The Volcanic eruption that exploded on our television screens has caused a number of disruptions for travellers around the world.
Koy Miah says he spent six days simply trying to speak to someone from his travel company, Expedia. Instead of being on a beach in Portugal he is stuck in London and on the phone at every opportunity, often for 2-3 hours a day and at 10p a minute.
Many viewers have complained about the way in which they have been kept informed by their travel companies. Peter More is entitled to a refund from Easyjet following the cancellation of his flight to Turkey. He found the whole refund system frustrating. Peter said:
"You can not use the details you used to log in before to get a refund, you have to set up a new account, then you get an error message saying that the email address is already being used... so you have to set up two accounts".
He also told us that to apply for the refund you have to scan in and attach your original email ticket, which for Peter wasn't easy as he didn't own a scanner.
When we got Spencer Kelly from the BBC's "Click" computer series expert to have a go, he also found it tricky...
Both Expedia and Easyjet told us they'd experienced an unprecedented number of enquiries over the last week. Passengers haven't only had problems with their travel firms, many have looked to their insurance companies for support, but it hasn't always been there.
Mike Gore ended up spending two grand on a taxi getting his family home from Geneva, his insurer Direct Travel Insurance said they couldn't help because they classed his flight cancellation as an "uninsured peril".
Another insurer -Saga - went out of their way to assure customers they wouldn't duck out of paying, saying: "We don't have any sneaky clauses to enable us to get out of paying - we are pretty straight forward".
We spoke to Jane Kerr who took out insurance with SAGA for her accommodation in the Canary Islands. When she heard the news she contacted them to claim back the cost of the apartment but was told they couldn't pay out on a claim if she hadn't checked in. The official advice was to stay away from airports which was also what Jane's airline Easyjet had advised.
Saga told us this was a mistake and Direct Travel Insurance have also changed their minds, but other insurers are sticking to their decision not to pay out for what most customers believe was an Act of God. They include some of the biggest - like Admiral and Travel Insurance Direct. All of them say the cancellation of flights, was due to a government decision.
So, when it comes to these insurers, the word of God may be covered but the words of governments aren't.
Volcano chaos
Koy Miah says he spent six days simply trying to speak to someone from his travel company, Expedia. Instead of being on a beach in Portugal he is stuck in London and on the phone at every opportunity, often for 2-3 hours a day and at 10p a minute.
Many viewers have complained about the way in which they have been kept informed by their travel companies. Peter More is entitled to a refund from Easyjet following the cancellation of his flight to Turkey. He found the whole refund system frustrating. Peter said:
"You can not use the details you used to log in before to get a refund, you have to set up a new account, then you get an error message saying that the email address is already being used... so you have to set up two accounts".
He also told us that to apply for the refund you have to scan in and attach your original email ticket, which for Peter wasn't easy as he didn't own a scanner.
When we got Spencer Kelly from the BBC's "Click" computer series expert to have a go, he also found it tricky...
Both Expedia and Easyjet told us they'd experienced an unprecedented number of enquiries over the last week. Passengers haven't only had problems with their travel firms, many have looked to their insurance companies for support, but it hasn't always been there.
Mike Gore ended up spending two grand on a taxi getting his family home from Geneva, his insurer Direct Travel Insurance said they couldn't help because they classed his flight cancellation as an "uninsured peril".
Another insurer -Saga - went out of their way to assure customers they wouldn't duck out of paying, saying: "We don't have any sneaky clauses to enable us to get out of paying - we are pretty straight forward".
We spoke to Jane Kerr who took out insurance with SAGA for her accommodation in the Canary Islands. When she heard the news she contacted them to claim back the cost of the apartment but was told they couldn't pay out on a claim if she hadn't checked in. The official advice was to stay away from airports which was also what Jane's airline Easyjet had advised.
Saga told us this was a mistake and Direct Travel Insurance have also changed their minds, but other insurers are sticking to their decision not to pay out for what most customers believe was an Act of God. They include some of the biggest - like Admiral and Travel Insurance Direct. All of them say the cancellation of flights, was due to a government decision.
So, when it comes to these insurers, the word of God may be covered but the words of governments aren't.
Volcano chaos