Our trip was cut by a family emergency – can we get money back?

Simon Calder answers your questions on refunds, airline strikes, and the Stanley Johnson flight drama

A good travel insurance policy is likely to have curtailment coverage (Getty)

Q My wife had to come back two days into a one-week holiday due to a family emergency. Can she claim some money back?

Mick H

A I am sorry to hear of the reason for curtailing the holiday. In such circumstances, the first issue is the arrangement for returning home early. Legally, the airline or holiday company can charge for changing a flight date –but as a gesture of compassion many holiday companies and airlines will do what they can to allow customers to get home without additional cost. I hope that is what happened; if not, then travel insurance should be able to cover the cost.

Next, were a holiday company to curtail a one-week package holiday after a couple of days, naturally you would get most of the cost back from the firm to reflect the lost enjoyment.

In this case, though, when ending the holiday early is voluntary – albeit in very difficult personal circumstances – it would not be usual to be offered any kind of recompense. The only situation I can envisage when money might flow back would be if your wife’s accommodation was booked flexibly – ie if a seven-night stay could be cut back to two nights with a partial refund for the unused nights.

Failing that, travel insurance may well help. A good policy is likely to have curtailment coverage. For example, with Columbus Direct, if you have to curtail a trip due to the serious illness, severe injury or death of an immediate relative or close business associate, you are entitled to claim “the unused portion of your travel and/or accommodation arrangements which were paid for before your departure from your country of residence”.

Naturally, your wife will be asked by the insurance company to provide evidence of the circumstances and payments made.

Work to rule: pilots from Ireland’s national airline go on strike in Dublin (PA)

Q I’m due to be flying with Aer Lingus in the next few weeks. On their website, the options available for passengers whose flights are cancelled include requesting a refund, having a voucher and being booked on another Aer Lingus flight if one is available. Is Aer Lingus required to get me to my destination on the same day, even if it involves using another airline? If so, how do I get them to do that? I’m flying Dublin to Heathrow, so BA is available as an alternative.

Mary K

A Ireland’s national airline is cancelling around 26 flights a day at the moment as a result of a “strict work to rule” by pilots belonging to the Irish Air Line Pilots’ Association. I can see no significant progress on the dispute.

Many of the cancelled flights are between Dublin and London Heathrow – six today alone. As you say, Aer Lingus is required to get you to your destination on the same day. The airline warns: “While we will endeavour to reaccommodate customers where possible, the levels of disruption may not make this possible.”

That does not look helpful but your first step should be to call the airline in Ireland on 01 761 7834 or in the UK on 0333 004 5000. If you want an alternative flight and there is one on Aer Lingus on the same day, you have little choice but to accept it – or take a refund (ignore the voucher offer, which has no advantage for you). You could instead book a flight on Ryanair to a different London airport.

If, though, Aer Lingus does not have seats available on the same day, then you can look on British Airways to see what options there are. Invite Aer Lingus to buy the ticket for you, as it is required to do. If the carrier declines, then you can book it and claim the additional cost back from Aer Lingus. This may be a tedious process but the airline cannot reject a reasonable claim.

I am contacting Aer Lingus to ask why the option of being rebooked on another airline is not made clearer; at present, all I can see is a link to the European legislation.

Stanley Johnson sits next to his son on the Bakerloo Line but it was another form of transport that the ex-PM’s father had trouble with (PA Archive)

Q You wrote about Stanley Johnson demanding that he should be allowed off a British Airways plane diverted from Gatwick to Heathrow. Why couldn’t he just get off?

Katie W

A The father of Boris Johnson was on board BA2641 from Malaga to London Gatwick on Friday. When another British Airways flight rejected take off at Gatwick, the runway was closed for 50 minutes and 16 flights were diverted – including the Malaga flight. It landed at Heathrow.

With a short-term diversion like that, the aircraft will typically taxi to a remote stand where it can be replenished with fuel before the short journey to its intended destination. The aim is always to get the aircraft, crew and passengers to the planned arrival airport as quickly as possible. The plane and possibly the pilots and cabin crew have more missions to fly that day, and passengers may well have cars parked or people meeting them at Gatwick.

Since I wrote the story, many people have commented on social media that in the event of a diversion you have the right to get off the plane. I have searched in vain for any legal text to support this. I have, though, read the Air Navigation Order 1995, which says: “Every person in an aircraft registered in the United Kingdom shall obey all lawful commands which the commander of that aircraft may give for the purpose of securing the safety of the aircraft and of persons or property carried therein, or the safety, efficiency or regularity of air navigation.”

British Airways aircraft are registered in the UK. The commander (captain) will, I imagine, have concluded flying out of Heathrow as soon as possible was the best way to maintain the “efficiency or regularity of air navigation”. So everyone stays on board.

I have had a number of diversions while flying. If the plane is not going any further (eg a Ryanair flight to Baden-Baden in Germany, which ended up in Basel in Switzerland), then everyone gets off. But if weather or other delay means a brief diversion (eg the Emirates flight on Friday, which went to Brussels before flying on to Gatwick), the understanding is almost always that everyone stays on board.

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