EasyJet flight EZY6007 from Bristol cancelled - compensation PAID!

SomersetJames

Hello all. This is an account of our easyJet cancellation at Bristol airport yesterday, which was due to take us to Faro in Portugal to enjoy ten days' holiday.

1. Our original flight booking for today (Sunday) was cancelled on Wednesday. We re-booked at no extra cost to fly yesterday instead.

2. Flight was due to depart at 17:30 yesterday. The Departures screens told us it was delayed, and then that we would hear more information later...so on and so forth until at 19:15, it was announced that it was cancelled, and that we should collect our baggage and go home.

3. Having collected our baggage, we joined the throng of angered holidaymakers crowded around an easyJet rep. He told us the plane had arrived two hours late from Edinburgh, and that the pilot had subsequently run out of hours to take us to Faro. He had declared himself tired, and easyJet couldn't find a replacement pilot. No flights were available until the end of next week, and so we should all go home and claim refunds.

4. Another easyJet rep handed me a letter outlining the policies regarding refunds and rebooking, as well as compensation. I overheard her telling one family they were entitled to 400 Euros each. When she approached me with the letter, I triple-checked with her that we were eligible to 400 Euros compensation, EACH, and she confirmed it each time.

5. Rang easyJet, they refunded then and there without question. When I mentioned the compensation, he said it was not an option. He said he didn't know where the easyJet rep at the airport got the information about the tired pilot because it was untrue. The "truth" was that Air Traffic Control had held them up for two hours, and they missed their scheduling. After some minutes' discussion he said that easyJet "isn't very professional"!

6. I rang Edinburgh airport to get an external assessment of the delay, the lady I spoke to was aware of no such blanket delays yesterday, but referred me back to easyJet for an in-depth account of the problems (bad idea, since the truth seemed to be a blur to them).

7. Rang Bristol airport for their take on events. Was told a member of Menzies Aviation staff would call me back once her meeting had ended. Surely enough, I received a call from "Amy" at Menzies Aviation. She opened our booking up, and it was entered on her screen, by easyJet, that the flight was cancelled because the First Officer had flown all his allocated hours that day, and chose not to go into his "discretion" hours, thereby rendering us aeroplane-less. As a result, this proved that our flight was NOT cancelled due to Air Traffic Control issues, and that easyJet DO owe us our 400 Euros each. She entered a comment on our booking, held on a computer-based system that cannot be deleted/edited by easyJet, and instructed me to call easyJet, talk to the manager, and present the case. In her professional opinion, they now have no grounds to refuse to pay out.

I hope some of the other passengers see my thread and take the same action. The lies and negligence are unacceptable, and it has ruined a long-awaited break for us. I will update as and when we get some results, apart from the refund of the cost of the flights, which has already been authorised.

James.

richardw

Have a read http://flightmole.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=14

SomersetJames

Hello Cityboy,

If you re-read the section of my thread you've quoted, I said that our original flight was booked for Sunday 25th July. That flight was cancelled by easyJet on Wednesday, so we booked a replacement flight which was due to depart at 17:30 on Sat 24th July. It was a little confusing because I used "today" and "yesterday" rather than dates.

I have just checked our original booking, and lo and behold, it has the same flight number as our replacement flight. That is to say, both Saturday's flight (which was cancelled) and Sunday's flight were assigned the flight number 6007. I checked easyJet's site on Saturday night when we got home, and through Sunday, and it was saying the flight that never left was still scheduled. This in turn meant there was no link provided to claim a refund.

I have just spoken to easyJet again, as instructed by Menzies Aviation, and this time, their system appears to be down and they can't locate our booking! I have been instructed to email them through the Help - FAQs steps on their site.

I asked the lady from Menzies Aviation if she would be able to put her findings and observations in an email to me, but she said that by commenting on the booking via their system, it could be referred to and not edited. I asked easyJet what their maximum time allowance was for a reply to be sent out to my email, and he replied that it's normally 3-4 days, but due to all the recent cancellations, that has been extended to 7 days. Hopefully that means that a lot of people are getting on their case and they will be realising that a lot of us won't allow them to treat us badly and shrug it off.

Thank you for your reply

SomersetJames

I am aware of flightstats claiming the flight flew - quite odd really, and not very helpful! Thankfully, easyJet and Menzies Aviation (ground handlers for easyJet flights at Bristol, or something to that effect) have confirmed that the flight never left.

Having spoken to easyJet a second time on the 'phone (not wanting to wait a week or more for a reply to an email) I made sure their system was up and running before asking questions regarding our flight, so they couldn't pull the "system is down" excuse. I had a bit of a battle with the girl on the 'phone, who kept telling me that because the delay, and subsequent cancellation was due to Air Traffic Control, it wasn't their fault, so no compensation was due. ANOTHER call to Menzies Aviation set this straight: She was angry that she had already had to speak to four other people in my position. Angry at easyJet for trying to pull a fast one. There was a hold-up, but no Air Traffic Control strikes/avoidable errors that had delayed our flight. EasyJet should've been able to accommodate the hold-up. She promised to speak to Bristol Airport's easyJet man once he was back from holiday (tomorrow), and instructed me to call easyJet once more mid-week, by which time there should be a note on their system to pay up.

As for the original cancellation, WE WERE NEVER CONTACTED, believe it or not! My partner only saw it had been cancelled when she went online five days before the flight to print off the details. No email was sent, no call was made, so we have no hard evidence. I'm not sure what the best plan of action will be here. It would certainly appear as though we are due compensation for BOTH cancellations, since the next available flight was 11 hours earlier than the !riginal flight we booked.

MandyPaul

We were booked on the same flight. It was actually Saturday 24th Jul not 25th as previously listed.

I can confirm we were advised the same as previously stated by the Easyjet staff (atually they are a 3rd party agent) who Easyjet use. The statement of 1st officer was tired, tried to find a replacement etc was the general theme for the cancellation. This was announced to over 100 people and within earshot of the local police, who had odviously been called just in case things got out of hand.

It was a horrible situation, angry adults many people crying including the lots of children. I felt sorry for the staff you were the front line for easyjet and were trying to clean up the mess. I doubt Easyjet pay them for the stress and grief they must get in their jobs.

To their credit the staff helped us find another flight to another destination, albeit in Gatrick early the next day. At least we managed to get away.

My concern is now, I have lost money on transfers, parking, the original accomodation I booked and a pricey new accomodation. This was softened at the time by the knowledge I would get the Compo, but Easyjet Customer Service have denied the responsibility was there's. They even charge you 10p per min to get put on hold for 30 mins, then tell us what they did.

I have now written to them, using some of the suggested legal jargon provided in the link somewhere in this thread. Just have to see what comes of it.

If we use this forum to keep in touch, keep on to them as a group, maybe they will see sense and do the right thing

jnm21

They did the same to us at Christmas - due to fly Liverpool - Belfast 28th Dec 19:30ish but the flight was cancelled due to fog! Now the point is that Liverpool opened at 2pm, they had a flight take off to belfast less than 1 hour before our flight & ryanair had a flight take off to belfast an hour after! Staff where useles sh*tes - wouldn't give us a phonecall/food vouchers, let alone a hotel/get us on the ryanair flight. The next morning (when we should have been in work) they were laughing about their website info being a day out of date!

Here is my theory - Everton were playing the 28th, 30+++ fans didn't get to liverpool (really) due to fog in the morning, so weren't there to be flown back, so our flight was half empty, so they didn't bother. Spent the night in the airport hotel (at my cost) watching planes take off & at least 1 easyjet plane parked there overnight - gutting.

Next day they cancelled the 1610 before 9am - due to not having a crew! We met an old lady with a long drive to do after the flight, who was due to be on the 1610, who was put on the 1930 - it didn't leave until after 2200! No easyjet plane arrived anywhere near the time that flight departed - go figure that if you can. They didn't even tell the woman the truth about why it was cancelled - one said see somone else & the other muttered so that she couldn't hear!

In short, hate easyjet, but know most airlines do it, so base choices on price still. Ryanair are for me the most reliable (and don't they love boasting about it - SELF PRAISE IS NO PRAISE IF YOU'RE READING O'LEARY!).

Money_Saviour

I have spoken to easyJet this morning after getting back from holiday and although they have refunded my flight costs, they will not pay any additional compensation as they say it was due to Air Traffic Control delays and they missed their slot which means I am out of pocket because alternative flights with BMIBaby from Cardiff were very expensive.

Easyjet told me that the airport logs the reason and not them so I have therefore logged a complaint with Bristol Airport asking them what reason was logged and why the Menzies staff assured all of us that compensation would be payable given that we were told it was cancelled due to the pilot being tired. I have also asked them why the police were in attendance so soon after cancellation and asked them to contact the Menzies staff for details of the events on 24th July or alternatively ask them to give me a call to clarify matters.

I will update this thread again when I get a reply.:mad:

SomersetJames

MandyPaul - Yes, our flight was cancelled on the 24th, the same as yours. Our original flight was due to depart on the 25th, as detailled in my original post, but they cancelled it without contacting us. The nearest available flight was Sat 24th, and thankfully we were able to re-jig our accommodation in Faro to suit the change.

I too felt sorry for the staff at the airport, caught up in the fracas that followed. I hope you get a quick response from easyJet. I'll update my progress at the bottom of this reply.

jnm21 - We'll try Ryanair next time then!

Money Saviour - You were due to fly to Faro on 24.7.10 too then? This game of tennis between easyJet and Menzies is wearing very thin, isn't it? I've now been instructed twice by Menzies to TELL easyJet they owe us the compensation, only for them to say it wasn't their fault. Yesterday saw me talking to Menzies once again, and they have told me to call back this afternoon if I haven't heard from them. It is wearing thin now. EasyJet's last response (once I spoke to a supervisor over the 'phone) was that they would want the instruction from Menzies in writing before they would consider paying out any compensation.

If this happens, I will update this thread ASAP, as it should entitle the whole lot of us (booked in on EZY6007 on 24.7.10) to the compensation we are due.

SomersetJames

Cityboy - Noted. I'll do what I can trying to nudge Menzies and easyJet into direct communication with ecah other, and if I have no success by the end of the month will look to take out a claim.

cactusdust

easyJet have an awful habit of blaming anyone but themselves, when in reality its down to their own staff shortages. I'd take it calm on Menzies though.. easyJet are obviously playing it.

Money_Saviour

Somerset James - Yes I was on the ill fated EZY6007 flight on the 24th July.

I have had a response back from Bristol Airport who have informed me that Menzies logged the reason code for the flight cancellation as "Operations Control" and not Air Traffic Control as Easyjet claimed when I spoke to them yesterday. I am seeking further clarification on what this means and will let you all know when I have further information.

I have also been promised that Menzies will investigate my comments and I have been told that Menzies general manager will contact me with a full explanation of what has happened. Again, I will update you again when I hear more.

I will not let Easyjet win and the more information we can gather together the better chance we all have of getting the compensation we deserve.