Hi,

Currently, a member of my family is sat on a broken down coach, which is supposed to have arrived at Heathrow. He has missed his flight, and will have to try and book one for tomorrow.

According to the conditions of carriage: http://www.nationalexpress.com/help-and-advice/about-us/conditions-of-carriage.aspx

4.10 (b) Other Forms of Transport: You must allow plenty of time for a service to arrive in time to connect with other forms of transport provided by other carriers on which you are planning to travel. Where such other form of transport involves air travel we recommend you allow at least 180 minutes between the scheduled coach arrival time and your flight departure time. Passengers who do not allow 180 minutes between coach arrival and flight departure do so at their own risk and National Express shall not be liable for any expense incurred as a result of any missed connection.

5.7 We have no liability for circumstances beyond our control: We shall have no liability for any delay or failure to carry you, or for breach of contract, where caused by a circumstance beyond our reasonable control. The following shall be considered to be circumstances beyond our reasonable control: war or threat of war, accidents causing delays on the service route, exceptional severe weather conditions, fire and/or damage at a station, compliance with requests of the police, customs or other government officials and security services, deaths and accidents on the road, vandalism and terrorism, unforeseen traffic delays, strike/industrial action, riot or local disturbance or unrest, problems caused by other customers, bankruptcy, insolvency or cessation of trade of any carrier used by us and other circumstances affecting passenger safety.

and

5.8 Our maximum liability to you: Our maximum liability to you for any reasonable and foreseeable loss, damage or liability (including but subject to the limitation set out in Clause 7.11 for loss or damage to your luggage) which you may suffer or incur as a result of our failure to carry you, our delay in carrying you, breach of our contract to carry you, our negligence in connection with carrying you, or the deliberate or negligent acts or omissions of any of our officers, employees, agents, representatives or sub-contractors, shall be limited to an aggregate of £1000.

He allowed 6 hours between scheduled arrival and the flight departure. Would a hotel room at Heathrow overnight be considered a reasonable and foreseeable loss?

And price of the missed flight ticket IMHO

Something to consider is that you are completely unaware if National Express have maintained that specific vehicle as per the manufactures instructions.

Did s/he not have personal travel Ins which

also covered the coach journey?

Unlike rail & air travel, there is no compensation due for coach breakdown, other than what NE may offer, which I doubt will pay for replacement flight

Did they have any travel Ins?

How was each ticket paid for - Credit/Debit card?

hang on they allowed 6 hours between arrival at the airport and departure flight time? the coach company say allow 180 minutes (3 hours) , OK now are you saying that no replacement/repair took place within that time of 6 hours if did still missed flight? strange at National Express if long delay usually produce another coach from wherever to continue journey, ?? travel insurance held here by the poster? seems strange such a long delay at roadside???

I always get told at on particular check in blimey you are early 6 hours before flight, same check in desk for years long haul, and I always state well I do not live around the corner and cannot dictate bus timings to airport!

4 hours he left between arrival and flight departure... not the 6 hours he initially said.

He caught the 09:55 from Plymouth, due to arrive at Heathrow at 14:25 - plenty of time for his 18:40 flight. Ended up arriving at Heathrow at 2300 last night, and didn't bother getting a hotel, just slept on the floor of the airport. Had to rebook a flight, and was on a plane at 7am this morning.

He has got travel insurance, which I will go over with him when he gets back. It has an excess and a £500 limit though - so his preference is to claim back from NE if possible.

3 hours broken down, waiting for another coach to come. Then got stuck in traffic jams, then stopped for an hour somewhere, then roadworks so had to turn around to go another route.

But on the bright side, he got given a card on the coach saying "We're sorry, give us another try.... to claim your discount etc etc "

Claim against Travel cover and if necessary NE should be possible. It should not take 3 hours for a replacement coach. Why could they have not asked people whether they had flights to catch and then if necessary get a local company to take people to airport or nearest rail station. There were steps NE could have taken.

And they should have known about the roadworks, shouldn't they?

HB

I once nearly missed a flight due to the National Express coach not turning up, and ended up having to take a taxi to the airport (two other passengers were in the same situation so we split the fare three ways).

As soon as I got home I complained by snail mail to NE, pointing out the third of the taxi fare that I had had to pay.

I later realised I had complained to the wrong NE department so e-mailed the right one.

The first complaint led to them sending me vouchers to cover the money I'd spent, and in response to the second complaint they sent me a cheque!

So at least in my experience NE took complaints seriously and were willing to compensate the customer.