Catie and Phil Allen should have been enjoying their first holiday in two-and-a-half years. Instead, they are at home ringing round for refunds that won’t be paid. The couple are among the many thousands of air passengers caught up in the chaos caused by the four-hour shutdown of the UK’s air traffic control system on Tuesday. It means their holiday to Slovenia has been cancelled and – although their flight was refunded by British Airways – they estimate being left £1,300 out of pocket from unused accommodation and excursions.
It’s not the first time – and won’t be the last – when passengers are left flying on a wing and a prayer after problems at UK airports. So, here is how their case relates to others, and why they have taken such a big hit. Catie, 30, and Phil, 34, were sat on a British Airways flight to Ljubljana on Tuesday that never took off. If a flight is cancelled, airlines must get customers to their destination as quickly as possible at no extra cost, even if it is with a rival carrier.
Alternatively, passengers can take a refund, which should also be offered for flight delays of more than five hours. In Catie and Phil’s case, the alternative flight offered would not have arrived until Saturday morning – four days into their week-long holiday. So they took the refund. That was not easy.
The chatbot only seemed to allow them to rebook, and it took more than an hour waiting to speak to BA on the phone before the refund was confirmed. It will take a week to be paid. When airlines are at fault, extra compensation is paid under UK and EU rules. But not this time, because the air traffic control issues were beyond airlines’ control.
Even so, airlines themselves are furious that they have been saddled with a bill of millions of pounds. BA also refunded the couple’s car hire, which had been organised through the airline. The problem for the couple was that they had booked accommodation and excursions separately, and that is money they have lost. The hotel stays, booked separately, have their own terms and conditions and cancelling so late meant there were no refunds.
One explained to Catie that they were a family business that could not afford to do so. This is different to package holidays, which are covered in full if a flight is cancelled. “We feel we are penalised for trying to save money,” said Catie, who contacted BBC Your Voice about their situation, although she added that “our problems are very small in the bigger scheme of things”. One excursion was later refunded but – having worked in the aviation sector – Catie is annoyed that the air traffic problem extended so long as to ruin their holiday.
“We have been saving tirelessly for this trip and we have lost over £1,000 with no way of getting it back. And most of all, we’ve got no holiday to go on, which we’ve been looking forward to for years,” she said. The couple said they have been loyal customers of their insurance company for years, and used them for policies ranging from home insurance to pet cover. However, the insurer told them any claim on their travel insurance for the funds they have lost would be invalid because air traffic issues were outside of the policy.
Some people also make claims via credit card providers. However, all these depend on the small print from providers. Although the Allens could get back home after their flight was cancelled, others ended up sleeping on floors at Heathrow Airport. Delayed passengers must be supplied with food and a hotel stay, depending on the length of the wait.
Should the airline not provide them with this, then claims for reasonable expenses can be made afterwards. Experts suggest people keep receipts as proof. The trouble was that many couldn’t find accommodation anywhere nearby. Booking a luxury stay is unlikely to be refunded by the airline, because only “reasonable expenses” are permitted.
On Thursday, Aviation Minister Keir Mather told MPs: “Passengers may also be entitled to care and assistance while waiting for a delayed or re-routed flight. “But there are, of course, lots of incidences we have seen of airport capacity not being able to deal with the number of passengers being disrupted and I think that is a key lesson we have to learn from this.” Mather said the kind of disruption cause by the failure of air traffic control provider Nats on Tuesday was “unacceptable”. There will be an independent review of the saga by the Civil Aviation Authority. Flight data firm Cirium said the aviation system had “stabilised significantly” on Thursday.
It said 54 of 3,028 scheduled arrivals had been cancelled or are not operating, while for departures, 47 of 3,033 scheduled flights were affected. What are my rights if my flight is cancelled or delayed? ‘It’s been a nightmare’: Passengers face airport chaos after air traffic issue
