Welcome to the Volcano Travel Chaos Help Board

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This board is for those that have been affected by the volcano or can give useful advice to those that have.

Before posting your questions, please do read the following articles, which may have the answer to your question.

Volcanic Cloud: Your travel, employment & travel rights
Flight delays

Thanks

Best answers:

• Thank you for this!
  I was stranded for 8 days in America last month but I guess me and my family as we were able to travel back to my sister's house. We were fine but skint and, although those extra days were no holiday, we don't see the point in trying to put in a claim for food etc. as we just did grocery shopping to cook big family meals.
  My problem is... my 'boss', the local council. are only paying stranded workers their first day off, any further days are to be taken unpaid. After reading the information on the above link...
  Quote:
• I have a useful phone number and email to actually get help if your holiday flight was with Monarch and you are in distress/stranded abroad.
  I was stranded with my OH and four children without Monarch Airlines paying a penny for food/accommodation/refreshments from 15 -22nd April. Their staff in Lanzarote and in the UK were rude beyond belief 'you bought a flight only so we are not going to help you' (and worse). This was in spite of specific requests for Right to Care, quoting Article 9 of the EC Directive 241/2004. A complaint letter has been sent & acknowledged so we shall see Monarch's response.
  Anyhoo, as a positive pointer to anyone now stuck abroad I would say don't believe it if you are told by Monarch (or other) Flight Bookings that 'all flights to the UK are full for a week' (or whatever). They cannot seem to grasp that there are likely to be some names on their booking list who never even got out on outbound flights, so those return seats WILL BE EMPTY.
  Advice: go to the Airport if you can, on a day when you know there are UK-bound flights which have arrived from the UK but are allegedly 'booked' for the return. You can see which flights are due to go each day on the website, or just use your knowledge of what day of the week you could have booked as a return flight. Ask the Check-in staff what their system is for 'free standby' for stranded UK passengers and you may just get home in those empty seats without actually booking - we did.
  If you are with Monarch and are in distress, email wel1@cosmos.co.uk or phone 0208 6954397 which reaches the Cosmos Welfare Team. We were never told they existed until one of my desperate emails finally reached a helpful member of staff there and she made sure we got on a flight home that Flight Bookings had said was full, in a phone conversation that same day.
  HTH
• I was supposed to go to New York on April 19th just as all this volcano started, and although I have been refunded for the trip as it was a package holiday, I have not had the money paid for the insurance which has not been used and we didn't need, am I asking too much to get this refunded?
• Thanks for this, it looks like this is going to rumble on for a while so it makes sense to have everything in one place.
• We were stranded in Lanzarote from 19th to 24th April
  We were 'flight only' with Thomas Cook
  We claimed for ...
  Accommodation,
  Food = supermarket shopping and meals out in the evening
  Ancillary expenses = mainly telephone calls and a few odds and ends
  I sent copies of all receipts and a two page covering letter saying that on day X at Y o'clock I spoke to Mr Z at your ofice who told me .... etc etc
  They paid in full
• Is it possible that the flight delays were actually caused by the weather, ie. strong winds which carried the ash over the atlantic. My point is that Canada (on the oposite side of Iceland to us) was not affected at all by the ash cloud (no flights cancelled) as the wind did not carry it that way. There for I conclude that Insurance co's should be liable to pay out as it was not the Volcano alone which was responsible!!!
  OK OK it is just a thought. I was so annoyed by the attitude of my insurance co. that I am clutching at very slippery straws.
  I was part of a family of 8 who were in Orlando at the time of the original volcanic ash cloud. We were due to fly home on 16th April but did not get home until 20th April (which was very lucky). My family had 3 different Insurance Co. between us. Mum, Dad and Sister had to visit Medical Clinic to get prescriptions for medication at $200pp. My mum and Dad both received payment from their insurance co. and were also advised to claim for delay (by their ins co.) and received it all no problem. My sister however, received nothing and I tried to claim for delay/curtailment and they almost gleefully told me I was not covered due to Natural Disaster. Hmmph. We did have a great holiday though.
• Hi My flight was cancelled on 18 April due to volcanic ash. I booked on line with Sunmaster (disaster!!) for Thomas Cook holiday. They rang me on 18 April and offered me my money back but still have not received anything. Anyone else use Sunmaster?
  Shorty
• Right, an interesting one. I had a flight home from spain with easyjet which was cancelled due to the ash cloud business. I then was told that the next flight was not going for another week and advised that if i wanted to fly sooner my only option was to book with a different airline which i did- BMI baby. This flight was then cancelled however BMI refused to offer another flight or alternative transport, only the option to book another flight with them which i did. This happened yet another time but after the ban on flying had been lifted and they gave no explanation as to why the flight had been cancelled and eventually i had to book a final flight with Easyjet again to get home. We spent an additional 500 pounds on flights and the flights we ended up getting home cost 300 each (original flights were 50ish). Upon getting home i asked them (BMI) to refund me the money for my flights plus the additional hire car costs etc which they refused. They then refunded me (after a month or so) the cost of the flights they cancelled however this was done in euros and therefore was actually less than the amount i paid by 30 quid! I am very annoyed about all this messing about with contacting them and lack of any kind of duty of care on their part.
  What is the best way to proceed and am i entitled to any kind of reimbursement or should i just forget it and never use them again?
• What can I do about BMI who are refusing to pay out my extra hotel and food following ash cloud delays in April. My travelling pals with other airlines have been reimbursed. Why should these get away with it. Their customer service is appalling as you can only write to them, this is basically so they can ignore you. Can anyone help?
• new to this but can anyone help? We put a claim in to Kiss Flights for expenses due to vocanic ash which Kiss constantly said was being processed. Now company has gone bust!! Is there any hope of being compensated now?
• Hi,
  please can someone help me? I was in Gran Canaria when the ash cloud prevented us from returning home. Ryanair left us stranded for 5 extra days with no help whatsoever-they wouldn't even answer the phone or e-mails.
  So we did the sensible thing - left our 5 star accomadation for a more modest hotel which we booked through thompson, we saved our online VAT receipts so we could claim when we got back.
  Got back - submitted a claim which took about a month for them to get in touch to say congratulations we will consider your claim - how big of them!! We sent off the necessary information along with said VAT receipts.
  We then received an e-mail saying they wouldn't consider our hotel expenses because we hadn't provided any VAT receipts. I replied stating they had been sent and sent another letter off to them 'signed for' which cost me Ј6.
  We received a cheque today for Ј34.27 for the taxi to the airport (which we didn't even provide a VAT receipt for as it was spanish!!) with a letter which says "please find enclosed a cheque to the value of 34.27GBP in full and final settlement of your claim.
  I won't be cashing the cheque as this is like accepting the claim is closed, as for what else I need to do now, I am absolutley stumped. Any ideas?????? .............Please
• Hi,
  please can someone help me? I was in Gran Canaria when the ash cloud prevented us from returning home. Ryanair left us stranded for 5 extra days with no help whatsoever-they wouldn't even answer the phone or e-mails.
  So we did the sensible thing - left our 5 star accomadation for a more modest hotel which we booked through thompson, we saved our online VAT receipts so we could claim when we got back.
  Got back - submitted a claim which took about a month for them to get in touch to say congratulations we will consider your claim - how big of them!! We sent off the necessary information along with said VAT receipts.
  We then received an e-mail saying they wouldn't consider our hotel expenses because we hadn't provided any VAT receipts. I replied stating they had been sent and sent another letter off to them 'signed for' which cost me Ј6.
  We received a cheque today for Ј34.27 for the taxi to the airport (which we didn't even provide a VAT receipt for as it was spanish!!) with a letter which says "please find enclosed a cheque to the value of 34.27GBP in full and final settlement of your claim.
  I won't be cashing the cheque as this is like accepting the claim is closed, as for what else I need to do now, I am absolutley stumped. Any ideas?????? .............Please
• I have now received full payment for my claim against Cyprus Airways.
  You can find my 'journey' (in modern parlance....) and which may possibly help you, under the heading 'Cyprus Airways'.
• Has anyone had tried Small Claims Court?
  We had 2 kids stuck in Spain and Easyjet claimed there was no assistance available. Next flight was 8 days later so we got them back by coach/Eurostar which cost around Ј500 extra. When I emailed to complain, they replied "Your claim for hotel and alternative means of transport will be accepted on condition that you will provide us with the receipts for these services". Quite straightforward? Apparently not. They have lost documents (3 times) complained they can't read my pdf files, argued over what was "comparable" and basically have siad they won't pay and would I stop emailing them. The toothless AUC - such a pointless organisation - say I have to deal with their Spanish equivalent but warned they take 6 months to even look at a matter.
  Any ideas about what I could do next? It is not so much about the money now, it is the principle!
  Thanks
• Yes, I filed with the small claims court and in my case the airline immediately settled in full. You can read my journey, how I did it, under 'Cyprus Airways'.