Your travel chaos questions answered: Know your rights when it all goes wrong

Our travel correspondent explains your entitlements when rail and air journeys are disrupted, and provides some background to airline and train operator decisions

Ready to go? Bristol airport as the severe weather closes in (Dave Harvey)

Q I’m sitting fuming at home in Bath because my flight to Spain this afternoon has been cancelled. But on Flightradar24 I’ve just seen an easyJet flight land from Amsterdam. How can they cancel flights when the airport is open, and am I due any compensation?

Richard H

Ryanair and easyJet cancelled most of their flying programmes to and from Bristol airport as Storm Emma approached. There are valid reasons to do so even if the airport is operating. If the forecast is for terrible weather later, the airlines do not want to dispatch planes that will either need to sit on the ground at the destination, or be diverted on the return trip to Britain.

In addition, if the weather around the airport is atrocious, the airline must take into account the safety of its staff and passengers travelling to and from the terminal.

Because the root of the problem is adverse weather, passengers whose flights are cancelled or heavily delayed by bad weather are not entitled to cash compensation. The cancelling airline has a duty of care to provide meals and, if necessary, overnight accommodation to stranded travellers. However, in your case, you are saving them money by fuming at home.

Q My son has travelled back from US today and has been told at Heathrow that flights to Glasgow have been cancelled. He has been advised by airline to book a hotel at a maximum of £200 or travel by taxi to Glasgow (not really an option due to weather conditions), and that he has to pay up front and be reimbursed at a later date. What are his rights and options?

David McE

The airline is supposed to organise all the customer care, but very often in extreme circumstances passengers may be left to fend for themselves. Some airlines try to impose cash limits on hotels. If there is no alternative but to spend more, though (for example because all hoteliers have raised rates due to the spike in demand) this is unenforceable.

Were I in your son’s position, I would take the train from London to Newcastle or Carlisle and find a budget hotel, then wait for rail or bus services across the border to re-start. That would minimise his outlay and also reduce the to-ing and fro-ing when he puts in a claim for his costs.

Q My flight to Italy was cancelled and I was only offered the chance of rebooking for four days’ time, which means there is no point travelling. Should I have been offered an alternative flight?

Name withheld

I calculate that between Tuesday 27 February and Thursday 1 March, more than 100,000 passengers have had their flights to, from or within the UK cancelled. Some of them will simply have abandoned their journeys and claimed a refund. But that still leaves a huge number of people who need seats on other flights. On a typical Ryanair flight, only seven or eight out of 189 seats are empty, which shows how little slack there is in the system.

European passengers’ rights rules are annoyingly vague about re-booking, which gives the airlines leeway to make up their own policies. Ryanair says if it cannot get you to your destination on the same day or the following day, it may book you on a different airline; easyJet will do the same if it cannot re-accommodate you within 48 hours of the original trip. But before that happens, expect other avenues to be explored, such as flying from a different UK airport to your destination, or to another Italian airport — perhaps Verona instead of Venice.

Q My son flew to Madrid with Air Europa for a connecting flight through to Bogota this morning. Unfortunately the outbound from Gatwick was delayed and he arrived at Madrid with only 20 minutes to spare. If he doesn’t make it, what are his rights? Joan K

A Your son is in a stronger position than many passengers. Air Europa will have been aware that the connection from Gatwick to Madrid was running well over an hour late. So what began as a comfortable 105-minute connection for your son and his baggage, now looks like a 20-minute dash. But despite this stressful situation he can be relatively relaxed. Most of the passengers on the Air Europa flight from Gatwick are connecting to Latin America. Air Europa will have looked at how many passengers are due to transfer to Bogota, and decided whether or not to hold the connection by 20 or 30 minutes - which will probably happen if a good few are on board the delayed inbound aircraft. If the outbound aircraft does leave without your son, then Air Europa may re-book him on the rival Avianca flight later today or (more likely) provide a hotel and meals before the corresponding Air Europa flight to Bogota tomorrow.

Q We were supposed to travel from Glasgow to Hurghada yesterday and the airport is closed today. Do we have a legal option to exercise a cancellation and get a full refund for our holiday package?

Peter T

Yes. There is no set limit to how much a trip must be delayed before you can claim a full refund, for good reason. On a weekend break to Paris, a six-hour delay is very significant, while on a month-long journey to Australia a 24-hour wait might be tolerable. But for a week or fortnight package, it is reasonable for a refund to be offered after a 12-hour delay in departure.

Thomas Cook has now contacted the unfortunate passengers booked on flight MT710 who spent most of Wednesday waiting at Glasgow airport.

Q What’s the idea behind cancelling flights in advance at Heathrow when no-one knows how bad the weather will be? And why do British Airways (or their passengers) always seem to come off worst?

Jack L

Proactive cancellations are often ordered by Heathrow at times of disruption. The aim is to protect the schedule out of Europe’s busiest airport. If that sounds counter-intuitive, here’s the background. There is very little slack in the system at Heathrow (which is one reason, say some people, why it needs another runway). If NATS, the air-traffic provider, says that the arrivals flow rate needs to be reduced, perhaps because of high winds or poor visibility, the whole operation can start to unravel very quickly. In a bid to avoid this, “firebreaks” are created by filleting the schedules. Airlines will typically be asked to cancel 10 or 15 per cent of the schedule.

For the many airlines at Heathrow which have only a few daily arrivals and departures, there is no requirement to cancel. The same names crop up time and again for cancelling airlines: Aer Lingus, Air France, KLM, Lufthansa (and its Eurowings subsidiary), SAS and Virgin Atlantic. But British Airways, with the majority of slots at Heathrow, always cancels many more than the rest put together.

Q Will my Air New Zealand flight from Heathrow to Auckland go ahead on Sunday?

Helen D

I have no idea, but I think there is every chance that it will. Domestic and European passengers are arguably sacrificed to protect long-haul operations - and there is no longer flight from Heathrow than your trip to New Zealand’s largest city.

Q My flight from Edinburgh to Heathrow was cancelled, I was rebooked the following day, but then that was cancelled too. I understand I now go to the back of the queue. That seems very unfair?

Anna P

I agree it looks unkind, but I can’t see a fairer way to allocate space on flights. If I book six months ahead for a Heathrow-Madrid flight on Sunday, I want as much certainty as possible that I will be able to fly. The fact that your flight two days earlier was cancelled is unfortunate but not, with respect, my problem. Airlines and disrupted passengers must work together to find solutions that do not involve offloading other travellers.

There is also a legal aspect. Airlines need not pay compensation for flights cancelled by poor weather. But if I am kicked off my flight to make room for you, I will be after my €400 in denied boarding compensation.

Q I’ve got an Advance rail ticket to go from London to Newcastle tomorrow, and because of the weather I’m uncertain about whether to go. Can I get my money back?

Name withheld

Yes, without the usual cancellation fee being applied. Virgin Trains East Coast, like many other train operators, is urging people not to travel on Thursday 1 or Friday 2 March. It will refund the cost of tickets, and also says: “Customers who were booked to travel on services yesterday, today [1 March] or tomorrow, but have not been able to travel, will be able to travel on any service up to Wednesday 7 March.”

In addition, most long-distance train operators are relaxing the normally tight rules on Advance tickets, allowing them to be used on a different train or even a different day. The idea is that passengers can choose when to make a dash for their destination, depending on how trains are running.

Q I’ve heard that the train companies are making money out of this chaos, by saving on staff and running costs. True?

David H

It’s very difficult to see that any travel enterprise (apart from hoteliers and taxi drivers) is profiting from the extreme weather. Train operators are losing millions in ticket revenue, and while they may be saving on fuel and seeing their Network Rail bill diminish, they are paying out to disrupted travellers under the Delay Repay scheme. And they genuinely want to provide a decent service that keeps passengers happy.