Flight cancellation woe

[Third rate Leszno]

Me and Mrs B just been told, at short notice, that easyjet have cancelled our flight home from a weekend break.

We cannot change the date and fly home later because of work commitments, and their policy appears to offer only (a) full refund, including the (unaffected) outbound flight, or (b) Reschedule on the same route within a 30 day period. This latter option is also a non-starter for us, for a number of reasons (including the fact we're going for a specific event).

I've suggested that they allow us to fly home via a different route and they pick up the cost - and am awaiting a response with little hope of success.

I wondered if the collective experience of OTF could tell me whether we can claim for costs we will still incur if we cancel the whole break? For example, we have booked the hotel on a promotional rate which is non-refundable, we've prepaid for the airport car parking, and bought event tickets for stuff that we'd hoped to see whilst over there - which I doubt we can sell on.

In my naivety I'd like to think that we could claim this lot back from the airline, but I suspect that they will argue they've offered us an alternative/refund and it's our problem that circumstances mean we can't take advantage of that without being seriously out of pocket.

I guess we could claim on our travel insurance, but there's an excess on the policy which means we'd still lose out. More importantly, we'd be fucking gutted as we both really need a break and our last holiday went to ratshit when Mrs B developed shingles on Day 1.

It's occurred to me that we could cancel, get a refund and find alternative flights with another carrier - but at this short notice I can't imagine that'll work out cheap (though we would at least still get the break).

[ad hoc]

Flight cancellation woe

Assuming the flight was in the EU, then this should be the place where you will find out what your rights are: http://ec.europa.eu/transport/publications/doc/apr_leaflet_en.pdf

People like Easy Jet hate the EU because they actually insist on this stuff

[Etienne]

Flight cancellation woe

As you'd only need to pay for the return flight, I'd think that would be a better bet than cancelling everything, even if you can't get a proper recompense from EasyJet.

[Reed John]

Flight cancellation woe

It's occurred to me that we could cancel, get a refund and find alternative flights with another carrier - but at this short notice I can't imagine that'll work out cheap (though we would at least still get the break).

That's still probably the cheapest option. I don't think they'll pay for any of that other stuff, unless the EU rules are different.

Some friends of mine were flying to Ireland (to spend time on vacation with my friend's sister who is stationed in England) from DC and had the following happen:
Flew from Dulles to connect in NYC (La Guardia, I think) and then hopefully fly on to Dublin. (with their young kids and all of their accouterments in tow, mind). Flight was delayed, but they got to the gate in NYC in time. At least, in time according to the stated regs. The gate people told them tough shit, you're too late. They argued. No avail. They were told to come back and try again 24 hours later. So my friends paid an expensive cab fare to go stay at another friends' place in the city. 24 hours later, they go back and have the same fucking experience. Except this time it's because there's no room on stand-by or whatever. The airline - Delta, I think - wouldn't guarantee them their seats. I can't recall if they gave up this time or tried one more time, but eventually they had to give up. I forget why, exactly. Something about the timing and just not being willing to put their kids through another fruitless trip from Manhattan to the airport, so they had to get back home and the cheapest option was to rent a car and drive back to DC. Or they could wait until the return NY to DC leg of the trip as they originally booked it, but they'd be stuck in NYC another day or two and either paying for a hotel or imposing on our friends in the city longer.

The airline would only agree to refund the price of the flight from NY to Ireland. They were told that since they took the flight from DC to NY, that they'd have to pay for that, as well as the return leg that they never used. The airline didn't offer to put them up in a hotel, but wouldn't pay for the massive cab fairs to get to and from the airport and our friends' in the city where they stayed two nights while dealing with this nightmare. Nor would they pay for the rental car or the cab fares or any of that.

Totally fucked. Lots of money spent, but no trip to Ireland.

The last I knew, my friend's wife had written strongly-worded letters to all and sundry. I think they finally got some partial relief, but only after contacting Rep Chris Hollins' (D-MD) office. I think they maybe got some extra help because they are alums of Hollins' alma mater, Swarthmore. This is how America works, I guess. As if members of our House of Representative don't have anything better to do than personally regulate the airlines.

Most businesses operate with the attitude of "what can we do to make this person happy enough that they'll say good things about this to their friends and colleagues" but the attitude of the airline and its staff was clearly one of "what is the least we can do for you that will still meet the bare minimum letter of the law, which in the USA, at least, is not much."

That was a pretty egregious case, but not surprising really. Flying is so expensive that people are generally forced, either by their own budgetary constraints or the constraints imposed by their company, to chose based on price alone. So once you've booked the flight, the airline has you by the balls.

Hotels don't have that kind of power over their customers, so their staff are always way nicer and more helpful, I find anyway. That's why it's always so nice to step into a nice hotel after a day of dealing with the airlines.

[diabloinglés]

Flight cancellation woe

I wondered if the collective experience of OTF could tell me whether we can claim for costs we will still incur if we cancel the whole break? For example, we have booked the hotel on a promotional rate which is non-refundable, we've prepaid for the airport car parking, and bought event tickets for stuff that we'd hoped to see whilst over there - which I doubt we can sell on.

The short answer is 'no, unfortunately not'
It sucks I know.

I would say the best option is to bite the bullet and get alternative flights.
Sounds like you need the break and either way you're gonna lose out

Do speak to your travel insurers and see what they can do. Probably not much, but worth a call.

If the alternative flights are scheduled airlines then you may be best cancelling the easyJet and rebooking the whole trip with the new airline (they can charge silly money for one ways)
If you can get low cost or charter flights then hang on to the outbound and just get a new inbound.

It may be worth looking into other airports nearby (if there are any within striking distance)

Good luck

[ursus arctos]

Flight cancellation woe

Reed, it must have been JFK; there are no transatlantic flights from Laguardia.

And the EU Charter does provide significant rights that aren't available to us poor colonials. Click on ad hoc's link and see what we are missing.

[caja-dglh]

Flight cancellation woe

Yes, it would be JFK terminal 3. The only other carrier to fly to Ireland is Aer Lingus. They fly from JFK also (I can't remember the terminal, though something makes me want to say Terminal 4).

The stretch of road between La Guardia and JFK could best be described as 'unpredictable'.

[ursus arctos]

Flight cancellation woe

But half of it is "Grand".

And "Central" too.

I wonder if what happened the first time is that they flew from Dulles to LAG, and got caught in traffic on the GCP and/or Van Wyck.

Aer Lingus is Terminal 4. I still have flashbacks of those flights that arrive at 6am Dublin time.

[Reed John]

Flight cancellation woe

It must have been JFK. I didn't know that Laguardia didn't do transatlantic flights. There wasn't any drive between the two airports, but there was definitely a delay in getting from Dulles to JFK.

I don't understand why you can't go from Dulles to Europe. Or if you can, it's rare. It seems that if you want to go to Europe, you have to connect through JFK.

[ursus arctos]

Flight cancellation woe

I've done Dulles-Paris a lot, and there are flights to Heathrow and Frankfurt, but not what you would think for the capital of the country. There was nothing from Milan (and maybe nothing from Rome, either).

[Gerontophile]

Flight cancellation woe

Find an alternative route yourself, and claim on the insurance (you will lose the booking fees and other add-on stuff, but by the sound of it, it might well be worth it).

I flew Schiphol to Bournemouth a couple of years ago, and they cancelled the ROUTE... while I was still in Schiphol. We were put up in a hotel in (seaside town beginning with N) and given 'carte blanche' to all facilities. ALL facilities... I ended up in another hotel room with 7 other 'like-minded' people, with the contents of everyone's mini-bar...

There was an option to pay for your own flight out (no other carrier went to Bournemouth, Southampton closest) and claim all the cash back, and some did, but I just couldnt be arsed, and was lucky enough to have the next day off too.

I am so pleased about it. I have rarely enjoyed the company of strangers as much as that night.

(Thomsonfly, in case anyone was interested. Oh, and the hotel was €249 PER PERSON... they could have hired a plane for less...)

*I should point out that the actual price of the flight was 99p, and the other £39.01 was all tax, so I was getting sod all back from my insurance... be very aware of this. And, they did manage to get us out of there the next day, by stopping a half empty Geneva flight, on its way back.

[Third rate Leszno]

Flight cancellation woe

Right - thanks all for your helpful tips, suggestions and horror stories.

After a couple of emails that received what I might charitably describe as a partial response, Mrs B rang easyjet last night and was able to discuss our options.

Anything we've paid for ourselves (hotels etc) is nothing to do with them, guv. If we wanted to book a new inbound flight with another carrier, they would compensate us the difference between that flight and our cancelled one. Which would be all well and good if anyone else flew that route on a Sunday, but they don't - the nearest we can manage is to fly into Leeds, which is about 100 miles away with very sketchy public transport links to Liverpool on a Sunday evening.

We pointed out that this would leave us (a) out of pocket getting home from Leeds, and (b) them out of pocket compared to the cost of flying with easyjet to another UK airport and them paying for us to hire a small car to get home. "No, that's not our policy" they replied, repeatedly, in the face of all common sense or reason.

So, we've cancelled both easyjet flights and booked new flights with Jet2 in and out of Leeds. Easyjet counselled against this as we had no reason to cancel our outbound flight (apart from the obvious one of leaving our car 100 miles from where we'd fucking well need it to be), so there's no guarantee they'll refund us the full amount when we put our claim in - but we'll take that chance rather than have to arse about finding a way home from Leeds, and then having to make an unneccessary 30 mile journey to Liverpool airport to retrieve our car.

Christ I hate being reliant on airlines to travel around the world......

[Gerontophile]

Flight cancellation woe

bewaldeth wrote:

Anything we've paid for ourselves (hotels etc) is nothing to do with them, guv. If we wanted to book a new inbound flight with another carrier, they would compensate us the difference between that flight and our cancelled one.

Really? So, you wouldn't get the money back from the original fare? (In other words, if you pay £70 for the first flight, and £90 for the second, they will give you £20 back, and you lose the extra £70?)

[diabloinglés]

Flight cancellation woe

Reed / Ursus,
It's only really the major european airlines who do Dulles direct (BA, LH, AF, LX)
It's the capital, but there's just not the demand for flights there from Europe as there is to say New York (business trips to Washington as opposed to business and leisure to New York I guess)
Same with Australia for example - lots to Sydney, but nowt to Canberra.
Or even Switzerland, flights galore to Zurich and Geneva but not much to Bern.
Even in Germany the main hub is Frankfurt and not the capital city.

Gero - sounds like you had fun.
Your case is very different to bewaldeth's though.
He's been given advance notice so easyJet can just offer a refund or a rebook and be done with.
Thomson(?) pulled the plug on you last minute and were therefore obliged to put you up, feed you, etc till they could get you home.

This was something that Ryanair tried to wriggle out of during the recent ash cloud fiasco. But the Italian govt. kicked their arses for it!

[Gerontophile]

Flight cancellation woe

Yes, true enough. However, if you book AND THEY CANCEL, you have every right. (But, you only have every right to the price of the fare, not the tax... and the alternative booking is down to you)

One of the reasons I love living where I do, is that I am sort of near an airport which has BA, and much as I loathe them, they dont fuck about with ... this sort of stuff. Which is no help at all, sorry.

[diabloinglés]

Flight cancellation woe

Oh no, the taxes are refundable.
In fact this is something BA have had troubles with recently. They are refusing to refund some of the YQ taxes when flights are cancelled.
Regardless of who cancels the flight you should get your taxes back too.

[Gerontophile]

Flight cancellation woe

whats 'YQ'?

[diabloinglés]

Flight cancellation woe

YQ tax rip off....

http://www.advantagecruises.co.uk/?tag=yq-tax

The tax you pay on a ticket is actually several small taxes. They are given 2 letter codes presumably to make it less cumbersome on flight booking GDS systems which use codes for all things
Working out taxes for amending and cancelling tickets can be a fiddly pain in the arse!

[Gerontophile]

Flight cancellation woe

(Didn't I say all of this upthread?)

[diabloinglés]

Flight cancellation woe

Maybe I misread it but....

But, you only have every right to the price of the fare, not the tax... and the alternative booking is down to you)

One of the reasons I love living where I do, is that I am sort of near an airport which has BA, and much as I loathe them, they dont fuck about with ... this sort of stuff. Which is no help at all, sorry.

....seems to be the opposite.

You are entitled to your taxes back.
But BA, rather than not fucking about with this sort of stuff, are actually keeping taxes they should be giving back.

[Gerontophile]

Flight cancellation woe

My bad, sorry. When I got cancelled ( a long time back, with BA), they didnt fuck about. It was 'this is your alternative, here is how the insurance goes, and this is every penny of your situation, here', so perhaps I misread, intelligence in these things for actual cash/stuff.

(Sorry, that wasnt meant to sound snarky... BA, bastards thought they are, have always been the best in my experience... although fortunately, I have only had 4 cancellations, ever)

[diabloinglés]

Flight cancellation woe

You didn't sound snarky

That was BA back in the days before they had a CEO who didn't think that the business model for a respected flagship airline is Ryanfuckingair.

BA are fuckers, but if you're in the UK they're convenient fuckers so they get away with it.
Although my customers seem to be getting more and more weary of them

[Gerontophile]

Flight cancellation woe

Oh, dont get me wrong, they are total bastards... they had the shit a few years back ('87 or so) about not allowing the 'official' gay guy to continue working as he was a risk for HIV.

Unfortunately, the boycott of BA didnt work, because a high percentage of flight crew on BA were in a job/gay.

[Third rate Leszno]

Flight cancellation woe

Gerontophile wrote:

bewaldeth wrote:

Anything we've paid for ourselves (hotels etc) is nothing to do with them, guv. If we wanted to book a new inbound flight with another carrier, they would compensate us the difference between that flight and our cancelled one.

Really? So, you wouldn't get the money back from the original fare? (In other words, if you pay £70 for the first flight, and £90 for the second, they will give you £20 back, and you lose the extra £70?)

Ah no, they'd refund the first flight too. Eventually.

Don't get me started on BA, they're no better. Sent your bags to Toulouse for the time you're in Salzburg? Yes, we'll refund your emergency clothes and toiletries purchases. No, we won't compensate you for the half of your holiday you spent on the phone to our clueless admin staff, trudging round soulless shopping malls buying shit clothes that you'd never wear again or trekking to the airport to see if your bags have turned up each morning.