Airline cancelled flight... but won't admit it for refund

[J_S_G]

Brief background:

• Booked outbound flight from UK - Mali, with return flight from Sierra Leone - UK. All flights via Royal Air Maroc, with a change in Casablanca on each
• Booked these through a UK based travel agent that is ABTA and ATOL bonded
• Plan was to trek from Mali to Sierra Leone whilst out there, so no hotels booked, etc.
• Flew out fine. Did the trek across fine, and completed the last leg of the trek - a flight from Ghana to Sierra Leone. This flight was booked entirely separately - a single hop, via a different airline, but with the same UK travel agent
• Before we boarded this last hop into Sierra Leone we checked that the flight in SL was still showing as fine, etc. It was

And then it all went wrong:

• When we arrived ~2 hours later in Sierra Leone, we were told by a member of the airport (NOT airline) staff that our flight back to the UK was cancelled. We asked if there was any representative of the airline in the airport. There wasn't.
• We tried phoning the UK offices of the airline (Royal Air Maroc) to find out what the problem was. We struggled greatly to get through (phone reception not great out there!), kept getting cut off, etc. But the basic gist of it was that they didn't know what was going on with the flight and couldn't advise us of anything, and suggested we go to the Royal Air Maroc offices. Note that this was a Sunday evening; everywhere would have been shut.
• We eventually managed to find a chap who was the ticket agent in the airport that could sell RAM tickets. But not an employee of theirs. After refusing to even speak to us for hours (as we didn't want to buy tickets) other than to say our flight was cancelled, he eventually gave us the contact details of the RAM offices in Sierra Leone. He said there was nothing else they could do to help.
• We tried phoning these offices. They hung up on us repeatedly when they heard us speak English. Eventually, in French we got through to them
• They stated that the flight was indeed cancelled, and that all we could do was wait for the next flight - FOUR DAYS LATER. And that if we had any issues with that our only option was to go to their offices the next day, in the capital city. But that they still wouldn't be able to do anything other than tell us to wait until Thursday

Problems at this point:

• We didn't have enough anti-malarials to last another day there. And there were a LOT of mozzies
• We had about $30 between 3 of us in cash (we were only supposed to be in the airport for a couple of hours whilst changing flights)
• There was no cash machine at the airport
• The airport was a helicopter ride / unsafe boat/ unsafe 100+ mile drive from the capital city (across a delta). And we didn't have enough money for any of these methods of travel
• We couldn't afford a hotel for the night
• We were ordered to vacate the airport at gunpoint by security as we did not have valid tickets for travel that day (seeing as the flight was cancelled)

Not really the best day of our lives by then, truth be told!

So, we ended up having to pay over £1,000 each to get the first flight out of there to somewhere civilised where we could afford food/water/weren't going to get eaten alive by mosquitoes/robbed whilst stuck out on the street for 4 days.

The issue now we've got back is that the airline is refusing to even acknowledge that the flight was delayed, let alone cancelled. And without admitting that, the insurance company won't pay towards the four figure sum for the replacement tickets! They're based in Morocco, and I've sent numerous letters over the last 2 months, to which I've had no reply. Their call centre refuses to say anything other than that I should email them or write to their Casablanca offices. All emails have also been point blank ignored. When informed of this, they simply suggest I should write again. The person on the other end of the phone is basically laughing at me each time I call back, knowing full well they won't reply.

The travel agent states that they don't hold records of delayed/cancelled flights, so there is nothing they can do to help.

Any thoughts on how I can get anything out of them here? Kind of run out of ideas, given they're not a UK airline

Thanks in advance - and thanks for reading to the end!

[hidetheelephants]

If they have a UK office you could raise a small claims court action, but it sounds like you've had it.

[XJSJohn]

This was at Hastings (HSG) i assume. What date was travel? There should be an independant record of all flights logged and cancelled somewhere with the various international aviation offices.

[Marcellus]

We use this site to monitor flight performance;

http://www.flightstats.com/go/Home/home.do

Not sure if it would help you trace back to your flight.

[JRM]

I'm not at all surprised by the story from an African airline, my parents-in-law are in Malawi and they've seen it all.

Really surprised that an ABTA travel agent can't help you though, have you contacted ABTA?

As an amusing side story though, there was a couple of flight arrivals due at Llongwe, Malawi, during a huge thunderstorm - one South African Airways and one Air Malawi.

SA flight coming in aborts landing due to massive winds, flooded runway and generally not safe to land, so diverts elsewhere for a few hours, much to the dissapointment of everyone waiting to see loved ones.

Air Malawi flight due to arrive, and lands with a splash and a skid, but makes it to the terminal, much to the amazement of all the families waiting at the terminal.

So, lots of people annoyed that the supposedly highly trained SA aircrew couldn't land in the bad weather, but crappy Air Malawai lot could. Until it was explained by the Air Malawi desk that the only reason their flight actually landed was because there wasn't enough fuel on board to land anywhere else!!

[Amateurish]

The travel agent is responsible - get them to sort it out otherwise start a claim against them (make sure the total value is less than £5k so that it goes through the small claims).

[LuS1fer]

If you paid by credit card, you can raise it all as a dispute.

[bigdods]

Not sure if I am misunderstanding your post - Did you have insurance ? If so just claim, thats why you have insurance. Its the ins co's job to try and get back any money they can from the airline surely ?

I have twice had to claim on travel insurance (although not for a flight from such an exotic place!) both times it was ~ £3000 , they just asked me to send over (Scanned, emailed) a copy of the invoice for the flights and hotel bookings then they sent me a cheque.

Maybe in my case though (we never actually got out of the UK) it was simpler, I guess its possible/likely that the ins co will want some more proof before paying out in the circumstances you describe.