Travel question of the day: Simon Calder on who to claim from when an online flight-and-hotel deal goes wrong

Have a travel question that needs answering? Ask our expert Simon Calder

Praia da Marinha in the Algarve

Q In July we were booked on a two-week self-catering family holiday in Portugal via Lowcostholidays. But the easyJet flight was cancelled because of a strike by French air-traffic controllers. The airline did not have an alternative flight for several days. As my wife and daughter had fixed holidays from work we were desperate to resolve this problem and made several attempts to contact Lowcostholidays for assistance that evening – finally making contact with an overseas adviser who told us to contact the main number from 9am the following day.

To ensure that we could still have our holiday we booked a separate package with Monarch, which enabled us to be back in time for my wife and daughter to return to work.

When we contacted Lowcostholidays the following day they advised that the accommodation element could not be refunded as they had to honour their contract with the supplier. They suggested we claim via easyJet or our insurers and provided an email confirmation that the cost of the accommodation and private transfers would not be refunded.

Who, if anybody, should I approach for recompense for the cancellation of the flight, accommodation, transfers and parking – easyJet, our insurers or my credit card company?

FW

A Your case might appear to be especially complicated because Lowcostholidays has gone bust in the past couple of weeks, but in fact I don’t think that dimension is relevant.

When you chose to book separate elements of your trip through this online travel agent, you took the risk of exactly the issue that has unfortunately affected you: the hotel room and transfers are available as booked, but the flight is not.

I cannot see that you have a claim with your credit card company – again because the only element of your trip that failed, from a legal point of view, was the flight, and you should get a refund for that part.

I can see only two possible options, neither of them particularly favourable. When easyJet cancelled your flight because of the air-traffic controllers’ strike, it should have offered alternatives on other airlines as the law insists. If you can demonstrate that you were misled by the firm you may be able to claim from it.

Alternatively, if you have a really good insurance policy that covers the intricacies of bookings through online travel agents, then your loss should be mitigated. But I fear that neither course of action is likely to produce results. If that is the case, all I can suggest is that you stick to proper package holidays in future. Then, if your flight is grounded, the company either has to find an alternative swiftly to rescue the holiday, or give you a refund for the full cost of the trip.

Every day, our travel correspondent, Simon Calder, tackles a reader’s question. Just email yours to s@hols.tv or tweet@simoncalder