Spanish Air Traffic Control - What to do about Cancelled Holiday

Bertieburt

Hi

We got caught up in the Spanish ATC strike, our flights with Monarch from Manchester to the Canaries were cancelled on 4 December our holiday was a DIY build with flights and accomodation booked separatly so our costs are;

Flights
Airport Car Parking
Accomodation booked via a ABTA bonded agent

all booked on a credit card

Our Insurers tell us they are not liable as we are covered only if we are unable to travel because of accident / illness etc not a suplier failure.

Monarch will refund or rebook the flights but if booked after 10 days of 4 December will charge a fee and increased fare difference

Our Travel agent is trying to get the accomodation provider to let us change the dates (to February as this is the earliest we can go with xmas and work commitments).

What compensation are we entitled to if our accomodation provider will nether offer a refund or chage the dates and who can we claim ours costs from ??

I am sure we are not the only ones in this position.

thanks

Phil

blue_haddock

This is similar to when the volcano caused many people to have their holiday cancelled. I'm sure if you look in the volcano threads they will point you in the right direction.

But generally it is a risk you get by booking each piece on their own rather than a proper package holiday

dzug1

The short answer is - none.

However, you may have asked the insurance company the wrong question. You are not claiming under the cancellation section, you should be claiming under travel delay. That may have fewer exclusions and normally allows cancellation after you have been delayed 12 or 24 hours.

bagand96

You have no rights to any compensation on accomodation I'm afraid. You have three separate contracts, one with an airline, one with a car park provider, and one with an accomodation provider. The airline are fulfilling their obligation by offering a refund or rebooking.

Whether you get any money back for accomodation or car parking will depend on the booking conditions of those items. It may be you can get a full refund, may be a refund minus an admin fee, maybe no refund. Depends on the T&Cs of the booking basically. Some companies may offer a refund as a goodwill gesture even if it was a non-refundable booking, due the extraordinary circumstances. But that is entirely up to them

The fact that it was booked on a credit card is not relevant in this case. That only covers you for non-provision of service or goods. In this case the car park was available, and the accomodation would have been available, its not their fault you couldn't get there.

The remaining factor is your insurance. Have another chat with them following dzug's advice. Some policies will cover industrial action, some cheaper ones may not. Its the risk you take with DIY I'm afriad.