What should I do regarding flights and Ash cloud

A question about : What should I do regarding flights and Ash cloud

hi,

I have put a small deposit on a villa in Spain in August, if I let the lady know by the end of the month I could get my deposit back. I have not booked any flights yet and with all this ash cloud business i'm not sure if I should even go on this holiday now, however the villa is a real bargain and since baby turned 2 we have had to limit our holidays so would be nice to try and get away

So what is the deal with compensation etc, are some airlines better than others regarding help with getting you to destination/home, are car hire companies offering refunds???

Many thanks.

HB

Best answers:

• There is no compensation. Full stop.
  If the airline cancels the flight it must offer you the choice of cancellation and refund or rebooking on a flight of its choice and looking after you in the meantime.
  Hotels, car hire, etc at your destination are your responsibility. What individual suppliers are doing is up to them - but note you can get deals with no cancellation penalty with some suppliers
• Regarding the Villa ask the owner if they have changed their policy regarding refunds due to this new problem with the volcano? Ask them if they will put in writing that you can have a full refund if your flight is cancelled- but only this clause- which relates to volcanic ash, nothing else. It is difficult for people renting villas and apartments because they are not large companies and so need every penny they can get. However they may offer to help. If not then you just have to decide to take a gamble which it is now for everyone. Maybe a good time to go "package"?
  On the car hire point most companies take a booking with no payment so you can book and wait to see what happens. Just make sure you find a company that offers this.
• hi
  We are in a smilar position to you, except that we have paid for our flights and just have the balance of the vlla to pay for.
  We are paying our balance in 2 weeks time, and yes it is a worry but you just dont know what the situation will be in an hour let alone 3 months time.
  My view is just to go for it, if you thought about every little thing that could happen you would never do anything, we always go when the kids have just broke up for the summer, and the problem i bet we face will be some sort of strike, its normally baggage handlers, air traffic control, they always do it then, but it is the only time we can go, and does not really put me off.
  The way i look at it is if we are delayed a few hours or 2 days, it is still worth it to get away, any more then that i would get a refund for the flights and just try and go another time, im saving up incase this happens and we have to pay for different acommdation.
  Hopefully it will be fine you just dont know.
• Thanks folks, maybe compensation was the wrong word to use, as long as I can get my flight costs back then I am easy, I will look into car hire where I dont pay upfront, although they may still charge if I dont turn up as i would have thought they would want card details still...hmmm, will look into that.
• I am flying to Milan (going to the Italian Lakes and cannot wait!). Sadly we are flying with BA from Heathrow. The flight is leaving 19th June and the BA helpline have reassured me that that once the next set of strikes are over the union need to allow another 30 days for a ballot and then give BA 7 days notice of strike. So, I should be OK, however I am determined to get to the Italian Lakes somehow even if I have to drive. Of course I havent taken into account the ash cloud but I agree with Spurs24, if we looked at every single thing that COULD go wrong we wouldnt leave the house!