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Has this happened to anyone? Just got back from Bali 5 days later than we should have due to the Mount Lewotobi volcanic eruption. Do the airlines give compensation as they would for a flight delay, or will they claim “force majuere”?
edit - the airline rescheduled but the earliest they could get us back was 5 days later than we should have.
Who do you want compensation from?
The airline, your insurer, Baby Jesus?
Volcanoes can seriously damage planes and engines. If the airline did their best to get you out of there then there's probably not much you can do. Who paid for your accommodation during the delay?
Who do you want compensation from?
The airline, your insurer, Baby Jesus?
Shiva possibly...
Isn't this sort of thing covered by your travel insurance?
Got stuck in Japan for 7 days in 2010 when the Iceland volcanic eruption grounded the whole world.
Answer then was it depends@ as we had booked Virgin we were covered under some EU directive and the airline were obliged to accomodate and feed us. Worked pretty nicely for us, got 2 star hotel in Tokyo and meal allowances reimbursed after the event. (Alternatively they offered to put us up at Tokyo Disney). Others who had booked via Nippon Air weren't offered the same deal as non-EU.
Think there may have been a change in the rules since then though, pre-Brexit.
All I got from the airline was an email saying your flights have been cancelled, these this is your alternative. No offer of accommodation etc, just another email saying use this email to send to your travel insurance for any additional costs.
So claim on your travel insurance.
I will be doing, I was asking if anyone had been in the same situation.
Who were you flying with?
Cathay Pacific
We recently had our flights cancelled when coming back from Jordan. We actually had return flights with both Wizz Air and British Airways (due to Wizz Air also cancelling our flight with little notice on the way out!) and both cancelled with no compensation due to 'political instability'. They did pay for food and accommodation for the 2 additional days we were there, and BA booked us on a flight with Royal Jordanian and just sent us the details. Wizz Air however did absolutely nothing and have been a complete nightmare in trying to claim back costs.
I understand that it's the airlines responsibility to cover your costs for food and accommodation, rather then your insurers.
From the CAA:
This depends on what caused the delay – if it wasn’t the airline’s fault, don’t expect to receive any compensation.
Disruptions caused by things like extreme weather, airport or air traffic control employee strikes or other ‘extraordinary circumstances’ are not eligible for compensation.
Even if EU261 / UK261 applied, you wouldn't get compensation, because it's outside of the airline's control. Unfortunately because you weren't on an EU or UK based airline then you won't get duty of care, which would cover hotels and food. Cathay Pacific's conditions of carriage offer you the next available flight or a refund, and only compensate if the local regulation demands it. So since you accepted the flights offered, all you can look for is if Indonesia or Hong Kong have any regulation about delays and I would assume not. As said by others, this is what your travel insurance is for.
I got my flights refunded in full plus an amount (not sure how much, it was a long time ago) and a per diem from my insurers when the iceland volcano went off. But that was all in europe. Ended up making a (small) profit on the extra weeks holiday. And both mine and my exes employers let us have the extra days as extra paid leave.
We were stuck with the Icelandic volcano, but had booked a package holiday with the kids, so effectively just had to wait an extra week to get home. Didn't need to claim from insurance as it was a package, and the operator covered it.
Generally, that's what insurance is there for.
I was trapped in Boston, MA due to the Icelandic volcano some years ago. It was a work trip, so aside from some expensed laundry and clothes for the extra week or so it was almost business as usual.
had it been a holiday it would have been the insurers I’d have pursued for out of pocket expenses.
IIRC there were some issues/grumbles with insurance cover back in 2010 when the volcano went pop.
Basically, there'd never been that level of disruption before. And when insurers looked at their cover no-one had "volcano dust" as a reason to pay out OR as a reason to decline a claim.
So the better companies tended to pay out, and the less better ones didn't.
There were lots of people who took out policies to try and claim as well. These days most companies have it in their policy wording.
Some info here
https://www.theguardian.com/money/2010/apr/15/iceland-volcano-travel-insurance
Was it Earthquake or Typhoon?
Claim from the Pope as he is gods representative on earth and this would fall under an act of god. He could just sell one of his rings or necklaces or something