Travel Snow Advice For Consumers Travelling To Europe

Jan. 20, 2010 - PRLog -- The UK’s ‘Big Freeze’ - with more heavy snow predicted this week across parts of central and southern England as well as parts of Wales (Met Office forecast) – has prompted the UK European Consumer Centre (UK ECC) to issue travel snow advice to consumers who have suffered disruption whilst trying to travel to Europe.

Flights were disrupted by the snow and ice, which lasted for weeks in some parts of the country, causing frustration for many air passengers. The UK ECC has issued the following guidance:

For flights:
•   You have no automatic right to compensation if your flight is disruption by the weather, due to the fact that any cancellations would be beyond the airlines’ control.
•   However, EC Regulation 261/2004 dictates that if your flight is cancelled, you should be offered a refund or rerouting of your flight.
•   This entitlement does not extend to reimbursement of any normal components of your trip such as hotel and transfer costs. Consumers should check their travel insurance to see if they can reclaim these.
•   Consumers may be able to claim any extra expenses such as hotels incurred as a result of the cancelled or delayed flights, under the Montreal Convention 1999. For individual advice, contact the UK ECC on 08456 040503.
•   If your flight is delayed rather than cancelled, you are entitled to claim for meals and refreshments from the airline – if they don’t provide them – depending on the length of the wait. This obligation still applies in bad weather conditions.

For package holidays:
•   If your package holiday is cancelled due to bad weather, your entitlement to compensation, refund or an alternative holiday currently depends on the terms and conditions of your individual holiday booking. However, The European Commission recently announced the overhaul of EU travel protection rules. Holidaymakers and interested parties have 7 February 2010 to participate in the consultation process.
•   As with flights, you have no automatic right to compensation if your package holiday is cancelled due to unforeseeable circumstances beyond the control of the tour operator. However, in reality, package tour operators may offer an alternative holiday, reroute your holiday travel arrangements or give you a refund for the whole holiday.

Jed Mayatt, UK European Consumer Centre Manager, said: “Many airlines have behaved well throughout the ‘Big Freeze’, providing alternative flights to get consumers to their destinations and meeting their obligations of duty of care in the form of hotels and meals if there have been delays. We welcome this responsible approach.

“However, this is not always the case and there will still be some consumers who don’t know what their rights are – that’s why we’ve issued this advice. With more bad weather expected, it’s important that consumers travelling to Europe know that we can give support and advice if they are in dispute with European traders.”

Consumers requiring support and advice on their travel-to-Europe problems should check out the UK ECC website on www.ukecc.net or phone the UK European Consumer Centre on 08456 08456 040503.

The UK ECC, which is leading the way in Europe for receiving the largest number of consumer enquiries, handled more than 8,000 cases in 2008 (complaints and information requests), topping the number dealt with by Italy (just under 8,000), Germany (just under 6,000) and Austria (just over 5,500).

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The UK ECC is part of a network that is made up of 29 centres throughout Europe. The centres work together in order to try and resolve consumer cross-border disputes in an amicable manner. We provide advice, information, and support to consumers.