Transavia Airlines Destroyed my Holiday,,Never Again!

I’m sorry this event happened on your family vacation. Under EU Flight Regulation EC261, it looks like you are owed €400 for each family member whom Transavia stiffed by canceling your flight without 14 days advance notice . You may be owed more to compensate you for meals and lodging at the CDG Airport hotel you stayed at. You may also be owed for a refund of the amount paid for your family’s flight tickets. Since Transavia is a subsidiary of KLM and based in the Netherlands, you have 3 years from the date of their breach of contract to file for compensation. You could wait out the month Transavia says it needs to process your claim. But you might want to contact Airadvisor or a siimilar company to learn what exactly your consumer rights are in this situation so you can knowledgeably respond to Transavia’s offer when they contact you. If you’re not satisfied, consider retaining an organization that will hold Transavia accountable.
Your consumer rights as an airline passenger in the EU are quite comprehensive and the EU courts do not accept mechanical difficulties as an excuse for the airlines to fail to deliver their passengers to their destinations.

You may want to reference EU rule 261/2004 which outlines what you are entitled to.

Generally, you are entitled to transportation to/from the airport to make a replacement flight, accommodations, meals, and a fixed amount based upon the delay and original distance to your destination. Key to the fixed compensation is the reason why your original flight was cancelled/delayed. When your original flight was cancelled, you should have been given a Certificate of flight irregularity/Attestation d´irrégularité de vol, explaining the reason behind the delay. The 400€ compensation is not a guarantee in all situations.

What do I think about this matter? You are being treated a great deal better than how we were treated last year by Southwest Airlines which, cancelled a flight as we were on our way to the airport to pick up a cruise. Southwests rebooking was for the day after our cruise departed. None of our follow-on expenses was covered by Southwest, they could not have been more unsympathetic or any less helpful.

Anything you get will be a lot more than what you would receive from a US air carrier.

First, you need to know your rights:

https://europa.eu/youreurope/citizens/travel/passenger-rights/air/index_en.htm

This is known as EU 261.

The bad news is......since you refused their offer to rebook you and did it yourself, all you are entitled to is reimbursement of your ticket. You can also claim an additional 400 Euros per ticket as cancellation compensation due to the distance of the flight. (1535 km). Any other expenses are yours.

That's it. Airhelp is correct.

thanks all for the help-i think it is better to raise a claim with airhelp while Transavia are taking their time to reply to me.

**
Frank II,
i did not quite understand what u are referring to?!
so Transavia are obligated to do reimbursement of (my new flight with Iberia) or you mean my orignal flight with transavia ?!

thanks

So you bought a ticket from a low cost airline and now you're upset that they're not replying fast? What did you expect? I'm somehow reminded of the saying "you get what you pay for".

as an appropriate airline , I expected Transavia to give me a proper
guidance on what to do next . But the reality was the opposite. They
were rude and showed zero respect to us and never provided proper
guidance on what to do. I got an email from them saying that they have
booked me up on another flight on the 10th of July(after 3 days!!) .

You have really high expectations of a low cost airline. They rebooked you on the next available flight, which to be honest is what you can expect. And since they only have four flights per week, it's not surprising that the next available flight in 3 days later.

thus I booked a New flight ticket to Stockholm via Iberia (ON 8
July-next day-this included a terrible lay over at madrid while my
original flight was a direct one)

Just out of curiosity, why did you book with Iberia? SAS and Air France combined have 4-5 daily flights from Paris to Stockholm. SAS also has a couple of daily options via Copenhagen, which would still have been a better option than via Madrid imho. (And if you paid €624 for four ticket from Transavia, you might even have saved money by buying your tickets from Air France or SAS in the first place.)

therefore, as a top worldwide airline chain, I m expecting them to
resolve this issue by compensating me accordingly in a timely manner.

Again, Transavia is a low cost airline, adjust your expectations.

Today is 25 july , and I have not received any meaningful reply from
them .i phoned them a couple of times and they say that there is a
claim number for me and it is in the queue and that this could take a
month.

If it's in the queue, then just wait. One of ways low cost airlines reduce their operating cost is by not having as much staff in non-flying jobs.

As many others have mentioned, you need to look up the so called EU261 rules and read them carefully. Just follow this link: https://europa.eu/youreurope/citizens/travel/passenger-rights/air/index_en.htm

But, as I understood your post you declined their offer of being rebooked on a later date and instead cancelled the tickets and got your money back? In that case you are entitled to €400 per passenger as compensation, and nothing more.

i think it is better to raise a claim with airhelp while Transavia are
taking their time to reply to me.

I'd suggest waiting for a reply from Transavia. If your claim is in the queue, it will eventually end up in the front of the queue. You can of course contact Airhelp and use them, but I'm not sure if it will speed up things and using them will cost you €560.

Transavia is only obligated to refund their flight.

Once you walked away, Transavia was no longer responsible to get you to Stockholm. They have to reimburse you for the canceled flight and in this case an additional 400 Euro per person more in cancellation penalties. That's it.

One tip in the future....don't give up so easily. Push a little more to get a better flight.

While waiting to talk to someone, get on your phone and find out what other flights are available that day not only from the airport you are in but other local airports. (I use Google Flights.) Then, if the flight they offer is unacceptable, you can offer an alternative. (They'll only want to put you on one of their flights so you need to have alternative airlines and flight information ready.)

This has happened to me. I was able to get a nonstop to my destination rather than my original one change. I had to change departure airports but I still arrived at my destination earlier than the original itinerary.

Badger...he was at ORY not CDG.

Badger...he was at ORY not CDG.

I know, the OP wrote that they had booked a flight from Orly.

I am sorry you had your vacation interrupted by airline troubles. That had to be very frustrating, especially since you were traveling with your daughters, and I'm sure you wanted everything to go perfectly.

I would wait out a response from Transavia. If a response does not come in the next 2 months or so, then I would start working through consumer advocate Christopher Elliott's steps for solving your own consumer problem: https://www.elliott.org/answers/how-to-fix-your-own-consumer-problem/

It will be important to remove the emotion from your recounting of events in future communication with the company. Stick with facts. Keep it short. Know what you want (but make it reasonable) and ask for it respectfully and in a business-like manner.

Good luck!

I can sympathize. My SAS flight from Copenhagen to Chicago was cancelled last week. I received notification only as I was about to leave for the airport although the official decision had been made hours earlier. I don't know why they delayed sending emails or updating the app. I've had several instances of strikes impacting my European travels in recent years, but the advance warning somewhat took the sting away and gave me time to find solutions.

SAS did re-route us, but with an unacceptable itinerary of multiple stops and layovers. I can only say that I was prepared in the most general of terms to deal with the problem. I knew it would be best to find my own solution before contacting SAS to discuss matters. With only a phone and limited knowledge of routes or airports for that part of the world and my state-of-mind being muddled by the abruptness of the cancellation, this wasn't easy! I did find and suggest a solution acceptable to SAS and us, but only after exploring other less than optimal options proposed by SAS.

My lesson learned - next time when traveling routes I don't typically fly, I am going to do some advance study of other transport options in case of disruption. It may not help, but perhaps I will feel somewhat in control!

Good luck on your reimbursements. It took me about 10 tries via the SAS website, but I finally did successfully upload their forms for reimbursement. Here's hoping!!

What do I think

I think YOU let this ruin your holiday.

There are times when the only thing you can control is your response. If this ruined your holiday then that was YOUR decision and it's on you! Considering that you were able to get there I am not sure why it was ruined

Also, your need to adjust your "response expectations" 1. An hour to retrieve checked luggage is actually pretty good. 2 A month to respond to these type of requests is not unrealistic. But I would give them the month before I turned over to airhelp (who will take a cut, they don't do this for free)

One other thing about talking to Transavia... Don't use lines like "I will never fly Transavia again." If you signal they've already lost your business, there is no motivation for them to help you. Also don't use the even worse line, "Maybe I need to talk to my lawyer." That kicks you to the legal department, where they really, really, really don't want to help you.

So what do you think guys about this matter?

I think in your planning a 2.5 hr flight looked deceptively simple. ( Who puts a lot of research into a Seattle-Las Vegas or Orlando - Philadelphia flight?)

What bit OP in the posterior was, in my view, the fact Transavia has only one flight per day and flies only 4 days a week. A little deeper research beforehand might have triggered the "what if it goes sideways", what are my options research and led to a different choice on how to get from Paris to Stockholm.

Flying out of Orly meant fewer choices for a 'Plan B', when the flight was canceled.

A lot a bits and pieces came together to create the mess OP got into. The frustration is understandable, but as other have said, staying calm in pursuing redress will be more effective than rage.( as hard as that may be)

Hope your future travels have less drama

Joe and Badger make the excellent point -- and it took me having a similar but not totally analogous flight cancellation for me to understand this.

I don't say this as a criticism of your decision or actions, but rather as underlining their point so that others who read this post might be armed with a little extra background.

This is precisely the risk of booking with a low-cost airline. If they are unable to run their flight, the alternative that they can offer is usually ) often days away.

This happened to me and my husband years ago. We had booked on EasyJet for a weekend for my birthday in Budapest from Paris, where we live. We went out to Orly - yes, Orly -- and then a mini-snowstorm came up, which ended up meaning that EasyJet cancelled their flight that day.

Similar to your situation , the next flight they could offer was not for a few days. In our case, we couldn't make the trip on the alternate days (due to work obligations), so in the end we weren't able to go to Budapest at all.

The key here is: a budget airline's flights may look attractive when you are doing your research, because the tickets may be much cheaper. But you must keep in mind that in the event something goes "wrong," they may not be able to offer what you would consider acceptable alternatives, and that has a cost too.

So, three years ago when I went to meet my brother and family for a weekend in Stockholm, at a time that was VERY busy for work, and I really needed to get there and back, I booked on Air France.

Why ? Because I didn't have the luxury of time on either end of my trip. If my late night flight was cancelled, I knew that Air France would find a way to get me there the next morning or afternoon, because they have so many more flights.

So by paying a bit more for my tickets, I bought myself a little more assuredness with relation to my plans. It's literally like a bit of insurance that you are buying.

Again, i am sorry that you had a frustrating time on your holiday. I know that is disappointing.

But this serves as an excellent reminder to others, that low-cost airlines have their issues (and I love EasyJet and am a huge fan!), and their low-cost tickets can come with an additional price.

thanks all for hte nice comments
in life u learn from these instances...

--
HELLO Badger
it is my bad coz i did not do more research about Transavia
but i picked iberia because it was the airline that would take me to my
destination the fastest (based on
my flights search on that day

My lesson learned - next time when traveling routes I don't typically
fly, I am going to do some advance study of other transport options in
case of disruption. It may not help, but perhaps I will feel somewhat
in control!

That is very good advice!

When something goes wrong I assume rebookings are done by a computer, and your priorities might be different from the algorithm,

OP and Tocard, I'm so sorry for your bad experiences. I think we all need to expect flight cancellations, make our plans accordingly, and be pleasantly surprised when a flight performs as expected. Nothing works as well as it did before Covid. In April, we had two sets of friends, one flying from Edinburgh and the others from Rome, who both had their transatlantic flights cancelled on the same day, by different airlines(both major carriers).

EDIT: I stumbled on info from a French consumer magazine last night. They say you file your claim either on paper or using a certain form. If during the following two months you have no refund or a refrusal, you contact the "mediateur" or a special negotiation service that all businesses in France subscribe to. Here are the government instructions, but you will have to use Google to translate them:
https://www.service-public.fr/particuliers/vosdroits/R46367

Original post: Anyone visiting Europe on a schedule shouldn’t be relying on the smaller, budget airlines. I had my Transavia flight home to France from Rome canceled when the air controllers had a slowdown. In my case, it was fine to extend my time in Italy, and I ended up having a great adventure getting home. But now when I book with Transavia, which serves my local airport to many destinations in Europe and North Africa, I make sure all lodging and activities are refundable. Transavia is the budget branch of Air France. When things go sideways, the small planes are always the first cancelled whether those little regional planes in the US or budget airlines in Europe.
Again here are the government's instructions on contacting help with your refund
https://www.service-public.fr/particuliers/vosdroits/R46367

BTW my refund showed up very quickly on a US credit card, but I simply chose to cancel the return.

Depending on the origination and destination it is not unusual for a discount airline to have multiple flights every day of the week. But, yes, they do have a lot, a very lot, of 2 or 3 times a week schedules too.

One interesting fact concerning which airlines have cancelled the most flights: the discount airline, Ryanair, is the best-performing major airline worldwide - it has cancelled just 0.3% of flights so far this year. You will have trouble finding a full cost airline that comes anywhere close to that record. I think the worst so far this year is British Air at about 3% but check me on that.

an UPDATE!!

I contacted Transavia and provided them with the receipts for my alternative flight and the proof of boarding document from Paris to Stockholm (this was issued by Iberia).

Upon receiving this information, Transavia after A VERY LONG WAIT told me that they will not issue me a compensation unless I provide with the original boarding pass(which I don’t have at the moment) . The proof of boarding was received officially from Iberia and must be accepted by Transavia in order to grant me the compensation.

==
Grudging by the way TRANSAVIA TREAT THEIR customers , It is evident that they are not a professional airline

Thus , I have filed an escalation report against them with the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGAC) .

i hope for a positive outcome!!
thanks all for the help!! AND if you face similar issue, PLZ REMEMBER TO KEEP HOLD OF EVERY DOCUMENT RELATED TO THE FLIGHT!!

Upon receiving this information, Transavia after A VERY LONG WAIT told
me that they will not issue me a compensation unless I provide with
the original boarding pass(which I don’t have at the moment) .

As been mentioned above, since you choose to cancel your tickets and get a refund, how you choose to get to Stockholm is not Transavia's problem.

Grudging by the way TRANSAVIA TREAT THEIR customers , It is evident
that they are not a professional airline

They are a low cost airline. Have you heard the expression "You get what you pay for"?

hello mate

actually the issue is with boarding pass . they want the original one which i lost!!

see the quote from their side..
=-

Regarding your hotel and taxi expenses refund, in accordance with our policy, we are only liable to refund expenses such as hotel, transport and foods when passengers took an alternative flight with us. However, I am happy to offer you compensation of €400 per passenger, which makes a total of €1,600. This is meant to cover your expenses.

Concerning the fare difference with the new and cancelled tickets, please send me your new boarding passes for further study.
=-=

UPDATE!!!!

Hello ALL
After fighting with Transavia air, they have eventually sent me 2000Eur( for the difference between original Transavia flight and the second Iberia flight ). Furthermore, I filed a complaint via airhelp for (cancellation compensation) and I was awarded 1600EUR!! and air help got 600 eur out of this amount .
I m so happy now

Always never give up guys when dealing with these budget airlines

So pleased to hear you are happy... as an airline crew (retired) of a major US Carrier - just note there is a global shortage of crew - especially pilots. Sadly all were kept under the radar - but due to the item they were mandated to receive. Many just left the airline but many now having to leave due to issues.

So my only advice as I plan in my travels - double check to be sure there is a follow up flight - this is ideal t hough not always
possible - may mean taking that early flight but worth it as generally the earlier flights get out and following the issues begin...

Take care... happy travels/diane

thanks a lot