Advice - missed flight due to traffic

InsideInsurance

JimW75 wrote: »

Do I have any consumer rights about the flight being missed due to circumstances beyond my control?

You have consumer rights when the merchant has done something wrong or in a few exceptional circumstances outside of that.

Not leaving enough time to get to the airport if there is bad traffic/ roadworks/ accidents etc is clearly not the airline or merchants fault. According to Google Maps even with no traffic it is 2:41 (obviously at speed limits). A 19 minute float is not enough.

Personally I am with others, unless travelling for business, then I would much rather get to the airport early, check in without queues, look at duty free and then go into the lounge and drink/ eat until the plane is ready.

ferf1223

Pollycat wrote: »

We usually left home at 09:30 so that allowed 9 hours before departure time and that was on Saturdays when the M25 wasn't so busy.

Mostly it took us 3 hours...

this sounds exactly how I would probably do it and is one of the reasons we do just stay in a hotel the night before...ignoring the stress of the actual driving, and the tiredness from the drive, and the benefit of the holiday starting early ...if we DID drive the day of our flight we would end up at the airport a zillion hours early because I would be so worried about being late.

I also completely agree with spacey2012- Sometimes spending a little to protect a lot is a money saving tip - I appreciate this site is about moneysaving, but sometimes value for money is more important to us than actual savings...and staying in a hotel at the airport is, to us, value for money even ignoring the idea of losing the entire cost of the holiday by missing a flight...to others maybe it seems like a waste and an expense that could be avoided.

jackieblack

ferf1223 wrote: »

this sounds exactly how I would probably do it and is one of the reasons we do just stay in a hotel the night before...ignoring the stress of the actual driving, and the tiredness from the drive, and the benefit of the holiday starting early ...if we DID drive the day of our flight we would end up at the airport a zillion hours early because I would be so worried about being late.

I also completely agree with spacey2012- Sometimes spending a little to protect a lot is a money saving tip - I appreciate this site is about moneysaving, but sometimes value for money is more important to us than actual savings...and staying in a hotel at the airport is, to us, value for money even ignoring the idea of losing the entire cost of the holiday by missing a flight...to others maybe it seems like a waste and an expense that could be avoided.

I couldn't agree more.
Especially travelling trans-atlantic, when your travel day is a going to be a longer day anyway due to the time difference on arrival, we just can't be doing with getting up at stupidly early o'clock to ensure we get to the airport in good time.
Our flights have usually been mid/late morning but a couple of years ago we had flights at 3pm and were debating whether or not to still go down to the airport the night before.
Undecided, I went to cook dinner, switched on the radio, and the first thing I heard was a traffic report that, due to 'an incident' the M25 had been closed for 8 hours! :eek:
(I wonder how many people missed flights that day.)

The Premier Inn was going to cost £35.
:think:
It was a no-brainer

malc_b

It is worth pointing out that holiday insurances differ. Most will cover you for delay in scheduled transport (trains, buses). A lot will cover you for an accident you are in on the way to the airport. A few will cover you for excessive delays on motorways/dual carriageways, i.e. an accident ahead of you. Guess which type of insurance I always buy!

Insurance for motorway delays isn't any more expensive. OK it may not be the £7 a head deal but then the cover for £7 is not very good. I paid under £50 for annual.

In this case the OP probably didn't allow enough time. But even staying at a hotel the night before doesn't cover this sort of thing. All major airports are served by motorways and the accident could be 7 miles of tail back from the airport junction. If your hotel is 10miles from the airport via the motorway you're still going to be stuck in the jam.

The solution is to read the small print on holiday insurance and only pick ones that cover motorway delays. If more people did that then this would be a more common feature of insurance.

Here are some that, when I last looked, had motorway cover but note that was a few years back.

Geatcover.com, Multitrip.com, annualtravelinsurance.com, direct travel insurance (weak medical cover), Holidayrisk.com (money supermarket.com), Columbus (weak medical cover), essentialtravel.co.uk

Ones that don't have motorway cover (at least when I last looked), Argos, Age UK, Aviva, insurewithease, More than, getmy.com, oinc.com, Direct line, AA, LV, Nationwide (LV), Debenhams, Preferential Travel, Halifax.

I should explain "weak medical cover". Insurers can reject a claim because you didn't tell them about something they say is relevant, even if totally unrelated i.e. you didn't tell them you were on medication and were hit by a bus. That's insurers for you!

Some insurers give a list of conditions that can be ignored or make it clear that you just don't have cover for that condition. For the others you need to declare everything (HRT/Pill included so I guess 25% of people should be declaring), this, as well as being a pain usually puts the price up too so my preference is for insurers who have a no need to declare list.

stoneman

I live in Central Nottingham and have traveled to LGW in excess of 20 times and it has never taken me less than 3 hours, so end of debate.
5 hours is not enough period, I would never try and catch a flight traveling on the same day that distance away, too many chances of getting caught up in traffic.

Doshwaster

ferf1223 wrote: »

I also completely agree with spacey2012- Sometimes spending a little to protect a lot is a money saving tip - I appreciate this site is about moneysaving, but sometimes value for money is more important to us than actual savings...and staying in a hotel at the airport is, to us, value for money even ignoring the idea of losing the entire cost of the holiday by missing a flight...to others maybe it seems like a waste and an expense that could be avoided.

Not to mention that the cost of hotel + parking isn't much more than the cost of parking alone.

Pollycat

I wonder how long before the flight the OP actually left Nottingham.

He only says that the journey took 5 hours.

But I guess - back on topic - the OP has no chance of getting his full money back, although he could try to get the airport taxes back.

SandC

Agree with the general consensus, I live in Stoke on Trent and allow for 3 hours on a normal day with no problems en route. I would also aim to be there four hours before flight time so give it 7 hours - having said that, the only times I have driven to Gatwick have been for weekend flights and normally morning/midday so have been driving through the night.

My last hol was from Gatwick and this time with a 12pm departure I decided to get a National Express coach the day before, stay at the Hilton onsite for the night and have a long but leisurely journey back home after my hol. Okay so I needed and extra day off work and it took all day to get home on return but it was stress free and the coach + hotel cost less than petrol and parking.

The M25 bit is what I hate, and actually on the way down on the Friday we were delayed by 2 hours as there had been a lorry fire which blocked the motorway for some time. One lady had not given herself any leeway and had 20 mins to catch her flight - I presume she had checked in already, wonder if she made it?

As for insurance, I'm sure some do cover for traffic but they would have expected you to have left more time for that particular journey. If you missed the flight completely having taken 5 hours to get down there you were only allowing for maximum 2 hours to get from carpark to terminal etc. anyway.

JimW75

Thanks for the feedback guys is always good to hear back others views/experiences - I guess it will be put down as a lesson to learn in the future - East Midlands airport from now on!

ferf1223

malc_b wrote: »

If your hotel is 10miles from the airport via the motorway you're still going to be stuck in the jam.

Well, I would never stay at a hotel 10 miles from the airport either for just this reason. We typically stay within the airport perimeter or thereabouts...never requiring a trip on a motorway the morning of a flight...and where possible we stay somewhere either connected to or within a short walk of the terminal itself...furthest away we ever stay is the Holiday Inn M4/J4 for LHR...we usually stay at the Hilton at Gatwick but normally fly Virgin so use their twilight check-in and nice to just wander over to the hotel after that.