lapland trip ruined - am I entitled to compensation?

libbyc3

will try and keep this short!
we took my mum and 2 youngest on a once in a lifetime trip to lapland just before xmas - booked through espirit.
on arrival at 4am at gatwick on the 18th dec, we were told all easyjet (yes easyjet!) flights were cancelled due to the weather so they were busing us to luton to leave at 9am.
arrived at luton - shepherded to boarding room - waited for 1 1/2 hours to be told plane had been overfueled, we would have to fly later. shepherded back to departure lounge - by this time it was 11am.
told flight would be at 12.30pm, then 1.30pm, then 2.30pm. at 3pm the snow came!!!! Luton closed.
as all our cars were at gatwick - we were then stranded!
after being directed to get our luggage back, we were told we would get hotel rooms by the ground crew of easyjet (I should add there was no rep from Espirit at Luton). time went on and at 8pm we were taken to a disused conference room, the kids were given a blanket each - not the adults, and a £6 voucher for food and drink. this is where we spent the night - no mattress, no blankets, no heat, etc,etc.
told to report back at check in at 6.15am, flight to be at 9am.
then 10am, then 11am - shepherded to boarding room again. 2 hours in there, shepherded on to the plane, 1 hour on tarmac before take off at 2pm - the excuse this time was they couldn't find a crew for us as we were not on the system!
I've tried to cut a very long story short, but the upshot is that a VERY expensive once in a lifetime magical holiday was completely ruined. although we did get there (and the big man is real!) we were all so tired and stress and angry it really took the shine out of the whole trip. we paid a premuim to go with espirit and they used easyjet - who couldn't get the fuel levels right! then espirit abandoned us with nothing at the airport.
i know the snow came - but not at luton until 6 hours after we were due to fly from there. can they still use the snow as an excuse?
if anyone has got to the end of this epic - do you think I have a case for compensation?

nearlyrich

If you had access to the tv whilst you were waiting at the airport you would have seen that almost every airport had problems with snow if they had managed business as usual there may have been a threat to your safety is that a risk that you were willing to take?

Appreciate it's disappointing but at least you did get to Lapland what are your holiday compant offering?

ellay864

Have you contacted espirit to see what they'll offer you? Or your holiday insurance? You'll probably be entitled to something for the delay but you did get a holiday and they won't compensate for your feeling angry and tired once you're there...I've felt like that on several holidays after kids and/or OH whinging lol

libbyc3

thanks for the replies - espirit is saying it was the weather - however, once we arrived at luton, the initial flight delay was due to the plane being overfueled - the snow did not arrive for another 6 hours. then the next day the delays were due to easyjet not being able to find a crew as we were not a scheduled flight - but an extra add on due to the day before.
if it were just the weather i could accept it, but i resally feel it was due to avoidable !!!! ups by easyjet. and apart from that our treatment at the airport and complete abandonment by espirit was unacceptable (there was even a lady in a wheelchair all night in the conference room and she wasn't given a blanket either)
i know i sound like i'm whinging, but we paid sooo much money, lost a third of our 2 night trip, and and it is a trip that could never be repeated (you only see santa once?!)

dmg24

Could you not have gone and got yourself a hotel?

ferf1223

libbyc3 wrote: »

if it were just the weather i could accept it, but i resally feel it was due to avoidable !!!! ups by easyjet.

If I understand correctly, you were only at Luton due to snow at Gatwick, is that right? So the weather is the root of all of this...I know it's frustrating, but it's just unfortunate that the initial delay at Luton wasn't weather related - it could have been anything though - things happen, the world's an imperfect place...flights get delayed all the time due to technical reasons, unfortunate when the pushes timing into more snow.

Ponkle22

No, I don't think snow played a part until later in the saga. I read his first post that he was moved to Luton for other reasons and then snow came later on and further confused things. The orginial posters is not complaining about snow and its problems with travel at all.

Westin

No, I don't think snow played a part until later in the saga. I read his first post that he was moved to Luton for other reasons and then snow came later on and further confused things. The orginial posters is not complaining about snow and its problems with travel at all.

I think ferf1223 has it right. The problem did start because of the weather at Gatwick. The airport was closed and they moved people to LTN to try and operate the flight from there.

A horrid experience but I think just really unfortunate with the weather (at LGW). When you found out it was going to be a delay overnight at Luton why did you not just tell Espirit that you wanted to cancel and have your money back?

System

libbyc3 wrote: »

the initial flight delay was due to the plane being overfueled

As this flight was extra to their schedules then the aircraft had probably been fuelled ready for it's planned flight and then diverted to the Lapland flight. After calculation they have found that there was too much fuel on board (It would either result in over weight take off or possibly having too much fuel to land at the other end) and they probably won't defuel at an airport.

In other words, Easyjet had one aircraft that could possibly do the run but consequently found that it couldn't

soolin

I flew out of Gatwick on the 18th at 8.35am however luckily I was on Monarch but the day before we flew we checked the Gatwick site and they were warning that all easyjet flights were cancelled. We were the last flight out but we assumed that easyjet had cancelled so far in advance as they had their planes in the wrong place and posisbly already affected by the snow.

We saw all the santa flights as the lounge was full of children wearing reindeer hats and being guided round by elves and we did wonder if any flights apart from Easyjet did get out.

There would be no harm at all in looking for compensation especially as other flights were going after your scheduled flight was cancelled but i'm sure they will just say that each airline has its own rules regarding flying.

ferf1223

libbyc3 wrote: »

on arrival at 4am at gatwick on the 18th dec, we were told all easyjet (yes easyjet!) flights were cancelled due to the weather so they were busing us to luton to leave at 9am.

I think that's pretty clear cut - they were only in Luton because of weather conditions at Gatwick...so ultimately, the start of it all was weather related.

!!!!!! - thank you for explaining that - I wondered if the over-fueling might have to do with additional passengers or change of route, but don't really know how that all works...