FLIGHT DISRUPTIONS: Volcano ash from Iceland hits UK flight plans

PhylPho

It would be nice if, at the end of all this, MSE or some other poster directly involved in this mess could prepare -- and publish on here -- a "black list" and "white list", based on the comments posted on this thread.

The former would comprise all those airlines and travel companies which, by their conduct, have shown themselves unworthy of the custom of any sensible UK consumer.

The latter could, quite rightly, feature a list of those airlines and companies who have shown themselves fully deserving of the future support of MSErs everywhere.

This forum is a special forum for consumers to "strike back".

Letting disreputable operators know that they've not got away with it this time -- and certainly won't have any chance of doing so at any other time -- is the best way of striking back I can think of, for if, as it seems, consumers cannot get the power of their insurance company behind them, or of their travel broker / agency, or of their airline's obedience to EU regulations, then let's get the power of the Internet behind us instead.

A Google search page top ranking of a black listed travel-related enterprise -- insurance company, airline, travel broker or agency -- is exactly the kind of publicity these folks are actually more desperate to avoid than even meeting their lawful dues and demands.

I've been fortunate to escape this dreadful episode. But on the basis of what I've seen on TV -- it's the only basis I have, though was sufficient to see Ryanair needlessly distressing stranded passengers by claiming it wouldn't abide by EU regulations, and Jet2 passengers revealing details of the airline's 'fly home contract' requiring them to relinquish their statutory legal rights -- I've already placed Ryanair and Jet2 on my personal black-list of companies I'd have to be insane to ever deal with.

There must be more candidates for such a black list -- and, to the credit of those involved, more for a white list, too.

zzzLazyDaisy

Good idea! As far as I am concerned you can place Thomas Cook on the white list!

bagand96

It would be nice if, at the end of all this, MSE or some other poster directly involved in this mess could prepare -- and publish on here -- a "black list" and "white list", based on the comments posted on this thread.

In an idealistic world it is a very good idea. However unfortunately its probably unworkable. For every person who declares airline X was fantastic, you will find another insisting they were awful. The opinions will be formed from individual experiences and perceptions. This is compounded by the fact that it was such an unprecedented event, and people's experience will vary massively depending on where they were standed, when they were stranded, staf in resort, the method of booking (direct with airline, flight only, package, travel agent etc).

I hope you don't think I'm being especially negative about your idea. But as an example, a few days ago there were threads about how awful customers of Virgin Holidays were treated. Now I read posts that can only offer them praise?! So are they good or not?

There is also the fact that as much as people may agree on a forum "how awful for you, I'll never use cheapjet in the future after reading this." For the vast majority, when it comes to booking the next holiday, and cheapjet are indeed the cheapest, then they'll book cheapjet.

I personally had a long running dispute with MyTravel a few years ago. It took months and went to ABTA. I thought they were the devil reincarnated at the time and vowed never again. Two years later their price was just too good, I booked, had a fantastic holiday and could not fault them.

oxters

We have been delayed in Australia for 12 days.
When I spoke to BA (I think a call centre in India) they were very good and arranged our flights and promised £100 per day for accommodation and £25 pp pd for food and drinks - keep your receipts and claim when you get home.
I have kept the receipts and will claim but can anyone say if BA are being good about this - is there a pro-forma claim etc?

Some days we have been over allowance and others under - will they average out etc?

I can't page through above as each page takes 5 mins to load at McDonalds!

jamesfoth

Hi there

We booked a flight with BMI baby to Prague for the 08/05/2010, it was cancelled on 13/04/2010 due to "operational issues", this was before the problems with Volcanic ash.

We were offered another flight on the previous day, but were told that we would need to pay the difference in price ourselves, we have since made other arrangements.

We were refunded the full cost of the flights and taxes but BMI have witheld our £27 booking fee, (£9 each). We have asked for it back but they have refused this request. We don't feel that we should be out of pocket by even £1 as the cancellation was no fault of our own, we also feel that £27 is very expensive for a booking fee in the first place.

Has anyone else had this problem and are we entitled to our booking fee back?

hieveryone

hieveryone wrote: »

Does anyone have any template letters for claiming through credit card provider?

Thanks

Edit: Would this claim count if you paid for the flights on the CC, but paid for extra costs (i.e accommodation) on a debit card?

Anyone have any idea on this before I call and make a t*t of myself?!" :rotfl:

eslick

hieveryone wrote: »

Anyone have any idea on this before I call and make a t*t of myself?!" :rotfl:

havent seen one but this is what which and this is money say, there is a template on TIM but not for credit cards.

http://www.which.co.uk/news/2010/04/iceland-volcano-what-are-your-rights-211663

http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/insurance/travel/article.html?in_article_id=502930&in_page_id=37

oxters

Cityboy wrote: »

Sorry to hear about your extended plight in Oz.

BA will reimburse meals/accommodation/airport transfers under the regulation together with 2 phone calls/emails/faxes. There is no upper limit on expenditure under Article 9 and BA is wrong to suggest one, but the watchword here is reasonable. If you are staying in a 5* palatial penthouse when there is the opportunity to book a 3* mid-range hotel, that would be unreasonable.

You will not be reimbursed for bar bills, car hire, in-room movies or anything outside the elements I mention above.

Keep all your receipts and send sopies of these when you eventually get home to the airline's offices. Make sure you send these Royal Mail Special Delivery so that you can track and get a signature for this. Since reimbursement for the thousands of passengers is an unusual situation and the airline is unlikely to gear up for this one occasion, I would anticipate that it could take as much as 6 weeks or so before you receive your reimbursed expenses.

There is no pro-forma claim form; state your claim clearly, listing expenditure by day. Since your receipts will be in Aus$, then it would be helpful if you summarise each day's expenses clearly and apply the interbank exchange rate (not the tourist rate) for that day. Even better if you wish to send the airline a copy of your credit card statement (and I realise that not everyone will want to) showing the expenditure you incurred, then it would be reasonable of the airline to use those figures on the statement.

Trust this is useful.

Cityboy - that is very helpful thank you. We are now home and I must say BA were excellent and much better than I had dared to hope.

I wll do just as you suggest. I will try just sending a copy of the visa statement because I have literally heaps of receipts in Aus$ which would be very difficult for them to check individually.
We moved out of a pretty expensive hotel in Sydney (as it was well over £100 per night) and as a matter of personal choice - hired a car to get about ( I had no expectation of getting that back). We then stayed in pretty inexpensive places - mainly under the £100 per night threshold we had been asked to stick by. Also by and large we managed to live on an average of £50 per day by eating at inexpensive places and also buying food/drinks from supermarkets and shops. On some days we bought a lot of stuff at the supermarket and lived on it self catering for a few days so on some days we spent well over the £50 threshold but on others we spent almost nothing so I am hopeful that they will be prepared to average things out.
Do you think I'd be lucky enough to a straight £150 per day to cover food and accommodation as long as I can back that up with a visa bill showing we spent that much overall at various places or do you think they would want to see the actual receipts?
Because of the admin involved in a huge team going through a myriad of receipts and ticking some items and excluding others, if I were Willie Walsh, I'd say - just give them a flat rate unless it looks over the top and they are trying to cash in) So I'd expect to get reimbursed for the wine and beer we bought as well as the food because the BA rep I spoke to on the phone said they would cover "food and drinks" within the £25 per person.
I will certainly post my result on here for the benefit of others but, as you say, that will take a fairly long while to come about. I'd have thought by now BA would have had more information on "the rules" and how to simplify the claim procedure on their website, but it's pretty much open to interpretation meantime.

You are one of the stars of this website, Cityboy - thank you most sincerely.

oxters

Cityboy wrote: »

Oxters

Make sure the copies of the individual receipts are sent in addition to the Visa statement. The airline will only reimburse the amount of the actual receipts (or sterling equivalent). Ensure your claim letter lists each item by day individually wiith the sterling amount in brackets alongside each item. Even better if you can sequentilly number each item in your claim and cross reference that to your CC statement.

You won't be reimbursed for a flat rate per day, no matter how much work that creates. The regs don't provide for this and if an airline did this for one, then others would also want to be compensated in this way.

OK Cityboy. That's all noted thank you very much. We'll make a start on that tonight. My ever thoughtful wife kept a word document itemising each expenditure on a daily basis so we will put that and the visa bill and the receipts (after copying them) to BA with a covering letter. Will let you know how we get on.

oxters

That's my claim all done and ready to send off. Just checked royal mail website and special delivery is £11.35 but I suppose it would be a lot of hassle if they said they didn't get the claim at some future date.
It was quite a task cross referencing everything and numbering receipts but it should speed things up if I make it easier for the staff. My wife did a very neat spreadsheet itemising everything. Maybe they will treat the claim more sympathetically.
Given that the BA rep. said they would pay for food and drinks, do you think they'll cross out all my beer/wine purchases?

Edit - just checked royal mail website and I will go for this:
If you have an important item to deliver, our Recorded Signed For™ service gives you complete peace of mind with proof of posting and an electronic copy of the signature available online.

• Proof of posting
• Signature on delivery
• Online confirmation of delivery
• Up to £41 compensation
• Prices from 74p plus normal postage