FlyBE: Cancelled Flight in December 2010 (Snow) - Seeking Guidance Please

ICHAPMAN

Hi,

We ( 2 Adults, 2 Children) got caught up in the snow cancellations in December 2010. Our flight with FlyBE was cancelled from Paris CDG back into Exeter.

I'm hoping that someone can give me some guidance on what FlyBE should be looking to cover please.

Friday:
We learn't about the cancellation prior to leaving our hotel at Disneyland. I called FlyBE call centre to confirm the cancellation of the flight, and they rebooked as on the flight the next day.

As our Disney tickets were valid for the day, we arranged with Disney to extend our hotel room for the night. (Note: That Disney charge a small forture for a room-only booking onsite).

The additional costs for this day amounted to around £463. This cost is largely the hotel room (£327), but also includes lunch, evening meal, refreshments, call charges to FlyBE and wireless internet - the only purpose which was to in order to access FlyBE's status page.

Saturday:
On the following morning we had breakfast early (covered as part of the hotel room booking), but prior to leaving Disney we again learn't that our flight had been cancelled. Again we called FlyBE and they confirmed cancellation. After much discussion the only option that they could offer was to rebook us for the next flight which was the evening of the following day. As this wasn't suitable for us (and also having watched the weather locally, and back in the UK), we managed to book Eurostar tickets back to the UK.

Once back in Ashford we picked up Taxi and a local hotel.

With the Eurostar, some refreshments and lunch, the costs for this day were around £551. The majority of this was the Eurostar costs (around £338), and UK Hotel (£90). The remainder are call charges to Flybe, Lunch, Evening Meal and UK Taxi.

Sunday:
From Ashford we got a Taxi back to the Train station, and got tickets from Ashford back to Tiverton. Once back at Tiverton a family member picked us up and drove us back to our car. Picking up the car we picked up an extra charge to cover the additional parking charges. Costs for this day were £178, majority of this were the train tickets.

So, the total costs were around £1014. We took the decision on the Saturday to get the Eurostar, as the local French weather we beginnging/had snow heavily, and all FlyBE could offer was to put us on the Sunday flight. In reality they didn't fly back in Exeter until the following Tuesday.

On my return to the UK we wrote to Flybe and explained and proved detailed and receipted costs. This week they have finally replied with a cheque for £329.

In reality my expectation was that they would not cover the entire costs, I'd thought they would lose interest the moment I stepped on the Eurostar (and the cost of this).

Whilst they haven't proved a breakdown of how they come to the value of £329, it is to cover the cost of accommodation, meal and transports costs. They also say that they are only paying a maximum of £75 per 2 persons per night for the hotel costs. They also claim that under EC 261/2004 no compensation is payable as the flight cancellation was due to situations outside the airlines control.

Seperately they have refunded £130 to cover the return flight that we didn't use due to the cancellations.

After this fairly lengthy post (thank you for still being here), my question really is it worth challenging the payment from FlyBE, or have they skipped around the legal requirements?.

Appreicate any advise/opinions please.

Thank you

signol

It would appear that they have fulfilled their legal obligations - as the cancellation was due to weather, they offered you the next available flight and paid for your accommodation. They might have paid more "compensation" but are not obliged to - I'd say leave it at that.

signol

Caz3121

next stop should be your travel insurance to see what they will cover

richardw

Do you think flybe could have taken 'reasonable measures' to avoid the cancellation?

greenface

Flybe take advice from the aviation authority and do what they suggest.
Suppose they could take a chance and bucked the trend . Would love to have been the bloke on the departures door saying " you know this is a bit iffy dont you" Not too sure the runways long enough" hope the snow melts while before we land" compos about right for reasons explained . Amazing how some (hotels suddenley hike their prices when there needed most)

ICHAPMAN

Thanks all for you replies, and sorry for the delay in coming back to you.

It was originally difficult to get a straight answer from FlyBE as to what they would consider. Originally the answer was nothing, then it was the unused flight, and then after a bit more conversation maybe the hotel, and then maybe some meals. In the end I was advised to write to them with the details.

I found them fairly slippery, and wondered how many customers actually gave up at the initial part of the conversation where I was told nothing would be refunded...

As to whether FlyBE could have done anything about this.... My memory is now fairly distance as to the facts, but I do seem to recall them cancellating the flight due to the plane being stuck at Belfast. Normally the flight would be Belfast - Exeter - Paris CDG. As both Exeter and Paris CDG were open at the time on one occasion it was perhaps disappointing that they didn't have capacity for an alternative plane available to run that section of the flight?.

Anyhow, given that FlyBE were difficult originally difficult to get information from, the purpose of my original post was really just to understand whether FlyBE had met it's obligations on compensating us.

As to the suggestion of Travel Insurance - they washed there hands of any involvement, stating that this was purely an issue for FlyBE to compensated for.

Thanks

richardw

Do you think that if they had a standby aircraft with crew you could have flown from CDG to EXT?

charley1965

We were also stuck at CDG in December due to the snow. We were supposed to fly back to Gatwick with Flybe but also made our own way home as there was no way we were going to get a flight. Flybe provided nothing for us, no hotel and no meal vouchers, absolutely nothing. In fact we were advised to leave the airport (by an Air France representative) minus our checked luggage as it was utter chaos.

To cut a very long story short we got told the same by Flybe, no compensation due etc. This is a tactic to ward most people off. We kept pursuing the matter and eventually got reimbursement of the majority of our costs, though the hotel and meal allowance was a set rate £75 for the hotel and £25pp for meals. This was only after I submitted an EU Complaint Form. I suggest you do the same as Flybe will do anything they can to avoid paying costs. Send it to Flybe and they have six weeks to respond. They responded to us after three weeks or so. I would also advise contacing your travel insurer to see if you have enforced overseas stay cover. Good luck! You can download it here, scroll down to Forms..

http://ec.europa.eu/transport/passengers/air/air_en.htm