My friend and I travelled to the Philippines from Oct – Nov. We were supposed to travel on another flight to one of the islands there, but due to the typhoon, our flight was delayed and subsequently cancelled much later.
We were stranded in the airport for about 18 hours and were given the option of a replacement flight which is not inline with our travel schedule, so we did not take it.
When we came back to Singapore, we wanted to make claims for our mishap.
My friend got his claim in just 3 days, no questions asked for $300, while mine, which took almost a month, was concluded at only $78, for cost of flight ticket that was cancelled.
When asked, they said they will only reimburse for the flight tickets only for trip disruption and not trip delay, because we did not take up the replacement flight (this is not stated on the T&C).
I asked for further explanation on what is their interpretation of trip delay, but that was not offered any.
So any advice on this? Can we also claim for the hotels that we have to booked in place of our pre-booked hotel because we didn’t make it to the island? Or can we claim for the hours we spent in the airport?
(PS. the claim officer in FWD was extremely hostile in asking my friend to return them the excess amount after reviewing my case, which my friend did return, albeit not even a word of apology from them)