Alternative Travel Costs After Flight Cancellation

Hnf_man

A few friends and I recently had an internal Flybe flight cancelled from the South West of the UK back to the Midlands. Around 4 hours' notice was given for the cancellation with no reason.

Flybe simply sent a link with two options: apply for compensation or search for another flight. The next flight was not for another 24 hours and staying another night was not possible. Luckily, there was a Sunday service train which we had no option but to hop on and get back home.

The train tickets cost each of us £170.00 which I will be sending to the airline for reimbursement. I have tried looking online for laws/legislation on airlines refunding alternative travel costs but I haven't had much success. I anticipate the airline to refuse this but what options were available? Get the train, get a taxi, stay another night, all of which will cost money which I/we shouldn't be expected to pay.

Hopefully someone out there knows something about this. Is the airline required to refund all alternative travel costs? Thank you very much in advance for your help.

Best regards,

Hednesford_man

Justice13075

Seems reasonable to me. You will be due €250 per person for the cancellation as long as it was not extraordinary circumstances plus the difference between your flight cost and your train costs. so if your flight was £100 you should get the extra £70 to cover your train. Put yor flight details into bottonline and euclaim to see what they say about flight compensation.

JPears

The law/legislation is regulation 261/2004 whcih contins the info you need.
https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/HTML/?uri=CELEX:32004R0261&from=EN
and downloadd Vauban's excellent guide.

Tyzap

Hnf_man wrote: »

A few friends and I recently had an internal Flybe flight cancelled from the South West of the UK back to the Midlands. Around 4 hours' notice was given for the cancellation with no reason.

Flybe simply sent a link with two options: apply for compensation or search for another flight. The next flight was not for another 24 hours and staying another night was not possible. Luckily, there was a Sunday service train which we had no option but to hop on and get back home.

The train tickets cost each of us £170.00 which I will be sending to the airline for reimbursement. I have tried looking online for laws/legislation on airlines refunding alternative travel costs but I haven't had much success. I anticipate the airline to refuse this but what options were available? Get the train, get a taxi, stay another night, all of which will cost money which I/we shouldn't be expected to pay.

Hopefully someone out there knows something about this. Is the airline required to refund all alternative travel costs? Thank you very much in advance for your help.

Best regards,

Hednesford_man

Hi,

WOW! do train tickets really cost that much, £680 to get 4 PAX from the SW to the midlands, I'm shocked.

Regardless, I'm going to pay devils advocate here. Would a taxi for all four not have been cheeper and more convenient? I feel it may have been.

You are entitled to ask the airline to reimburse your alternative travel cost but you are expected to keep them as reasonable as possible. IIRC, the wording is 'necessary and reasonable' or something similar.

You may also be due EU261 compensation too, but that depends on the reason for the cancellation.

Good luck.