Monarch-Have I a claim that will stand up?

A question about : Monarch-Have I a claim that will stand up?

I like many others find myself facing this question.

Monarch effectively abandoned my party of four adults at Barcelona airport due to the ash cloud on the Friday 16th April 2010. Absolutely NO assistance was offered by Iberia Airways acting on behalf of Monarch, so we were left with no choice but to make our own arrangements. This involved moving to the cheapest hotel on offer for one night, taking an overnight coach from Barcelona to Paris, train from Paris to Caen, overnight ferry from Caen to Portsmouth and a brother in law back to the Midlands arriving home on Monday 19th April.

We minimised the cost at every opportunity, but still incurred expenses of Ј1386. Monarch were happy to refund the price of the unused tickets but appear to have little intention of covering the other costs incurred. I have done everything Monarch have suggested and filled in all of their forms, only to be offered a cheque for Ј97, based on their “benchmarks”. The benchmark assumes that you can get a room in Barcelona for Ј8 per night per person! According to a Hotel.com study in 2009 the figure for Barcelona was Ј83 per night per room.

I have written several letters disputing these assumptions and finally advising them that I will be considering pursuing this claim through the small claims process, to no avail.

Any advice will be gratefully received.

Best answers:

• Did Monarch just refund you the ticket, or did you ask for a refund? If so, when?
  Cityboy will have more answers for you when he comes online, i'm sure. Unfortunately i am not at work, so dont have the full ruling on EU261/2004, although I must admit, Monarch are one of the worst offenders on this. I know several people that have taken Monarch to the small claims court (or at leasth threatened to) and finally got a full refund.
  Let us know about the queries above, and hopefully Cityboy will advise too, but IMHO, i really think its gonna have to be the route of the small claims court to get anything back from Monarch.
  HXDave
• Hi Dave
  Thanks for offering advice.
  I requested a ticket refund for the unused tickets as per Monarchs instruction, on the 24th April 2010.
  I then received an e-mail from Monarch on the 19th May 2010 confirming they would refund Ј294.15 to the original payment method within 28 days. They also invited me to submit a claim for expenses through their Volcanic Ash Claims Department. I started this process on the 22nd May 2010.
  Cheers
  Chatterz
• The usual rule is that you can wait until they can bring you home, in which case they must look after you for the full duration or offer a refund, but if you take the refund you cannot then claim the additional costs of making your own way home, there is a decided case, Marshall -v- Iberia in the County Court where a barrister tried to claim his costs of geting back from Spain and lost!
• Hi Alan
  Thank you for offering advice.
  I understand the basic premise you have eluded too, however we received no assistance at Barcelona Airport, only a letter delivered by Iberia Airlines acting on behalf of Monarch, who do not have a presence at the airport. As you can imagine the Iberia staff did not hang around taking questions.
  I can supply a scan of the letter if required, however the main components were worded as follows:
  "All passengers booked to travel on cancelled Monarch scheduled flights (ZB flight numbers) are advised to contact the Monarch Customer Centre on the following numbers to rebook an alternate flight departing within 30 days or to arrange a full refund."
  "Rebooking and refund requests can also be e-mailed to Monarch by completing an e-mail enquiry form and selecting "FLIGHT CANCELLATIONS due to volcanic ash"."
  You will notice there were no references to further assistance, help with accommodation, meals or duty of care.
  We obviously tried to contact the Customer Care Centre along with the rest of Europe, to no avail although incurred substantial telephone bills, thanks to the automated answering system. We were left with a choice of sitting still, with absolutely no assistance or information from Monarch and its agents, or making our own arrangements so as to minimise the cost. Hence we moved to a cheaper hotel for one night and avoided further bed nights by travelling on an overnight coach and overnight ferry.
  Doing nothing was not an option and would have cost a fortune, that Monarch would not have reimbursed, if present experience is anything to go by.
  Cheers
  Chatterz
• Cityboy
  Thank you for offering me further advice and the lesson in English.
  Being a Black Country lad, English is my second language!!
  I take onboard your assessment of our chances of success, however I find it disappointing that Monarch / Iberia Airlines can offer a letter at the airport informing us of the cancellation, whilst making no attempt to advise us of their obligations in such circumstances. The application of the Ј8 benchmark figures is also particularly galling.
  Do I take it that in short your advice would be to cut our losses and cash the Ј97 cheque?
  Cheers
  Chatterz
• Hi Cityboy
  Once again thanks for your comments.
  The costs incurred on the first night were in excess of Ј97, however I do not wish to go through the small claims procedure for a couple of hundred pounds. It is time to draw a line underneath this unpleasant experience.
  I cannot get over how little public fuss has been made over the shoddy practices adopted by Monarch Airlines during this process. At least Michael O'Leary of Ryan Air had the good grace to make it clear from the outset how Ryan Air would interpret the regulation.
  Would I recommend Monarch Airlines to a friend in the future "ABSOLUTELY NOT". Their customer care at the airport was none existent, leaving us and many other stranded passengers to make our own arrangements and thus incur substantial costs that Monarch are not liable, as we removed ourselves from their "care". OUTRAGEOUS, however a sound business model!
  Thanks to all who have helped me come to this conclusion.
  Cheers
  Chatterz
• By means of an update. Based on the advice of this group, I have written a four pager to the Chairman (Iain Rawlinson) of Monarch highlighting my experience of their customer service in response to the volcanic ash disruption last year.
  The letter was posted recorded delivery on the 4th May 2011, the post office confirm delivery on the 5th May. I have yet to receive any acknowledgment so far, let alone any satisfaction. This represents a shocking approach to customer service, however I am not shocked.
  Hopefully the postman will have something for me on Tuesday!!!
  Cheers
  Chatterz
• Breaking news: I have just received a reply from the claims department rather than the Chairmans' office, better than nothing I suppose.
  Monarch are now offering Ј160 rather than Ј97 based on a revision of the accommodation and meals allowance, specifically for Barcelona. They are holding their line with regard to us making our own arrangements and any costs incurred, despite abandoning us at the airport with no assistance or advice. The inference is that I would have been able to claim more if I had stayed put and eventually returned with Monarch. In reality we would have been stuck in Barcelona for at least a week, incurring costs way in excess of the allowances Monarch would have eventually have paid out.
  Monarch Airlines approach to customer service appears to be based on minimising their liabilities, rather than customer satisfaction. The very fact that a letter of complaint addressed "Private & Confidential" to the Chairman, just gets passed to a claims department, rather than a response directly from the Chairmans' office. This seems to be very poor business practise.