can I claim? french air strike

dan_hartley_88

Myself, partner and 2 friends booked a 4 day 3 night break to benidorm on the 11th of june through bookable holidays payment was made over the phone full amount within 24hours. After arriving at Liverpool john lennnon airport for our flight at 8.05am with Ryanair to alicante we were boarded onto the plane to be then told there was up to a 3 hour delay, due to the french air traffic control on strike for 3 days starting 6am the day we were due to fly. after sitting on the plane for 3 and half hours we were told that they had made the decision to cancel the flight, and that there would be no more flights for 3 days. Obviously due to our holiday only being for 4 days we were unable to go due to no flights. We have contacted bookable holidays to claim for a refund but apparently we are unable to make a claim due to the fact it was not booked as a package holiday (which we were unaware of as we thought we booked and paid for a package holiday) we have contacted atol who have said bookable holidays were very misleading but clever and because it isnt a package they dont have to pay out. Half of the holiday was paid on a credit card so we thought as a last shot we would be covered by them, after numerous calls they apparently wont cover us either due to the fact they only persue our money from the holiday company and are unable to because the holiday company havnt failed to provide the holiday so they have no grounds to go on.

Are we just at a loss and going in circles or is someone liable?! If no options available would their be any legal grounds we can go on for bookable holidays? Ryanair refunded the flight money but we are unable to recieve anything back from the hotel.

Numerous phone calls to bookable holidays prove themselves very rude and simply could not care!!

friendofbillw2

dan_hartley_88 wrote: »

Myself, partner and 2 friends booked a 4 day 3 night break to benidorm on the 11th of june through bookable holidays payment was made over the phone full amount within 24hours. After arriving at Liverpool john lennnon airport for our flight at 8.05am with Ryanair to alicante we were boarded onto the plane to be then told there was up to a 3 hour delay, due to the french air traffic control on strike for 3 days starting 6am the day we were due to fly. after sitting on the plane for 3 and half hours we were told that they had made the decision to cancel the flight, and that there would be no more flights for 3 days. Obviously due to our holiday only being for 4 days we were unable to go due to no flights. We have contacted bookable holidays to claim for a refund but apparently we are unable to make a claim due to the fact it was not booked as a package holiday (which we were unaware of as we thought we booked and paid for a package holiday) we have contacted atol who have said bookable holidays were very misleading but clever and because it isnt a package they dont have to pay out. Half of the holiday was paid on a credit card so we thought as a last shot we would be covered by them, after numerous calls they apparently wont cover us either due to the fact they only persue our money from the holiday company and are unable to because the holiday company havnt failed to provide the holiday so they have no grounds to go on.

Are we just at a loss and going in circles or is someone liable?! If no options available would their be any legal grounds we can go on for bookable holidays? Ryanair refunded the flight money but we are unable to recieve anything back from the hotel.

Numerous phone calls to bookable holidays prove themselves very rude and simply could not care!!

Presumably you had travel insurance? I'd suggest you contact them.

If not, in the circs you describe you're pretty well screwed. Ryanair only contracted to provide the flight and they've refunded that. You are not eligible to EC261/2004 compensation as strike cancellations are not covered. The hotel were separately contracted to provide the accommodation, and you didn't show up for that.

Alan_Bowen

Air Traffic Control strikes are not the fault of the airline, and from what you say Ryanair have refunded all the money. What you bought were two entirely separate contracts, not a package, when you would have received a full refund but your contract with the hotel is valid, its not their fault if you cannot get there so they are not obliged to offer anything.

You are left with two possibilities, adequate insurance which might cover your loss or suing Bookable. This is highly speculative, you would have to show misrepresentation on their part, they have an obligation to explain clearly what you were doing and the risks attached. If you believe they didn't, you might have a claim but they have been at this game long enough I would have thought to have covered themselves.

Sometimes trying to save a little money can be very expensive, if your insurance does not cover you, go back to Bookable's website and see if you can create a similar booking, without getting to the payment stage and see what warnings there are, if there are none, you might have a claim

dzug1

Even insurance might be a bit iffy about paying for predicted strikes - depends how definite the strike was when you booked.

dan_hartley_88

Should have mentioned that part, yes we had travel insurance and paid extra to make sure it covered cancelations but reading the small print, cancelations due to death are only covered.

But we did think at the time of booking we would be atol protected because we thought we booked a package holiday. We booked over the phone and no warnings were given.

I have read somewhere that if 2 items ie flight and hotel are booked through same company within 24 hours then it is classed as a package, does anyone know any more about that?

We rang the hotel after speaking with bookable holidays and saying they cant do anything, the hotel were happy for us to move our dates to a different week as long as bookable ok'd it but unfortunatly they would not allow it.

Alan_Bowen

You must have an ATOL Certificate, that will tell you exactly what you booked, if it says 'Package Holiday' then you are protected and Bookable should pay up but if it says 'Flight Plus' it is not a package and you are left with the options I gave earlier. If you booked by phone, are you certain they said it was a package, it is even more important that you look at the documents you received and go from there. As a rule Bookable mainly sell Flight Plus options not Packages......although they do sell both

Voyager2002

Alan_Bowen wrote: »

You must have an ATOL Certificate, that will tell you exactly what you booked, if it says 'Package Holiday' then you are protected and Bookable should pay up but if it says 'Flight Plus' it is not a package and you are left with the options I gave earlier. If you booked by phone, are you certain they said it was a package, it is even more important that you look at the documents you received and go from there. As a rule Bookable mainly sell Flight Plus options not Packages......although they do sell both

Since it was bought by telephone they would not have seen any documentation until after they paid, and could not have been aware whether it was a Package as opposed to Flight Plus.

The original post makes it clear that they believed they had been sold a package, so there must be at least a suspicion of mis-selling.

Voyager2002

dan_hartley_88 wrote: »

Should have mentioned that part, yes we had travel insurance and paid extra to make sure it covered cancelations but reading the small print, cancelations due to death are only covered.

Assuming that you booked and bought insurance before anyone knew about the French strike, I suggest you write (politely) to your insurer explaining this, along with a completed claim form. Some insurers choose to make good-will gestures in this kind of situation.