Daughter caught up in German Airport strikes.

Korkyb

Hi all

My daughter & her boyfriend have had their Ryanair flight cancelled due to the current airport staff strike action in Germany.

They were due to fly back to UK from Hamburg around lunchtime today.

They have managed to swap their Ryanair flight back home to one from Copenhagen later this evening so are currently about to get a train from Hamburg to Copenhagen.

The situation has turned out reasonably well considering (& she gets to spend a few hours in a lovely city she has never visited before 😁).

I don’t believe she is entitled to any “compensation” from Ryanair as the strikes are outwith their control.

I am wondering however if she might be entitled to any claim from her travel insurance policy in respect of the additional cost of the train tickets & additional meals.

I’ve had a look at their policy but can’t see a section that describes her situation.

The insurance is a single trip Coverwise Silver policy.

Thanks for any advice!

DullGreyGuy

Section Q part 6 seems to cover:

On the way home

6. We will pay you up to £2,000 for your reasonable additional travel (including up to £200 for taxis and hire cars) and accommodation costs (room only) which are of a similar standard to that of your pre-booked travel and accommodation that you cannot claim back from any other source if you have to make alternative arrangements to return to your home or stay longer outside of your home area as a result of:

a. The public transport on which you were booked to travel to your home area including connections being cancelled or delayed for at least 12 hours, diverted or re-directed after take-off.

b. You being involuntarily denied boarding (because there are too many passengers for the seats available) and no suitable alternative flight could be provided within 12 hours.

Whilst it not being Ryanair's fault for the strike and therefore you may not be entitled to additional compensation they still have basic duties of care and should have offered a refund or rerouting. Any insurance claim will be less whatever you paid for the original flight at a minimum as that can be gotten back.

user1977

Though I think they could have got Ryanair to arrange (and pay for) the alternative travel? In which case the insurer isn't to pick up the cost instead.

Korkyb

Sorry I didn't get back on this.

They didn't have time to wait for Ryanair to arrange the onward / alternative rail travel (it was a bit of a scramble to get a place on the Copenhagen flight in the 1st place) so did it themselves.

As they were around an extra £170 ish out of pocket they decided to just suck up the extra costs.

They both had separate Travel Insurance policies & by the time they had paid out the £50 excess each it would have been less than £40 each that they would have recouped.

They decided that life was too short for the hassle of claiming and just moved on.