

A consumer who believes a contract term itself is unfair can separately raise that with the Competition and Markets Authority, though only a court can ultimately rule a term unenforceable.