flight cancelled compensation

esprimo

some advice on where I stand before I contact them myself. Basically a flight I was going on today with Aer Lingus was cancelled. Due to fly at 11am, was informed about 9.30am while at the airport that it was cancelled.Given choice of full refund or alternate flight at 5pm from another airport a couple of hours away which my friend and I would have to go on a bus to.
Now I chose the refund option for various reasons,one of which was my holiday was completely messed up with this happening. At this point,ok great, I got a refund, was happy to get it back,maybe thats the best result from this. Being a total novice with these things I have been asking myself what about all the other expenses I have wasted because of essentially canceling my holiday. I lost a days wages,cost of return bus ticket to airport,5 nights accommodation money lost, event tickets also gone to waste. Should Aer Lingus be compensating me for some of these expenses along with the refund I will be receiving or does this just come with flight cancellations for everybody, that I have to deal with?

ytpe2r5bxkn0c1

If you had 5 nights accomdation and events paid for why not take the flight 6 hours later? I was delayed longer than that due to a mechanical fault before flying to the US a few years ago. Why did you take a refund? Just curious as you seemed to have so much else paid for and you would still have been at your destination today.

Gooser14

Hi,
The following link might be of help to you:
http://ec.europa.eu/ireland/the_eu_and_you/faq/air_travel/index_en.htm#5

Five Lamps

Claim against your travel insurance.

MagicMarker

Yeah I don't really understand why you didn't just take the later flight? AL may have even covered the bus expenses even. It's annoying of course but it's hard to see why you would cancel the whole trip because of it.

L1011

You opted to cancel the rest of the trip yourself. Aer Lingus didn't cancel them for you.

D3PO

you have zero recourse. You cancelled the tip not Aer Lingus. You decided not to take the later flight so your the once at fault for missing your holiday.

As for the earlier post re travel insurance. I don't even think they will pay out as you made the decision to cancel.

esprimo

Their were various personal and practical reasons for making the decision which is beside the point really. The bottom line is this happening,left me with no other choice other than to cancel.All I was wanting to know here is if people have experienced this before or if I am entitled to something. Thanks to all contributions so far.

MagicMarker

esprimo wrote: »

Their were various personal and practical reasons for making the decision which is beside the point really. The bottom line is this happening,left me with no other choice other than to cancel.All I was wanting to know here is if people have experienced this before or if I am entitled to something. Thanks to all contributions so far.

But you did have another choice, you had the choice to get the later flight.

L1011

esprimo wrote: »

Their were various personal and practical reasons for making the decision which is beside the point really. The bottom line is this happening,left me with no other choice other than to cancel.All I was wanting to know here is if people have experienced this before or if I am entitled to something. Thanks to all contributions so far.

No, you had plenty of other choices - and you chose the one that ensures you'll get nothing more than the refund you opted to take.

keithclancy

esprimo wrote: »

Their were various personal and practical reasons for making the decision which is beside the point really. The bottom line is this happening,left me with no other choice other than to cancel.All I was wanting to know here is if people have experienced this before or if I am entitled to something. Thanks to all contributions so far.

This is a reason for Travel Insurance.

bardcom

Funny but I get a big ad at the bottom of the page when reading this thread offering to help out with getting proper compensation for cancelled trips. First time I've ever seen good ad placement!

Gooser14

Unless the cancellation was due to circumstances beyond the control of the airline you should be entitled to compensation iaw Article 5 of EU Regulation 261/2004/EC (see my earlier post for the link).

WhyTheFace

Very strange that you couldn't just take the later flight. If you had to be there for a one day event then fair enough but you still had 5 days of holidays ahead of you.

Simple answer is that you are 100% responsible here. Your travel insurance might cover some of the costs.

Tippex

Gooser14 wrote: »

Unless the cancellation was due to circumstances beyond the control of the airline you should be entitled to compensation iaw Article 5 of EU Regulation 261/2004/EC (see my earlier post for the link).

The compensation (If any) would only be applied on the flights end of things. As the OP did not accept the later flight essentially he cancelled the rest of his trip and will receive nothing for that (aer Lingus have 0 responsibility for anything other than the flights)

Tippex

keithclancy wrote: »

This is a reason for Travel Insurance.

Totally agree on this however I doubt OP would have been covered with regards to the trip as he was offered a later flight and chose to take the refund. Travel insurance can be a nightmare for some of the straight forward issues never mind essentially what they would term a change of mind.