Our flight was cancelled because of the software glitch – can we get compensation?

Simon Calder answers your questions on this week’s air traffic control issues, the ins and outs of switching flights, flying with Vueling, and where to take a small boy who is obsessed with aviation

Q Our flight was delayed and should have left before Wednesday’s air traffic control failure. Then the failure happened, and our flight was subsequently cancelled. Are we entitled to financial compensation?

Clare B

A You were among around 25,000 passengers whose flights were cancelled on Wednesday and Thursday as a result of the “software glitch” at Nats, the national air traffic control service. The event temporarily closed the skies above southeast England and led to dozens of diversions and delays. In peak summer, there is little slack in the system. With planes, pilots and passengers out of position, cancellations swiftly began.

When a flight is cancelled, the default assumption in UK and European air passengers’ rights rules is that airlines are obliged to pay compensation of between £220 and £520, depending on the length of the trip. But if the carrier can show that “extraordinary circumstances” were responsible, it dodges that liability. The general principle: if the cause was beyond the airline’s control – such as bad weather, a security incident or airspace closure – there is no need to pay out.

Your case is unusual because you should have been safely clear of the UK before the system failed. You can put in a claim with the airline, arguing that a timely departure would have avoided problems. Expect the claim to be declined on the grounds that it would only have been a modest delay had the system not failed. You could then go to alternative dispute resolution, a free service for passengers. If this fails, you could go to Money Claim Service – or at least write a letter before action stating your intention to do so, giving the airline a chance to settle. The next step, actually making a claim, requires you to pay a fee; I am not sure I would advise you to go ahead.

Whatever the cause of a cancellation, the airline is responsible for providing accommodation and meals until it can get you to your destination. If you had to fix things yourself, send the itemised evidence to the airline. There should be no issue in getting the money back, as long as you leave any alcoholic drinks out of the claim.

Airlines such as BA have good reasons to make switching to an earlier flight difficult for economy passengers (PA)

Q You wrote about British Airways wanting to charge £900 extra for switching you to an earlier flight. I believe that if you turn up early and there are seats available, it’s a no-brainer for any airline to let you on. So why doesn’t BA allow it?

Mary C

A I find myself in the unusual position of defending a British Airways policy that did not work out in my favour last Friday night. These were the circumstances: I was flying from London Heathrow to Istanbul and unexpectedly arrived at the airport in time to catch the earlier flight. Seats were available, but they were in business class only. I was told I could fly on it, but only after paying the difference between what I had paid for an economy ticket (£266) and the prevailing business fare (£1,203). I politely declined.

I can come up with any number of arguments for why it would have been in BA’s interests to allow me on board, after perhaps taking £50 from me and upgrading an elite member of the British Airways Club to business class in order to make room for me. The airline would have gained extra loyalty at zero cost. BA would also have avoided potential extra expense, had the later flight “gone tech”, requiring alternative flights and hotel accommodation, and the payment of £350 in compensation.

Yet there are some powerful arguments against allowing those on cheaper economy tickets to switch to earlier flights. The first is this: tickets on a flight that gets you to Istanbul close to 1am are always going to be cheaper than those promising an early evening arrival. If free switches were permitted, then passengers would game the system, booking a later flight in the hope of changing to an earlier one.

Next, flexibility has a value – and airlines prefer to reserve this facility for passengers who have paid more for their trips. If the opportunity to switch for little or no cost were granted to everyone, that benefit would be eroded.

Finally, and most practically: this was all happening at Heathrow within an hour of departure. Given all the demanding dimensions of dispatching an aircraft, catering to the whims of a cheapskate passenger are low on the list of priorities. I hope I have presented BA’s argument reasonably.

Vueling is Spain’s leading budget airline and has a good safety record (AP)

Q What can you tell me about Vueling? Also, would you say that flying with them is worth the risk? I’ve read some pretty awful reviews. But when I was looking for flights to Rome in September, Vueling popped up as the carrier on the British Airways site.

Nick C

A Vueling, based in Barcelona, is Spain’s leading budget airline. It has an interesting route network. As well as operating lots of flights between London (Heathrow and Gatwick) and the usual suspects of Barcelona, Malaga, Paris and Rome, it serves smaller Spanish cities including the northern trio of Bilbao, Oviedo and Santiago.

Vueling has a useful link from Gatwick to Florence, which I prefer to Pisa as a gateway to Tuscany (except when poor weather scuppers the landing). The airline connects Cardiff, Edinburgh and Manchester with Spanish destinations. And if you ever need to visit west Africa, change planes in Barcelona and continue on Vueling to either Banjul in Gambia or Dakar in Senegal.

I have flown frequently on Vueling, most recently from Paris to Gatwick, and have another flight booked in September from Gatwick to Barcelona. I haven’t studied reviews, but my conclusion is this: Vueling is fine from an operational point of view, with no significant advantages or disadvantages compared with easyJet, Wizz Air or indeed British Airways on shorthaul. They all fly Airbus A320 series aircraft with much the same seat configuration.

Indeed, the “layout of passenger accommodation” (or LOPA, as it is known in the industry) is identical on Vueling and British Airways, which are sister airlines. The main difference is that BA keeps the middle seat empty in business class.

The crew are friendly and professional, and Vueling has a good safety record. It also has an unusual but welcome policy of tackling overbooking by inviting passengers on heavily booked flights to switch to another departure in return for a voucher.

One aspect at which Vueling does not perform well: customer service when things go wrong, with cancellations or long delays. A fair number of people have contacted me to say that getting compensation – or recompense when they have had to pay for hotels – proves difficult. But if Vueling has the best schedule and price for your trip, there is no reason to avoid the airline.

The Prince of Wales sits in a Spitfire at the Imperial War Museum in Duxford, Cambridge (PA)

Q My 11-year-old nephew is obsessed with aviation. What can you recommend in the way of flight-related websites and aircraft attractions that would appeal to him?

Sean K

A I use the excellent free Flightradar24 service professionally all the time – to check flight cancellations and delays across major airports, for example. But it is also a mesmerising website/app for anyone interested in aviation. Right now, I am looking in real time at flights coming in from Corfu, Zurich and Ho Chi Minh City to London Heathrow. You can filter for passenger, cargo, military and business jets, as well as the elusive “lighter-than-air” category.

For destination dreaming, your nephew might like to try the Great Circle Mapper website. You tap in the airport codes separated by a hyphen (eg LHR-SFO) and it will instantly show the straightest line (“Great Circle route”) between London Heathrow and San Francisco International. Not only is it an excellent way to see how that UK-to-California route goes well into the Arctic – he can also start to learn all those tricky airport codes, such as ORD for Chicago and AGP for Malaga.

In terms of UK aviation museums, for mainly military aircraft, I recommend the Imperial War Museum outpost at Duxford, near Cambridge. For civil aviation, the Runway Visitor Park in Manchester is excellent. It is adjacent to the taxiways at the UK’s third-busiest airport, and also has a Concorde – the closest anyone these days can get to the supersonic era.

Around the world, the best aviation museum I have been to is Aeroscopia Toulouse, on the edge of the airport in southwest France. It can be combined easily with the fascinating Airbus factory tour, which I hope will fuel an interest in your nephew in working in the world of international connectivity.

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