Rights when tour company fail to get you to airport meaning we missed flight

J_E_Foster

We were travelling as part of a package holiday. Due to weather conditions and road closures our tour company failed to get us to the airport to catch our return flight which departed on time. Eventually a coach did reach us and took us to a different departure airport to catch a specially chartered flight back for us and 170 other guests in same situation back to the UK. However this landed at Gatwick instead of our original booked East Midlands flight. In order to get home late on Sunday evening we had no option but to pay £355 for a taxi. Arriving back home over 12 hours later than booked! The tour company are advising that we should claim off our travel insure but I thought it is the tour companies responsibility to get us back to our booked airport. Help please with what legislation I should use with the tour company with this claim. thanks

agrinnall

Have you spoken to your travel insurer? It might be simpler and quicker to make the claim from them as it sounds like your travel company may be reluctant to pay up.

PeacefulWaters

The tour company had a duty to get you to your originally planned destination at no extra charge.

You would normally expect coaches to get laid on. If they were and you took a taxi instead, tough. What options did they offer?

If none, I'd say they're liable for the full bill.

You should find more expertise here.

tomtontom

Was the National Express coach not running? That is a very expensive taxi, you can get a taxi from Gatwick to Nottingham for half that cost - were you a large group?

lea2012

I imagine after the journey they'd had, the last thought was to go looking for a National Express coach or try to seek cheaper transport. If your tour operator did put on a coach back to East Mids as mentioned above then you should have used that to get you back, but I presume they didn't in which case it is the Tour Operators responsibility to pay.
I would send them a letter along with a photocopy of your taxi receipt asking for the money back.

J_E_Foster

No transport option was provided by the tour company and there wasn't even a representative around in arrivals as we had been promised in France. If there had been another option we would have taken it. we looked at trains but we had missed the last one. Travelling with two young children four bags and two sets of skis and being dumped at Gatwick at 10pm on a Sunday night didn't leave us a lot of options. Tour company are referring us to our insurance but that has an excess and I feel the tour company should pay as a matter of principle.

PeacefulWaters

J_E_Foster wrote: »

No transport option was provided by the tour company and there wasn't even a representative around in arrivals as we had been promised in France. If there had been another option we would have taken it. we looked at trains but we had missed the last one. Travelling with two young children four bags and two sets of skis and being dumped at Gatwick at 10pm on a Sunday night didn't leave us a lot of options. Tour company are referring us to our insurance but that has an excess and I feel the tour company should pay as a matter of principle.

There's a link in my previous post to another part of the forum where you should find more expertise.

Use it.

Caz3121

another thread from someone caught in this
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/5142363
agree that travel insurance is likely to be the way to go.

tomtontom

lea2012 wrote: »

I imagine after the journey they'd had, the last thought was to go looking for a National Express coach or try to seek cheaper transport. If your tour operator did put on a coach back to East Mids as mentioned above then you should have used that to get you back, but I presume they didn't in which case it is the Tour Operators responsibility to pay.
I would send them a letter along with a photocopy of your taxi receipt asking for the money back.

You have a duty to mitigate your losses - paying way over the odds for a taxi is not doing this. I agree that the OP should pursue the operator for their costs, but should also be willing to settle for a more realistic amount.

bagand96

PeacefulWaters wrote: »

There's a link in my previous post to another part of the forum where you should find more expertise.

Use it.

I'm not sure if the flight delay compensation board will be much help. It sounds like the OP's missed their flight due to not making it to the airport because of weather. The tour operator then found them (and other travellers) a later flight home because of the circumstances. This is not the airlines problem.

I guess the tour operator are referring you to the insurer because the problem was caused by weather. which to be fair to them is beyond their control. They already layed on an extra chartered flight (at significant cost to themselves no doubt).

If this was indeed the extreme weather in France, it was well documented in international news and well beyond the tour operators control.

stephb34

Which tour operator is it?