Image credit: Photo/Icelandic Coastguard
The eruption of the Icelandic volcano, and its ensuing ash clouds, in April 2010 caused major chaos to European air travel.
With air travel severely disrupted, and most of Europe’s airspace closed for at least a week, it’s estimated that around five million passengers, of whom one million were British, were left stranded at airports around the world.
Those who were waiting to return home faced the choice of an uncomfortable wait of unpredictable duration, or to attempt a long and involved overland journey, with train seats increasingly rare as many other passengers took the same decision; and the seats which were available naturally began soaring in price.
Club La Costa, however, ensured that every one of its members was looked after, inviting them to return to Club La Costa accommodation and seeing to it that they were inconvenienced as little as possible while Club La Costa Travel worked flat out, organising alternative travel arrangements and providing assistance to members. The Club La Costa members site now has a page devoted to testimonials from members wishing to express their thanks at the way in which Club La Costa handled the disaster.
For travellers who had not yet embarked on their journey, the unavoidable decision for many would have been simply to abandon their travel plans and in the case of holidaymakers, lose their holidays. Again, not so for the Club La Costa members, who were refunded their points without question. Club La Costa has been highly commended by its customers for the fast, efficient and reassuring way in which it dealt with the crisis.
Holidaymakers who unfortunately didn’t have the protection of Club La Costa weren’t the only ones to pay the price. Airlines landed an estimated bill of £2.2 billion due to the crisis. So desperate were the circumstances that Britain’s Labour government, in power at the time, deployed three Royal Navy vessels to rescue stranded Britons in northern France.
It seems that Club La Costa customers are among the few lucky ones who were able to capitalise on the cloud and enjoy their extended holiday.
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