We were flying home to Edinburgh with Loganair but it abandoned us... in Birmingham: CRANE ON THE CASE

In March, my wife and I travelled from our home in Scotland to the Isle of Man, to provide support to my sister-in-law who has cancer. We had booked return flights with Loganair which cost £570. When we arrived at the airport to fly home, our flight was delayed for two and a half hours and then cancelled. There wasn’t another flight to Edinburgh for two days, so we accepted Loganair's offer of a replacement flight to Birmingham. The airline said onward transport from Birmingham to Edinburgh would be provided. But on arrival in Birmingham, there were no Loganair staff to be found anywhere and no details of how we were supposed to get home. We ended up booking an Easyjet flight late that night and hoped Loganair would cover the cost, which was £269.94. I submitted a claim on 27 March but have had nothing, despite calling, emailing and even writing to the Loganair boss. G.S., Edinburgh Up in the air: This passenger and his wife were stranded at Birmingham airport as they could not find the transport home Loganair had promised to provideHelen Crane, This is Money's consumer champion, replies: Your journey home was a true travel story from hell. You had arrived at the airport in the Isle of Man mid-morning ahead of your 12:30pm flight to Edinburgh, and by 5pm had only made it as far as Birmingham - 300 miles from home, and in the wrong direction. But no fear, as the UK261 regulations meant the airline had to get you home. These apply to all flights that depart from a UK or EU airport, as well as flights that land in a UK or EU airport, if they are operated by a UK or EU-based airline. Under these rules, the airline must look after you during any period of delay including providing food and drink vouchers and accommodation if you are delayed overnight. If the flight is then cancelled, your airline must find you an alternative flight (that is, unless the cancellation was due to 'exceptional circumstances' such as extreme weather or civil unrest, the latter of which caught travellers out at the beginning of the conflict in Iran). According to the Civil Aviation Authority: 'Although most airlines will book you onto another of their flights to the same destination, if an alternative airline is flying there significantly sooner or other suitable modes of transport are available then you may have the right to be booked onto that alternative transport instead. You can discuss this with your airline.'This is why you were offered the more timely flight to Birmingham and onward transport, which usually means a coach or minibus with other passengers but if you are lucky, could be a private taxi. CRANE ON THE CASE Our weekly column sees This is Money consumer expert Helen Crane tackle reader problems and shine the light on companies doing both good and bad.Want her to investigate a problem, or do you want to praise a firm for going that extra mile? Get in touch:helen.crane@thisismoney.co.ukYou headed to the Loganair desk at Birmingham expecting to be packed on to a bus. But despite it only being around 6pm and not the middle of the night, it appeared Loganair's desk staff had clocked off.Next you went to the desk of Swissport, which is Loganair's ground agent. It told you to head to a numbered desk in Departures. When you did, there was nobody there, and no one could tell you where to find Loganair staff.This was especially frustrating as your wife cannot walk very far and requires your assistance when getting around the airport. Thankfully you then came across two Birmingham airport 'customer ambassadors' who offered some advice: either get a bed for the night and travel home the next day, or try to get on the 21:30 Easyjet flight to Edinburgh and claim the money back. The Civil Aviation Authority says: 'If your airline is unable to, or does not, organise care for you, you may make your own arrangements and claim the costs for this back from your airline later.'Two seats on this flight, with hand luggage, cost £269.94 and you were finally on your way home. You swiftly made a refund claim to Loganair online, including the flight costs, drinks and snacks in the Isle of Man airport, and a meal and drinks in Birmingham while you waited for the Easyjet flight. This totalled £69.15, so a total reimbursement of £339.09. You were also due £220 each in statutory compensation for the cancellation, under the UK261 rules.These amounts vary depending on the distance of the original flight, and by how long you were delayed getting to the destination airport. But apart from an automated acknowledgement email, you heard nothing back. You phoned Loganair customer services throughout April, May, and June and but each time were told that the agents were very busy working through a case backlog and would call you back in due course, which they never did. When you asked to speak to the person handling your claim directly, you were told this wasn't possible. In June you wrote to the chief executive of Loganair Ltd, Luke Farajallah at its HQ in Glasgow but this also received no response.You then contacted me in July. I contacted Loganair and set out what I thought you were entitled to. The airline refused to speak to me about your case, saying that it does not comment on individual customer complaints. However, it said it would contact you directly to sort it out, which seemed the best I could do in the circumstances. I told you to expect a call, so was surprised when three weeks later you said you still had not heard anything. After I sent a cross email to Loganair, you did finally receive an offer of compensation. It offered to pay you and your wife either a total of £440 (the statutory cancellation compensation of £220 each) or 28,500 Loganair loyalty points. You told me you are minded to take the points, as they can be converted to Avios 1:1 and could be worth more than £440, depending on how you spend them.The good news is that this covers the £339.09 that you were left out of pocket due to the cancellation, and £100 more on top. However, I still think that the airline should reimburse you directly for the £269.94 that you spent on the Easyjet flights to get you from Birmingham to Edinburgh. It had a duty to get you to Edinburgh airport, and if the bus wasn't there then in my mind, paying for the flight you had to book instead constitutes part of that. The £220 per person compensation is paid to all passengers, and isn't related to the actual amount spent - it is compensation on top for the inconvenience. As the airline wouldn't discuss your case with me, I can't check whether it plans to do so. It is always disappointing when firms won't be transparent when things go wrong - but you told me you are going to follow up yourself. I am glad I could help get things off the ground. CRANE ON THE CASE