If you paid by credit card, try for refund through them or through your travel insurance
TSR2,
Your post ws a great help to me and I want to thank yuo personally for that. After your comments I took some legal advise and have today received a full refund from my credit card company. You are right in that if you paid by c/c, there is an inbuilt protection and by asking for a 'chargeback' I was able to secure a reund. If we meet in the future, there's quite a few beers coming yuor way! Maybe one of the benefits of PPRUNE?