Can I claim if car hire desk was shut?

Q When we went to Naples in August I booked car rental through the airline. Our flight was delayed by two hours. Although we tried the car rental desk in advance we got no answer, and it was shut when we arrived. We had to pay €150 for a taxi to our destination and the same again the following day to go back to the airport.

When my claim was rejected I tried the Civil Aviation Authority who said as it was not a flight or airport issue, they could not help. Do you know of any governing body I could take this up with?

Tom A

A If you booked your flight and car rental together on or after 1 July 2018, you can cite the Package Travel Regulations 2018. Under this legislation, this purchase should count as a package, and you can claim for the airline’s failure to perform the contract by not having a car available for you when you arrived.

But if you booked before 1 July, I am afraid that the way you chose to arrange the holiday means that your options are limited. The airline will have made clear that its offer of car rental was a separate purchase, and that any dispute you have would be with the hire firm.

You were unable to take up the rental as booked because the very organisation that sold it to you delayed you. That is infuriating, but it is your problem, not theirs.

You could see if your travel insurance covers such misfortune, but otherwise I am afraid I cannot see any way of getting any recompense. For future fly-drive trips it is worth ensuring that your trip is a package. Then if a flight is late, the company that sold you the trip is responsible for sorting out the muddle.

Every day our travel correspondent Simon Calder tackles a reader’s question. Just email yours to s@hols.tv or tweet @simoncalder