Missed Airport Transfer Causing us To Miss Flight

Kimby85

Our airport transfer bus never came to pick us up at our hotel causing myself, husband and 5 year old daughter to miss our flight back to Glasgow. We were then booked onto a flight later at night. Our flight was due to leave at 10:20am and our new flight at 8pm so we were stuck at the airport for the best part of 10 hours.
Am I due compensation? All i can find is that if you are delayed and I don't know if this is the same as being delayed?
Any help would be appreciated

elsien

Your flight wasn't delayed, you missed it due to the transfer problem. So I would think you need to take this up with whoever organised the transfer. Was it a package holiday? Did you try to contact anyone when it didn't arrive and did you have to find your own way to the airport in the end?

Kimby85

It was a Thomsons package holiday. We contacted a helpline to ask where our bus was and they kept saying they would get back to us and were trying to get in contact with the bus. We kept phoning and they said they couldn't find out any information. I didn't have enough money to get a taxi but had to phone one and draw out money from my credit card to pay it.
I kept phoning from the taxi to let them know we were on our way. When I got to the airport I ran to the desk to see the family that were in the same situation as us but got the first taxi that came get booked in only for them to close the desk in our face and leave us stranded.
I got the €80 back for the taxi but was left having to buy a breakfast and a dinner in an expensive uncomfortable airport and entertain a child for the best part of 10 hours.

Kimby85

I sent an email to Thomsons and to the manager of the store where we booked the holiday but as of now no reply

Kimby85

As I said any advice or recommendations would be welcomed.

elsien

I think you probably need to use their formal complaints procedure. Do you have receipts for the food? You also need to have a realistic idea of what you might be looking for in the way of compensation for the inconvenience, although I have no idea how you would quantify that. Are you still within the 28 days?


http://www.thomson.co.uk/editorial/faqs/how-to-contact-thomson/complaints.html

ETA - you also need to keep any requests in proportion. You had your holiday - this is a small blip at the end of it. Your flight was rearranged and you got home. Not fun, but certainly not the worst that could have happened. So take that into account when you're thinking about what you're asking for.

Kimby85

Thats what i feel like too.
I have the receipts for food. If it had been a delay i would have had a claim so why is this different? It wasn't my fault. I done all i could. I booked a package to take all the stresses out of my travel.
I don't know how to quantify the compensation. €40 for food and 3 bus tickets that I never got to use and inconvenience?

elsien

Because flight delay compensation is EU legislation that applies specifically to delayed flights within set criteria. Your flight was not delayed so the legislation doesn't apply to you. A missed flight isn't the same even though it wasn't your fault.
How much did your holiday cost?

PeacefulWaters

There is reimbursement of reasonable expenses. Receipts will help quantify it and it sounds like you have this.

I'd suggest there should be compensation for your time wasted. This might prove difficult to obtain but I'd suggest asking them for £10 per person per hour would be a fair starting point for negotiation. Ultimately, you may get a lower counter offer. If you don't like it be prepared to issue a money claim online against them.

Additionally, did you have any consequential losses due to not being home?

interstellaflyer

Sorry to hijack the thread but I can see how this can happen, being the only pick up from that hotel. We had a situation where the coach driver didn't stop at out hotel on transfer from the airport, we got on the coach and the Thomson Rep did the usual chat, then listed the order in which the coach was dropping off, our hotel was last stop, unfortunately it would seem that information hadn't been given to the driver and he missed our hotel out entirely, when we got the last drop which wasn't our hotel, on questioning the rep about it she tried to make out it was our fault as they had passed our hotel and we should've shouted out, not sure how she came to that conclusion, we were in a resort that we'd never been to before and she had told us we were last drop so how could we possibly know the driver driver had gone passed our hotel, as it turned out we weren't even sat on the right side of the coach to be a position to see the hotel.

Kimby85

The holiday cost £2400.

Apart from tiredness, I was working the next day at 8am I don't incur any other losses.

Thanks to all who replied. I will update if I hear anything from Thomsons