Was nice, paid for some girl’s Ryanair fine so she could fly. Now she’s airing me and not paying back?
I feel a bit stupid but recently I was flying with Ryanair with a backpack I travel with on a monthly basis with the airline without any problems. Of course, this time a lady operating the check in by the gate picked on me and said my bag was too big and that I had to pay a fine. She was really quite cruel and impolite about it. I asked her to explain the situation because I had headphones in at the time and she spoke a different language and she shouted at me that I needed to be quiet and wait and why I was talking in English. It was a very unpleasant experience. I wasn’t the only one. There was another girl there, young, maybe around 17-22. They were asking her to pay a fine too. She was with her friends who had already boarded. She said she couldn’t pay because she only had cash (I saw her 100 euro bill). They weren’t accepting cash and only physical card payments. She was begging but they said if she doesn’t find a solution they need to close the gate now and she can always catch the next flight.
Having been in the exact shitty situation myself and having the same stress about catching another flight I offered to pay for her as well under the agreement that she would pay me back. Honestly I assumed immediately with online banking or something.
It wasn’t a crazy amount of money; 60 euros each but still not something I wanted to pay for a stranger I don’t know…
After we cleared the situation she somewhat said thank you. We were trying to sort out how she’d pay me back. She handed me the 100 euro bill and out of stupidity and kindness I asked if she had any Change and if she didn’t that I would be happy if she just transferred the money instead.
She took out her phone and to my surprise asked for my phone number instead. By that time we had to board and take our seats. I told her to come and see me during the flight so we could exchange phone numbers and she of course didn’t. I then had to wait for her when disembarking and exchange numbers then. I immediately sent her a text with my banking details and asked her to please confirm when she’s sent the money.
It’s been three days and nothing. I sent her another text with my banking details again (it disappeared because WhatsApp had some 24 hours disappearing messages setting on) ans asking if she could please send me the money that day and if she couldn’t whether she could ask her parents or friends to do so. She’s aired me.
I don’t get it. Am I the asshole here?? If I owed a stranger money, a stranger who literally saved me from having to spend 300 euros on a new flight and have my holiday ruined, I would IMMEDIATELY pay them back. I didn’t do it so that she’d fall to her knees thanking me but I genuinely was surprised by the lack of appreciation/thank you and lack of any urgency to pay me back.
What should I do? Do you have any idea how I could get my money back? I just have a phone number from her. Is that enough to pursue this? At this point it’s really the principle of it and the fact that this month has been really killer. I’m myself struggling with some financial commitments and have a few things to pay off. It would be nice to have my money back. 😅