Can you claim on the travel insurance, does it cover the reasons they had to cancel?

You'll need to obtain a more detailed breakdown - yes, they are entitled to claim the tax back but probably nothing else - you'll need to check BMI Baby's T&Cs re their policy on the additonal charges such as hold baggage etc. And it's pretty standard practice across all the low cost carriers to charge an admin fee for the tax refund - and yes, it is usually set at such a level that it makes it not worth your while to pursue the refund. I think there's little you can do apart from checking their travel insurance to see if their reasons for cancelling are covered but if there's an excess on their policies then it mightn't be worth claiming agains that either.

Another alternative is to check whether BMI Baby might be prepared, for a lower fee, to transfer their booking to another set of dates and/or arrange a name change for others in the family to use these flights in their stead.

Low cost airlines are great when everything goes according to plan but when they don't and you have to cancel or change your flight plans then they are very inflexible more often than not you just have to write-off what you've paid. If you know it advance that you might need a degree of flexibility then you probably are better off paying more and booking with one of the full service airlines.

SM

The Air Transport Users Council has info about your legal rights in this matter at http://www.caa.co.uk/default.aspx?catid=306&pagetype=90&pageid=2266 - basically you haven't got any!!! They produced a report about a year ago with explains how things vary (even BMI and BMIbaby have different policies) which you can read by clicking the link in the middle of their advice page. The BMIbaby admin charge is supposed to be per booking so if both people are on the same booking reference then you should only pay it once not each.

If your cancellation reason is covered by insurance they will want at least a written breakdown of what the airline will and will not refund and because what the airlines are doing is such an obvious rip off there may be small print in the insurance policy excluding it.

All I can say is that you should have checked this before u paid for ur flights. sorry! x

harry1369, I don't think your post is very helpful!
If you have nothing constructive to say, perhaps it's best,to say nothing at all!
Denny

I agree with you Denny. Harry on this forum we try to help people, sometimes we advise them and its not what they want to hear, but we are never rude. I suggest you check out the terms and conditions of posting before doing so again.

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