Options for a cancelled holiday

gazzebo69

Bit of a strange one this, but looking for some expert advice on this... my folks were due to fly to Boa Vista from Manchester on Monday 16th May till 30th May. Due to a funeral on the 20th, they can no longer go.

Ive been searching high and low to find options for them to get there one way on the 21st, but hitting a major brickwall, no seats left, too many stops so it would take days rather than hours to get there etc, travel agent got no other seats,travel days.

Looking for options up someones sleave, if anyone else has been in this situation when having to reschedule part of their holiday. They were travelling with other family members who are still going, but its getting late in the day and options are slim.

They are probably going to have to chalk this one down to experience, but thought someone may have some very useful advice.

Any ideas would be most welcome.

DomRavioli

Approach a flight specialist and the hotel. Or claim on the insurance if they can't go at all.

gazzebo69

Who would you say is a flight specialist. Ive looked at all flights on the i ternet and they either take days due to connections, or fully booked up. I guess with 3 days to go it is looking very unlikely. The insurance is their only hope, but i think they would salvage some of the holiday.

littlereddevil

Even if they get a later flight out they won't have their return for coming back as that will be cancelled if it is not two one way flights.
If it a close family member then their insurance will pay out I presume.

agrinnall

Or they could just go on the holiday anyway and not worry about the funeral - the person who has died won't know whether they are there or not.

gazzebo69

Hi.

I think they were maybe hoping to keep the holiday open and turn upto the hotel late and use the return flight back. But its getting out there, proving to be no flights unless you have a package holiday, and those holidays are full :-(.

I was going to suggest that maybe they skip the funeral as I will be there showing my support (its my mums brother)....I am 100% sure that he wouldnt want them to miss out....but knowing my mum, she will want to go....

bagand96

The problem is the destination. Cape Verde is pretty much exclusively served by charter flights for package holidays. And this is only a handful of flights a week from the entire UK. If it had been Spain/Greece/Turkey it may have been very easy to book a one way flight and salvage some of the trip.

Also, assuming it is a package holiday you'd need to speak with the tour operator, as not showing up for the outbound flight they may consider the whole booking cancelled including the hotel and return flight.

With it being your mum's brother it will hopefully be considered a close enough relative to be covered by insurance. You need to ring them though ASAP.

gazzebo69

bagand96 wrote: »

The problem is the destination. Cape Verde is pretty much exclusively served by charter flights for package holidays. And this is only a handful of flights a week from the entire UK. If it had been Spain/Greece/Turkey it may have been very easy to book a one way flight and salvage some of the trip.

Also, assuming it is a package holiday you'd need to speak with the tour operator, as not showing up for the outbound flight they may consider the whole booking cancelled including the hotel and return flight.

With it being your mum's brother it will hopefully be considered a close enough relative to be covered by insurance. You need to ring them though ASAP.

I think I have found some flights

Manchester to Amsterdam
Amsterdam to Boa Vista.

My two problems are now this :-

à Will the travel agent cancel the holiday if my parents are not on the outbound flight, can we keep it open and just return on the our scheduled return flight
à There is a 2 hour gap between the flight landing at Amsterdam and the connecting flight taking off to go to Boa Vista, will that be enough time?

Thanks for the info one and all, much appreciated as always.


My folks are speaking to the insurance company today as to what they can claim, we have had mix responses because my mums brother had a terminal illness which took hold
much quicker than expected in the last two months, so apparently because we knew about the illness they may not be covered.

Keep_pedalling

I would have thought as long as the holiday company are fully aware of the situation they should be able to keep those flights open, but the only way to know for certain is to ask the agent.

As for Amsterdam, I would try and fly out the night before and have an overnight stay, rather than risk a delay that could mean a missed connection and total loss of holiday.

agrinnall

A 2 hour connection in Amsterdam would usually be plenty, it's a very efficient airport, I've made connections with a lot less time than that. But if they can allow more then that'll be less stressful.

gazzebo69

How easy is it to book flights individually in this way, can it be done successfully.

So I will be booking a UK flight to Amsterdam. Then I have to go to TUI.nl, which is all in Dutch and book the flight to Boa Vista. Is it allowed.

When I do a search for flights with stop offs, it isnt on any search engines, but if I search for individual flights, I can find suitable flights...is that just an issue with the search engine, or isnt it a showing because for some reason it cannot be done.

I hate for my folks to get to Amsterdam and for some reason they cannot board the flight to Boa Vista. Ive done connecting flights before, but not where I have to book individually if that makes sense.

Thanks again for the info.