Tina McDermont has slammed Ryanair after the budget airline refused to refund her £350 trip because her teenage son died 11 days before her scheduled flight.
McDermont, 45, from Washington, Tyne and Wear, had been due to fly from Newcastle to Alicante on August 30 with her husband. She cancelled the holiday after her son Billy McDermont, 18, died in a tragic accident on August 19.
The airline’s terms allow travel credit only when an immediate family member dies within 10 days of departure. Because Billy died 11 days before the flight, McDermont’s refund request was denied.
“I thought when I got in touch with Ryanair there wouldn’t be an issue,” she said. “I thought we’d get that money back and put it towards Billy’s funeral and then I hit these barriers because of this 10-day policy that I hadn’t been aware of.”
McDermont explained that she had hoped the refunded money would help cover funeral costs for Billy, who had just turned 18. “Billy’s death was a massive shock. He’d just turned 18,” she said. “I could never have travelled and gone abroad. I just wanted to be at home with my family around me.”
The grieving mother described her growing frustration with the airline’s process. “[After they sent me a link requesting his death certificate] I couldn’t get any further forward because they kept requesting the date of death. It was really starting to agitate me,” she said. “It was raw emotion all the time. It wouldn’t let me complete the form. I looked at the terms and conditions and thought that doesn’t really make sense.”
McDermont said she then tried to resolve the matter through Ryanair’s app chat. “I opened a chat on the app and they told me to ‘no show’ so I could get a letter off them and you can go to your travel insurance and claim off them,” she said. “I thought that’s passing the book. If he’d died a day later, I would’ve got my money back. It’s disgusting and petty.”
She called on the airline to reform its approach to grieving families. “Ryanair needs to change their policies,” she said. “Have a bit of heart and compassion.”
A Ryanair spokesperson defended the decision in a statement. “Ryanair’s bereavement policy allows passengers to apply for travel credit where the death of an immediate family member occurs within 10 days of their scheduled flight departure,” the spokesperson said. “As this bereavement occurred outside of that period, this passenger was not entitled to travel credit.” The spokesperson added that McDermont was given documentation to submit a claim through her travel insurance provider.
The case has drawn attention to the strict time limits in airline bereavement policies, with McDermont’s situation highlighting how a single day can determine whether a grieving family receives financial relief. The £350 she sought would have gone toward burying her son, she said, rather than toward a holiday she could no longer contemplate taking. “I’m arranging my son’s funeral. There’s no way I could go,” she said.
The outlet Group has contacted Ryanair for additional comment.