Flights and accomodation cancelled

[Deleted User]

This is a very Loooonnnggg 3 part enquiry for any advise that you may be ablle to provide

154 Jules Auber Cancellation 19.00 Friday 11th October 2024 16 Days stay.

 

Our booking was accepted and confirmed by the vendor owner and fees Money was paid well in advance prior to embarking on this ordeal of time to be spent in transit  to our now being callously left homeless for 16 days on a foreign island in the Indian Ocean some 10,026.2 Kilometres  from our United Kingdom homeland, with all of the Anxiety Stress and upset for two elderly pensioners in our 70's. My wife has recently undergone back surgery and requires assistance to walk and I suffer spinal problems to compound this situation to the EXTREME to say the least.

We departed our home at 6am travelling by taxi to Manchester airport to start the first leg of our 15 hour 2 flight journey from Manchester via CDG Paris airport to Roland Garros airport Reunion Island, which is under French rule located within the French Territory  island of  Re-Union Island in the Indian Ocean.

 

We received the callous cancellation by telephone message at 19.00 as we had just sat in our seats on the aircraft prior to embarking on our 11 hour flight from CDG Paris to Roland Garros RUN airport Re-Union island.

Being pensioners in our 70’s and not in the best of health we have had to Scrimp and Scrape and do without none essentials for over 2 years to save enough money for this long time in planning SUPPOSED to be our Relaxing Dream holiday. But that dream came to an abrupt end by the Callous could not care less action of this booking Agent / Vendor.

 

So now we face an 11 hour flight then to arrive on a French speaking island, we get by but  DO NOT SPEAK Fluent FRENCH and have been left with the prospect of our having been placed Abandoned and Homeless for the next 16 days upon our arrival at Re-Union Island in the Indian Ocean. Which according to Mr Google is some 10,026.2  Kilometres as the crow flies  from the sanctuary of our homeland of Great Britain

We booked our accommodation with ample time before booking our flights to ENSURE that we had secured  a roof over our heads for the 16 days prior to booking our flights. We organised and secured our full 12 month  travel insurance in June 2024 ready before  our then finally deciding which dates we were to travel.

AirBNB plus Booking.com have cancelled many of our previous bookings for this holiday. With NO explanation other than it is the vendor that has double booked your accommodation or has other reasons to cancel your booking each time. Meanwhile Time was ticking away to the start of our holiday and we FINALLY secured our 16 day accommodation which was accepted and verified by the AirBNB booking agent and the Vendor who is located and a resident property owner on Re-Union Island.

Our Credit card payment was made and accepted some 14 days prior to our departing our home in Great Britain.

 

Early Sunday morning 27th September my wife booked in on line as soon as the airline's STIPULATED window timeframe had commenced  prior to arriving at Roland Garros airport. Within minuets of doing so we each received an email on our separate mobile phones from Airfrance informing us that Airfrance airline had cancelled our original return flight AF0647 10:20 Monday 28th September  to a flight 2 hours 35 minuets later to 12.55 which had the knock on effect of  us missing our connecting flight AF1268  21.00 at CDG airport Paris to MAN Manchester airport U.K to flight AF1668 to now depart 09:50 Tuesday 29th October extending our travel time a further 12 hours causing an overnight stay at a hotel accommodation within the CDG airport complex / vicinity, eventually provided by Airfrance airlines company.

 

 

Our Manchester taxi collection booking had to be rearranged with considerable disruption to 2 days of our taxi drivers scheduled airport transit service diary bookings and forcing him to rearrange and redistribute his bookings to other private hire vendors at such short notice, so as to accommodate our day later arrival that had been forced upon us all by the actions of Airfrance airlines. This upheaval had been calculated and put in place well in advance of Sunday 27th October.  Airlines calculate for late bookings and allow for those that turn up at the airport on the day to purchase last minuet flights We do understand and fully appreciate it is not cost effective or good business sense to fly 2 aircraft with a complement of passengers at half full capacity on the same route to and from the same destinations.

We have jumped through all of Airfrance’s ever changing rules and procedures without question, Plus all THREE countries Airport Customs rules and regulations forced upon us so that we are allowed to travel.

 

Our two claims regarding our flight disruption and also recommendations regarding the care and over and beyond the working directives of the wheel chair assistance operative and support staff whilst the 2 hours upon our return flight arrival at CDG airport. Commencing at the Aircraft exit right through to the Airfrance customer service desk staff forced to seek and home cancelled and rescheduled many flights full of displaced passengers to overnight accommodation into various already full to capacity local hotels within the CDG airport complex. Then ensuring we have overnight Air France 1 box of snacks and  1 bag each of overnight stay essentials and chaperoning us to outside of the terminal building, including waiting with us until the Mini bus shuttle service arrived. Then helping us into the Hotel shuttle mini bus. All this long after his end of shift time had expired. The three on board our shuttle mini bus assistance operatives took over and transported the now boarded passenger to our various allocated hotels and assisted us off the mini bus then inside the hotel to young lady manning the night shift reception desk.

 

Our designated Hotel The Marriott Courtyard was marvellous and also included a buffet style breakfast. After which we were collected promptly at 07.45 Tuesday morning 29th October 2024 by airport shuttle mini bus support staff and then chaperoned through Duty free etc to our designated Boarding gate waiting seating area within Terminal 2E at Gate K31. At this point we were PROMISED that another Support staff member would collect my wife with a wheelchair to escort us through the boarding gate passport / boarding pass check in and to their Airfrance aircraft. So we sat and waited for our flight assistance operative to arrive. Eventually the start of boarding of our flight was announced over the Public address system. No one came, so after 15 minutes we decided that no one was coming so we took our turn  joining the queue of the able bodied and slowly proceeded down the ramp walkway then down the access tunnel onto the aircraft for our return flight from CDG Paris to Manchester airport. 

 

More information has been omitted or forgotten but this is the general outline of our Nightmare escapades of our past 17 day ordeal.

My wife has recently had surgery on her lower spine as a consequence she  required wheelchair assistance while travelling through the airports concerned. This service was arranged and booked at the time of initially arranging / booking our round trip Airfrance flight schedules for our THEN planned DREAM Relaxing Carefree 16 day holiday.

Well that was how we had  planned originally.

Hmmm another case of the best laid plans of mice & men springs to mind.

 

 

Also a few years ago we booked the same journey From Manchester to Heathrow with British airways to land at terminal 1 then transfer to terminal 2 to board AIR Austral airlines for the next leg of the journey to Re-Union Island.

Our flight was delayed for over 4 hours due to fog it later transpired. Though no airport staff were available to enquire when we located someone we were told to sit and watch the Flight information displays. Then eventually our flight was displayed and we were all treat like cattle herded at great haste as if it was our fault for the delay, through Passport control onto the aircraft destined to Heathrow. All we were now told was Heathrow was fog bound NO flights were landing or taking off and our flights would be awaiting our arrival. We arrived at Heathrow passengers queuing everywhere where chaos ensued. No British airways staff to ask for advice or direction so we decided to make our own way to the shuttle bus service outside the terminal 1 building to travel to Terminal 2. Same situation here. Eventually we located a man with a walkie talkie and briefly explained our situation. He called various personnel on his walkie talkie over a 30 minute period. Eventually informing us that our AirAustral flight had landed, staff had manned the Air Austral information desks and boarding gates loaded with passengers, got back on the aircraft and left Heathrow airport.

We informed him that our contract was with British Airways he said well there are no British airways staff at this terminal. Their headquarters are based in Terminal 1 so he advised us to return there.

So back to Terminal 1 we went and joined the terminal packed full Zig zag lines of stranded passengers. Time ticks by with no refreshments offered. We can't go for our toilet needs or food and refreshments as we would lose our place in the queues.

22.00 came and went and we then heard a tannoy announcement. Heathrow airport will close at 22.30 no more flights will be leaving until 07.30 tomorrow. By this time we finally reached the desk for flight allocation. The male staff member informed us that we will be issued a ticket for an over hotel and that we should return around 6am the next morning to rejoin the queues for allocation of our next flight to our destination. Maybe via Dubai or Mauritius Island providing seats are available, time of departure will be determined by the  allocated flight/s OBVIOUSLY.

So we spend the night and at 6am I return to Terminal 2 and join the zigzag queues. My wife went for breakfast in the hotel then joined me in the queue. I then returned to the hotel for a quick snack of breakfast, after which I rejoined my wife in the queue and eventually got to the desk and were issued our flight. Before departing with our tickets we enquired as to the situation with our suitcases. We were told You’re suitcases have been kept overnight in a holding area and will be placed on your new flight to your destination.

OK so this is official

11 hours flight later we land at our destination airport and queue at the luggage carousel for an hour or so. Surprise, Surprise no luggage or our 5 year old Granddaughters Guitar bought for her Christmas / January birthday surprise present that she had been begging her parents for quite some time that we had paid over the odds for at Manchester airport transporting in the aircraft hold as excess baggage. Having been assured it would be allowed with us inside the aircraft.

So we  locate a lady airport official then she spends 2 hours on the telephone chasing our luggage that is still sat in a pile in a holding area at Heathrow airport.

She was told and relayed this information to us that our luggage would be placed on the next available flight from Heathrow via DUBAI and would be here later TODAY.

Well that never happened 5 DAYS later after our daily visits and telephone calls to the Air Austral St Denis offices our 2 Brand new pre-flight suitcase were delivered now BATTERED and Broken but at least the guitar was still in one piece only due to my pre travel preparation and due diligence securely OCD packaging the boxed guitar in case of such an occurrence.

 

No apologies received either then or since from British Airways. The lady Air Austral officer / manager supplied us both with Company logo T shirts and odd bits to tide us over until our suitcases materialised HOPEFULLY.

Anyway so we submit a claim on our return home in the UK having spent 4 weeks on holiday. December through Christmas into January at the Best Western Hotel Saint Denis.

Months later we received a British Airways response letter informing us that our claim had been refused due to adverse weather conditions and this was not the fault of British Airways but a natural phenomena which was beyond their control.

No option for replacement of our damaged suitcases or their disappearance for 5 days.

So that was that.

A year or so later a program similar to yours was on TV advising any previous Flight delay claims to be chased up due to new rules and regulations that had been recently introduced.

So we reapplied with great scepticism of a successful conclusion in our favour.

As expected NO change but the same Result and same excuse from British Airways.

Also informing us that they had already TOLD US we had NOT any grounds for a claim and the case had been closed YET AGAIN !

 

Now today Saturday 2nd October 2024 we now watched a BBC Morning Live TV Watchdog type general News and advise program from Spam Frauds cooking recipes travel exercise various types ranging the full gamete of   help and advise to arm us before being the victim of the bad guys and companies out to get us and our hard earned money.

Anyway British Airways fought  a case that a passenger and his wife had previously Won but was then overturned and now LOST. Fearing the worst of the whole expenses and court costs if they took their claim to the Supreme court and LOST AGAIN. But they decided to persevere and  had NOW WON their claim after many years of  big brother tactics to wriggle out of their responsibilities to provide the service that they were contracted to their fare paying passenger customers. Pointing the blame on Aircraft pilot illnesses and any other excuses they could manifest as being the causes and NOT them the Company.

So the advise from the presenters of said program if your claim is less than 6 years old reapply you MAY be successful ?  Hmm well I don’t know our dates off the top of my head but I have all the information in a folder somewhere for both claim submissions over the years.

As with the U.K’s first budget airline entrepreneur Freddy Laker then years later Richard Branson were pressured and ridiculed squeezed out by the big established Big Brother airlines.

Any advice would be GREATLY APPRETIATED

Kind Regards 

oldernonethewiser

Your post is so long and rambling with lots of inconsequential detail as to make it difficult to understand.

What are you hoping to achieve?

eskbanker

[Deleted User] said:

Any advice would be GREATLY APPRETIATED

My advice would be to spend some time teasing out some concise questions....

DE_612183

Are you able to re-post a more simplified version on events without the emotion?

ie 27/10/23 booked flight and accomodation using BA
01/04/2024 - Flight due to depart 19:00
01/04/2024 - 18:00 email recieved to advise flight cancelled due to bad weather

etc etc

Alan_Bowen

With respect, you should write a short note, not a novel as few will have the time to read it. However, let me solve at least one issue for you. Your previous trip through Heathrow Terminal 1 must have been more than 6 years ago as it closed down in June 2015, so any possible claims you have have expired.