who has got family stranded by the volcanic ash?

[MrsShu]

me ! easy jet have cancelled return flight

I think the tour operators pax are coming out of Egypt ok not sure about the flight only .

What a difference a week makes! DS has just arrived back by plane from Geneva with no problems at all - apart from his frantic mother e-mailing him with dire warnings a few days back.
Now we just have to wait for the other Icelandic volcano to erupt and see what happens the next time round. I wonder whether travellers will fare any better the next time?
Hope all those who had nightmare journeys get reasonable compensation.

We got back at exactly the same time we were always due (but missed our little mini holiday in Singapore).

The journey was fine apart from ds throwing up on the new carpet at Changi airport having collapsed in the tunnel bit from the plane.

Once he'd been sick both he and the carpet were much improved.

Singapore were amazing and flew a half empty plane the day after the restrictions were lifted just specially to get people home. They also were giving letters out without being asked telling you how to get extra hotels refunded.

We made it back very early this morning, 9 days later than scheduled. We ended up spending an extra 2 days in Athens, 3 days in Mykonos and 3 days in Rome, on top of our original week in Crete! It has worked out very expensive, but kind of worth it as the DC's have loved it; it felt like a real adventure, and we got an extra week's holiday that we would never have had otherwise.

The slightly puzzling thing was that on the flight back from Rome, which we managed to book on Wednesday directly with Alitalia as soon as we landed in Rome, whilst being told there were no seats etc etc, until some ridiculous date in the future, we were surrounded by empty seats!

Welcome back

kitten, thankyou , it's good to be home but we had a real adventure whilst stranded, I wouldn't have minded staying stranded for a bit longer, provided we had the cash to pay for it!

I think I will pass on that but I think the most tear jerking journey has to be the Boots family.......

So pleased to see everyone is getting sorted slowly but surely.

I wouldn't have that week again (apart from the obvious part of getting DS back and meeting new friends)

DD has some friends who are still stranded, not sure exactly where. Apparently there are 35000 brits still stranded including a friend of mine who went to Australia and from whom I have heard nothing.

We finally got back to Budapest from Dublin last night. 10 days after we should have flown back. Very lucky in that our only real issue was DS missing school but he is only 8 so i don't think it will impact too much on his future! We had nice extra time with family. And didn't have to fork out on accommodation.

We finally got back from New York yesterday

(boo)
8 days late

DH on the same flight as Alibaba's and ended up doing the same mammoth trip home - round the world!! Still it was great to have him home on Friday - house is a mess now though, so what does that tell you!?!

dd1 bawled her eyes out when dh picked her up from school apparently. And dd2 was very happy to see him too. Lovely weekend all together again !!

Glad to hear that everyone slowly but surely appears to be getting back home finally. It's about time.

My thoughts go out to those who are still trying or are still waiting to see friends and loved ones. Let's hope that volcano stays quiet for a while longer!

CountessDracula - am so jealous! 8 days extra in New York!!!! Did you enjoy it or were you stressed about not being home/money etc?

I am now starting the process of trying to get some money back from Lufthansa for the things they didn't cover and making a complaint to the Financial Ombudsman about our insurance company refusing to cover anything at all.

Has anyone else made any complaints or received any reimbursement after the fact, yet?

Are we going to need this thread again, do you think?

Sigh - yes. My brother and his family including 2 and 4 yr old should have flown back to Ireland this morning but are instead off out for an extra day's holiday with us. They are also flying with the dreaded Ryanair but apparently airspace is opening up again at lunchtime and they have been booked on a flight leaving tomorrow at 8 a.m. Bit of a pickle for me to rearrange school drop-offs etc in order to get them there on time but could be much worse. Luckily they are staying with us but will be missing work tomorrow, their kids are getting a bit whiny in an end-of-holiday kind of way so hepefully they will get off tomorrow.

Now after all that, I am starting to worry about my parents coming over next week.

I do hope it is all ok by then.

DB and his family went to Gatwick this morning and made it into Dublin on the last flight to land before (or rather 10 mins after) the airport closed again at 11 a.m. Huge sigh of relief all round!

Sofia, I am also in the process of trying to claim from Olympic (if they don't go bust before I get round to sending my letter off) and my insurer won't pay anything either. I didn't know you could complain to the ombudsman. Might look into that. Keep us posted about how you get on.

Here's an article from thisismoney.co.uk that gives a sample letter for claiming from the airlines. They have a few other articles about which insurance companies are paying up (not very many).
I will keep you posted on my progress.

Hi sofia, any luck? I have been asked for ticket numbers by Olympic but since then nothing. Am going to try the insurance company again, even if we only get £80 out of them it's better than nothing. I think that's all we can claim from my reading of the policy.