Simon Calder explains your rights if flight is cancelled by global IT outage

Transcript

00:00On Friday, as a result of the IT outage around the world,

00:04we saw 350 flights, two from and within the UK, grounded.

00:11That means 50,000 people woke up on Saturday

00:15where they didn't expect to be.

00:17On top of that, there's yet more disruption.

00:20On Saturday, I'm counting at least 45 flights cancelled,

00:25most of those as a knock-on effect of all the problems we saw on Friday.

00:31The largest number of cancellations is on British Airways,

00:34to and from London Heathrow,

00:36with flights to places such as Brussels, Rome, Houston,

00:40Mumbai and Washington DC grounded.

00:44Also from London City to Nice and Ibiza.

00:48If your flight has been hit,

00:51whether with a very long delay, and there's a lot of those around,

00:54or indeed with a cancellation,

00:57then it's very clear what your rights are.

01:00The airline has to provide you with a hotel and meals,

01:05and if your flight's grounded and you've got to get to your destination,

01:08they cannot simply say,

01:10oh, we've got another flight in three days' time.

01:13They have to buy a ticket on another airline, if necessary,

01:17in order to get you where you need to be.

01:21Having said that,

01:23knowing the rules and getting the airlines to obey them

01:26are two different things,

01:29and therefore it could be that you're going to have to rely on

01:32having a robust credit card to pay for your hotel,

01:36your meals, by the way, keep itemised receipts,

01:39and indeed any new flights or travel arrangements that you are obliged to get.

01:45This was always going to be a miserable weekend,

01:49with Friday expecting the highest number of flights

01:52for five years from UK airports.

01:55It's turned out worse than anybody feared,

01:58but over the coming weeks,

02:00hopefully the pressure will ease off a bit

02:03and you will get to your destination.