Vueling flight cancelled, all they offered instead was a BUS from Spain to England

Bungaroosh

My Vueling flight from Bilbao to Gatwick was cancelled about 1hr 20mins before the flight was due to depart. I had been in the bag drop/check-in queue for 2½ hours and I was about fourth from the front of the queue when the flight came up on the board as "cancelled".

There were a lot of problems with suitcases all over the check-in area due to the Iberia baggage handling staff strike.

The airline did not offer any alternative flight but instead chartered a bus to take willing passengers from Bilbao to Gatwick. They said it would take 15 hours, but it took exactly 23 hours in total.

I have submitted a compensation claim for the cancelled flight, and I also want to request a refund for the cost of the flight. In the wording of the EC 261/2004 regulations it says

(a) - reimbursement within seven days, by the means provided for in Article 7(3), of the full cost of the ticket at the price at which it was bought, for the part or parts of the journey not made, and for the part or parts already made if the flight is no longer serving any purpose in relation to the passenger's original travel plan, together with, when relevant,- a return flight to the first point of departure, at the earliest opportunity;

(b) re-routing, under comparable transport conditions, to their final destination at the earliest opportunity; or

(c) re-routing, under comparable transport conditions, to their final destination at a later date at the passenger's convenience, subject to availability of seats.

I don't believe a 23-hour bus and ferry journey to be a comparable transport condition to a 1hr50min-flight, so am I entitled to a refund of the flight cost in this case?

Many thanks.

Grumpy_chap

That sounds like an exceptional change for the airline to make.  Did they give any reason why coach was the alternative transport selection?

You mention "willing passengers" - what was the alternative for the "unwilling"?

Was this a bus through France and then across the Channel, or a bus to a local port (Bilbao / Santander) and ferry all the way with a bus transfer back to Gatwick once in UK?

bagand96

I think everyone can agree that a bus is not comparable transport conditions!  Also be interested to know any more details/context as to why a bus was arranged and not a replacement flight.

You'd have been in your rights not to travel and to arrange a replacement flight yourself, and then claim the cost of that back from Vueling.

If you travelled on the bus I'm not entirely sure of your rights for a refund.  The regulations clearly state alternative transport under comparable conditions.  But they have no reference to any further rights if the airline arranges un-comparable transport and the passenger takes it.

silvercar

Considering that Vueling is owned by IAG, who also own BA and Iberia, you would have thought they would accommodate you on a flight, even if it went to Heathrow rather than Gatwick!

Caz3121

Neither BA nor Iberia operate from Bilbao to UK. Only alternative flight would have been EasyJet which operates 2 flights a week (so may have involved been stuck for few days) or departing from a different airport 

Grumpy_chap

You would have thought that BA or Iberia could have "repositioned" a plan if the will was there to take a flight from Bilbao to Gatwick...

Perhaps they did and the alternative plane was a smaller capacity so the encouragement for "some" passengers to accept the bus.

Typically around 400 seats in a plane.
Around 50 seats in a coach.
Did the airline quickly arrange 8 coaches to go to London?
Or, the replacement plane had a different configuration, say 380 seats, so they just needed 20-odd people to agree to the coach?

eskbanker

Grumpy_chap said:

Typically around 400 seats in a plane.

Not in a single-aisle Vueling Airbus there aren't, more like 180 in one of their A320s used on that route!

Caz3121 said:

Neither BA nor Iberia operate from Bilbao to UK. Only alternative flight would have been EasyJet which operates 2 flights a week (so may have involved been stuck for few days) or departing from a different airport 

Vueling fly 2-3 times a day from Bilbao to Gatwick though?

Westin

I think the issue was the walk out and industrial action by handling staff at BIO.  I doubt another IAG aircraft flying in to operate the VY service would have worked, or even accepted, if there are no ground staff to accommodate and turn the aircraft.

Not ideal I grant but the coach/ferry options may have been the best next alternative.  At least VY offered a solution.  No doubt equal complaints if they had done nothing and left passengers without any alternative options during the industrial action.

Bungaroosh

Grumpy_chap said:

That sounds like an exceptional change for the airline to make.  Did they give any reason why coach was the alternative transport selection?

You mention "willing passengers" - what was the alternative for the "unwilling"?

Was this a bus through France and then across the Channel, or a bus to a local port (Bilbao / Santander) and ferry all the way with a bus transfer back to Gatwick once in UK?

I guess some passengers (e.g. with very young children) opted for a refund. I would say that around 25 passengers took the bus (including myself) as they needed to get to England. There were no available flights showing for the rest of the week. A preceding delayed Gatwick flight took off while we were queuing to check in, but those people's check-in bags didn't travel with them. A Vueling flight from Bilbao to Tenerife was also cancelled close to the time that ours was. General chaos reigned in Bilbao airport and we had queued for nearly 3 hours just to try checking in the bags (there no separate bag-drop, just a single queue to check in for all Vueling flights).

I had sympathy for the hapless Vueling employee in her challenging task of with dealing with all the passengers from our cancelled flight, and forgot to ask her why no flight was offered, but I could see from their website (while I was waiting in the queue in front of her desk) that none were available.

The bus drove all the way through France to Calais, and the same bus went on the ferry and drove us from Dover to Gatwick (an uncommonly quick and delay-free final journey leg, thankfully). One of the drivers' passports had expired, but UK immigration let him into when his reason for entering the country was obvious and that he would be heading back to Calais a few hours later.

I had considered getting a BA flight from Bordeaux to Gatwick the following evening (before the bus was confirmed as actually running), but on balance, a "15 hour" bus journey (plus our check-in bags actually travelling with us) seemed the least arduous means of getting to Gatwick, and without shelling out £200+ (flight, train to Bordeaux, accommodation) without any guarantee of getting that money back.

I had to contact Vueling via Twitter(!) to get them to amend something to do with the booking on their website to allow me to put in a compensation claim.

I'll try drafting an email, and copying it into a private message on Twitter, to ask them for a refund on the basis of a 23-hour bus journey not being comparable transport conditions to a 1hr 50min flight.

I'll let you know how I get on!

Bungaroosh

Vueling have responded and refused compensation:

We are sorry that your plans had to change because your flight was cancelled. We work hard to ensure that our flights take off and land as planned, but some circumstances are beyond our control.

In this case, your flight was cancelled due to an airport operators' strike, which was external to our operations, so we had to take additional safety measures that limited the number of flights operating from the airport.

As it was an extraordinary circumstance, which we were not able to avoid despite putting all reasonable measures in place, in accordance with Article 5.3 of Regulation (EC) No 261/2004 of the European Parliament, and with the case law of the Court of Justice of the European Communities, you are not entitled to any form of compensation. "Airport operators' strike" is disingenuous. It was Iberia's baggage handling division that was on strike throughout Spain for four days. Vueling, British Airways, Aer Lingus, and Iberia are all part of IAG. Another flight to Gatwick took off while we were queuing to check in at Bilbao. I've seen on Mumsnet and in another article this email for contacting Vueling if you have a case reference number: particularcustomervy@vueling.com . I suspect trying to deal with Vueling directly may be flogging a dead horse, so would it be advisable to try Resolver in the next instance?

brianposter

Compared to what has happened to some people the bus seems to be a fairly good outcome. Personally I would accept that these things happen.