Holiday cancelled due to air traffic control strikes

Hmoore6781

My mum was due to fly to Cyprus the beginning of Oct. She booked a package holiday with on the beach. she was due to fly on the Sunday morning and got a text from easyjet on the sat to say her flight was cancelled. She then called on the beach who told her someone would call her back sat afternoon, which they didn't so she called them back again. They told her that they were offering everyone full refunds. She would get her flight money back quite quickly, which she did, but the hotel could take up to 2 weeks which was fine. She chased this up with on the beach yesterday as had no contact from them regarding the hotel money and was told that they can refund it but will be deducting £299 as the hotel charged them for 3 days. Can they do this? I thought as they were atol protected they had to give you your money back? Also they didn't offer an alternative they just said they are refunding everyone. Any advice?

Caz3121

Hmoore6781 wrote: »

She booked a package holiday with on the beach.

She will have made a "flight plus hotel" booking rather than a package
from the OTB website
"As an online travel agent, we don't sell package holidays, we let you build your own by giving you access to a wide range of cheap flights, hotels and transfer suppliers, saving you money. And it's great to know when you book your holiday, accommodation or flights through On the Beach, every part is financially protected through either our ATOL protection scheme or ABTA protected Trust."

has she spoken to her travel insurance yet about reimbursement

ttoli

It's not unusual for Hoteliers here to charge the for late cancellations ,from their perspective they will lose money.

AlexMac

In 40+ years of regular holidays I've only ever experienced cancellations four times;
- the 1996 Eurotunnel fire which closed down Eurostar when I was in Brussels
- one Ryanair flight cancellation when the August 2006 "lemonade bottle" terrorist threat closed all London airspace for a few days,
- a second Ryanair flight cancellation due to one of the (all too frequent) French ATC strikes, and
- one this year when a Brittany Ferry to Spain was taken out of service due to a break-down.

So bad luck, but this happens; in my experience, once every ten years or so!

The good news? In each case, (with the exception of Eurostar who were hopeless and uninformed) the operator was incredibly helpful; Ryanair surprised us by arranging best possible alternative later flights; Brittany Ferries by bunging us generous compensation, an alternative earlier crossing and a free hotel night in France... plus vouchers for next year.

But the real deal was that our insurers coughed up for the added hotel costs in each case...

... you do have insurance, don't you...!

leylandsunaddict

Their Atol has nothing to do with this. It's not a package holiday. Its 2 separate elements with 2 separate contracts. She's lucky to have any accommodation charges refunded because the accommodation is still available for her to use. If she has consequential loss cover on her insurance she may be able to may a claim for the shortfall.