Air Traffic Chaos and Compensation: A Couple's Story
BBC News - BBC Homepage
Skip to content | Accessibility Help | Your account
Home
News | Sport | Earth | Reel | Worklife | Travel | Culture | Future | Music | TV | Weather | Sounds
More menu | More menu | Search BBC
Air traffic chaos and compensation: 'Shutdown cost us more than £1,000'
Image caption: Catie and Phil unpacking at home
By Kevin Peachey, Cost of Living Correspondent
Published 18 minutes ago
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.
What gets repaid, and what doesn't?
Catie, 30, and Phil, 34, were sat on a British Airways flight to Ljubljana 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.
Why are extras not refunded?
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."
Image source: Catie Allen
Image caption: Catie and Phil during a happier break
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."