How to get a refund from EasyJet for cancelled flights (not easy)

MartinSpoon

Hi all,

Wanted to share with you how I managed to submit a refund request from EasyJet - there's a lot of confusion around how you actually do it, but after some digging around I got the following steps to work. Doesn't mean I have my money back, but at least I've got a valid claim submitted!

Be warned, this is a complete pain in the a**.

A few key points;

A) EasyJet's help and refund system uses different usernames and passwords from its main site (e.g. making bookings). When I first went to use it, I had a 'partial' registration on record based on my email address - so I had to create a new username and password. I'm not sure if that 'partial' account comes from my main EasyJet account or something I tried on the site in the past but forgot about - either way, if in doubt, you can create a new account with a new email address. If you are recovering your account or logging in for the first time in a while, CHECK YOUR CONTACT INFORMATION IS UP TO DATE!!! Don't want them sending your refund to the wrong place!

I suspect some browser/cookie compatibility issues. I'm using Internet Explorer 8 on Windows 7, and could only get the form to display correctly when I turned on "InPrivate Filtering" from the Tools menu. If you're unfamiliar, this is a type of 'secret' browsing mode which stops cookies (information about your browsing) being saved to your computer. If you are not using Internet Explorer 8, you may not encounter this problem... I haven't tried it in Firefox or Chrome (which also has a private browsing mode), and I can't comment on Internet Explorer 6 or 7. (If any of you are using Internet Explorer 6, you really should upgrade anyway!!!)

Steps;

1) Enable InPrviate browsing mode on Internet Explorer 8

2) Go to: http://easyjet.custhelp.com/app/utils/login_form/redirect/ask/kw/%22Flight%20Cancellations%20due%20to%20volcano%22/r_id/166/sno/2

3) Either Login, create your account, or use account assistance to recover a previously created account.

It can be a little confusing as if you have tried to use the system, you may already be logged in without realising.

4) Go back to the URL above, login (if required), and click the 'email us' button near the top.

5) You'll see a form with a space for your email address, and a drop down to choose the issue you want to email about. For some reason, if it's already on "My flight was cancelled..." the form doesn't appear correctly! So, put in your email address, change the dropdown menu to "All", and then change it immedietly back to "My flight was cancelled..."

6) You can now fill in the form - you'll need the flight number, date, and booking reference (that's the 7-letter-long reference you get when you book). The help box says you should include EZ when you enter the flight number (e.g. EZ702)

7) If you have any additional claims (hotel, food etc) you can also do that here (I didn't).

8) This last bit's a pain - they want you to attach a copy of your receipt, and that includes a copy of the confirmation email you received from EasyJet when you booked your flight;

"Please note – you will be asked to attach receipts before you submit the form – if you are only claiming the cost of your cancelled flight please attach a scanned copy of your flight confirmation e-mail."

I don't know if they'll accept the email being attached in .html or .msg format (i.e. if you 'save as' the email and choose that format). Depending on your computer skill level, you can either print it out, scan it in, and attach the scan to the form(!), or if you know how to 'print to file' (e.g. to a PDF), you can try that. You could also try coping the contents of the email into a word document (I have Word 2007), and then 'save as' or 'export' to .PDF format (this is what I've done).

9) You should now be able to submit! But... if you had TWO flights booked (e.g. an outbound and a return) then you need to go and do this AGAIN for the second flight. If you booked both on the same reference number, you can use the same flight confirmation receipt/copy you attached to the first claim, since it containts information on both flights.


All being well, you should get an email to say they've received your claim. Phew!!!!

Greenlight77

Thanks MartinSpoon, that was useful. What a longwinded process! After getting timed out a couple of times I managed to submit the form with my attachments. I've got an automatic email in repsonse saying "my question" has been received. Is that what you got? I wonder how long they will take to respond to claims.

MartinSpoon

Greenlight77 wrote: »

Thanks MartinSpoon, that was useful. What a longwinded process! After getting timed out a couple of times I managed to submit the form with my attachments. I've got an automatic email in repsonse saying "my question" has been received. Is that what you got? I wonder how long they will take to respond to claims.

Yes, I got an email starting "Your question has been received" for each of my claims, plus two more from failed attempts to make the form work!

A few days later, I also received another (single) email from them saying;

We are aware that you have requested some assistance from our customer services team at easyJet.

From our records, we have seen that we have not yet responded to your request and this is significantly below our usual next day standard.

We sincerely apologise for the delay.

I guess we wait and see :whistle:

kindofaverage

what I don't understand is why you have to attach receipts for your flights. They know you had booked the flight!!!
what can we claim for -
is it just the return flight?
also, will they pay out for our alterantive travel arrangements back to the uk?

Finally - how do we attach receipts - is it by scanning them in??
cheers!!!

Greenlight77

kindofaverage wrote: »

what I don't understand is why you have to attach receipts for your flights. They know you had booked the flight!!!

The cynic in me says that they're making it deliberately difficult so as to put some people off claiming. It seems ridiculous that you have to print off your booking confirmation and then scan it back in to attach it

[QUOTE= what can we claim for -
is it just the return flight?
also, will they pay out for our alterantive travel arrangements back to the uk? [/QUOTE]

It's not clearcut, the front page of MSE says this:-
Some weary travellers who cannot stomach waiting days or sometimes weeks for a return flight have taken matters into their own hands and used other means to get home. Often, this means paying more.
Technically, airlines do not have to cover those costs, according to Abta. However, some may offer refunds or some money towards your costs on a case-by-case basis.
So contact your airline to ask. If unsuccessful, try your travel insurer. Again, many will not offer refunds under their terms and conditions but there is no harm trying as this is an unprecedented event.

Personally our return costs were actually a bit cheaper than the return flight hence I haven't mentioned them in our claim although a 20 hour coach journey from Madrid to Calais with kids is not to be recommended!

[QUOTE=Finally - how do we attach receipts - is it by scanning them in??
cheers!!! [/QUOTE]

Yes, that's what I did, took a while though.

kindofaverage

thanks greenlight77!!! (enjoyed your cynisism). The only reason we had to find alternative means to the uk was because easyjet blocked the 'free transfer' seats for the fare paying new customers. when you are at an internet cafe and trying to rebook with easyjet - it gets a tad maddening.
I'l never travel with them again - we were totally stranded - with no help for taxis or hotels etc.

kindofaverage

sorry if this has been asked - but have just arrived back and need to speak to this easjet asap but by phone. any low cost phone numbers for easy jet pleaseee

busiscoming2

Our flight was re scheduled, so have only submitted a claim for the extra days food etc. I found it very easy to do (maybe I was just lucky, or because it was only for expenses). I just scanned in my receipts on 2 pages and attached them.

HTH's.

buglawton

As a result of the faffing with my Easyjet and Ryanair refund I decided to have nothing to do with cheap flights for a while. So booked the same trip by rail with Deutsche Bahn instead of looking for cheap flights this time.

Especially noticeable was the lack of proper crisp clear acknowledgement email from their computer telling me that my refund for booking xxxx was in progress. So I re-did the process, saving screen prints of each step, as evidence of my refund claim.

Will be looking out for signs of reform in Easyjet's (and Ryanair's) behaviour for future decision making about travel methods.

linzhead

I have just managed to get through to a real live easyjet person on this number 0870 600 0000

She was very pleasant and processed my request for a refund on my cancelled flight (and unuseable return leg) in about 5 mins. Took about 5 mins of holding before she picked up, but a WHOLE lot simpler than the stupid website system and definitely worth a go for anyone still trying!

Refunded the full amount to my mastercard, funds will clear in 5-10 days. (Nice how they leave it instantly when you pay them though eh?)

I'd actually managed to get the web form submitted but that was a week ago and still hadnt heard anything - would def recommend giving the number a try even if you've submitted the stupid form.

BampaOwl

All this is very helpful. But has anyone suffered the problem I had? I had a reurn booking, EDI-STN-EDI. The outward leg was cancelled because of Ash. But then I wanted to amend the return leg - the system would not let me do this without ALSO amending the outward leg, to a future date for a flight out of the "cancellation zone".

So now I am going to have all sorts of fun and games trying to reclaim the outward leg. And of course tehre is no free-text facility on the form to explain things. I may have to phone that nice lady.

[Fortunately I have Software995's free PDF995, which helped with the attaching-receipt bit.]