Long flight delay- what help can you expect?

sheilavw

Hi
My daughter and Partner were due to land into Manchester at 6.50 am tomorrow after 11 months in Oz. they flew with Cathay Pacific from Perth to Hong Kong and knew they had a 10 hour lay over. On landing they were told there flight to Manchester was cancelled due to Cyclone Nida. After queuing 3.5 hours they have been sent to a hotel. They have been told that even if flights tomorrow it is fully booked and could be weekend when a flight available. What can they expect from the airline? will they accommodate them for full length of delay? (Realise that the weather isn't airlines fault). Any advice would be appreciated

Caz3121

you would need to check Cathays condition of carriage, EU261 compensation/duty of care does not apply but I would expect them to be given accommodation till they can get them a flight if they have been sent to a hotel.
May be worth asking if they can get them on a Heathrow flight with a connection to Manchester (they have agreements with BA), may give more options if the direct flight is fully booked....worth an ask
May also be worth them speaking to their travel insurance

sheilavw

Thanks, they do have insurance, they purchased a 12 month policy for their Oz travels. Just hope it's not too long a wait, keen to haver her home!

eDicky

sheilavw wrote: »

What can they expect from the airline? will they accommodate them for full length of delay?

I think you can be confident that Cathay Pacific will take full responsibility for their accommodation and transfer costs etc until they are able to put them on a flight. This may well be sooner than the weekend, which is probably a 'worst case' estimate. Meanwhile they have an unexpected paid-for visit to Hong Kong, even if a family home reunion would be preferred.

sheilavw

Thanks... yes need to make the most of the delay and see a little of Hong Kong (weather permitting)!

sheilavw

update, received text, she has checked online and they have rebooked her flight for the 15th!!!! She needs to get home, can they really leave them stranded for 2 weeks!

agrinnall

sheilavw wrote: »

update, received text, she has checked online and they have rebooked her flight for the 15th!!!! She needs to get home, can they really leave them stranded for 2 weeks!

She needs to speak to the airline not to you. They are the ones who can sort this out, but they'll probably deal with the people who are more forceful first, so she should get to their offices and stay there until they come up with an acceptable solution.

bigadaj

sheilavw wrote: »

update, received text, she has checked online and they have rebooked her flight for the 15th!!!! She needs to get home, can they really leave them stranded for 2 weeks!

Unfortunately the answer is to create a fuss and make a nuisance of themselves, nothing abusive just persistent.

That length of time will be costing Cathay a fortune in hotel and living costs as well. They have the option of putting them onto another carrier, plenty of flights into the uk and huge numbers including a stopover, so keep pushing, unless they want a free holiday in Hong Kong which doesnt sound the case.

Westin

Did they ask for other UK airports as an option to return? If HKG/MAN is busy I think they would be better cutting there losses and asking to come back into LHR or LGW.

Cisco001

Tell CX they will accept going to other airport in UK or indirect flight.

By the way, accommodation in HK is quite expensive. Probably worth do a bit of slight seeing if the airline pay the hotel...

lady1964

As much as I love HKG, I wouldn't want to spend 2 weeks there, especially if I'd been away from home for nearly a year & just want to get home to my family.

Absolutely agree that they should speak to CX staff again and ask for alternative flights. If they have Internet access they could look up flights as have already been suggested, perhaps do some dummy bookings on Expedia (basically go through the process as if they're going to book). Then go back to CX & suggest suitable options. This would be a lot cheaper than CX putting them up in hotels for 2 weeks. Or ask about other airlines and indirect, perhaps through a European hub.