Once again parts of Britain’s travel network has been brought to a near stand still with chaos on the railways, roads and airports, just as the busy holiday season begins with thousands stuck in road jams, railways under water and aircraft unable to land or take off in some regional airports...welcome to sunny Britain.
For those flying from UK airports and who suffer delays or are stranded, then it’s useful to know what rights you have. Under the European directive of Air Passenger Rights, all EU operators have a duty of care to passengers and should be responding to claims for delay by providing at least food and drink vouchers for those caught up in the delays at the airports. The only snag is that, as with so much EU legislation, what is given in one hand is often taken away in the other. Under these rules the airline can claim protection for delays relating to, yes that’s right “weather” amongst others. The protection the airlines have is a sting in the tail for passengers as losses from “Weather, Air Traffic Problems, Security & Safety, Political Unrest, and Strikes, are reasons why an airline will not pay out compensation to travellers. So all WASPS have a sting in their tails!
So what about travel insurance? Under the delay section of a policy, most insurers will give some benefit for periods of delay faced at the airport. Do check your individual travel insurance documents as some of the cheaper basic covers do exclude this protection.
Keith McGregor is a partner of Strawberrysoup, a web design agency with offices in Chichester and Bournemouth. Strawberrysoup specialise in creative web design, content managed websites, search engine optimisation, search engine marketing and graphic design
