Flight cancelled by Easyjet, who can I claim hotel costs from?

Bryony84

Hi all, I've been feeling like I'm going round in circles with this for months so thought I'd ask your opinions:

On 8th July we travelled to Gatwick airport to board an Easyjet plane to Thessaloniki airport (SKG) in Greece. On arrival we were told at the Easyjet desk that our flight had been cancelled due to Greek air traffic control strikes running from 10am - 2pm that day. For some reason they were unable to offer us any alternative flight until the following week!

Easyjet have refunded our plane tickets but we also pre paid for a hotel in Greece and have so far not managed to get very far in reclaiming the money. The travel agents (Beat the Brochure aka Como Street Travel) said there was nothing they could do, contact the airline. Easyjet said no compensation is due as the flight was cancelled due to 'extraordinary circumstances' but I am unable to understand why they couldn't reschedule if the strike only lasted 4 hours? Travel insurance was with Virgin Money Essentials 1, who say its not their problem and contact the airline.

I'm really not sure what to do next, but we have lost £435

dmg24

The only possibility of claiming this would be from the airline, however many do not cover industrial action.

System

Bryony84 wrote: »

but I am unable to understand why they couldn't reschedule if the strike only lasted 4 hours?

Because not only do they have to negotiate a new take off slot but also slots for flying across Europe and landing slots. If any of those three things are running anywhere close to maximum then they would not have been able to shoehorn an extra flight in. As this was July then the airspace around Europe would already be very busy with all the extra charter aircraft and spare slots would have been at a premium, if any existed at all.

Bryony84

dmg24 wrote: »

The only possibility of claiming this would be from the airline, however many do not cover industrial action.

Hmm, given that this is Easyjet issue, it seems rather unlikely that they would cover it, especially as they told me several times that I had to claim off the insurance.

Is there any point in me pursuing this do you think? To me £435 is a lot of money to just throw away, but if I'm fighting a losing battle, theres other battles to be fought, like my Lloyd PPI one!

dmg24

Bryony84 wrote: »

Hmm, given that this is Easyjet issue, it seems rather unlikely that they would cover it, especially as they told me several times that I had to claim off the insurance.

Is there any point in me pursuing this do you think? To me £435 is a lot of money to just throw away, but if I'm fighting a losing battle, theres other battles to be fought, like my Lloyd PPI one!

If your insurance does not cover industrial action there is no point in pursuing it.

apt

The airline would be responsible for your accommodation costs if you were waiting for a delayed flight, but it is not responsible for accommodation you cannot use because of cancellation. Your only hope is through your travel insurance. Have you been through the small print of the policy. Many Virgin policies should cover you under this section:

Travel delay
(This is not available if you have paid for the Red single trip policy
options.)
We will pay for each full 12-hour period you are delayed (up to the
amount shown in the table of benefits), as long as you eventually
go on the trip.
Abandoning your trip
If you have to cancel your outward trip as a result of a delay lasting
more than 12 hours where the delay has been caused by a strike or
industrial action, poor weather conditions or a mechanical
breakdown, we will pay for your unused travel and accommodation
expenses, including any local prepaid excursions, tours or activities,
up to the amount shown in the table of benefits after any amount
that you can get back is taken off.

If you've chosen a cheap option that dose not include this you've been unlucky. It's vital not just to judge travel insurance by price, but to check whether it covers your needs.

Bryony84

My policy doesn't have a travel delay section, but it does have a cancellation one and my documents say up to £3000 cancellation is included. The wording of the policy is a bit odd though as point 11 and point 13 in the exclusions seem to contradict each other. The strikes were not public knowledge when we booked (In April) and we had no idea until we got to the airport that morning.

Section D - Cancelling and cutting short your holiday
(This section is only available if it has been shown on your validation
certificate that cover applies.)
What you are covered for
If you have to cancel or cut short your trip because of one of the
reasons listed below we will pay up to the amount shown in the
table of benefits on page 1 for:
• travel and accommodation expenses that you have paid or have
agreed to pay under a contract and which you cannot get back,
including any local pre-paid excursions, tours or activities, if you
have to cancel or cut short your trip;
• reasonable extra travel costs if you have to cut short your trip; as a
result of the following:
1. You dying, becoming seriously ill or being injured.
2. The death, injury or serious illness of a relative, business
associate or a person who you have booked to travel with, or
a relative or friend living abroad who you plan to stay with.
3. If you are called for jury service or as a witness (but not as an
expert witness) or you are put in quarantine.
4. An accident to a vehicle which you were planning to travel in
which happens within seven days before the date you
planned to leave which makes the vehicle unusable (this
applies to self-drive holidays only).
5. If you are a member of the armed forces or police, fire,
nursing or ambulance services which results in you having to
stay in your home country because of an emergency or you
Page 9
being posted overseas unexpectedly.
6. If you are made redundant, as long as you are entitled to
payment under the current redundancy payments law and
that, at the time of booking your trip, you had no reason to
believe that you would be made redundant.
7. If the police need you to stay in your home country after a fire,
storm, flood or burglary at your home or place of business
within 48 hours before the date you planned to leave.
8. If the police need you to return home to your home country
after a fire, storm, flood or burglary at your home or place of
business.
9. If you are prevented from travelling to your intended
destination by government restrictions following an
epidemic.
10. If you become pregnant after we have sold you this policy,
and you will be more than 32 weeks pregnant at the start of,
or during, your trip. Or, your doctor advises that you are not
fit to travel because you are suffering from complications of
pregnancy or childbirth.
If you will be more than 32 weeks pregnant at the start of, or
during your trip and you still choose to travel, you may not
claim for cutting short your trip unless as a result of the
complications of pregnancy or childbirth.
Special exclusions which apply to section D
We will not cover the following:
1. The excess shown in the table of benefits on page 1.
2. You not wanting to travel.
3. Any extra costs resulting from you not telling the holiday
company as soon as you know you have to cancel your
holiday.
4. Cancelling or cutting short the trip because of a medical
condition or any illness related to a medical condition which
you knew about and which could reasonably be expected to
lead to a claim. This applies to you, a relative, business
associate or person you are travelling with, and any person
you were depending on for the trip.
5. Any claim that comes from pregnancy or childbirth, except as
provided for under the benefits in section A, unless a
qualified medical practitioner confirms that the claim comes
from the complications of pregnancy or childbirth.
6. The cost of your original return trip if this has already been
paid and you need to cut short your journey.
7. The cost of returning to the original destination to complete
your holiday or journey originally planned, and increased
expenses related to further accommodation there.
8. If you have to cut short your trip and do not return to your
home country.
9 You failing to get the passport or visas you need.
10. The cost of visas you need in connection with your trip.
11. Civil commotion, strikes, blockades, actions of government of
any country or threat of any such event.
12. Airport taxes and associated administration fees included in
the cost of your flights.
13. Claims arising from actual or planned strike or industrial
action which was common knowledge at the time you
booked the trip.
14. Failure by the provider of any part of the booked trip to supply
the service or transport (whether as the result of error,
insolvency, omission, default or otherwise), unless the event is
specifically covered by this policy. You should direct any claim
in this case to the provider involved.
15. Compensation for any Airmiles or holiday points you used to
pay for the trip in part or in full.
16. Any claim as a result of your passport or travel documents
being lost or stolen.
Please note: We will work out claims for cutting short your holiday
from the day you return to your home country, or the day you have
to go into hospital as an inpatient to the day you are discharged.
Your claim will be based solely on the number of complete days you
have not used.

System

Point 11 covers strikes happening that you could not have known about. Point 13 covers strikes that are known about but you possibly still travelled or booked accommodation in the hope that it would be over before your holiday/flight.

Alan_Bowen

The only possible claim you have is against your insurers, if you decide to book flights and accommodation and try to save money you really do run the risk of not getting where you are going to, whether it is because the airline or tour operator operating the flight goes bust, is hit by a strike, in which case a charter operator will usually operate the flight as soon as it can but low cost airlines rarely do this and in July would be operating at near 100% capacity, that is why the first seats were a week away. The hotelier of course has your room waiting for you and may not want to give you your money back, and why should they? Push Virgin and tell the rest of us when they finally refuse to pay out and we can avoid them. Exclusion 11 seems to absolve them of any liability for losses arising from strikes but there might be something else in the rest of the policy, if not, you certainly didn't Beat the Brochure, a tour operator would have refunded you in full if they couldn't get you on holiday

Hugbubble

Hi

Sorry for resuscitating this post...

I am due to fly to Skiathos next week, and there is talk of a general strike to coincide with the austerity vote in Greek parliament.

In the event that the worse happens, and I don't get there....

I wondered if the OP had any luck with claiming back the cost of her prepaid accommodation from the insurers, or, in fact, if anyone has been in a similar situation and could tell me what happened?

Cheers

HXDave

Hugbubble, how have you booked your holiday?

did you book seperate flights & accommodation? did you use an online agent who may have booked a seperate flight & accommodation under the guise of a package holida (but it's not really) or have you booked a full package holiday through the likes of Thomas cooks, Olympic, cosmos etc etc etc.

How & what you have booked will offer different scenarios.

Regards

HXDave