[Anonymous]

[ianw999999999]

Basically, I missed a flight from Rome to Zurich with Swiss. I had to get to Zurich that night, so I booked on an easyJet flight to Geneva instead. I know that it was my own fault, and that I am responsible for the extra expenses.

The issue I had was that the easyJet flight was 2 hours late, so I missed the last train to Zurich. This meant a very expensive taxi ride across the country.

I emailed easyJet and they are saying that you get the option of cancelling a flight if it’s delayed for more than an hour. I was never even told this, and if I was I might have just given in and made other arrangements.

Do you think they should pay out for the taxi fare as effectively it’s their fault I missed the flight?

[Gin&Tonic]

Ian mate the airlines of the world would either all go bankrupt or have to charge massively higher fares if they were to compensate for all these types of circumstances. If you had read the T&C on Easy jet you would have missed your flight anyway they are so long. Just take it on the chin mate and move on.

[IanFromHKG]

I agree with G&T

This is what travel insurance is for…

Sorry to sound a little unsympathetic – I’m not – but it is a fact of life that airlines don’t guarantee to get you anywhere on time, nor to compensate if you are late. Now, if you had missed a connecting flight booked on the same ticket, the story might well be different, but here easyJet had no way of knowing what your onward itinerary was, or what costs you might incur, and the reality is they are just not going to pick up the tab

[Bruce98]

Ianw999999999

A hard lesson to learn and an expensive one.

I sympathise with you. A similar thing happened to me earlier this year, when a major airline was three hours late, but unfortunately as others have said, the airline is not going to be liable for the taxi cost.

Have got travel insurance? If so, I would read the policy very carefully and see if you are covered for anything, for example, did a failure of public transport cause you to miss the original flight? If so, you might be covered for the cost of the easyJet replacement and if you had pre-booked rail tickets, you might even be entitled to the cost of the taxi for the same reason.

[SimonS1]

I can’t see you will get very far with Easyjet. If every airline paid cross country taxi fares each time there was a 2 hour delay at least half would go bust.

They will no doubt argue that their contract was to get you from A to B which they did. They will also no doubt argue that somewhere along the line a plane went tech and it was a safety matter.

Best bet is to claim on you travel insurance. Otherwise you could follow this guy’s example.

http://www.businesstraveller.com/ask-alex/2011/reader-feedback-five-year-fight-for-compensation

[VintageKrug]

Indeed, I think you’re on rocky ground here.

Single PNRs, avoiding LCCs and good travel insurance is the way to go.

[ImissConcorde]

All of the major airlines have this statement in theire T&C’s. “Times shown in timetables or elsewhere are not guaranteed and form no part of this contract.”

[LuganoPirate]

I’ve every sympathy and maybe after a fight and five years like Mr. Mead you may, possibly, get something, but is it really worth it?

With hindsight, and I don’t know the timings, but you may have been quicker taking the train from Rome, it’s about 7 hours if you’re lucky with the connections.

Otherwise a rented car from Geneva would be a lot cheaper than a taxi. But then again, with hindsight I’d be on my own tropical island with private jet and cruiser awaiting!!!

[Ah,Mr.Bond]

The airlines only obligation is to get you from A-B. The timings of your flight form no part of your contract with them. Once you disembark from their flight they don’t care less what you do, where you are off to or how you get there…. if you have missed an important meeting to sign a £100million deal then it is not their responsibility I am afraid. There may be a set compensation amount under EU law for delays over X number of hours, that is it I am afraid.

[ianw999999999]

Thanks everyone for your replies.

What I should have said was that the flight was severely delayed until nearly 1am, so all public transport options were gone. Do you still think I have a claim or not?

On the travel insurance front, admittedly I would have had a very tight connection (about 20 minutes to get the train). Would travel insurance companies bother to look this up, and possibly decline a claim (I assumed it might be possible due to Schengen and Swiss efficiencies)? If they turn the claim down, what’s the worst that would happen? Can you be arrested for insurance fraud for that?

I can see the point of taking it on the chin, though. Because of the overspending with that, I did cut down my spending in Zurich, so probably clawed back at least a quarter of it.

[NTarrant]

Simple answer is yes you can be arrested for insurance fraud.

Insurance companies are not stupid and will look at the detail if they think the claim is dodgy. Yes they will check, remember they don’t want to pay out!

[craigwatson]

it is not fraud to simply file a claim, regardless of whether it is valid or not, it is only fraud to supply knowingly incorrect details to validate your claim. Now if you simply leave out your connection times that as well isnt fraud, they can either look it up or not, and it may/may not invalidate a claim depending on the policy.

[SimonS1]

In this day and age I’m not sure 2 hours counts as severely delayed.

Why don’t you just send your insurers the facts and let them decide. You might get something although having missed one flight and then booked another with a 20 minute connection for the train they might well say its largely your fault.

[IanFromHKG]

craigwatson, sorry to partially contradict you, but insurance contracts (at least under English law) are ones of (apologies for the Latin legalese here) “uberrimae fidei” – the utmost good faith. It is an implied term that as a customer you will act in utmost good faith and provide the insurance company with all information which is obviously relevant to the contract/claim, regardless of whether the insurer specifically asks for it – so omitting to inform them of such a fact would almost certainly invalidate the claim, and might well constitute insurance fraud

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