MENORCA/MINORCA SEPTEMBER 2000

By Russ and Val England.

We had a great relaxing 2 week holiday in Menorca in September. Although booking the holiday didn't go quite so well: 

Booking nightmare!

We booked the holiday in July with Thomas Cook at Merry Hill (UK). There is a lovely lady there called Lorna who has been arranging dialysis holidays for many years. Although this year we arranged the dialysis ourselves, we still liked to go through her. Last year we went for a week to Cala Galdana, it was so lovely that we never left the resort except to go to dialysis. This year, we wanted to try somewhere different and wanted to go to Son Bou or Sant Tomas. We had already contacted the dialysis centre in Menorca and they had availability for 10 days. We found a suitable holiday in the Thomsons holiday brochure and booked it. Val now needs oxygen because of pulmonary hypertension, she didn't use it on the plane last year, but we still asked for it as a precaution. We also had a wheelchair to take.

A couple of weeks later to our horror and surprise, Thomsons wanted to charge 100 UK pounds each way for the use of oxygen. We explained that she might not need it and it was only a precaution. They still insisted that we paid and because we had brought it to their attention, they also insisted that they had a doctors letter saying whether she needed it or not. So there was no chance of ignoring it. The whole thing was very upsetting, we had hoped for a nice relaxing holiday and this wasn't helping. I spent the next week on the phone starting with Thomsons and their airline Britannia Airways. Neither were very helpful, I said they were penalising my wife for being ill, they just said it actually costs them more than 100 pounds so they were doing us a favour. One lady even said that if she got on the plane and needed oxygen, but they weren't notified, then they would have to divert the plane to refill with oxygen which would cost tens of thousands of pounds. I telephoned the British Lung Foundation and they said they knew about it and it was disgraceful but they couldn't do anything about it. They recommended that people checked with the airline before booking. They said some airlines charge for oxygen, some don't.  She was aware that Virgin don't charge and last year we flew with Monarch who also don't charge (They looked after Val very well). I telephoned our local MP who advised me to contact the Disability Rights Commission. They said it wasn't right, but the Disability Discrimination Act doesn't cover airlines and they are not obliged to provide services for people with disabilities. I got the same answers from the Office of Fair Trading and the Air Transport Users Council.

So it was back to Thomsons. I explained that we couldn't afford the 200 pounds and would have to cancel the holiday. They said we couldn't have our money back and explained that the travel agent should have been aware that they charged. It just got worse. So I got back to Lorna at Thomas Cook, she was very supportive and said leave it with her. She came back a few minutes later saying that Thomsons had agreed to cancel the holiday without any charge (bless you Lorna!). We really needed to go on holiday, so we asked if she could find another holiday first. She managed to keep Thomsons on hold for a few hours and came back with another holiday from JMC, it was exactly the same hotel, was 200 pounds cheaper and was for 4 more days (because it was a late booking!) Fantastic! But because it was late on Saturday she couldn't get in touch with the special needs department to see if they charged for oxygen. There was also the problem of the extra dialysis days. We decided to gamble - cancelled Thomsons and booked the JMC holiday. We thought with the 200 pounds saved, we could pay for oxygen if they charged or pay for the dialysis at the private clinic in Ciutadella for 2 days. 

Monday came, I phoned JMC airlines to ask if they charged for booking oxygen. She said, yes there is a 5 pound booking fee. I was so pleased and said that Thomsons wanted to charge 100 pounds that she became a bit worried and asked what exactly I wanted booking? (She didn't catch the oxygen bit of the conversation) I said oxygen and she thought I meant booking a plane ticket, they don't charge for oxygen at all and was shocked to hear that Thomsons did. Yippee! Next I contacted the dialysis centre, they said it shouldn't be a problem and confirmed the next day that it was okay. So we got a much better holiday for a cheaper price. Although we learnt a lesson - check with the airline first and we will never ever book with Thomsons or Britannia Airways again.

Oxygen on holiday

Next stage was the oxygen while on holiday. I had contacted a couple of organisations in the UK that supplied oxygen in Spain. They each charged about 50 pounds per week which I thought was reasonable. I mentioned that the E111 covered the cost of oxygen therapy while on holiday, but they weren't able to offer this service. Unfortunately, the Spanish rules of the E111 for oxygen therapy are that the patient needs to see a doctor on arrival before oxygen cylinders/oxygenator can be supplied. I thought this was a bit risky so I contacted the dialysis centre in Menorca to ask their advice. They said they arrange oxygen for patients all the time and would arrange it for us, we just needed to contact Caruburos Metalicos (the oxygen supplier) to let them know the dates and medical requirements. It just got a whole lot better!

Dialysis on holiday

Arranging dialysis was the easiest part. There was a lovely lady at the dialysis unit called Naomi who had arranged everything, including the oxygen. I think she may be the holiday dialysis co-ordinator and I felt very confident dealing with her. Her English was 100 times better than my Spanish and we seemed to get along okay, although we both preferred to communicate by fax.

(Go back to our Son Bou story or read other travel stories)

Glossary

• MP - Member of Parliament
• Oxygenator - This is a machine that sucks in normal air, filters it and pumps out 95% oxygen.