Package travel regulations - loss of enjoyment

phillips101

One other aspect that hasn't been mentioned is the status of the agent - is this a reputable company that's a member of ABTA, who offer an escalation/arbitration process?

A member of ATOL yes. A reputable high street agent. The issue isn't the usual "scummy agents" that usually cause stuff like this. It was bad luck, but I recognise they are not going to give me anything I'm entitled to without a fight (or even tell me I'm entitled to it)

Well, with such a string of bad luck in the first 2 weeks of the vacation you might start to question "bad luck" and think it's to do with having !!!!!! business partners who prey on package customers. Though the airnz mechanical issue was definitely bad luck and not malice.

phillips101

I don't believe there's an accepted definition of significant in this context, and imagine that the agent would argue that a 36 hour flight delay in the middle of a 32 day holiday isn't sufficient to trigger this clause, and therefore all the subsequent ones, but a court might disagree.

This is not the agent I used, but this agent has a list of what "might be considered a significant change"

https://www.cosmos.co.uk/significant-changes-information/

It includes flight reschedule of more than 12 hours, as well as a change of number of nights in the holiday. (Though they say departure or return flight, not inter-holiday flight. I guess not enough people do multi-leg trips for it to commonly come up)

But they only offer £50 compensation for these things! Which does seem to take the mickey a bit. I suspect they want people to read this and then say "my flight was delayed by 12 hours, give me my £50!" without them realising they may be entitled to more as per PTR.

eskbanker

phillips101 said:

One other aspect that hasn't been mentioned is the status of the agent - is this a reputable company that's a member of ABTA, who offer an escalation/arbitration process?

A member of ATOL yes.

But are they a member of ABTA?

phillips101 said:

I don't believe there's an accepted definition of significant in this context, and imagine that the agent would argue that a 36 hour flight delay in the middle of a 32 day holiday isn't sufficient to trigger this clause, and therefore all the subsequent ones, but a court might disagree.

This is not the agent I used, but this agent has a list of what "might be considered a significant change"

https://www.cosmos.co.uk/significant-changes-information/

It includes flight reschedule of more than 12 hours, as well as a change of number of nights in the holiday. (Though they say departure or return flight, not inter-holiday flight. I guess not enough people do multi-leg trips for it to commonly come up)

That's what I was meaning by context - that 12+ hour flight reschedule applies to planned timetable adjustments (or changes in number of nights) to be considered as potentially significant changes prior to the start of the package, i.e. within scope of PTRs part 3 rather than part 4.

phillips101

But are they a member of ABTA?

Sorry I thought ABTA was just the same as ATOL but for things that did not contain flights.

They are not ABTA but I've checked and they are part of a service that offers mediation/arbitration

That's what I was meaning by context - that 12+ hour flight reschedule applies to planned timetable adjustments (or changes in number of nights) to be considered as potentially significant changes prior to the start of the package, i.e. within scope of PTRs part 3 rather than part 4.

I can see that interpretation yep

phillips101

Update. I put in a claim and got 2/3rds of what I asked for, plus £500 apology voucher (unsure if we'll use it, might give it away).

They gave me two loss of enjoyment claims (£200, and £1000). They justified the larger loss of enjoyment claim by saying it is "according to Union Passenger Rights" which is obvious nonsense as nothing about the flight was EU.

They did not compensate me per day missed from the vacation (though I do think they were worried, hence the large compensation in the other packages and the voucher)

They did compensate me for all irrecoverable expenses we ran up in the 36 hour delay as well as for the next day due to missed accommodation.

They compensated me for a missed tour and missed days of car rental, including for the time which the car spent broken down.

Overall I am not happy but I am not angry or upset either. The most upsetting thing is how they thought they could give me money for the missed tour and nothing else, when I first complained. They ended up giving me £1700 more than their original offer, plus a £500 voucher on top.