What’s the best route to a successful claim for flight delays?

Simon Calder answers your questions on airline compensation, erroneous hotel bookings, out-of-date passports and TransPennine Express

A Saudia flight from Jeddah to London was delayed for more than three hours (Getty)

Q I am trying to claim some compensation for my return flight from Jeddah to London on Saudia. The delay was more than three hours. When I phoned the airline they told me to complete an online form. But the online form is faulty and I cannot submit it. What are my options?

VP

A I am sorry to learn that you were delayed. Judging from the number of questions I am getting about compensation, I fear late arrival may become the story for the summer. According to the aviation analytics firm Cirium, this Friday is set to see the highest number of UK departures since December 2019 – with more than 3,000 flights scheduled for the day. While flying is recovering to pre-pandemic levels, the scope for disruption is wide, from ground handling to air-traffic control strikes.

You may have seen online invocations saying, for example: “Saudia flight delayed by 3 hours or more Claim compensation of up to £520!” (Such messages from claims-handling firms rarely mention the slice of the cash that they hang on to.) Unfortunately, European air passengers’ rights rules, as copied and pasted by the UK after Brexit, have a wide exclusion: they do not apply to flights on non-EU/UK airlines from outside Europe.

This leads to a slightly absurd situation. The Saudia passengers waiting at Heathrow to return to Jeddah might well be owed £520 each in compensation, but the travellers arriving well beyond the expected time get not a penny. Saudia’s call centre should have been aware of this and advised you of the law, rather than directing you to a useless online form.

When I am travelling outside the European Union, all other things being equal, I will choose an EU/UK carrier for the homeward flight – so that, if things go wrong, I am covered by the very generous consumer rights.

Once you book through an online travel agent, any hope of a quick and painless correction evaporates (Getty/iStock)

Q I made a simple mistake when booking a hotel through an online travel agent. In my desire to get the best price, I chose a non-refundable deal to stay at the Hilton Euston in London. Unfortunately, I keyed in 2 June when I wanted 24 June.

I contacted the agent literally within seconds, using their chat function. The agent I spoke to seemed positive, but after a fruitless exchange of emails I was told: “Unfortunately, after multiple tries, we weren’t able to obtain an approval from the property manager to waive the change fee. This means the current rules and restrictions for your booking apply and a refund can’t be granted.”

I then contacted Hilton direct, who said they had received no such request – but that since I had booked through an agent there was nothing they could do anyway. Are there any other routes I could try?

Paul K

A Sorry to hear about your financial loss due to an honest and understandable error. “Cooling off” – a spell during which you have a chance to change your mind or correct a mistaken date – is a fairly rare phenomenon in the travel industry. To its credit, British Airways offers a no-quibble refund (and by extension the chance to change dates) within 24 hours of booking, if you buy direct at ba.com. Ryanair also has a limited opportunity to make corrections.

Had you booked direct, it is possible that Hilton might have agreed to correct your mistake – even though its conditions insist: “If you cancel for any reason, attempt to modify this reservation, or do not arrive on your specified check-in date, your payment is non-refundable.” But once you decided to book through an online travel agent, any hope of a quick and painless correction evaporated. I am surprised they even bothered to fabricate an explanation.

I have lost a fair amount of cash by committing to travel products that I could not subsequently use, which is why, for hotel bookings, I generally go for flexible deals – which you can cancel up to the day before, or even by 6pm on the day of arrival. Hilton typically offers a 14 per cent discount if you commit to the advance purchase, no changes option.

Given the scope for things to go awry, whether through a mistaken date or an unexpected change in circumstances, I prefer to give up the discount and opt for maximum flexibility instead.

Brexit is the gift that keeps on wrecking holidays (Getty)

Q My friend is due to go to Disneyland Paris this weekend. She’s just realised her passport was issued on 27 May 2013 and runs out on 27 February 2024. With the new Brexit rule about a passport being less than 10 years old, does this mean they’ll refuse her entry? We can’t get hold of the passport office to find out.

Charlotte W

A Brexit is the gift that keeps on wrecking holidays – but at least your friend has some chance of rescuing the trip, if she can move swiftly. It may be that she is planning to travel this Friday, in which case she has nothing to worry about. On Friday she definitely complies with the two conditions for a British passport to the European Union: issued in the past 10 years, and valid for at least three months beyond the day she plans to return.

It may be that she is planning to travel out tomorrow, the exact 10th birthday of the passport. Most regrettably, there is no absolute clarity about whether travel on the actual 10th birthday of the passport is acceptable. The exact rule says: “The passport should have been issued within the last 10 years.”

I have tried without success to get a definite ruling on this. I do know that some people have successfully travelled on the 10th anniversary of their passport being issued. If she is flying to Paris, though, the airline may invoke a rule that stipulates less than 10 years, rather than 10 years or less.

A trip by Eurostar train, or Eurotunnel, or a ferry from Dover is more likely to be successful, because the Police aux Frontieres official will be the sole arbiter – unlike the process for air travel, checks are made when leaving the UK, with transport firms not involved in making a decision.

If her journey is set for Sunday or later, I am afraid she is likely to be turned away. In her position, I would be booking a Eurostar train or bus/ferry combo for this afternoon or evening to be absolutely certain that I would get away.

Train operator TransPennine Express cancelled the equivalent of one in six services across most of March (PA)

Q I have the misfortune to live in Huddersfield, with the need to rely on TransPennine Express. Do you think taking it into public ownership will make any difference to the level of service we currently “enjoy” in these parts?

MB

A Today is the last day on which FirstGroup will manage the enterprise that links Huddersfield with Liverpool, Manchester, Leeds, York and Newcastle, as well as running Edinburgh and Glasgow. From Sunday 28 May, TransPennine Express will be brought under public control as an “Operator of Last Resort” (OLR). The government says the move was made following “months of significant disruption and regular cancellations”, and that passengers deserve better performance levels.

During most of March, the most recent month for which figures are available, the train company cancelled the equivalent of one in six services. The Department for Transport (DfT) says the number of cancellations – many at short notice – has resulted in “a considerable decline in confidence for passengers”.

For a snapshot of how bad things are, I took a look at the Friday evening service from your local station. In just over one hour, from 7pm, no fewer than four TransPennine Express trains were cancelled: two to Manchester (Piccadilly and Airport), one to Liverpool, and the fourth to Hull. The reason for each cancellation was opaquely stated thus: “This train has been cancelled because of a short-notice change to the timetable.” The train drivers’ union, Aslef, says of the outgoing management: “This is a company which doesn’t know how to run a railway.”

I would love to say that from Sunday, with civil servants directing operations, your transportation problems will be over. But there is no reason to imagine that the standard of service will change in the near future. For the week ahead, things will get very much worse. A national strike by Aslef will halt all TransPennine Express trains on Wednesday 31 May and Saturday 3 June; the impact will continue into Thursday and Sunday respectively, and in between, the RMT strike on Friday 2 June will shut down most of the network.

More widely, staff sickness levels remain well above pre-Covid levels, while the programme of training drivers has been hit by the pandemic. Added to this, Aslef has long had a ban on rest-day working by train drivers.

The government hopes that a “reset” will improve services before TransPennine Express is returned in due course to the private sector. Meanwhile, the Labour Party says that all train operators will be brought back into public ownership and standards will improve. I imagine most TransPennine Express passengers will take either party’s plan so long as reliability can return.

Email your question to s@hols.tv or tweet @simoncalder