My family were supposed to be flying home this afternoon but missed the flight by 5 minutes due to appalling traffic conditions in Budapest.
We had a fully comprehensive/no excess cover with AtlasDirect.net and when I phoned to find out what the procedure for claiming was, I was told there was no claim I could make as it was not covered…
They had left with an extra 2 hours in hand. Took them 110 minutes to do 5 kilometers. My wife managed to get the flights re-allocated with the Malev Office for £90, which is more than acceptable, but the insurance people were totally unhelpful, never mind that it took me 45 minutes to get through to them on the phone - 0870 number earning them money.
Unfortunately, I dont think you will find any policy that covers you for this situation. It was, afterall, your wife/family that was late, and wasnt the fault of the airline, and this is exactly why i arrive at airports stupidly early as you can never tell with traffic, whereever in the world you are.
Ive made a note about Budapest though, as Im hoping to go there soon.
Whenever I have missed flights due to my own stupidity (like arriving at the airport car park and realising I had forgotten the tickets, passports and travel money!) BA have always rebooked on the first available flight for free. This is one reason why I always travel with airlines with a commitment to service whenever possible as any problem, for whatever reason, they see as their problem and they sort it out. They even tried to get us transferred to a different airline if that would have got us to our destination earlier. Regrettably the whole market is disappearing downhill fast so I am sure in no time there will be no airline actually interested in getting passengers to their destination.
Aye. The airline were grand and the £90 fee is reasonable in terms of an Admin charge.
Sad thing is that they left with an additional 2 hours spare travelling time, in other words aiming to get there 4 hours early. Traffic was so bad that they missed the flight by 5 minutes. LIfe goes on, it is part of the suspense of not having seen them for 4 weeks that is horrible and they have a 4 hour drive back to their families home.
