Flight Cancellations due to volcanic ash

[richfinch]

Hi, can anyone advise on the flight cancellation situation in terms of who is liable etc, My sister is stuck in gran canaria, i know the airlines are laible to put her up in accommodation etc until they can get her home (ive heard this on sky news) but what about other costs, eg phone calls home to let famaily know she is ok, and loss of earnings, ie shes not in the UK so cant work, and she gets paid an hourly rate, so for every day she is stuck abroad she is losong a days pay - does anyone know of there is a ruling / law on loss of wages?
thanks
richard

[NoMercy]

First and foremost, it's not the airline's fault that the volcano erupted. They are only responsible to a certain point. I shouldn't think the airline would be responsible for loss of earnings of costs of phoning home, but her insurance may cover it???

[coccinelle]

This is why people take out insurances; what kind of travel insurance does she have?

[Old_Geezer]

I confess to not knowing, but I'd have thought so called "Acts of God" no one were liable for. Different service providers may have commitments built into their licences and stuff, like finding accommodation, but that aside sometimes life sucks.

Also unless you have especially searched it out, "Acts of God" are often used by insurance companies to renege on their commitments and are mysteriously not covered when you try to claim. But worth trying anyway, you never know.

You might hope for a class action on the airways and/or government if this proves to be an over cautious clamp down, but personally, I wouldn't hold my breath. Maybe this is the "rainy day" your sister will have put funds aside for ?

But in the past I've been more pessimistic about situations than it turned out I needed to be, so who knows ?

[mikey0118]

I think she's going to just have to get over it and accept that there will be financial loss involved to everybody - not just her. I am stuck in Orlando right now and my parents are stuck in Thailand and we are all missing out on wages, paying for the use of a telephone and for accommodation.

If she's in Gran Canaria, maybe suggest that she get a job in a bar. I expect that they do could do with an extra pair of hands to cope with the ridiculous number of stranded passengers.

[cazzz1975]

can she not get back via train/ferry/car ???

[ummmm]

Airlines ( I think European ) are the only ones that have some responsibility when an act of God occurs. That responsibility is accommodation and food. That's all.

[spudqueen]

If she took out travel insurance with the Post Office then she is covered with that policy. She needs to check the policy pack as to what exactly she is entitled to. I work in a Post Office and we have had a memo saying that anyone who already had travel insurance with them is covered for this incident. Any travel insurance bought since Thursday though does not cover this as it is now a known problem.

[boxtops]

I suppose there are ferry facilities from the Canary Islands to mainland Spain but it would take quite a while. I bet some people are already looking into it!

[Hugh Spencer]

I don't understand what is going on because at 9.45 this morning on www.radarvirtuel.com KLM and Lufthansa planes were flying over England but no English departures. One was flying to the States.