Hi bushbaby,

Link to Olympic Holidays website. Hope this helps.

http://www.olympicholidays.com/information/iceland-volcano-ash.htm

Angie.

There is confusing/conflicting information between the media and the TOs.

Basically the TOs are offering/attempting to rearrange holidays at this time. If they cancel then they will give you a full refund.

This is explained on the various TO websites.

The problem in many cases is that people book leave for a holiday and can/will the employer be willing to let people extend/amend this due to the circumstances. The problem is classed as "an act of god" and is, in most cases, excluded from peoples travel insurance. You do need to read your policy to check this as some policies may offer some sort of cover. Might even be worth contacting your insurer and asking them.

TOs at this stage are unable to tell people if the holidays will go ahead. They are not being evasive they just don't know themselves. They are awaiting advice from the authorities and things could change in a few days.

Many of the newspapers have reports and advice. It might be worth doing a little surfing on the net and reading what their experts have to say but the final decision does rest with the TOs.

We are booked to go on 8th May and have been discussing the situation as being realistic, the problem could have a knock on effect. I am not however chasing Thomson at this stage ( as many are reported to be doing ) as we know we would not get a meaningful answer and those who are effected would have even more problems getting through.

fwh

thanks angie - i will pass this on to them.

No problem bushbaby I hope they get their holiday sorted out.

Angie.

Buried in the Olympic booking conditions, which you can find by working backwards from the link posted, it confirms that they will refund in these circumstances if they have to cancel. But they obviously aren't going to do it on the spot at an airport information desk.

Likewise all airlines where you have bought flight only (if you have bought a package you have no contract with the airline, it's down to the TO to sort things out).

None of them are liable for compensation payments, hotels, food, airport parking etc. etc.. and few insurance policies will either. Many insurers may pay your cancellation loss if you give up after a period of time as shown in the policy even if the TO is still considering it.

Most British journalists would struggle to report their own birthday so don't believe as fact anything you read in the papers. You can't even trust the BBC, yesterday they did a breaking news announcement that NATS had added another 6 hours to the curfew, then they did the weather, and then the headlines where they blindly read out the original curfew time!

Sorry to hear about all the hassles Bushbaby. We have just returned home today instead of being on our way for a much needed holiday in Malta. As it turns out, our airline (Air Malta) have been very helpful but the TO (Chevron) have sent a couple of misleading emails and that's it. Up to a couple of hours ago, there was no information at all on their website. The current position is that all we'll get back is the flight money and nothing else despite booking a full package holiday with this company. We've been with this TO on a number of occasions and had no probs with them at all. Their customer service has always been spot on.......hopefully things will improve for everyone very soon.

hi dizzyb23....if you booked a full package then you are ib the best possible position for a either a re-schedualed holiday or a full refund.....

if you had just boked a flight and your hotel seperately DIY then you would only be likely to get your flight cost refunded unless hotel agreed to allow you to use your booking money for a later date..

if you booked a package with a TO then its up to them to provide what you have paid for or if not refund you in full....tweetie

Bless you for replying Tweetipie. There is such a huge amount of conflicting info out there. I totally appreciate your help and info. I'm going to get on with the re-booking process tomorrow after drowning my sorrows tonight.....i'll keep this thread updated with my progress in the hope it will help others too.

Just Announced on the BBC news that all Ryanair flights to and from the UK have now been cancelled untill 1300 on Wednesday !!

aaarrrggghhhh !!!!!!

this situation seems to be never ending!

i am due to fly ryanair on thursday for 5 nights in lloret, and am now sweating on whether i will be able to go or not.

anybody else affected by this?

i have friends out there at the moment who went by coach and they are telling me that malgrat is dead.

i have just read on another site that ryanair have cancelled all flights till wednesday, so i am not very hopeful that i will get away.

i just hope that ryanair decide to cancel my thursday flight early tomorrow so i can at least try to find some alternative.

obviously the longer it goes without any definite decision by ryanair the less time i have to try and arrange any alternative.

maybe i am selfish, but all i want is to be able to get to lloret, coming home is not top of my priority list, but i think i am going to be unlucky again.

.i have already been screwed by BA CC going on strike and ruining my trip to sofia, and now this.

i think i am jinxed this year, and have flights to sofia and gerona for next month, but BA still have problems and this volcano situation could run for months.

hopefully this will be resolved soon and we can all get the holidays we are looking forward to.

I understand exactly how you feel Jimd-f.....I really feel jinxed myself when it comes to holidays. Since starting going on holiday without my Mum and Dad it's as if someone really wanted to throw a huge spanner in the works for me. Being slightly over dramatic here maybe but i'm getting so paranoid...
Anyway, lets hope that the government will now get on with bringing our fellow Brits back home as soon as possible. I'm about to start the process of sorting this mess out with Chevron Holidays and will post the truth on how they treat me as a customer...

The media is overloaded with tales of woe and accusations of overkill. Plenty of instant experts expressing their views, and unable to agree among themselves. Perhaps the authorities are being over cautious, but just suppose they decide to let flights resume and there is a disaster - what would people say then?

Looking at this from another angle have we perhaps become far too confident that nothing can possibly interfere with our lives? Volcanoes are not something we can control. They erupt whenever conditions arise that makes them unstable. Just like earthquakes they are part of nature and our world. Only a few short weeks ago the country was at a standstill when we had some snow. How people react to these things is unimportant, it is a natural occurrence.

So holidays and travel are being disrupted, well much as I sympathise with all those effected - I was with people this weekend one who, is stranded here, although as she has been on holiday visiting family it is a little bonus that she can spend some more time with them, and a couple who do not know if their very expensive holiday will take place. My own holiday in a couple of weeks and may not take place. We do need to consider a much wider picture.

There are plenty of active volcanoes and some are said to be well overdue to erupt. We need to consider that if some of them do we could well see travel worldwide disrupted, not for a matter of a couple of weeks but for months.

One rather interesting side effect of this may be that there could well be a drop in business travel once things return to normal. Companies are already making use of video conferencing because they cannot travel. It has been there for a long time but much underused. Could it perhaps become the norm?

fwh

Just had to cancel our holiday for tomorrow flying to new resort in Egypt (mersa Mutrah) with Thomson thought we would rebook as we both need a break the next available one was in a months time, but as the agent tried to rebook us three times it went up quite a few hundred pounds. i pleaded and she said she would get back to me after a call to customer services but to no avail, they know they have you over a barrel I know they have to recoup some of their money due to all this but i feel we are being made to pay through the nose. Cancelled holiday plans having to rebook time off and have just been charged 50% more for the privelege. Anybody else had this problem? Not happy

Yes Mallin, it looks like we are in a similar position to you. I have the TO calling me in the morning. At least we've now been offered a full refund instead of just the flight money back. We've checked the availability and prices of re-booking for later in the year and they seem to be a lot higher than they were originally...

Oh well, i've been watching some of the news with interviews with stranded passengers. I really feel sorry for these folk. They are struggling in a foriegn country with no money and no help from their TO's or insurance company. Please lets get them home asap and surely they should get some sort of financial help after all they've been through??

surely they should get some sort of financial help after all they've been through??

Sorry but I fail to see why. It is not the fault of anyone that this situation has arisen. We may live in a society that seems to want to apportion blame and wants compensating when things go wrong, but in real life things do not always go as we would like or expect.

fwh

Folk deserve some recompense if they've been abandoned by their TO or insurance company. I know full well that things happen in life...don't need reminding thanks....

UK tour operators should not be abandoning anyone that has booked a package but people that have gone diy don't have the same rights as regards to accommodation whilst delayed.

dizzyb23 wrote:

Folk deserve some recompense if they've been abandoned by their TO or insurance company. I know full well that things happen in life...don't need reminding thanks....

And who would recompense them?