Hoilday Insurance or Easyjet claim?

sallysaver

Hi,
I am asking this question on behalf of my SIL who unfortunately was a victim of the Air Traffic Control strike last week in France.
They should have returned to the UK last Wednesday but their flight was cancelled. They only found this info out quite late in the day so the Thursday flight (understandably) was full. As there is no flight showing for the Friday, they took he Sat flight, thus incurring costs for the extra accommodation which they found themselves.
They have excellent Travel Insurance but don't know whether they have to claim off them for this unfortunate incident or Easyjet. I have said I don't think you can blame Easyjet for the strike so I would value opinions on who to approach. Thank you - Sally

mcfisco

Easyjet should have accommodated and fed her, get her to present her claim [with receipts] to them

She may also have delay insurance so claim on that too

richardw

The insurance may say you're covered by ec261/2004 claim from easy jet.

sallysaver

Thanks to both of you for your information.
The reason I asked for help was, that last year, following a very large thread on the new compensation laws on MSE, I entered into correspondence with EASYJET regarding a cancelled flight I was booked on in May 2010. It took weeks for them to respond despite having all the dates, times, flight numbers etc and I thought they were just stringing it out. Eventually I was turned down as the flight once again was cancelled due to Air Traffic Control in France and they said it was beyond their control!!!
So, in order to avoid the same scenario, I wondered whether or not my SIL should just approach her own Travel Insurance straightaway. Thanks - Sally

richardw

With reference to http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=CELEX:32004R0261:EN:HTML the claim is under Article 5 and Article 9, not Article 7, but only if easyJet offered them the alternative flight and they didn't book it themselves.

sallysaver

Thank you once again.
Yes Easyjet did offer them the alternative flight. You had to follow instructions in the email to get on the new flight which is what I did on their behalf.
Interestingly, on their way home on the re-scheduled flight, they were talking to 2 ladies who only became aware of the situation when they went to the airport at 3.30pm. They were still at the airport at 10.30 pm with Easyjet still trying to find them accommodation!!!

Voyager2002

Most insurance policies exclude strikes, so while it is always worth contacting their insurer they are unlikely to get any money from insurance.

The strike is not the airline's fault, so no compensation is due. However, delayed passengers are entitled to "care", meaning food and hotel accommodation for the duration of the delay. So delayed passengers who arranged their own hotel at reasonable cost should be able to reclaim the costs involved.

sallysaver

Hi,
Well on my SIL's behalf, I have just submitted the claim for the accommodation for them to Easyjet. It has already been acknowledged but I won't be holding my breath as I know from experience how slow they can be. Fingers crossed they pay up. Sally

sallysaver

By way of an update, Easyjet have agreed to pay out for the cost of accommodation (E148) and E20 for transportation to my sister in law. Unfortunately they didn't keep receipts for meals they purchased but spent another E140 the 4 days they were delayed. Sadly, but understandable, they are not prepared to reimburse them for food. They are elderly and although I have done the claim for them, they are not used to doing anything like this and keeping the receipts for food just would not enter their heads. But they are pleased to get the accommodation money back.
I have scanned the consent letter back today, so hopefully will see the money back in their bank within the next 2 weeks. Thank you to everyone who gave advice. Sally