Because - BMI changed their TIMETABLE

[TUTTSI]

Hi everyone
Last March I booked a BMI flight to Palma Majorca. The night before I went on line to try and reserve our seats and the system was for some reason not letting me. Anyway, we turned up at the airport 2.5 hours before our flight only to be told that our flight had just left. We amongst another 40/50 people had not been advised of the flight time table change so we all missed the boat so to speak and were stranded. After a lot of hanging arround they came up with a suggestion that we go via Madrid and would not get there until midnight. We were only going for 4 days and did not fancy waiting hours at heathrow then many hours at Madrid waiting for connection. So we asked if there was another destination we could go to. They said there were 2 seats left on the Alicante flight which was leaving in just about 1 hours time and we decided to take it. They allowed me to phone the hotel in Palma to cancel and with luck the same hotel group had a hotel in Alicante. There were problems when we arrived in Alicante as they had not told us that the swimming pool area was out of bounds and we arrived in blazing heat of 27c in March this is very warm, the airconditioning was not working because until after Easter which was a few weeks away they only had Heating. All the rooms they showed us were very hot and very uncomfortable. We had stayed in this particular Hotel the previous year in September and it was very nice then. We decided to move to another hotel further down the coast where they had both Indoor and Outdoor pools and both were useable and sunbeds by the poolside and restaurant for lucnh, the rooms albeit also did not have the AIRCON working at this time but were cool and not boiling hot so we stayed there and yes almost the rest of the lovely afternoon and evening sorting out accomodation. Our return journey back I was speaking with one of the stewards he said he was on that flight to Majorca the day we should have gone he said he could not understand why there was hardly any passengers.
I wrote a letter of complaint to BMI because they did not advise us of the change in flight times causing us to miss this flight. They were unaware untill all the passengers turned up at the airport that they had made a big blunder. In my letter of complaint I wanted to be re-imbursed for all our out of pocket expenses and I also wanted compensation for the agrevation that they casused as a result of there mistake. They eventually wrote back confirming that there had been a malfunction at there end and enclosed a £50 voucher which can only be used off a full fare that is not on special offers. I believe the £50 voucher is totally useless as it does not compensate because are losses which amounted to £261 and I also want compensation for the agro.
The Full Fare flights are very much more expensive than the offers so it's £50 which we cannot use and is of no value to us.
I am proposing to send them a lba as they have not responded to my last correspondence. Does anyone think I could make a claim in court. Any help or suggestions would be appreciated.
Regards
DS

[androobe]

The big question is what were your £261 out of pocket expenses for, and what is your argument for them paying? Yes they made a mistake about the flight, but your contract would have only been for the flight and no extras, so the fact that you chose a substandard hotel isn't really their fault - you could of course take that up with the hotel! Also they offered to get you to your original destination on the same day - if you'd taken this option I would have expected them to cover extra meals and perhaps a taxi to your hotel, but nothing that would have been £261.

[TUTTSI]

Originally Posted by androobe

The big question is what were your £261 out of pocket expenses for, and what is your argument for them paying? Yes they made a mistake about the flight, but your contract would have only been for the flight and no extras, so the fact that you chose a substandard hotel isn't really their fault - you could of course take that up with the hotel! Also they offered to get you to your original destination on the same day - if you'd taken this option I would have expected them to cover extra meals and perhaps a taxi to your hotel, but nothing that would have been £261.

Thankyou for taking the time to respond.
The figure of £261 was made up of the following, Difference in hotel cost , Palma for the same hotel group in Palma was cheaper than Alicante. Additional Taxi costs as the Hotel was further from the Airport in Alicante than in Palma, and I have only charged the difference between excess milage. This came to a total of 360Euros which equated to £261.
I also asked in addition for compensation for the agravation and distress caused by their error.
As for getting us to our original desinantion the same day that was not guaranteed as there were some 40 passengers stranded and they could only find a limited amount of places. We were only going for 5 days and we by this time had been at the airport for several hours and that there was no guarantee that we would get there by midnight. Indeed there was no availability for flights the next day, or the day after or the day after that. My Husband suffers with Diabetes and any agrevation causes his condition to go out of control. He was very stressed at the airport and his Blood Sugars had started to react badly to the situation. We were left for a few hours standing in a huddle whilst the ground crew tried to sort the matter out and no one was able to tell us for sure if we would even be on that flight to Madrid.
They have given us a £50 voucher which can only be redeemed against a full fare - not discounted fares. This is totally useless to us!
DS

[androobe]

I would still say this is dodgy ground, £261 for an extra 4 nights sounds like a lot - it's in the order of £60 a night - which would get you a reasonable double hotel room on it's own. The trouble with this is you have chosen to go elsewhere, not been forced elsewhere by BMI. Whilst the whole situation is far from ideal, and I appreciate the extra stress caused by your husband's condition and BMI's failure, the fact that you accepted an alternative flight within an hour could be deemed as an acceptable resolution to the problem. If you had accepted the other option of a later flight via Madrid, compensation in line with costs would have been more reasonable (I appreciate there were limited seats, but if you were offered you could have accepted).

All I am saying is that if I was in that situation, I wouldn't expect the airline to cough up extra costs if I chose to go somewhere else; although I am surprised their goodwill offer is so poor. I would suggest you write again saying how disappointed you are with their response, maybe that you chose them as you thought they were a reputable airline with good customer service, and you are looking for them to restore your confidence in their airline so that you don't feel the need move your business next time. I really wouldn't expect cash compensation, and legally I don't think you'd have a leg to stand on, but a more generous and perhaps unrestricted flight voucher could be in order.