My travel plans just got ruined - need help ASAP!

Stinicker

I just feel like crying right now and I am totally angry!

I am booked to go to Asia for a month the end of next March. However media reports indicate they are cancelling this flight.

http://www.btimes.com.my/Current_News/BTIMES/articles/20111219231932/Article/index_html
http://www.airliners.net/aviation-forums/general_aviation/read.main/5337997/ <- Where I found this piece of info!
I have some flight bookings and hotel bookings made as I was due to fly with Air Asia X from Gatwick to Kuala Lumpur. If the flight is cancelled it totally derails my travel plans.

This was to be my itinerary,

Cork to London Gatwick with Aer Lingus, (the changed their times so I may be able to wrangle out of this. (see here!)

London Gatwick to Kuala Lumpur (KL) with Air Asia X the flight rumoured to be culled.

After spending some time in KL I am booked to fly retun from KL to Brunei with Air Asia again.

I would then connect at KL before flying up to Bangkok and spending the remainder of the trip in Thailand before flying back down to KL for my flight home to Gatwick. I did not have the Thailand - KL flight booked as I might spend the last few nights in Phuket and fly down to KL then.

As the flight from KL to Gatwick arrives too late for connection to Ireland I also had a hotel in Gatwick booked but they will allow me cancel I think.

And now for Mick O'Leary to screw me also, I was due to take my final flight home then with Ryanair from Gatwick to Cork.

I wonder what consumer protection do I have available over all this and would be my travel insurance which I haven't purchased yet for the trip be of any assistance?

mikedragon32

Taking out insurance for this now is no use. You should be covered by EU regs so its worth having a look to see what might apply. Try speaking to the airline too.

http://ec.europa.eu/transport/passenger-rights/en/03-air.html

Stinicker

I booked on Emirates tonight instead for €668 DUB-KUL, it is speculation as of yet but most likely from what I've read on Twitter and the airline forums that they are going to axe Gatwick-Kuala Lumpur.

When I rang Air Asia's 24hr call centre in the UK the lady who answered the phone would neither confirm nor deny that they were cancelling the flights.

At least if the worst does happen I now have Emirates to fall back on and if it is just pure speculation and hearsay I can cancel the Emirates flight for €150 and either way I think I have positioned myself the best way possible to deal with the fallout of Air Asia's rumoured flight cancellations.

BuffyBot

The only thing Air Asia X are obliged to give you at this stage is a refund, if the route is cancelled. As you booked the other flights seperately, you may end up taking the hit on them - the airlines have abolsutely no obligations to refund you/accomodate you because of the Air Asia X cancellation. Insurance is no good now, and may not have covered you anyway for seperate bookings.

This is a textbook case of why booking "cheap" seperate flights can turn out to be a very false economy.

Stinicker

BuffyBot wrote: »

The only thing Air Asia X are obliged to give you at this stage is a refund, if the route is cancelled. As you booked the other flights seperately, you may end up taking the hit on them - the airlines have abolsutely no obligations to refund you/accomodate you because of the Air Asia X cancellation. Insurance is no good now, and may not have covered you anyway for seperate bookings.

This is a textbook case of why booking "cheap" seperate flights can turn out to be a very false economy.

Agree 100% The Emirates flight I booked was €940 when I went to book last month but chose Air Asia X then as they were cheaper. If Air Asia X don't cancel the flights I will lose €150 by having to cancel my new Emirates booking. I am happy with this for piece of mind and if they cancelled my flight closer to the departure date (Next March) I could easily pay €1k for the flights and have gotten a serious burning.

P. Breathnach

You might as well take out insurance now. It won't cover you for the flight problems that have already arisen, but there are lots of other things that might imaginably go wrong.

ebbsy

Been to Asia 12 times, and my own advice for what its worth is to stay clear of budget asian airlines in general, they are very prone to flight cancellations at very short noticewith refunds only coming back afer 6 weeks or more, if at all. Customer service is also at a minimum.

Ryanair are great for return journeys but I would not use them as part of a connection.


Hope it works out for the OP however.

Stinicker

Well I guess there is never smoke without fire and as rumoured before Christmas Air Asia X have indeed pulled the plug on their London Gatwick Service. Cancelling all flights from April 1st. My gamble to book alternate flights at the time based on this rumour was risky but it has paid off as the cost of the same flights I booked as an alternative is over €100 more now today.

http://news.yahoo.com/airasia-x-withdraw-flights-europe-india-091645675.html

http://www.airasia.com/my/en/corporate/pressrelease.page

The thing that is slightly worrying me now is they are due to cancel flights on April 1st but I had my outbound flight to Kuala Lumpur booked with them a few days before this at the end of March and my inbound at the end of April, I will be pushing them for a full refund, as I the rumours I had heard in December had them to be cancelling as early as February which sent me into panic stations.