You buy an adventure trip that revolves around the outdoors, so you're at the mercy of the weather, right? Wrong, well, mostly. Many adventure trip providers now offer insurance against the elements because these trips aren't cheap, and for many individuals or families, they're aspirational once-in-a-lifetime holidays. So, taking a chance on the weather being perfect being right is just too much of a risk without the insurance.
Great, no hassle then if you don't get good weather for your adventure holiday. Well, that doesn't seem to be the case for the O'Neil family, who booked a £3,500 ($4807.56) holiday to Lapland. Lisa O'Neil complained to the tour operator Tui after the family's four-day holiday got the go-ahead last December.
On the face of it, it's strange to complain about getting a green light for your vacation, but the operator has a "no snow, you don't have to go," and you guessed it, there was no snow.
The fact that there wasn't any snow didn't just take away from the wintery vibes; it meant that the family couldn't partake in the main activities—a husky ride, snowmobile trip, and reindeer encounter. Tui offered to pay a 50% refund to the O'Neil family, which doesn't fall in line with its insurance policy, and so a 6-month legal battle ensued.
Thankfully for the O'Neils, their appeal was successful, which resulted in Tui fully compensating them and covering all legal fees.
"We were absolutely elated," said Mrs O'Neil, 40, from Gosforth, before continuing, "You think all of the time have you done the right thing, is it worth the hassle to push through. But when you know that you're in the right and you're just being forced into a situation by a corporate company, [the outcome] just validated all of the hard work that we put in."
Before drawing your conclusion on whether the compensation was fair or not, know that the O'Neil's contacted Tui days before the trip was set to take place to raise concerns over the weather forecast of rain, but were reassured that there was snow at their resort and that if they canceled they'd lose the money the spent.
Of course, the rain came, melted the snow at the resort, and all the snow activities were canceled, leaving the O'Neils to arrange and pay for alternatives. Tell us, was the family fairly compensated? Did they deserve more or less?
