A Ryanair passenger who complained about wet seats on a flight to Majorca was scammed out of £900 after a caller posing as the airline's customer support team offered compensation. Sharon Morrell, 48, from near Bristol, had been looking forward to a four-night family break with her husband and two children when the incident occurred during boarding.
Flight to Majorca disrupted by wet seats
Sharon travelled from Bristol to Palma on Saturday, October 24, when she claims 11 passenger seats were left soaked following heavy rain. The affected seats included those occupied by her own family, with some allegedly covered in around an inch of water. She said passengers were initially told to take their seats before staff eventually handed them paper towels to dry the chairs themselves.
Recalling the incident, Sharon said: "We've flown with Ryanair before and not really had any issues. We were waiting on the stairs for everyone to board the plane, so we were getting soaked then as well. Obviously Ryanair can't help if there's downpours. So we got inside the plane and the seats on the left and right side were soaking wet. Even the seats behind were soaking too. There were 11 overall that were soaked. This was all our family's seats and the people behind us. They weren't just a little bit wet - there were puddles."
Scam call follows social media complaint
Sharon, a bus driver, believes the airline could have taken precautions before passengers boarded. She added: "They can't expect for people to just sit on wet, puddle seats. There was definitely an inch of water. I said to the staff 'are we expected to just sit on this? This is ridiculous.'"
After arriving in Spain, Sharon shared her experience on social media. She was soon contacted by someone claiming to represent Ryanair's customer support team, who appeared to offer compensation. The caller allegedly offered £200 each for Sharon and her husband, but instructed the couple to download two apps to receive the money.
Passenger loses £900 in scam
Sharon said: "I received a phone call which I thought was from Ryanair's customer support team ringing us asking if we'd filed a compensation form, but we'd literally just arrived. They said 'no problem, and we can compensate you £200 each for me and my husband for what's happened.' He sounded genuine. They said we have to download two apps for them to safely transfer the money."
The caller reportedly reassured Sharon when she questioned why transactions were leaving her account rather than money being paid into it. But when the individual began asking about her bank balance, she became suspicious and ended the call.
Sharon has since discovered that £900 was linked to transactions heading to an account in Kenya. She is now pursuing the matter with her bank, with the money still showing as pending at the time. She said: "It's so easy to be sucked in and I just can't believe how easy it is to get scammed. Anybody can fall for these scams. It's my own fault, I got sucked into this. I will never be flying with Ryanair again, I don't even want to go abroad again."
A Ryanair spokesperson said: "Due to adverse weather conditions (Storm Boelo) during boarding at Bristol on 24 Oct, a small number of seats near the aircraft door became damp from rainwater entering the cabin. Crew assisted affected passengers by wiping down the seats and this flight operated normally from Bristol to Palma de Mallorca."
