Missed my flight due to M25 Friday 14th Nov 2014

talktalktobt

How did you pay for your flight? If you used Amex or Visa call your card provider to check what 'extras' they offer. If you have a premium bank account, you might have travel cover - it is worth a check. You might (just) be lucky.

Having worked for a travel company some years ago, the stock answer is likely to be along the lines of "You are at fault as you clearly did not leave enough time to get to the airport in time." The fact the road collapsed won't be an issue to the airline.

zagfles

InsideInsurance wrote: »

You didnt leave 3.5 hours for your journey as if it had taken 3.5 hours you'd have arrived at gatwick car park at 13:00 and not have made your 13:00 flight.

Depending on where you are going to you should arrive at the airport 2 hours before take off time and so you actually allowed 1.5hours for a 1hr journey with a significant part of that journey on the notorious M25

As others have said, your only option is for compensation is going to be via your travel insurance. They may question if an extra 30 minutes was a sufficient margin assuming the airline does recommend arriving 2 hours before the flight and given the news of the issues on the M25 that was being widely reported prior to you leaving home

2 hours before is usually when the check-in opens, not closes. The closing time is usually something like 45 mins before the flight eg see http://www.britishairways.com/en-gb/information/checking-in

So the OP allowed about 2.5 hours for a 1-hour journey, however as it's the M25 it could be argued it's not a 1-hour journey typically!

zagfles

jap200 wrote: »

A similar thing happened to us a few years ago when flying to Spain as a family of 5. Our travel insurance didn't cover it. Since then we have specifically chosen travel insurance that DOES cover missed departures due to unexpected traffic/accidents etc as most don't. I think the Post Office one does and also the policy we now get through our Nationwide FlexPlus bank account.

Check carefully though as some policies cover you for the outward journey but not the return! Also, it goes without saying that even if you are covered you will need to prove that the road conditions were unusual/unforeseen, such as your M25 hole situation, rather than you just not leaving sufficient time with a reasonable contingency for delays. For the future, it is also worth thinking about booking a cheap local hotel room (Travelodge, Premier Inn etc) the night before to avoid the possibility of this happening again. A £59 room is cheaper than new flights following missed departure!

The Nationwide one says the traffic incident has to be serious enough to be reported on the news or a motoring association website, which this one clearly was, and it doesn't seem to say anything about not applying if the disruption is known about beforehand...

callum9999

zagfles wrote: »

2 hours before is usually when the check-in opens, not closes. The closing time is usually something like 45 mins before the flight eg see http://www.britishairways.com/en-gb/information/checking-in

So the OP allowed about 2.5 hours for a 1-hour journey, however as it's the M25 it could be argued it's not a 1-hour journey typically!

That's irrelevant. Most airlines recommend you get there 2 hours before the flight, therefore if you don't an insurer is likely to reject the claim.

Which makes perfect sense. You are told to get there early yet refuse and so end up being late - who's fault is it?

photome

callum9999 wrote: »

That's irrelevant. Most airlines recommend you get there 2 hours before the flight, therefore if you don't an insurer is likely to reject the claim.

Which makes perfect sense. You are told to get there early yet refuse and so end up being late - who's fault is it?

Some people refuse to accept those recommendations and then like to blame someone else when they miss their flight

zagfles

callum9999 wrote: »

That's irrelevant. Most airlines recommend you get there 2 hours before the flight, therefore if you don't an insurer is likely to reject the claim.

Which makes perfect sense. You are told to get there early yet refuse and so end up being late - who's fault is it?

Rubbish. For a start "most airlines" recommend nothing of the sort. It's not on the BA page about checking in, it's not on my last Easyjet or Ryanair boarding pass, are they not in "most airlines"? They state their latest check-in/gate closure time and some maybe some vague "allow plenty of time to get through security" recommendation. Besides which what the airline "recommends" is irrelavant, they might recommend you hire a car through them, buy their travel insurance, or buy duty free on the flight. It's what the airline mandate that is relevant. Like you must check in 45 mins before the flight.

The question is would the OP have got on the flight if he'd arrived at the airport 1 hour before the flight? The answer is almost certainly yes. He allowed way over that as contingency.

In the event, even if he'd have left 5.5 hours before the flight he'd have missed it. It's clearly down to the traffic incident, the issue is does his travel insurance cover missed departures...

callum9999

zagfles wrote: »

Rubbish. For a start "most airlines" recommend nothing of the sort. It's not on the BA page about checking in, it's not on my last Easyjet or Ryanair boarding pass, are they not in "most airlines"? They state their latest check-in/gate closure time and some maybe some vague "allow plenty of time to get through security" recommendation. Besides which what the airline "recommends" is irrelavant, they might recommend you hire a car through them, buy their travel insurance, or buy duty free on the flight. It's what the airline mandate that is relevant. Like you must check in 45 mins before the flight.

The question is would the OP have got on the flight if he'd arrived at the airport 1 hour before the flight? The answer is almost certainly yes. He allowed way over that as contingency.

In the event, even if he'd have left 5.5 hours before the flight he'd have missed it. It's clearly down to the traffic incident, the issue is does his travel insurance cover missed departures...

Well they certainly used to, if they don't any more then my mistake. Gatwick airport however says as a general rule (not recommendation, rule) you should check-in a minimum of 2 hours before a European flight.

It is not remotely irrelevant as all travel insurance policies will state you have to allow a reasonable amount of time. If you don't even meet the amount recommended by the airport then you're going to have a hell of a hard job convincing the insurer that it was "reasonable" (my insurer, UK Insurance (via Nationwide) have specifically told me that if you don't allow the recommended time you aren't covered).

Unless you're so naive that you don't think the insurers do all they can to reject as many claims as possible? They could get away with it (as you say, had they left earlier they would have had the same problem), but an insurer would be within their rights to deny it.

zagfles

callum9999 wrote: »

Well they certainly used to, if they don't any more then my mistake. Gatwick airport however says as a general rule (not recommendation, rule) you should check-in a minimum of 2 hours before a European flight.

It is not remotely irrelevant as all travel insurance policies will state you have to allow a reasonable amount of time. If you don't even meet the amount recommended by the airport then you're going to have a hell of a hard job convincing the insurer that it was "reasonable" (my insurer, UK Insurance (via Nationwide) have specifically told me that if you don't allow the recommended time you aren't covered).

Unless you're so naive that you don't think the insurers do all they can to reject as many claims as possible? They could get away with it (as you say, had they left earlier they would have had the same problem), but an insurer would be within their rights to deny it.

I suspect the airport's recommendation is more about them wanting you to have lots of spare time to kill to look around their shops Besides your contract isn't with the airport, it's with the airline. It's their terms which matter. The airline's specific rule about check-in time will override the airport's "general rule".

Lily-Rose_3

Jams91 wrote: »

I had a 1 pm flight from London Gatwick. I left at 9:30 am from Slough, reasoning that 3.5 hours to make the 1 hour journey would be sufficient and allow room for error.

M25 was a nightmare, took me 5 hours to make the 40 mile journey, arriving 90 minutes after my flight took off.

Paid for a ticket on a new flight at £180

Is there anyway I can claim compensation for my flight?

Thanks

I'm really sorry to hear this Jams, but I don't think you have a case. It's just plain old stinking rotten luck! If you do want to try and claim something; you could contact someone at Surrey Highway Maintenance, (if it's not them, then they may be able to point you int the right direction,) as there were repairs being done on the road at the time. They were laying concrete in the rain! Maybe if you could prove this delay cost you extra money, you could get the money back from them? Just a thought.

You did indeed give yourself plenty of time for sure, and it's very unfortunate that this mammoth traffic jam occurred. I think maybe public transport would have been better, but then again, sod's law says that the bloomin' trains would have been delayed or cancelled.

Also, sorry to say this, but maybe it's a good idea to check the roads in future; I mean this incident happened at 5am, and you didn't leave the house til 9.30am, so it happened 4 hours before you even left. If you'd checked for traffic issues, you would probably have spotted this and could have taken an alternative route; so this may go against you: it's not like it happened 15 minutes before you got to that particular spot. They may ask you why you didn't check for traffic issues before you left the house.

But what a horrible, long, tedious journey that must have been.

Hopefully this is the one and only time this happens to you.

Another idea maybe, would be to stay at a travelodge (or similar) near the airport, that is a short walk or short taxi drive away from the airport, so you don't have to worry about getting there that the day you go, as you will already be there!!!

P.S. re; the debate on here at the mo; I have always thought that you should arrive at the airport approx 2 hours before your flight, but I don't know if it's written in stone, or if it's just what people do! When we went to America a few years ago, the travel agent did recommend that we did that.

callum9999

zagfles wrote: »

I suspect the airport's recommendation is more about them wanting you to have lots of spare time to kill to look around their shops Besides your contract isn't with the airport, it's with the airline. It's their terms which matter. The airline's specific rule about check-in time will override the airport's "general rule".

While I do not know if the airlines still recommend 2 hours, I know for a fact that they recommend you take advice from the relevant airport on this matter.

If you think you can argue to an insurer that ignoring the recommended arrival time stated by the airport (whether you think they have ulterior motives or not) fulfils your obligation to allow "reasonable time" then good for you. I suspect that will be a hard sell for the rest of us though.