Europe’s no-fly zone has expanded and experts have no way to predict its end
The no-fly zone within Europe has spread southward from northern Europe. Only airports in the middle Mediterranean and near Istanbul are still open. Until the winds change this current cloud of volcanic dust will hinder air transportation.
Adding to the chaos is the continued eruption of the volcano that is spewing the ash that is causing this problem. Click here or on the picture for a video of current conditions.
Colleague Christopher Elliott noted the passenger rights issues unique to Europe and this volcanic eruption.
What are my rights as an airline passenger?
Your rights are outlined in EU Regulation 261/2004. I would advise reading the rule carefully, as opposed to letting an airline employee interpret it for you. The rule applies to any flight within the EU and to the EU, so if, for example, you’re flying from Washington to London today, read up on this.
Your airline will probably try to invoke a clause that says during “extraordinary circumstances which could not have been avoided even if all reasonable measures had been taken,” the airline is off the hook. So it really depends on your definition of “extraordinary circumstances.”
American carriers flying domestically routinely cancel flights without compensation when there’s an “Act of God” (this is written into their legal contracts) but even when the airline says you’re out of luck, you’re still entitled to a full refund for your ticket.
Under a more customer-friendly interpretation of EU 261, you would be entitled to food and overnight accommodation. I wouldn’t bet on that, though.
How can I find out my airline’s interpretation of EU passenger rights laws?
Check out its contract of carriage on its Web site. They’re sometimes also referred to as conditions of carriage. Here’s British Airways’ for example. Interpretation of the contract and of EU 261 can vary between airlines and even between employees. Which is why you’re better off having the actual contract and law in front of you when your flight is canceled.
What about my travel agent?
If you booked your flight through an agent — and remember, even Expedia, Orbitz and Travelocity are agents — then phone the company now. Agents can re-route you around the volcano, possibly even at no extra cost. If you booked directly through an airline, and you’re dealing with a company that cares about its passengers, then rescheduling your flight won’t be a problem — assuming, of course, the plume of ash doesn’t spread, crippling air travel to all of Europe. Then your best option is to take the train (if it’s within Europe) or to cancel your trip.
Would travel insurance do any good?
Maybe. Some policies cover natural disasters, some don’t. Read your policy carefully before making a claim, and get everything in writing. In other words, if a representative tells you to “go ahead and cancel your trip” — which I’ve heard of them doing — be certain you have an email or letter to back up their suggestion that you’ll be covered. Or that your policy explicitly says you’re covered. Sadly, it’s too late to insure your Europe trip against a volcano now that one has erupted.
How do you pronounce “Eyjafjallajokull”?
I have no idea, and I’m not about to try.
{ 1 trackback }
{ 17 comments… read them below or add one }
I just tried to get travelocity to reroute me. They refused. All they would do was to contract Continental to see if there is an earlier flight with available seats, which I know there is not from speaking to Continental.
Continental is refusing to supply hotel acomodations even though my flight is scheduled for Friday 3/23
Allen Feldman
How is it the airline’s fault when they CANT FLY?
I agree with you on this one. If the airlines can’t fly, it becomes what we call an “Act of God.” However the way the EU regulation is written, passengers who are in the middle of a trip are supposed to be fed and housed if their flight is delayed for any reason. I’ll bet that there will be some calls to change this passenger rights rule after this catastrophe. There are other penalties that kick in, but they are mitigated by an “Act of God” clause.
My daughter was supposed to go on a trip to Spain thru her school,(Norwell High School,Ma),sponsored by Explorica.10 days,not cheap($3000) The group was scheduled for a 6 pm flight out of Boston to London on Thurs.eve.4/15.After all hell broke out and 2 agonizing days later,we were told that the trip was cancelled.Those without insurance were out of luck,no recourse.Those with insurance($350.), are out at least $900.Many of us were actually discouraged from purchasing insurance(by the customer service at Explorica) unless we felt our children might need to cancel the trip themselves.Do you feel we have any recourse? I feel that Explorica has made quite a tidy profit from canceling the entire trip on us.I very much would appreciate your response.Sincerely,Judy Benzaquin
Alan@rerouting isn’t something your TA can do. We have to follow what the airlines tell us we can or can’t do.
Judy@not knowing exactly what transpired between you and Explorica, but you should never take out a tour companies insurance. It has been said over and over again on this website. Right now I am looking at a 3rd party insurance companies premium coverage for an youth at $3,000 in travel expense and the cost is approx $111-$130 and I know a less type of coverage would be even less.
Please understand they have to pay the hotels, the transporations companies and all other components of this trip. There are prepaid costs involved.
What I would push for from the tour company is who cancelled the air? The airline? That may be fully refundable, less maybe the TO’s commission which would be reasonable.
It there is a lesson for all of us, it is trip insurance. Youth don’t see the value, but as you get older, you see the ‘what if’s’ and even the seasoned traveler never would have seen this situation coming.
My wife is in Italy and was supposed to come home Sun. 4/18 but her flight got cancelled and instead is coming home Weds.4/21 on a flight that we had to book separately. Is she entitled to reimbursement of the additional hotel accomodations?Also, after being told by Expedia that they can’t assist us with an alternate flight ( we have to go through Air France directly), and not being able to contact Air France,( put on hold and then diconnected) we were able to book a flight on our own through Delta at a very premium price.Is there any obligation from either party regarding this?
Hello everybody!
I booked an hotel in London with some friends..
Despite we couldn’t fly because of the volcanic ash and not because of a personal decision the hotel admin decided to charge our credit card in FULL (it was 5,000GBP!!) for all of the 4 nights.. They don’t accept any reasons… They say “you were not at the hotel reception the check-in day so we’ve charged your card, that’s all!” Do we have any right to refund?? We are also return clients since year.
I hope someone can help us. Thanks in advance, Ste.
David@if you booked this with Expedia, then you are getting all the help you paid them for. Yes, that is sarcastic. They were less than helpful in 9/11 so why expect them to be now! I spent the entire day on one reservation. They paid me a service fee and they got my undivided attention! I got them reaccommodated for $70 more but in the end they decide after their first flight was cancelled no to travel, which then they get a full refund. Smart move IMHO!
Ste@what was the rules of the room rate that you booked? Did it say, nonrefundable at the time of reservation? How did you book it?
5 words: Cancellation Insurance for future travel!
Thanks for your reply.
We booked it directly contacting the hotel admin. We are their clients since 5 years now and so many are the clients we refer to them!
This time we reserved the entire hotel (it’s ah hotel with few rooms) for 4 nights.
The rules simply say that if you cancel it up to 48 hrs in advance you pay nothing.
If you cancel it up to 24 hrs in advance you pay the 1st night only.
If you cancel later on… you pay for it in full.
The point is that we didn’t need to cancel it! in fact we’ve not cancelled it at all. We already were ready to fly at the airport when the flight was cancelled because of the UK govt decision to close the airport. The flight was cancelled due to force majeure!
Are there any consumers rights in force in the UK for such cases????
Thanks again :-)
Ste … according to their T&Cs, you got charged what you were supposed to. You didn’t cancel 24 – 48 hours in advance so you were charged as agreed.
File a claim with your trip insurance. They will probably cover it.
John is correct. There is always a chance of something happening before you travel, so if you can’t afford to lose the money on unforseen circumstances when you have a advance cancellation date, then take out travel insurance.
I might suggest contacting the hotel and asking if you can rebook another stay using these funds. Several days have past since the start of this travel interruption and maybe they might have changed their minds on working with their stranded guests.
I have just been informed by email that the flight is cancelled. I rang the UK number and Graham (very helpful), booked me on the next available flight in 25 days time. He informed me that I could claim for £100 per night hotel room, £25 per person food, and public transport (Bus and Train) between airport and hotel. Before you do your maths, here it is: For two people = £3800 approx. (Technically speaking you could have one room per person and have adjoining rooms which would make it £6800.) Make sure that any taxes and service charges are included and within the allowance, oh yes Laundry and Mini Bar and Spa and Broadband etc.
But really what are the rules of compensation?
I have not received any written confirmation that I will get this refunded. So I want to know if there is a definitive statement (the one on the BA site is inadequate. https://www.britishairways.com/travel/euclaimnor/public/en_hk
And appears to be for EU regulations and I am unsure if that will also cover outside EU e.g. Hong Kong. What if I use a serviced apartment, i.e. not a Hotel and cheaper, would I still get a refund?
Or can I Island hop at my expense and claim back the same Hotel costs, which will not be in HK, such as Macao, or further afield such the Philippines or Thailand, again getting there at my expense, but hotels within the same price as the compensation? As far as compensation regarding my business, I don’t know if there is any.
One might say that I have lost business opportunities by not being able to return to UK and that I should be able to attempt to raise business anywhere while I wait for the days to countdown to my flight on the 15 May. What do you think. Should BA be responsible for all this? Perhaps they should be entitled to claim from their insurance company? My insurance company has at least extended to health related side of the policy to when I return, even though I am on my last day of the policy (as I should have returned to the UK by now).
Columbus provided me with Claim Department Tel. number to obtain confirmation of what I can claim. Thank you. Bye for now.
Am i entitled to compensation from ryanair if we made our own way home? please help!!
My partner and I are stuck in South Africa and were supposed to leave on 18/4. Our airline emirates rang on 17/4 to say don’t start our journey, we had an internal flight to Jo’burg with a different airline then an emirates flight to Dubai and the final flight was to Birmingham (this was the only flight actually cancelled.) Due to emirates not letting us begin our journey they are not liable for providing us with food and accommodation at this end and our insurance company is not giving individual information or even answering the phone. Do we have any rights as we are incurring costs in South Africa and also missing work and possibly wages?
our flight was delayed for 2 days and had been resceduled to fly from faro in portugal to glasgow airport at 11.15 am on tuesday the 20/04/2010 that day. they booked us all on the flight and once we were boarding they mumbled to us we were not going to scotland we would be dropped of at bordeaux in france. then they told us we would be getting buses to take us to calais which was a 13 hour bus journey, get a ferry from calais to dover then we would be getting buses to take us home to scotland.
which we thought was fine at least we were getting home. once we were all on the buses at bordeaux they then informed us that our airline had just been in contact and we would all have to make our own way from calais to scotland ourselves. we have incourred a big financial dent and our children were very distressed as they are still young. we also had to pay for a bus to come from scotland to come and get us which we all clubbed together and arranged ourselves which was not cheap then we had another 11 hour journey by bus to get back home. can you tell us our rights on this matter as we feel we were just lied to from beginning to end.
Lynne
How do I contact Air France about a claim for accomadation ?
Emirates cancelled a flight I was taking between Lagos and Dubai (without informing me) because they re-routed planes to relieve the passenger build up in Europe.
They are claiming force majeure. Is this really possible, if both cities are unaffected?