EasyJet flight cancellations - Refunds & Compensation advice/howto?

michty6

I now have a 6th denial from them which says:

'I regret to say that you are not entitled to the compensation under EU legislation. The primary reason why the flight was cancelled was Air Traffic Control delays which are extraordinary circumstances as they are defined in EU legislation. The crewing issues you are referring to were the result of the Air Traffic delays that were the primary reason why the flight was cancelled. I am very sorry to hear that you still wish to go to court. I can assure you that you are a value customer. Nevertheless, I am unable to offer any compensation as you are not entitled to it'

We're just going round in circles with them using this 'Air Traffic Control' excuse. File with moneyclaim?

richardw

If the aircraft is at the airport ready for your flight, however much delayed, and easyJet can't organise crew to fly it, whether regular or standby crews, that's just bad airline management.

This website is interesting http://www.flightmole.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=14

Perhaps create a log in to https://www.flightstats.com to see what was happening to other flights at the same time as yours.

michty6

So should I proceed to file with Moneyclaim? Or write to the Air Transport Users Council? Or continue to email Easyjet?

richardw

If you feel you have a good case then proceed via moneyclaim.

michty6

Great, I'll report back. I think that their latest customer rep has killed their efforts by finally admitting that there were crewing problems, so I'll make one last offering for them to settle before I file. Thanks for your help Richardw.

Orekid

Hi there.

I have signed up purely for this thread.

I had a cancelled flight with EJ on 31/07/2010 after a 2 hr delay at the airport. I was told I would be refunded the flight, food & drink, taxi and lost days at the hotel in the destination by the desk and to register my claim through the website.

I did this following up with a call to the no help line and to cut a long story short they refunded my flight but nothing else. After several hours research I found the EU legislation stating our eligibility to €250 per passenger compensation. I informed EJ about this and was told they'd look into it. 2 days later they cited 'extraordinary circumstances due to ATC restrictions' so the compensation didn't apply. I asked for an independent verification to this and THEY gave me the details of the AUC who I contacted the next day. They laughed saying there were NO ATC restricitions so I contacted EJ and wrote to them. For the next three weeks there was pointless debate and no movement from EJ so I emailed Carolyn McCall (CEO) ccing Stelios. I got a response the next day saying it would be looked into. I got a phone call today from Graeme McLeod (Head of Customer Services) saying he disagreed with what I'd be told and I would recieve my refund (see below).

Dear Mr Dennis,

Thank you for your e-mail to Carolyn McCall , easyJet Chief Executive Officer. Your letter has been forwarded to me for a response.

I am writing to say that I was really concerned to find out about the difficulties you have experienced due to the flight cancellation.

I have looked into the circumstances around the delay and subsequent cancellation you experienced and I can confirm that this flight was cancelled due to non extraordinary reasons. Therefore,in accordance with EC Regulation 261, you and your family are entitled to EU compensation of 250 EUR per passenger, which comes to 1500 EUR in total.

Having reviewed all the correspondence and taking into consideration the exceptional circumstances on the day I have also decided to offer you a refund of 114.77 GBP to cover the cost of the additional travel expenses.

The above mentioned payments have been processed to the original method of payment and will be returned back to the card within 5-10 working days.

Once again, I would like to apologise for the inconvenience you experienced. I do hope you and your family will not feel discouraged to use our service in the future and you will give easyJet another chance.

Yours sincerely,

Graeme MacLeod
Head of Customer Experience
easyJet Airline Co. Ltd.

This is the response I got from the Customer Services only yesterday:

Dear Mr Dennis,

Thank you for contacting us.

I was sorry to learn of the disappointment that prompted your communication. Providing our passengers with a punctual and reliable service is naturally one of our principle aims. I also recognize that the care and attention you receive from our staff, especially when things go wrong, is of the upmost importance. It is inevitable that there will be occasions when we are unable to operate our flights, as scheduled, due to circumstances beyond our control. I am sure you will appreciate that disruption caused by Air Traffic Control is beyond our control.

In such circumstances any entitlement passengers may have to compensatory payments are subject to the provisions laid out in our Terms and Conditions, in addition to those specified under European Union laws. Such an event constitutes an ‘extraordinary circumstance’ under the governing regulation, that is, the occurrence was outside the reasonable control of the airline. It is for this reason, I regret, I am unable to agree to your claim for compensation.

Further, I request you to provide us with the valid receipts for meal expenses as you provided us the card copy. Therefore, I request you to provide us with the itemized copy of the bill for further investigation an also provide us with the proper phone bill.

Further, in line with our policy we will be unable to process the refund for taxi as you have travel to and from airport and did not continue your journey with an alternate transport.

I also request you to provide us with the written signed consent from other passengers authorizing us to process refund back to your card and last four digits of the card mentioned on it.

You can send the receipts while replying to this e-mail and the receipts should be sent in PDF, BMP or JPG format.

As soon as we receive the required information, we will give this matter our prompt attention.

I do hope I have been able to answer your question fully. To update your query, please reply to this e-mail and we will be happy to assist you further.

Yours sincerely,

Sunil Kaul
Customer Service Representative

So don't give up and I have been promised by Graeme that there will be a full review into the procedures adopted by Customer Services.

michty6

Haha nice one. So it appears that Customer Services has been told to tell ANYONE who asks that it was 'Air Traffic Control' issues and that this is deemed extraordinary circumstances. Nice post Orekid. Do you have an email address for Graeme MacLeod?

EDIT: Hold on I found it. I also emailed Carolyn and she copied him in. It is Graeme.MacLeod@easyJet.com. I suggest that people start using this more and then they will bypass the dozens of 'automated' responses Customer Services will give them quoting the same old nonsense.

michty6

So I have had some communications with Graeme and these have been much more forthcoming. I suggest anyone who contacts Easyjet goes directly to him after the Customer Services fob you off with 'Air Traffic Control' issues as they have been trained to.

Graeme has elaborated on the 'air traffic control issues' with various excuses which seem ridiculous to me. First he stated that the problem was 'Air Traffic Control restrictions on previous sectors that the aircraft was planned to operate. This has resulted in the crew not having sufficient hours to legally operate the aircraft'. When I said the legislation was quite clear that managing staff was the airlines issue, not 'extraordinary issues' he then claimed that 'As 64% of our flying programme touches French Airspace the impact on us has been significant due to both official and unofficial industrial action by French Air Traffic Control since March and Spanish Air Traffic Control throughout July.' So basically we have gone: 'It is due to Air Traffic Control issues' to 'It is due to staff not having sufficient hours' to 'It is due to strikes in France'!

I have just emailed back suggesting that strikes in France really shouldnt impact the operation of domestic flights - once more this is a management issue not an 'extraordinary' one. However, he has already stated that he is not going to settle my claim and given me the EJ legal address as well as advising I write to the CAA.

So my question is: is it worth writing to the CAA to try and resolve this or should I just go straight to court? I am eager to avoid court - not because of the costs (I will merely add these to my claim) but the effort in having to secure a day off work to sort this when Easyjet has already cost me one day of work with their cancellation of this flight already...

richardw

easyJet ran out of time today with another ATC story, I've submitted my claim through https://www.moneyclaim.gov.uk/web/mcol/welcome and also e mailed a complaint to AUC, easyJet tactics didn't put me off.

michty6

Thanks RichardW and Cityboy for all your help. I guess as an educated professional, I thought Easyjet would have been more reasonable in this matter and settled this out of court - a simple cost benefit analysis would show that going to court will probably cost them 3 times what I am claiming). I guess Easyjet are too stubborn and (quite frankly) stupid to realise this.

I emailed the AUC but they are saying it will take 8 weeks to deal with my claim. Given it has now been 3 months already since the flight, I am not prepared to wait that long so am just going to file in court (especially since the AUC might not be able to resolve this matter anyway).

I have one final query. Am I correct in thinking that in my court claim can I claim for my court costs and the costs of me missing a days employment? Especially since I took such active measures to avoid court... Also I was thinking of adding in an administration cost for all the letters and emails I have sent - something on the line of £15 a letter/email. Is this perfectly standard or over the top? FYI I have successfully added in these costs in another claim I had but they settled out of court.