Egypt Unrest -Holiday disrupted (long e mail)

A question about : Egypt Unrest -Holiday disrupted (long e mail)

I travelled on a SAGA holiday 26 Jan 2011 from Heathrow to Cairo for their 'Land of the Pharaohs' holiday. Because the troubles had already started I was expecting to be told that the holiday was cancelled however the rep at H'row said everything was ok. Arrived Cairo to see ranks of riot police on street corners. Had 2 trips, one to Cairo museum and the other to Saqquara and Giza, all of these sites were closed to tourists after our visits. The return, on both these days, to the hotel by coach involved the driver taking long detours to avoid riots. On the Fri 28th this proved impossible and we were on the fringe of a large demonstration, amazingly the skill of the driver got us back to the hotel. We were told not to leave the hotel and standing at a window the crowd chants, bulletfire and the helicopters circling overhead was very disconcerting.
Sat afternoon (29th) we were taken by coach to the airport to be flown to Aswan, (would have preferred departure to Heathrow), on leaving the hotel we saw the burnt out police vehicles, the govt party building on fire, tanks and armoured carriers and the devastation on the streets. The Egyptian people were ok, they were still waving to us, they did not threaten.
At Aswan it was very quiet but tourist police stopped tourists going into Aswan. A trip to the dam and Philae went ahead. On Mon (31st) we were amazed and anxious at being told the Abu Simbel trip would be going ahead the next day but an hour later this was rescinded and we were told that we would be taken to a Nile Cruise ship the next day to travel straight down the Nile to Luxor, spending 1 night on board before being taken to Luxor airport for an immediate return to Luton airport on Weds 2/2.
The whole holiday had an overiding air of anxiety, it was impossible to relax, we had access to BBC and CNN news and could not believe that we were being kept in the country.
SAGA have offered Ј300 (Ј350 if we accept their holiday voucher)for the lost part of the holiday - about a quarter of the cost of the holiday, claiming,'we do not accept liabilityfor any alteration or cancellation owing to 'force majeure' and compensation is not payable in such an event. Force majeure circumstances include but are not limited to, events such as,'Actual or expected war,riots,civil strife....or for any other reason beyond our control'. I have asked for nearer half the cost having deducted for airfare, hotel accommodation used and included trips that went ahead.
However I believe that SAGA chose to allow the holiday to go ahead despite the trouble having already started a couple of days earlier and were negligent firstly, in putting us at risk, taking us straight into the main city of unrest and secondly of not making us aware that it would be our own financial loss if the holiday was curtailed and offering the choice of proceeding or changing to an alternative holiday. I believe that Saga did not take all possible steps to avoid the outcome and that having provided pre payment well in advance for the trip SAGA did not deliver and thereby it did not fulfil its contract and that the circumstances were not unforseen.
Has anyone else been caught in this sort of situation? If so, has your financial compensation been better or worse? Is it impossible to proceed with action for a more satisfactory settlement?

Best answers:

• At the time of the trip the FCO were not advising against travel, so SAGA did nothing wrong. Whilst it clearly was not ideal, it sounds like the rep did the best they could for you. I would accept the money, they are not obliged to offer you anything.
• tbh, if you were that concerned yourself you wouldn't have gone. You obviously thought it would be ok and so did saga. Hopefully your holiday wasn't completely ruined and you managed to see some of Egypt's magical sights. Remember the good bits, accept SAGA's offer and move on. You're fine, that's the main thing.