Easyjet Cancelled my flight *arg*

Poor_Student_3

Hi everyone,

Me and my girlfriend were flying from East Midlands airport to Prague on 20th December 2009 and Easyjet without warning cancelled my flight (we'd checked in and were waiting for our gate number).. When we got to the Easyjet desk the woman told me that it was cancelled because the staff manning our flight had worked all their available hours up due to delays from other flights that day.

This in itself is really annoying as they surely could just get more staff?! Anyway, the flight was cancelled and obviously I want my money back. I came home that night and emailed Easyjet with all the relevant info I needed for a refund.. I haven't received one yet and were now in 2010! I rang them up yesterday and they said they can issue me with a refund but because I booked 3rd party (I booked a package deal with myprague.net) they have to have some sort of acknowledgement from the company saying they agree the refund goes directly to me. Is this true?

I also rang up and enquired about the 250 euro compensation with accordance to the EU regulations, and the woman said our flight was cancelled due to weather conditions so this didn't apply. But this isn't what we were told, and the weather in the East Midlands area that day aswell as in Prague was fine because other flights had carried on fine. On top of this I read in the regulations that if they cancelled our flight they should provide us with a way of getting home? Which they didn't even offer, (I paid a £60 taxi bill!!!)

I'm just generally annoyed at their lack of help and because i'm not very experienced in this area I was wondering if anyone could help.

I'm contacting my travel insurance again because i'm still waiting from a letter from them too!

Anything would be great.
Thanks in advance
- Martin

cassie55

The Air Transport Users Council would be able to advise you on all of this.

Their website is http://www.auc.org.uk/ and all their contact details on are the front page.

lufcgirl

I was in Prague that night waiting to fly back to Dublin, when the East Midlands people were told their flight was cancelled. It was manic there as nobody seemed to know what was going on as they were all checked in!

Our flight was two and a half hours late departing, the problem was the weather in the UK, and that planes were having to be de-iced and taking up too much time. Thats what we got told anyway. And the weather in Prague wasn't too good, there was snow on the ground and everything was late arriving and departing.

The best people to contact are indeed your travel insurers to see what they can do, these are the people you contact in such an eventuality.
Good luck anyway!

spike7451

OP,
The problem may have been caused by the aircrew being out of flying hours.Like bus & lorry drivers,aircrew can only fly a certain set maximum hours per day with a set amount of downtime.
This is law & airlines can be heavily fined & the aircrew too as well as loosing their licence to fly.
It may have impacted that aircraft were stuck wherever because of this which had a knock on effect.

Aircraft have to be de-iced prior to take off in extreme cold,the ice can prevent aircraft from taking off & even cause them to crash due to it affecting the flying surfaces.

What would you rather have?
1-Your flight delayed by a few hours?
2-To be dead?

KxMx

Poor_Student wrote: »

Hi everyone,

Me and my girlfriend were flying from East Midlands airport to Prague on 20th December 2009 and Easyjet without warning cancelled my flight

obviously I want my money back. I came home that night and emailed Easyjet with all the relevant info I needed for a refund.. I haven't received one yet and were now in 2010!
- Martin

I'd imagine with all the bank holidays/ xmas/New Years it'll be a few extra days wait anyway.

DVardysShadow

spike7451 wrote: »

Aircraft have to be de-iced prior to take off in extreme cold,the ice can prevent aircraft from taking off & even cause them to crash due to it affecting the flying surfaces.

What would you rather have?
1-Your flight delayed by a few hours?
2-To be dead?

I have never known a pressure group organised by the dead to say that things should be done differently.

pinkshoes

Getting information from Easyjet is a bit like trying to getting blood from a stone! They pride themselves on customer service that is SO useless, most people give up trying to get common sense from them.

If you don't get a refund soon, then go through AUC (link above), or perhaps try getting your refund from the people you booked it from?

BFG_2

I speak as someone with personal experience of Easyjet customer service [lol].

Do not bother ringing them. I would write to them and state what you want from them.

They willl send you a std letter - asking you to do 10,000 things before they can refund only your fare and deny all attempts at compensation.

Send them another letter titled 'Final Notice before action' and tell them they have 14 days to pay up [search for examples ].

After 14 days issue court papers - a piece of cake on the gov's court website [claimonline.gov.uk or similar...again google is your friend].

Sit back and wait for 20-ish days, after which you will probably be awarded judgement in default - whcih is where they don't even defend the action. Even if you're not, you'll win the court case [informal and held at court of your choice]...

Seriously...it's the only thing they understand.

Tozer

spike7451 wrote: »

OP,
The problem may have been caused by the aircrew being out of flying hours.Like bus & lorry drivers,aircrew can only fly a certain set maximum hours per day with a set amount of downtime.
This is law & airlines can be heavily fined & the aircrew too as well as loosing their licence to fly.
It may have impacted that aircraft were stuck wherever because of this which had a knock on effect.

Aircraft have to be de-iced prior to take off in extreme cold,the ice can prevent aircraft from taking off & even cause them to crash due to it affecting the flying surfaces.

What would you rather have?
1-Your flight delayed by a few hours?
2-To be dead?

This is a bit melodramatic. It is for the airlines to manage their aircrew rosters appropriately. It is certainly not the passenger's responsibility to ensure an airworthy aircraft is available at the correct time.

Your point regarding de-icing is rather odd. Of course aircraft should be de-iced. This is standard operating procedures. It doesn't take hours and ought to be taken into account in respect of the schedules which the airlines operate.

Ivory_Tinkler

There is no point in issuing a final notice before action against easyjet as the OP has already said that they booked the trip through a third party and not directly with the airline. The OP needs to go back to myprague.net to start with or pursue through their insurers in the first instance. If nothing is then forthcoming then legal action could be considered but as a last resort and once all other avenues have been explored.

Secondly, just because Prague and East Midlands were OK at the time of the flight doesn't mean that everything runs smoothly and on time. Other airports were badly affected around those dates which has a knock on effect for all.

BFG_2

Good point...always go back to the party you bought from.