Has Your Flight been Cancelled due to Volcanic Ash?

If your flight or holiday has been affected or cancelled due to the volcano erupting we would like to hear your story. Please leave a comment.


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36 responses to “Has Your Flight been Cancelled due to Volcanic Ash?”

  1. Nina avatar
    Nina

    I was due to fly to Goa on Thursday afternoon. The airline asked us to get to the airport early so that we could take off early but London Gatwick was closed early so we never made it. I was only going for a week so that’s my holiday ruined, but its just one of those 1 in a million events. At least I should get my flight money back but I don’t know about my hotel.

  2. Lucy avatar
    Lucy

    I was due to fly to Pisa on Thursday morning for 2 nights. As soon as I got back from the airport I re-booked my flights for a few weeks ahead. I was lucky as the new flights were cheaper than the old ones so when I get my refund back for the cancelled flights I will have made a profit !

  3. Nick avatar
    Nick

    I am stranded in Rome. I flew out with my family on Tuesday and was due to fly back to the UK on Saturday. I have been told by Ryanair that they can’t get me back from Rome until Thursday. My children are supposed to be back at school on Monday after the Easter holiday.

    1. admin avatar

      Hi Nick. There is not a lot we can do for you. We can’t book a return flight for you because we don’t know when flights will be starting up. You could either make the best of it and treat it as an extended holiday or try and make your way home by other means. There are good trains from Rome to maybe Paris or Amsterdam where you could then make your way to the channel ports to catch a ferry. If you stay in Rome it will mean you finding the funds for an extra 5 nights in a Rome hotel. If it’s an expensive hotel you could consider finding a cheaper hotel outside Rome city centre. Good luck !

  4. Arnold avatar
    Arnold

    My elderly parents are due to fly out to Norway at the end of next week. If the ash is still causing problems, do they have any other alternative ways of transport?thanks

    1. admin avatar

      Advise your parents to contact their travel agent or airline. At this point in time the situation for next week is unclear. Your parents are clearly young at heart and intrepid travellers – good for them !

  5. Susan avatar
    Susan

    Me and my family are stranded in southern Spain. We have no idea how we can get home and to make matters worse the weather is awful. No airlines will answer the phone and we are very stressed with the whole situation.

    1. admin avatar

      Hi Susan. All you can do is be patient and accept that there is not much that you can do apart from enjoy an extended holiday. I realise this can be difficult if you have important reasons to return home but you have to accept that some things are beyond anyones control. The alternative is to take a chance on making your own way back to the UK using a combination of trains, cars and ferry but as it is now becoming difficult to get a ferry there is no guarantee that all the effort will be worth it and it may be best just to sit things out for a few days.

  6. Kerrie avatar
    Kerrie

    If my package holiday is cancelled due to the volcanis ash – will i be entitled to a refund? We are not due to go away for a few weeks but just wanted some peace of mind in the meantime.

    1. admin avatar

      Hi. If your holiday is an ATOL protected package holiday then you will get a full refund or be allowed to change your holiday to a different date if you want to. If it’s not an ATOL protected holiday then you will get your flight cost refunded. As far a the hotel is concerned you will need to check this with the travel agent that you booked your holiday with. Hope this helps.

  7. ladyk avatar
    ladyk

    My holiday as been cancelled, today due to fly out tomorrow. Was led to beleive that as i have booked more than 2 components it is classed as a package holiday. Booked with atol agent.On contacting agent i am told i will only get refund for flight and not the full cost of flight at that, no refund for hotel or transfer.Will not use this company again as customer service leaves alot to be desired.

    1. admin avatar

      If your holiday is protected by an ATOL then your agent should send you an ATOL receipt showing the ATOL number your holiday is booked under. Here at Global Holidays every holiday we sell is protected by an ATOL so in those circumstances you will always get a full refund. You need to ask the agent you booked with why you can’t get a refund for all the parts of your holiday. Did you ask the agent whether the holiday was ATOL protected?

  8. ladyk avatar
    ladyk

    The agent is atol protected 3973 was told that they have paid for hotel and it is up to the hotel if they will refund.On the tv and what i have read on the net i am classed as a package holiday atol protected so where do i stand.

    1. admin avatar

      If your holiday is ATOL protected then you are entitled to a full refund of all money paid. It sounds like you have been sold a non ATOL protected holiday. You should have been told that the holiday was not ATOL protected if this is the case. You need to contact the agent again to ask for more details.

  9. ladyk avatar
    ladyk

    Agent is holiday collection part of the global travel group and it gives atol number on booking confirmatiom.

    1. admin avatar

      An ATOL receipt should not have been issued if your holiday is not ATOL protected. You need to ask the Holiday Collection Group why they have issued an ATOL receipt when effectively they seem to saying that your holiday is not ATOL protected. You need to ask serious questions about the paperwork that has been issued to you and make sure you get proper answers. Feel free to post here once you get an answer and we will try to give you more advice.

  10. shezzie avatar
    shezzie

    I’m experiencing the same problem as ladyk, i booked a holiday with an agent same Atol number same group and they have told me they will only refund my flight money, i have told them i did not want to cancel my holiday i would prefer to arrive late rather than lose it completely, they agreed to this but i’ve not heard from them since and cannot get through to them, now that flights are resuming where does this leave me? it clearly states on their website that ALL holiday combinations are indeed Atol protected in the same way as package holidays!

    1. admin avatar

      This is one of the problems with many companies now putting together a flight and a hotel rather than booking a full package holiday. Full package holidays are always fully ATOL protected and seperate flight and hotel should, in theory, only be put together by a company that can add an ATOL to that holiday combination. However, some companies appear not to be doing this as they should do. This is mostly because it makes them more competitive on price over those agents like us (Global Holidays) who always offer ATOL protection. Like anything else you get what you pay for !If this company say that all holidays are ATOL protected then they should protect the whole holiday not just the flight. Contact them again to complain.

  11. shezzie avatar
    shezzie

    Phoned them yet again and after speaking to many different people saying many different things i finally got them to amend my holiday voucher so we can at least have 1 week of our holiday, however i had to buy new flights and as yet have not been refunded for the original flights, its the first time i’ve ever booked a holiday online with this company and needless to say it will be the LAST!

    1. admin avatar

      Am glad you have got it partly sorted. You shouldn’t have to put pressure on a company to get what you want. It’s been different for us her at Global Holidays because we only sell ATOL protected holidays which means all our affected customers either get a full refund or can move their holidays to a different date if they want. It is possible that you were sold a holiday that is not full financially protected. The cheapest is not always the best ….like many things that we buy in life. I hope that you manage to enjoy your holiday.

  12. Nicola avatar
    Nicola

    We have been advised by our tour operator that we will not get a refund for our cancelled flight back to the UK as we booked as a package. If we had booked direct with Emirates we would have received a full refund for the return journey. Is this right?

    1. admin avatar

      What you have been told does not make sense. You need to ask your tour operator for more information.

  13. allan avatar
    allan

    We booked through the holiday collection group. arrived in Rome on 12th april to depart on 15th april. got on bus to go to plane from departure lounge and were dropped off at arrivals and told to collect our bags. after collecting bag went to airport help desk where i found a queue for the renewal of flight tickets. after 8 hours of waiting in the queue i got to the front and was advised the next flight i could take would be to paris on the 17th april and was advised i would need to print out the boarding cards on a pc using the email address at the time of booking, couldn’t do this because i didn’t make the booking. with reluctance they printed the tickets for me. they offered to make a holtel booking for me and my family but i would of had to wait untill everyone in the queue had been dealt with (another 4 hours) so i made my own arrangements.Saturday came and the flights were cancelled again. A 4 hour wait at the airport to be told the next flight would be the 26th april. no good for me as kids had exams at uni’ and school on that date. Still no cantact from the holiday collection group either by email or by phone. after many attemps to make contact i got through to them on 20th april they told me they had been open over the weekend to take calls but i pointed out that no information was on the recorded ‘we are closed’ message to let clients know this. we got back to uk at midnight 21st april making our own way back. it’s cost well over £2000 plus the cost of a return flight not taken. how much of this will i get back?. will holidays collection reimburse me?. will i get a refund on my flight?. will any one from the holiday collection actually make an effort to contact me?. look forward to your comments.

    1. admin avatar

      Allan. We need to point out that we have no connection with the Holiday Collection Group. You need contact them about getting reimbursement for your costs.

  14. ladyk avatar
    ladyk

    As off today i have still not heard anything from company after promises to phone me.The company i have booked with as the same address as this site and infomation given on both sites is pretty much the same promising 100% atol protected and that money is safe if you book with them.So why are global holidays offering full refund when someone that is part of global travel are not.

    1. admin avatar

      We need to make it clear that we have no connection at all with the Holiday Connection Group. All holidays sold at Global Holidays are ATOL protected which means we would provide a full refund. We can`t comment on holidays that are sold with another company because we don`t know the details of the booking. Hope that you manage to get a proper answer to your query.

  15. Mavis Stewart avatar

    We booked a holiday through the Holday Collection Group to travel 3/5/10 to spend 3 nights in Hong Kong and then 3 nights in Bangkok,then 7 nights in Phuket. Due to the riots in Thailand we were advised that it is likely that the holday will be cancelled.We were advised that all our travel documents have been sent by post 4 days ago, these have not arrived. We then received a call from the reservations team who said that the holiday was cancelled and on realising we were due to fly to Hong Kong first said they would call us back on Sunday. We were advised that should the holday be cancelled that we could only have a credit for the amount paid and if we wanted a refund we would have to make a claim on our Insurance. We have been advised that cancellation of this nature is not covered. We have an ATOL receipt so surely we should be entitled to a full refund of the monies paid.

    1. admin avatar

      If the Holiday Collection Group protected your holiday with an ATOL as they should have done then you will be entitled to a full refund from them if they have cancelled your booking. This is nothing to do with insurance. You should contact the company again to press for a full refund under the terms of the ATOL financial protection scheme. If your holiday is not protected by an ATOL then you need to be asking serious questions as to why you were not informed about this. Next time you book a holiday you should book with a reputable travel agent like ourselves who only book ATOL protected package holidays and in this type of event you would be entitled to a full refund.

  16. allan avatar
    allan

    ADMIN. THANKS FOR THAT. MY MISTAKE. YOUR COMPANY NAMES ARE VERY MUCH THE SAME.

  17. sarah brown avatar
    sarah brown

    hi there, we booked a holiday for 3 weeks in india, at the end of our second week we were told by our travel operator that we had to come back a week early because of the problems with the volcano etc ( this was just when it was ok to fly again. But the people from another holiday were allowed to stay for their last week. I was wondering if there was any way we can claim this lost week back, as both my husband and i have now lost a weeks holiday and annual leave from work, and as we had booked it we couldn’t go back to work early? who do i write to to try and cliam compensation for this? thanks

    1. admin avatar

      Hi. Thanks for your comments. Firstly, I would be asking for an explanation as to why the airline could not fly you back on the date you were supposed to come home.Secondly, I think that you are entitled to some compensation for your lost holiday. You need to contact the company involved to ask them what they are prepared to offer you. I would advise you to check the terms and conditions of your booking as compensation details will be mentioned there. Hope this helps.

  18. Linzi avatar

    Due to go on holiday 16th may. Hong kong Phuket Bangkok and Dubai. Because of the demonstrators we are advised not to go. Holiday company were goon to offer us extra days in Phuket but now it has been advised against travelling to the whole of Thailand. Think we will want a refund now. But are we are entitled to a full refund? We are atol protected and haven’t taken out any insurance yet just because we don’t know if we are goin yet. Thanx?????

    1. admin avatar

      Hi and thanks for your comments. If the holiday company cannot fulfill the holiday that you have booked then in this situation they should offer you a full refund or re-book you on different dates. ATOL protection guarantees that this will happen. I hope you manage to get the matter sorted to your satisfaction.

  19. Linzi avatar

    Lovely thankyou 4 ur help

  20. rob avatar

    I have a holiday coming soon with a major travel company. I have all the necessary insurance cover. If we get to our destination but can not come back due to volcanic ash will the company let us stay where we are until flights are back on. After all nobody from U.K. will be arriving.

    1. admin avatar

      Hi there.If your insurance cover does include this happening then that’s an added bonus. If the major travel company that you mention is an ATOL bonded company then they should look after you in the event that you cannot return home. This would include paying for hotel accommodation and re-arranging new flights. I don’t think that you need to worry too much about going on your holiday. As I say, if you are protected by an ATOL then you should be fine. Hope this helps.

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