Curtailment of holiday

LOwen101

Good Morning, 

We had a 10 day holiday to Sicily and were flown back 6 days early. Jet2 have offered us 30% refund of the unused nights of the hotel. We had the most horrific time and journey home which instead of a 3 hour journey resulted in 13 hours. They also flew us to Stansted and not Manchester. I want to add here that the fire at Catania airport (an electrical fire due to a printer cable and not a wildfire) happened before Jet2 flew us out so they were aware of the fire at the airport and assured us that we would be flying to another airport. I have complained to Jet2 who have now responded with that there is nothing they can do. 
Does anyone know how or what I can do further? I cannot afford another holiday to replace this and having looked at the exact same holiday for next year it is £1000 more expensive so it looks like out of the question for next year also. 
Thank you 

elsien

What is the reason that your holiday was cut short? Could they not fly you back on the correct date from a different airport?

ETA - someone else has asked a similar question here and had the same answer from Jet2.   Curtailed Holiday — MoneySavingExpert Forum

LOwen101

They state the reason for holiday being cut short was Catania airport to have maintenance work following the fire. The reason for not flying from any other airport was that they don't operate from other airports. I offered on holiday to pay the difference in the hotel and then to keep up in Sicily and fly us back at 2 weeks when the airport reopened but they would not accommodate this. Insurance company have rejected a claim as state that I did not seek their approval of the returning flight. I have had statements from Jet2 representatives on the phone of "why do I feel entitled to a refund" and "I should consider myself lucky at least I got to fly to Sicily" 
I'm at my wits end and so upset by all of this. 
I'm sorry for the long winded rant. 
Should I be considering legal action?

elsien

I think it may help if you complete a clear timeline.
So for example if the insurance are saying you didn't seek approval for the return flight, who arranged the return? I'm guessing Jet2 - were you given any options at all? 
You probably need to exhaust complaints processes etc  before considering the legal route.

Westin

If you feel that you have a case and have exhausted progress with Jet2 Holidays you could take the matter to ABTA and use their resolution service

https://www.abta.com/help-and-complaints/customer-support/resolving-disputes

Let J2H know this is your planned next step as they may subsequently raise your claim value slightly as to use the ABTA scheme the tour operator has to pay for this resolution service cost.

Above said J2H might have good ground. The fire at CTA was obviously outside of their control and it took longer than expected to remedy. Initial airport expectations to be up and running in 5 days proved unrealistic.  Even when reopen there were severe flow and operational restrictions which lasted in the end for some weeks. Whole flight programmes had to be moved to the two other airports on the island, neither of which set up for the scale or even non-Schengen arrivals. On top of that once on the ground more logistical issues moving people around with coach capacity issues in what was high season.

Tough all round. No one’s fault.