Cape Verde Sandstorm, TUI

Parcel456

Can someone advise on what i should do next if possible.  A bit of an unusual circumstance where a sandstorm was taking place when we took off for Boa Vista on Jan 25th this year, the pilot had to land on Sal due to poor viability, which we completely understand, how we were treated by Tui over the following 48 hours we certainly do not understand. First of all we were kept on the aircraft for 3 hours while Tui tried to decide what to do with us, then they told us they were taking us to Portugal but they needed to change flight crew due to hours, so we had to get off the aircraft into the airport which was chaos due to several delays and another flight landing there that was due to land on Boa Vista. There were no reps, no information, no food or drink vouchers offered, we were just abandoned.  6 hours we were in the airport before any reps turned up, during this time they tried to board us for Portugal and Malaga, but we didn't even get to the aircraft.  They then told us they hadn't got enough rooms on the Island for all of us, so we were taken to a hotel, given a blanket and told to sleep on the floor in the Foyer. As you can imagine we didn't get much sleep! the next day they bought us home, and we landed at 3am, so another day of barley any sleep. TUI have refunded the holiday and sent us £600 holiday vouchers but they are saying they will not offer us any compensation, can they do this??

eskbanker

What are your compensation expectations actually based on?

There are compensation provisions within the UK/EU261 flight delay/cancellation regulations, but these aren't payable if delays/cancellations are caused by extraordinary circumstances beyond the airline's control, such as extreme weather conditions like this, so the airline isn't liable to pay you anything on top of the refund other than accommodation costs and meals.  In such situations it's unsurprising that there isn't an onsite collection of well-informed staff available immediately to make alternative arrangements and keep people advised, but that's not to say that they did all they could, although if there were no hotel rooms available then they couldn't magic these up.

Over and above the responsibilities of the airline, the tour operator/package organiser may offer compensation if you booked a package, but that would be specified in the booking terms - presumably it's the package organiser who offered £600 worth of vouchers?

Westin

Parcel456 said:

Can someone advise on what i should do next if possible.  A bit of an unusual circumstance where a sandstorm was taking place when we took off for Boa Vista on Jan 25th this year, the pilot had to land on Sal due to poor viability, which we completely understand, how we were treated by Tui over the following 48 hours we certainly do not understand. First of all we were kept on the aircraft for 3 hours while Tui tried to decide what to do with us, then they told us they were taking us to Portugal but they needed to change flight crew due to hours, so we had to get off the aircraft into the airport which was chaos due to several delays and another flight landing there that was due to land on Boa Vista. There were no reps, no information, no food or drink vouchers offered, we were just abandoned.  6 hours we were in the airport before any reps turned up, during this time they tried to board us for Portugal and Malaga, but we didn't even get to the aircraft.  They then told us they hadn't got enough rooms on the Island for all of us, so we were taken to a hotel, given a blanket and told to sleep on the floor in the Foyer. As you can imagine we didn't get much sleep! the next day they bought us home, and we landed at 3am, so another day of barley any sleep. TUI have refunded the holiday and sent us £600 holiday vouchers but they are saying they will not offer us any compensation, can they do this??

The £600 of holiday vouchers is your compensation.

bagand96

As pointed out above there's no EC261 compensation due from the airline as the events were outside of their control.

The airline have a duty of care for refreshments and overnight accommodation during delays like this. If this wasn't forthcoming from TUI then you could have purchased your own food and drink and claimed the cost back with receipts.

Likewise for overnight accommodation. However you may have faced the same problem as TUI if theyre weren't hotels available. Cape Verde is a destination where hotel capacity is extremely limited and largely sold wholesale to tour operators. A few flights delayed and diverted could easily fill up vacant rooms. TUI are the major player in Cape Verde so if they couldn't find hotel rooms I doubt there were any.

Sounds like a nightmare, but it's worth remembering they don't set out to ruin your holiday, they'd have been doing the best they could to resolve the situation and would have cost them an absolute fortune. 

Might have to chalk it up to experience, to me the TUI offer seems generous if you're someone who books package holidays and uses TUI. 

Hoenir

Parcel456 said:

TUI have refunded the holiday and sent us £600 holiday vouchers but they are saying they will not offer us any compensation, can they do this??

What more are you expecting to receive ?  Given the circumstances you describe there needs to be a degree of  common sense and realistic expectatations applied.