united-kingdom contract-law civil-law
Missed flight, can we take the airline to court to claim money to rebook remaining flights?
<p>A couple of weeks ago me and my partner went on holiday. We had booked with Thai Airways and had a multi-part ticket. London -> Bangkok, Bangkok -> Tokyo, Osaka -> London (via Bangkok)
On the day of the Bangkok to Tokyo flight (Nov 17th), I had food poisoning, we got to the airport, but I was constantly throwing up and severely dehydrated, so we saw the airport doctor, they ruled me not fit to fly and sent me to the hospital in an ambulance, my partner stayed with me the entire time.
Whilst at the airport doctor's, one of the nurses took our flight information and went up to inform Thai that we wouldn't be able to make the trip (this was about 4 hrs before the flight was due), unfortunately there wasn't anybody manning the check-in desk so they weren't able to notify them, however they said they would return later to let them know.</p>

<p>I sent an e-mail to Thai the following morning (Nov 18th) when I was no longer incapacitated checking whether the remaining flights were still valid. 
The morning after that (Nov 19th), I received a call from Thai at 9am at the hospital saying that unless we rebooked our tickets (with a new Bangkok to Tokyo flight) at a cost of £1000 each (the original ticket cost us ~£740 each) by 11am, all our remaining flights would be cancelled.
We believe the airport doctor notified Thai (in Thai's T&amp;C it states if they are informed prior to the flight they won't cancel the remaining flights), though we don't have any physical evidence.</p>

<p>We could have booked a flight to Tokyo by ourselves for aprox £300 each on the day. </p>

<p>Would there be any room for us to take Thai Airways to court to reclaim the £2000 we had to pay?</p>

<h2>No</h2>

<p><em>You</em> missed the flight. Thai is not responsible for your acts and omissions. As for the check in desk, they are often unmanned, however, Thai have  an email address and a telephone number that <em>is</em> manned 24/7. I am surprised that you couldn’t find <em>any</em> Thai airlines staff in all of Bangkok airport given that it is their home base.</p>

<p>This is precisely what travel insurance is for.</p>

<p>Assuming that the fee was correctly charged under the contract terms in the relevant circumstances you have no right to have it waived. Thai <em>might</em> waive it gratuitously if you ask but they don’t have to.</p>
