Air traffic chaos and compensation: 'Shutdown cost us more than £1,000'

Air traffic chaos and compensation: 'Shutdown cost us more than £1,000'

Catie and Phil Allen were meant to be on their first holiday in two-and-a-half years. Instead, they are at home phoning around for refunds that will not be paid.

The couple are among the many thousands of air passengers caught up in the disruption caused by the four-hour shutdown of the UK's air traffic control system on Tuesday.

As a result, their trip to Slovenia has been cancelled and, although British Airways refunded their flight, they estimate they are still £1,300 out of pocket because of unused accommodation and excursions.

This is not the first time - and will not be the last - that passengers have been left stranded after problems at UK airports. So how does their situation compare with others, and why have they been hit so hard?

Catie, 30, and Phil, 34, were sitting on a British Airways flight to Ljubljana on Tuesday that never departed.

If a flight is cancelled, airlines must get passengers to their destination as soon as possible at no extra cost, even if that means using a rival carrier.

Alternatively, passengers can choose a refund, which should also be offered if a flight is delayed by more than five hours.

In Catie and Phil's case, the replacement flight they were offered would not have landed until Saturday morning - four days into their week-long holiday.

So they accepted the refund. That was not straightforward. The chatbot appeared to only let them rebook, and they spent more than an hour waiting to speak to BA by phone before the refund was confirmed. It will take a week to reach them.

When airlines are responsible, extra compensation is paid under UK and EU rules. But not in this case, because the air traffic control problems were beyond the airlines' control. Even so, airlines themselves are angry at being left with a bill running into millions of pounds.

BA also refunded the couple's car hire, which had been arranged through the airline. The issue for them was that they had booked accommodation and excursions separately, and that money has been lost.

The hotel stays, booked separately, came with their own terms and conditions, and cancelling so late meant there were no refunds. One told Catie they were a family business and could not afford to refund them.

That is different from package holidays, which are fully covered if a flight is cancelled.

"We feel we are penalised for trying to save money," said Catie, who contacted BBC Your Voice about their situation, though she added that "our problems are very small in the bigger scheme of things".

One excursion was later refunded, but - having worked in the aviation sector - Catie is frustrated that the air traffic problem lasted long enough to ruin their holiday.

"We have been saving tirelessly for this trip and we have lost over £1,000 with no way of getting it back. And most of all, we've got no holiday to go on, which we've been looking forward to for years," she said.

The couple said they have been loyal customers of their insurance company for years, using it for policies from home insurance to pet cover.

However, the insurer told them that any claim on their travel insurance for the money they have lost would be invalid because air traffic issues were outside the policy.

Some people also claim through credit card providers. However, all of this depends on the small print from providers.

Although the Allens were able to get home after their flight was cancelled, others ended up sleeping on floors at Heathrow Airport.

Delayed passengers must be given food and a hotel stay, depending on how long they are waiting.

If the airline does not provide this, claims for reasonable expenses can be made afterwards. Experts advise keeping receipts as proof.

The problem was that many could not find accommodation anywhere nearby. Booking a luxury stay is unlikely to be refunded by the airline, because only "reasonable expenses" are allowed.

On Thursday, Aviation Minister Keir Mather told MPs: "Passengers may also be entitled to care and assistance while waiting for a delayed or re-routed flight.

"But there are, of course, lots of incidences we have seen of airport capacity not being able to deal with the number of passengers being disrupted and I think that is a key lesson we have to learn from this."

Mather said the kind of disruption caused by the failure of air traffic control provider Nats on Tuesday was "unacceptable".

There will be an independent review of the saga by the Civil Aviation Authority.

Flight data firm Cirium said the aviation system had "stabilised significantly" on Thursday.

It said 54 of 3,028 scheduled arrivals had been cancelled or were not operating, while for departures, 47 of 3,033 scheduled flights were affected.