A heartbroken mother said she experienced a ‘complete lack of empathy’ from Ryanair after her mother died shortly before a family holiday.
Sophie Taylor was set to fly to Lanzarote with her mother Sharon Watkins to celebrate Sharon’s 60th birthday.
She purchased the tickets in October 2024, but Sharon died in August this year, two months before they were set to fly.
The mother, from Chudleigh, Devon, bought the tickets through Love Holidays and was set to travel to the Spanish island from Bristol Airport on October 2, returning a week later on a Ryanair flight.
Following the death of her mother, Ms Taylor decided to fly instead alongside her father and asked the companies if she could change the name on the tickets.
Love Holidays and Jet2Holidays both waived the admin fees for the name change, however Ryanair did not.
Instead, she was told she would have to pay £100 to change the name to her father’s.
Sophie Taylor, pictured with her father Peter Watkins, said she felt a lack of empathy from Ryanair
The grieving mother complained to Ryanair and sent photographic evidence of her mother’s death certificate, but she said the airline sent her back a generic message asking for payment.
Ms Taylor told BBC News: ‘On top of losing the most important woman in my life, I didn’t need to be told by a generic message that they wanted more money.
‘My whole world came crashing down when I lost my mum, but to have that on top of everything else was just awful.’
Mrs Watkins had suffered with neuroendocrine cancer for around 12 years before she died in August.
Her husband Peter Watkins said that the family regularly travelled to Lanzarote together.
He added: ‘Lanzarote Puerto Del Carmen was a special place, somewhere we visited some 15 or 16 times, so the return for myself and Sophie was somewhat very mixed emotions.’
Mr Watkins decided not to cancel his wife’s seat on the return flight and instead booked a separate seat on the flight for £52.
A Ryanair spokesperson said: ‘This package was sold to the passenger by Love Holidays who booked a non-refundable promotional fare.
Her mother Sharon Watkins (picture frame) died in August, just two months before they were due to fly to Lanzarote
‘As the fare is non-refundable, we recommend customers take out travel insurance for cases such as this.
‘Ms Taylor requested a name change on 24 Aug and 5 Sept and was offered this facility upon payment of our name change fee.
‘She chose not to avail of the service and instead buy a cheaper one-way fare, which offered her even better value.
‘As the original passenger Ms Watkins has passed away Ms Taylor can apply for a full refund of Ms Watkins fare.’
