Air Traffic Control Airport Misery

[LongDarkTeatime]

Is anyone else sitting at home after having their holiday cancelled today?
We haven’t had a ‘proper’ holiday in 6 years and we’re so looking forward to going away. Waited all day at the airport just to be cancelled just after the plane that was supposed to take us landed. So disappointed.
Well done to everyone who managed today with young kids. All the families around us coped so well.

EasyJet are amazing. We were stuck a few years ago. You need to ensure you are staying within their 3* limit wherever possible and to take transport that is most reasonable given the situation. If you can cover costs in the meantime I’d look at a taxi and claim it back.
You can theoretically make two claims through eastjet but the first depends on whether your flight was their fault or outside their control, in this situation at the moment I’m not sure you’ll get the first. But I’ve but all the details below.
Claim 1: delay repay. This is compensation for your cancelled flight and you claim for all members of your party. This is for the inconvenience and not to cover costs. The only issue here
claim 2: for the costs you have incurred so this includes hotels, any food since you have been cancelled and any transport. Keep all receipts.

I got the cancellation compensation and all my costs covered this way when I was stuck in Italy. It takes a bit of time and each claim is dealt with independently, but very much worth doing and so little support to know what you can do. Best of luck

Us too, it was our first holiday abroad for ten years and our dcs first flight. Spent most of yesterday at Gatwick, flight delayed, then finally cancelled. The airport was chaos, there were barely any staff and no one knew what was happening. I got more information from the news. I am so gutted for my poor kids, who have been excited about this holiday for months.

We've managed to rebook on a flight tonight but who knows whether that will actually happen. And our holiday will be much shorter with no refund on hotel as we booked it separately.

It depends who you are flying with?
mid there are no flights that will get you to arrive within the same day then you can claim back the cost of the original flight, then you can book another and claim back. It’s slow but I had to book BA flights after an easyJet cancellation and they were over 10x the cost of the easyJet flights. For me I was luckily able to pay and wanted the holiday more than anything. I got the full amount for BA flights claimed back from EasyJet. Good luck

Oh I'm so sorry for you! My mum is supposedly flying to Spain tomorrow and I feel awful for her as this is already a rebooking as the first one was cancelled due to a death. Also first holiday in god knows how many years. I just hope she's not too devastated.

@Sunshine847 we are flying with Ryan air 😬

There is 1 direct flight tomorrow morning but from a different departure airport but with Ryan air. Would it be worth booking it ?

I tried to select a new flight yesterday when our flight was cancelled but when I had to confirm the changes it just showed a blank page, I clicked confirm changes anyway. It then said I was now checked out of my original flight and I needed to check in for the new flight, but I couldn't do that because it was still showing the cancelled flight.
I then got a new email with flight itinerary but it was still the cancelled flight. So basically I have no idea if I'm booked onto the new flight or not because it isn't showing up !!

@Sunshine847 are you saying that you managed to claim a refund on the original flight and also claim the new flight and accommodation?

That doesn't seem right to me but maybe it's compensation for the inconvenience.

I am wondering whether I should claim a refund for original flight or leave it and claim for new flight plus extra accommodation/meals/transfers etc. The replacement flight (assuming it goes ahead tomorrow) was a bit more than original but not much. However we will be back 2 days late.

My understanding is compensation for inconvenience is only payable if the cancellation was the fault of the airline which it isn't in this case.

What happens insurance wise if the flight is cancelled but the plane goes anyway? This happened to a friend's ds yesterday. Flying from Dublin to Stansted.

I'm currently on a Greek island in the airport hoping to get home today. Flight showing as delayed by an hour so far, but time will tell! Friends were meant to fly home yesterday but were put up in a hotel last night, flew home this morning.

We had a flight cancelled by easyJet in June.
They were good at quickly paying the claim I made for Hotel stay that night with no quibble.

However I couldn't claim any additional compensation as they classed it as 'extraordinary circumstances' which was out of their control.

We lost about £300 on accommodation costs and £90 on car parking as I found out after that our travel insurance didn't cover us for flight cancellations!!

Oh well, lesson learnt and will ensure insurance next time includes this. Especially as so many flights are being cancelled now.

I really feel for you all affected by this. I know how utterly awful it is.
It's put us off wanting to book anything else.

We've had to book with another airline. Ryan air confirmed they will reimburse us. Absolute nightmare, I'm still really anxious

Thanks @Sunshine847 and @Snozzlemaid, that's reassuring. Hopefully we will get the money back for the extra hotel etc.

I don't expect any compensation as I know it's outside their control. I just want the cost of getting back from Scotland and the extra accommodation covered.

Spent a couple of hours last night looking for alternative (shorter) breaks but understandably nothing showing for next couple of days. So had a looong sleep and collected some very happy pets.
@PatChaunceysFruitCake really sorry to hear about your airport issues. Got talking to friendly staff last night and was told I could email tour operators customer service with claims re parking etc. This wasn’t announced or in email but it’s worth a try.
@TheHennaHairedHarridan sounds like Gatwick was similar to Manchester yesterday. Well done finding another flight. By the time we got home nowhere was letting us book (airport WiFi had kicked us off after 4 hrs and no mobile reception). Hope you get away and have a lovely time.
@Mumski45 you are right, no compensation as the cause of the chaos was out of the airline’s control. They can just refund and offer ‘comfort’ funds after a certain length of delay for food etc

@huggiess did you manage to talk to anyone at RyanAir to find out about your flight? So sorry for you.
Our DC are teenagers so just grunt and carry on listening to music. Must be so hard with disappointed younger DC.

So gutted for the children and for you having to break the news to them! Hope you get compensated and you can all do something special at home.

@WinterDeWinter did your flight go? Keeping everything crossed for you.

Yeah I did, he said it was cancelled due to atc strikes in France ?
Then when I asked what the hell had happened when I tried to book an alternative flight but it wouldn't let me check in he said he wasn't sure, probably had issues as everyone was trying to do the same thing. Then he said there are no flights until Thursday unless you want to fly from stansted, we're in the West Midlands so that was a no.
I asked if we could claim the costs if another airline took us, he said yes and that was that, I got off the phone sharpish and booked with the other airline.

@LongDarkTeatime So sorry you never made it. I know it was out of their control but there needs to be more effort to get people to their destinations/home especially with young children

Oh yeah, forgot to mention the MOST ridiculous part of yesterday.
After a whole day in a packed departure lounge, being given multiple departure times, finally finding our bags in a sea of luggage from multiple flights and no idea which was which. We also had to queue up to go through passport control 😂
We been ‘airside’ so past the border and it made sense afterwards. But there was no warning, just found ourselves there after all being directed via a gate. Luckily the border control people were understanding and exasperated too.

That’s great @huggiess Hope you have a good trip.

My parents are having the opposite (although of course it's better to happen at the end of your holiday than prevent you going at all!) They're in Cyprus and have basically been told by Tui they don't know when they'll be going home and keep checking emails/phone!

We head off tomorrow evening at 6.30pm but today’s flight is delayed 4 hours currently.

if the delay in evident before we leave for the airport am unsure about still going for the original time. Certainly won’t be going 3 hours before! I know sometimes delays get shorter etc but it seems very unlikely.

Daughter is flying for work and must arrive at the destination asap. easyJet cancelled the flight no warning so she's been stuck at Gatwick since 3am and had to pay £400 out of her own pocket to fly today (she will get it back but not immediately) she's knackered and furious equally but 🤞 will leave at 3pm

Looking for an alternative, bit expensive but could just about stomach the cost. Then realised until we get refund from Jet2 don’t have enough space on credit card to book anything.
Plus friends (who had early summer holiday) saying ‘well they had to cancel due to safety’. No s**t. But they didn’t have to keep us hanging & spending money for an extra 3hrs at the airport when they’ll have known full well no crew would be available (were in air and going to not have enough hours left).
For first time getting annoyed. For per, and outing, reasons, this week was so important.
First world problems.

We’re at Edinburgh waiting for our flight back to Heathrow. It’s now been delayed for 3 hours but there isn’t a single member of BA staff here so no one to claim the mythical food and drink vouchers from.
Id be happy to change our flight but there’s no one here to ask about it and no one answers the phone either.
Terrible service by BA as always.