 Poster: A snowHead
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I need a rant as I have just given up on my ski weekend away and am feeling grumpy and deflated.
Had a flight booked with Swiss from LHR to GVA Thursday morning 0855, coming back next Tues. Was organised and went up to LHR Wed night. Got a message to say the flight had been cancelled and was automatically rebooked on one going today at 1750. Phoned them up ( an arduous and lengthy task) and asked if they could get me on a later one Thursday ( GVA was shut in the morning but reopened at midday). They said no, they did not have any flights going at all yesterday but did put me on one for 1425 today. Drove home to Portsmouth. cancelled car hire at GVA and rebooked for today. Checked the Heathrow website yesterday and Swiss did actually have flights that went to GVA, as did BA - even some of the morning ones went albeit later on.
Checked this morning before leaving, flight was still OK., Got to LHR, it was cancelled. Queued for ages to speak to a rep. They said the next one I could have was tomorrow evening. I looked on Swiss and BAs website - Swiss had one going from LCY tomorrow first thing, BA had one tonight. They said I could not go on the BA one, it was full ( though it said on the BA website there were seats). They agreed they could put me on the one from LCY tomorrow am but they would not pay for hotel or travel to LCY or anything. I knew were supposed to pay for a hotel and some food but the man just said they would not and I would have to find and pay for one myself or sleep in the airport.
So I gave up and went home, I did not really want to schlepp over London and shell out for a hotel when the flight might be cancelled again, and I have to come home on Tues anyway. They have refunded my flight costs, and hopefully my travel insurance will cover the air bnb. But I have still spent a lot of money on going nowhere. - I have to pay £195 excess on my travel insurance, petrol for a couple of trips Portsmouth-LHR, hotel the first night, car hire cancellations x 2 , airport parking . Maybe £350-400, so quite a lot of money.
Do you think it worth trying to claim these back from the airline or is it hopeless ? They seem to have a reputation for not paying out anyway and I know they will say it was the snow - I know that there is snow of course , but I know a lot of flights have still gone. I feel annoyed they told me there were no flights yesterday when there were, that they would not pay for a hotel, when they are supposed to and that I have spent hours of my life on the phone or in an airport queue to their customer services.
Anyway on the plus side I went to Hemel Snowdome after leaving LHR - as it was so near and had a nice go on mynew skis there - it was super quiet  . So I did get a bit of a ski in
Sorry for the rant, I know it is a real 'first world' problem moaning about missing out on a ski hol but I was really looking forward to meeting up with my family out there ,as well as skiing of course. ...Any advice or tips on if it is worth trying to claim from the airline gratefully received
Claire
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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People died today. Dry. Your. Eyes.
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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Claire, hope you're feeling better after the rant.
I do understand your frustration. I've been in many of such exchanges in the past, with various airlines. Some come out satisfactory, others less so.
I can't help with the specific of compensation. But I would guess your travel insurance might pay your other expense as well?
Read up on the fine prints on the policy for next time. If you were sure of them paying for the night of hotel at London, perhaps you would have stayed there and take a chance on the flight the next morning?
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
You need to Login to know who's really who.
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@gilo, people die every day you are being a bit harsh. @clairep, sorry you have had such a lousy time I know people who have had to cancel their trips too I am sure it is disappointing. Hopefully your insurance covers it.
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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@clairep, I’d write it off to experience. I really can’t see the airline paying for all those consequential damages in any situation. I dont think they are liable for hotels anyway as AFAIK that only applies when you are stranded away from home. I.e. having taken the outbound flight. Apart from anything else, it was a weather related issue. It doesn’t matter if other flights went, That’s irrelevant. You might try claiming on your travel insurance for the car hire costs but I think the hotel is down to you. Portsmouth to LHR is just an hour’s drive so it will be extremely hard to justify needing a hotel at all.
Last edited by Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do. on Sat 3-03-18 8:51; edited 1 time in total
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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Everyone wants to pay nothing for their airline ticket. A consequence of this is when things go wrong there are not enough staff to keep things going. The airline industry is so competitive that any airline not run on a shoestring runs the risk of going bust. That’s just how it is.
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| zzz wrote: |
| Everyone wants to pay nothing for their airline ticket. A consequence of this is when things go wrong there are not enough staff to keep things going. The airline industry is so competitive that any airline not run on a shoestring runs the risk of going bust. That’s just how it is. |
You’re right in saying that airline margins are extremely tight and they manage them in as lean a way as possible, but I don’t think the OPs cancellation will have anything to do with that. The problem, as you probably know, is that LHR runs at nearly fill capacity and as soon as any weather event impacts the frequency of aircraft movements then chaos ensues. To avoid this they cancel and aggregate flights proactively This creates a few gaps in the schedule and allows enough time for stuff like clearing the runways, taxi ways and a/c stands. This means that the airport can continue to operate at a predictable and reduced level rather than allowing the first few flights to land and then everything grinding to a halt. Nothing to do with an airline running things on a shoestring.
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@clairep, I feel your pain. It’s one thing arriving late, but another to lose a long weekend of skiing! You won’t get any monetary EU flight compensation as it was beyond the airlines control (weather). Not sure about the hotel question:
| foxtrotzulu wrote: |
| @clairep, I dont think they are liable for hotels anyway as AFAIK that only applies when you are stranded away from home. I.e. having taken the outbound flight. Apart from anything else, it was a weather related issue. |
Don’t think that’s correct - the airline does not have to pay the monetary compensation if it is beyond their control (Article 7) but they still have to provide care (Article 9) such as hotel accommodation for an overnight delay. It says nothing about which leg or if you are stranded away from home or not. You could have come from hours away and it wouldn’t be possible to return home that night, then back in the morning for a 6am flight say. I’d go after the airline for compensation in that regard.
Plus as noted above, make a travel insurance claim for each and every cost you incurred.
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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@Themasterpiece, I don’t know the exact details of the hotel compensation scheme, but I doubt it will pay for the night BEFORE the cancelled flight and it’s hard to argue that the OP couldn’t easily return home once the flight was cancelled. The OP didn’t stay a second night, so she can’t claim for a cost she didn’t actually incur. Might be worth trying to claim on travel insurance for the first night.
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@clairep, ....first...so sorry to hear of this...I know the feeling of dashing around trying to sort things as skiing time is ticking away. You could try a very different approach - which has worked for me. Retrieve the specifics of what you spent from the insurance. But then be really nice at a very senior level on the airline, asking for some free flights. I have done this and A got back what I had laid out; B had the prositive vibe of arranging a new weekend. Snow is good this year, so as long as you can get the days off, it will be fine.
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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In my experience, Swiss pays only lip service to the EU rules on compensation and duty of care. Whilst in theory Switzerland has regulatory alignment with the EU regulations, in practice it’s very hard to get the airline to recognise this. I had a situation where a Swiss flight was cancellled and the equivalent BA flight (same start, end and aircraft, 5mins apart) flew, and Swiss claimed a weather closure and refused to compensate.
Flyertalk has a bunch of cases like this, and will give you some good advice on what avenues you can explore, but I’d expect to be writing this off. Moneyclaim online might be an option for duty of care costs (journey home) but that’s probably all.
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And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
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@foxtrotzulu,
Yep, unfortunately I’m very familiar with operating in and out of LHR. I think the point I was making is that when it all falls apart there simply aren’t enough people on the ground to deal with the customer service issues.
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The compensation route from the airline isn't worth toffee. No point even filling in the forms to pursue it. All the airlines ignore it, and make you spend days of your life chasing a couple of hundred euros. Sadly the authorities are utterly gutless in controlling how the airlines deal with it when this happens.
Get on social media, get hold of head of whatever department you can, try and persuade them to do the right thing.
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You know it makes sense.
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Swiss do seem to cancel a lot of flights - I've stopped using them
LHR is also notorious due to it's capacity issues so the combo of the two is certainly to be avoided.
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Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
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| clairep wrote: |
sleep in the airport.
Claire |
Not a trick question, but why did you dismiss this option ?
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Poster: A snowHead
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| Digger the dinosaur wrote: |
| The compensation route from the airline isn't worth toffee. No point even filling in the forms to pursue it. All the airlines ignore it, and make you spend days of your life chasing a couple of hundred euros. Sadly the authorities are utterly gutless in controlling how the airlines deal with it when this happens. |
Many airlines are pretty good at paying out without a fuss. Others less so, but the CAA can usually sort genuine claims pretty swiftly.
Up to a po8nt I can appreciate the airlines perspective. You buy a ticket for £9.99 and can then claim hundreds of Euros in compensation.
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FAQ
