Car Insurance
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Introduction 26 July 2003 Dear Sirs I write with reference to our holiday booking (your ref xxxxxxxxxxxxxx). I attach an “extract from my diary” for Saturday 19 July, the day of our departure. I hope that you take the time to read it all because rest assured, it is incalculably less boring than 9 hours spent in Glasgow and Birmingham Airports. Suffice to say that, by the time we had collected our baggage, we had been travelling (or rather, waiting to travel) for a total of 13 hours. Now that 6 hour delay was bad enough. Worse was that the free transfer bus to the hotel had long since gone, the driver was home, had finished a good dinner and was now safely in the land of big zeds. My children were not so fortunate. Air France let me queue for over half an hour while some French guy was complaining irately that his dinner had been 2.5 degrees too cold or something, and then finally realised that there were about 15 people further back (most of whom I recognised from the plane). When they finally deigned to speak to me, in French, they couldn't have been less helpful if they had been comatose. Arguing in French surprised them but still got me nowhere, past the famous gallic "I don't give a monkey's" shrug. Too bad, eh? I had to get a taxi, which would have been impossible if I didn’t speak a little French because none of the graveyard shift spoke English. My taxi also turned out to have a geographically challenged driver who almost asked me for directions at one stage. He cost me 76 euros (see receipt). The hotel wasn't ready for us. I had to shake them up too. Anyway, as a result, or first day's holiday was ruined. We had planned to visit the park to get our bearings and for the fireworks etc that first night but we were too late, to even see them from the plane. I therefore expect a sizeable refund of the amount I paid. In addition (not instead) I expect to be reimbursed the cost of the taxi. To save us both correspondence time, I should add that, before you reply that strikes at Heathrow were to blame, let me explain that the captain of the second flight gave us a long explanation for the delays, involving staff being sick and others being in Italy etc but Heathrow wasn't mentioned. The blame lies either with British European or Air France, but either way, the compensation is the same. There is of course the possibility that we were being misled but I don't appreciate that either, so we'll leave that aside, OK? Finally, let me point out that, like the man at Air France, I also don't give a stuff. I don't care what the compensation clause in the travel insurance says. I don’t care what “policy” is. BE & Air France screwed up my holiday and I expect to be refunded for that. I am therefore writing to you as my holiday company, and to the Travel Agent to whom I paid my money and with whom my contract was agreed, so that you can agree who is responsible for the refund. I hope that that this is very, very clear. Yours faithfully
And here's the "Diary Extract" Saturday 19 July 2003 Reminder of Written Itinerary: Flight leaves Glasgow 13:10. Check in before 10:40 recommended. Change Flights at Birmingam - leaves for Paris 15:40, arrives 17:55. Catch shuttle bus for Disney at airport, free transfer to hotel. Arrive hotel 19:00 at the latest. And now the reality: Dear Diary, 9:00 set off for airport. 10:O0 arrive at airport. 2 laps before realising that "long stay car park" is actually further from the airport than my house is. Abandon car in convenient car park & load suitcases on to trolley. 10:00:35 Realise that trolley has a mind of its own, and is not predisposed to external directional influences. 10:05 Arrive in airport terminal to discover flight has a delay of 1 hour and 15 minutes - ie 20 past 2. Oh dear. Decide to have a coffee while waiting. Periodic checks for updates or check in time. Zilch, zero zippo. 11:00 Still waiting around... 11:10 Flight suddenly appears on departure boards - check in gate 36 - the opposite end of the airport from where we are. Superb. 11:15 Arrive at desk (or, to be more accurate, the queue at the desk) after negotiating the heaving sweating masses complaining about the inability of BA to organise 2 flights in a row because of industrial action. 11:28 Reach desk. After the usual intense security check (has anyone ever actually answered "Yes I am carrying 3 grenades for my mate"?) we were informed that the flight delay was now 2 hours and 30 minutes - so we would now be leaving Glasgow at 3:40 pm, and would miss the onward flight, so were booked on a flight to Paris at 7:40 pm. Still sounds ok. 11:30 Bags checked in, now have 4 hours to spend in Glasgow Airport. Wonderful. Decide to go exploring. 11:47. Exploration over. Decide to have lunch. 12:30 Lunch over. Now have 3 hours to spend in Glasgow Airport. Go upstairs where we can watch the planes standing still due to industrial action. Delighted when the compulsory village nutter decides to sit beside us to eat his sandwiches, especially when we learn that he eats with a noise like a blender mixing concrete, and disperses enough crumbs to sustain all the extras in one of Alfred Hitchcock's early horrors. 1:00 One bell and all's hell. 2:00 Two bells and all's hell. 2:30 Decide to move to departure lounge early, just for something to do, and to enable us to shake the sandwiches off our shoulders. Resume boredom. 3:00 Three bells and all's hell. 3:20 No sign of arriving plane that we are due to leave on. A 3:40 departure seems unlikely. Information system remains resolutely optimistic. 3:30 Dot on horizon turns into BE Airbus, ie our sole saviour from procrastinatory purgatory. Plane parks at gate. Passengers disembark happily. No bloody wonder - and they are only 3 hours late! 3:40 British European finally acknowledge that the plane won't be leaving at 3:40, and post a new departure time of 4:00. 3:50 After usual inexplicable delay, ground staff start to assume the positions and demeanour that indicate to anyone who has ever flown Easyjet, where first aboard gets the best seat, that boarding is imminent. 3:50:10 Fire Alarm! We have to evacuate the lounge. Evacuating on to the plane seems like the best option but no, we are shifted en masse further up the terminal to a safer area. 4:00 We are allowed back to the departure gate. 4:10 We are allowed on to the plane. 4:25 The plane finally takes off! 5:00 Plane lands at Birmingham. We are directed to the transfer desk where a nice girl tells us we have to join an enormous queue at departures. This queue extends past the transfer desk and we cannot reach the back of it so we are forced to barge in along with our other brave travelling vaqueros. Much happiness extends like a stench back along both queues. 5:10 Finally reach the security barrier at departures. No arrests. Quel surprise! (Note that, as my optimism rises, my tete francais comes to the fore.) 5:15 Check departure screen. Still 7:40. Quel autre surprise! (Getting excited now!) Decide to partake of our evening repast (just in case the evening gets longer...) 6:15 Meal scoffed. Check departure board again. Deep joy. The flight has now been rescheduled for 8:05. 6:15:02 Boredom sets in. Time passes. More time passes. And more. Will to live leaves my earthly substance, 7:45 Passengers called for boarding. 7:55 Passengers actually start boarding. Again, previous experience suggests that an 8:05 departure is unlikely. This is made even more obvious when the Captain launches into a depressing tale of sickness, crew rest periods and a world-wide search for a suitable replacement which is barely interesting, but no excuse for the catalogue of delays which have befallen us today. 8:30 Plane actually takes off! Clock goes forward one hour. Quickest part of the day so far. 10:25 flight lands at Paris Charles de Gaulle and parks miles from the terminal. We are taken on a bus tour of the airport. 10:40 Actually arrive in terminal building. 11:00 Luggage arrives in terminal building. And this, dear reader, is where things really went wrong. You see, les navettes pour l'hotel cesse a 10:00 hrs, et maintenant nous n'avons pas le transport pour cette etage de notre voyage. Je va a la bureau d'Air France mais l'homme la-bas ne m'ecoute pas. Moi et ma famille jeune sont ici a l'airporte desertee. C'est magnifique. Je suis oblige d'utiliser le taxi, pour une journee, maintenant a douze heures de matin. (Oui, c'est vrai, ma journee se complait a dimanche, quand j'ai departe a la matin de samedi!). Apres les negotiations difficile (parce-que le chauffeur de taxi ne parle pas l'anglais) j'ai d'accord qu'il transport les cinq personnes et les trois valises a l'hotel. Mais pas ce vite! Le chauffeur ne connais pas la route pour l'hotel! Il telephone sa mari pour les directions (Il pense que ma Francais n'est pa tres bien, mais je puis comprener tout qui passe!). 01:15 Nous arrivons a l'hotel apres une tour (ou trois) de les environs de Disney. Le tarif pour le taxi est 76 Euro! Sacre bleu, non? Et ca pour un journee que vous a dites est sans tarif! 01:20 The man at the reception desk speaks English. Bet you're relieved. We check in and receive our key card. As our first night and most of our first morning has now expired, we decide to go to bed. 01:25 Arrive at room, to find that they have forgotten to unlock the adjoining room with 2 bunk beds inside, so we don't have enough beds. 01:30 Arrive back at reception where there is no sign of life, or if there is, it's studiously ignoring me. No desk bell or means of summoning staff. 01:32. Idea. I have in my pocket, for some reason, an Ace Thunderer referee's whistle. One long blast should do it. 01:32:00.5 Receptionist appears from office like a rabbit breaking cover, head swivelling from side to side with an expression of sheer panic. This, combined with the panto pirate uniform, would have been quite comical if I wasn't so pissed off. Explain problem and return to room. 01:36 Nice man comes and unlocks room. We finally get to bed. 04:30 I finally calm down enough to fall asleep.
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