TO Flight Cancellation ...

A snowHead

We had our package holiday flight cancelled (actually delayed for 24 hours) last week and had to grab a hotel room at our expense. A Google search seems to suggest it should be OK and that flights booked as part of a TO package have additional rights to flights booked separately.

Has anybody successfully recouped hotel and food expenses from a TO in this type of situation ?

A snowHead

That does seem a bit rum. when my brother in law had flight cancelled by Easyjet (geneva closed by snow) they offered to pay for a hotel. In the end he switched to a flight to a different airport later in the day, when Geneva got going.

Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?

david@mediacopy, have never heard of having to sort this out yourself with a TO, they usually do it for you. I thought that was the whole point of using a tour operator.

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wot Hells Bells said. If you went ahead and made your own arrangements it sounds like an insurance claim; but you probably should have called your insurers to get advice on what they would cover

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The situation was that my TO had contracted flights with someone else, another TO. The office for our TO was closed and the rep was no where to be found (although it transpired later that her mobile number was buried deep in the supporting documentation).

The Info desk for the TO providing the flights had turned into a scrum so we sorted it for our selves as accommodation around the airport was in short supply. It was the end of a very long day, preceded by 10 hours driving down in the snow to the evil that is Gatwick.

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david@mediacopy, complete PITA; you can only try but insurance might be the best bet

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Hi David,

There was a phone-in on R4 earlier today which went into this in detail. This first thing to do is to contact the T.O. and expalin the situation they should then put the wheels in motion for a refund. The only issue that would prevent this is if the T.O. isn't a member of ABTA in which case, check your insurance.

After all it is free

Clive, Cheers. I just emailed them copies of the receipts and will drop a hard copy in the post. It's not for a huge amount but it would be nice to recoup the costs as the whole experience was horrible.

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We had a similar experience, except as we were close enough we just went home - we'd also been told all on-site hotels were fully booked. Having lost a full day of your ski trip, it appears we are eliglble for the princely sum of £10 per head for the travel delay. SHan't be renewing with the previously highly recommended Dogtag unless I'm very much mistaken. I haven't even seen anything in the documentation about claiming for the return trip to the airport which totalled £26 - does anyone know if I can claim this from the airline or insurance?

I'm actually quite peed off about this, I thought the point of insurance was to restore you to the state you were in prior to the thing against which you were insured actually happening. I lost a full day's skiin and that costs far more than a tenner when you're off to the alps Evil or Very Mad

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david@mediacopy, Point already made .... forget ABTA as RobW, has said. They have 'standards' but not enforceable.

Assuming the TO is ATOL-bonded, then I would focus on the TO first ( indeed you have to inform the TO within 28 days ... do it in writing). Hopefully your TO will understand why you were unable to contact the rep but do look at their Ts&Cs .... the exclusions may catch you. You have limited protection under the 1992 act but do deal with the TO first. Next step is obviously insurance but as nbt, points out delay 'insurance' comes with more caveats than a politician's commitment.

Agenterre, That's interesting regarding T&C's. Can T&Cs override obligations under consumer law, which according to my google search yesterday should entitle me to a refund on the expenses ?

You know it makes sense.

Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:

Agenterre, Cheers, we'll see. I'll put my faith on the goodwill of the TO and their expectation of repeat business. As we've travelled with them quite a few times it would be in their interest.

A snowHead

Just to clarify my earlier point - one of the guys on the radio show was actually from ABTA. He stated that if there was a dispute between customer and ABTA member, ABTA itself would act as a go between to see "fair play".

On the same program, I was amazed at some of the tricks that airlines and travel agents try and pull in order to get out of meeting their obligations to customers. One guy had 16 return tickets booked on one of the better-known budget arilines. The airline cancelled the flight at the last minute but would only refund the tickets for the outward bound leg of the journey stating that the customer hadn't actually booked return tickets but 16 tickets one-way tickets from A to B then another 16 one-ways from B to A. According to the guy, he'd booked all tickets at the same time on the same credit card so assumed that they were returns. He also lost money on hotel bookings at his proposed destination.

Another "smoke and mirrors" trick was a travel agent booking a holiday comprising of flights and accomodation on behalf of a client but not making clear that it wasn't classed as a "package" . When the flight was cancelled there was again no refund on hotel costs.

Sorry if all this sounds niaive but I was genuinely surprised by some of these tactics and will definitely be checking the small print in future.

p.s. There was also a rep. from the insurance industry on the same program whose sole contribution seemed to be to endlessly repeat "we don't cover that."

A snowHead

Clive, budget airlines are very clear that they are "point to point" so each leg of a journe is separate; no such thing as a return flight. That's where travel insurance would come in.

Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?

update - I was pleasantly surprised to receive a bank payment for the full amount of the receipts, from the TO.

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david@mediacopy, Result .. even if you lost a day's holiday. You seem rather good at this .. would you mind trying to recover my monies from a cancelled EZ-Jet flight? No response from them other than usual automated e-mail BS for over a month ( 10+ follow-ups) ... looks like Small Claims route again for me with them rolling eyes

Second Time in 6 months ... definitely the last time as they've lost me permanently due to their atrocious Customer Service.

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Agenterre, not sure about that. Interestingly I also popped a claim into the airline but apart from an acknowledgment I've heard nothing. I'll fess up if I do but it's not very good.

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I should put in good word for Thomas Cook Airline. 3 of us returning from Tenerife (golfing not skiing you might surmise) were delayed 26 hours. There was an initial delay when we checked in and food vouchers were issued without having to ask, and later we were taken to buses and a hotel for the night - again without having to "demand our rights". The basic organisation was sound - meal vouchers, buses to and from airport to good hotel - and relief flights put on the next day when they couldn't fix the "technical fault" on the original aircraft in Glasgow.

My only adverse comment concerns the inept local reps who fannied around doing nothing about the fact couple of hundred people with all their luggage had to shuffle centimetre by centimetre up the hotel steps to be checked in. It took me two and a half hours from arrival to getting my room key and these jokers didn't appear to see there was anything wrong with that. They didn't even think to bring some water round and one elderly lady who asked for some was told she would have to go to the bar and get it. Once I got into the building after two hours on the steps (only half an hour more to go!) it was so obvious that a bit of organisation could have had an area set aside for our luggage and all of us inside or on the terrace with access to seating, a bar, toilets etc while we were brought forward in small groups to check in. There was obviously no contingency plan with the hotel about checking in that number of people (one receptionist, one trainee and one computer, yet I expect the airline uses it often enough. The reps then were pretty useless, and a deal more useless than pretty. No perception, no initiative, no caring. A pity really, because it let Thomas Cook down when otherwise their handling of the delay was fine. The essential deficiencies were, to my mind, selection and training of the ground staff (their cabin crew being significantly so much better), the notable absence of any senior staff who might have taken matters better in hand, and a failure in advance planning to get beyond the basics of hotel and buses to details like checking in and passenger welfare during what even with good planning would be a lengthy and tedious business.

I think that's a few thoughts towards the letter that is still to be written to Thomas Cook. Apologies for using the forum for drafting purposes rolling eyes

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ccl, out of interest, which airport were you flying from ?

After all it is free

david@mediacopy, Excellent, well done you

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NickyJ, Ski Miquel. I've used them quite a lot over the years so I'm glad they did the right thing.

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Tenerife South to Glasgow, david@mediacopy,

I should also perhaps mention that we were travelling independently, not on a Thomas Cook package.

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TO Flight Cancellation ...

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