Flight delay and cancellation compensation, Easyjet ONLY

Eastbourne_Man

Could anyone comment on this situation please? We were delayed at Tenerife by nearly 8 hours on the 22-03-14. Easyjet seem to have got wise to compensation claim and gave groundstaff the same minimal information that we were given, "wind shear" was to blame. I am able to view on-line that plenty of other flights landed without issue around the time ours aborted the landing. We watched them too!

The aircraft proceeded to land a the North airport leaving us checked in at the south with no plane. We couldn't be sure when the plane was eventually flown to it's original planned destination, but we were then told the crew did not have enough hours to fly us home.

The scheduled departure was 12:05 which eventually got us away at 19:58. The pilot said they'd had to fly in from Luton to get us home. The original pilot was on our plane, but kept his headphones in all the time! As we arrived so late we had no option other than to spend nearly £100 on a taxi home.

I cannot understand why the aircraft did not "go around" for another attempt, and how close to the wire Easyjet crew run on flying hours. It can't take an aircraft very long to fly from the North to the south airport.

I feel we deserve the std compensation plus taxi, I'm sure Easyjet know more than they're letting on. I thanked the pilot for stepping in, and the look on the guy who should have done the job face was priceless.

JPears

Some aircraft types can only cope with a certain amount of crosswind before they exceed specification. I believe some aircrew may have a similar "specification limit" too.
However with a bit of homework, you should be able to find out your aircraft type and compare to others landing at the same time. If similar spec aircraft were landing then it is unlikely they can claim EC

Eastbourne_Man

Thanks for response, from flightdata.co.uk a whole host of A320's landed that day. I guess without access to EJ's internal doc it's going to be difficult to prove. Not sure if Spain has a site for flight data that would include aborted landings.

Eastbourne_Man

I guess my argument needs to be that there was a plane available to take us home but no crew to man it. Not sure if this data below was our plane arriving on that day. Does anyone know if generally the Gatwick>Tenerife flight returns to LGW?

(U2) easyJet 8703

(LGW) London, EN, GB to (TFS) Tenerife, CI, ES

Status:
Landed - Delayed 45 minutes

DEPARTURE ARRIVAL
Scheduled Departure: Scheduled Arrival:
7:00 AM - Sat Mar-22-2014 11:25 AM - Sat Mar-22-2014
Actual Departure: Actual Arrival:
7:24 AM - Sat Mar-22-2014 12:10 PM - Sat Mar-22-2014

JPears

Eastbourne_Man wrote: »

Thanks for response, from flightdata.co.uk a whole host of A320's landed that day. I guess without access to EJ's internal doc it's going to be difficult to prove. Not sure if Spain has a site for flight data that would include aborted landings.

Doesn't matter, if other A320's were landing then they should have been able to. If it was becasue of crew inexperience/limitation thats not EC either. EJ's operational choice not to have capable crew.

clippy_girl

hello all

i posted on the other thread but not sure if this is the best one?!

basically we had a 4hr 50 min delay coming back from Marrakesh in 2010.

The captain on the flight informed us the delay was due to the fact easyjet had only just acquired the plane and had resprayed it which had resulted in it being late leaving Ireland and arriving at LGW (to go onto Marrakech). it was a second hand plane, the interior still had the previous airlines logos on.

now i consider this to be totally their fault if they scheduled to use the plane before it was ready!

i wrote using the template letter and they replied (eventually) with-

'As per the report received from our disruption support team, the reason for your flight delay was extraordinary. In an extraordinary circumstance, the delay could not have been avoided even if all reasonable measures had been taken, including but not limited to Air traffic Control, Weather, Civil unrest, Terrorist alerts and Security alerts, Strike action and unexpected flight safety shortcomings.
Non-extraordinary circumstances include crew shortage, broken flight seats, broken, flight door, etc. These are circumstances which are avoidable.
Under European Union legislation airlines are not obliged to pay compensation if they can prove that the cancellation was caused by ‘extraordinary circumstances, which could not have been avoided, even if all reasonable measures had been taken’.
I appreciate your understanding in this matter.'

i have replied saying i dont agree with their reasons and

'In order for the reason to be extraordinary, it must be unpredictable, unavoidable and external.

I am struggling to see how you choosing to schedule a plane that you have only purchased the day before for a flight and choosing to spray paint it meets any of these 3 criteria?

Or are you suggesting the pilot lied to the 200 odd passengers on the plane about the reasons for the delay?'.

had put on other thread about going to caa next to get evidence and go to small claims but has been pointed out that caa are useless.

i feel a bit uneasy about starting small claim and proving on balance of probabilities it is their fault when i have no proof

as has been pointed out on other thread they have not been quick to tell me why it was delayed in their opinion!

David_e

clippy_girl wrote: »

i feel a bit uneasy about starting small claim and proving on balance of probabilities it is their fault when i have no proof

It's possible that the airline deliberately fails to give information to leave you in that position. You could have written asking them for a yes/no answer to the question whether the cause of the delay was as you had been told. That would at least have been of some assistance if the case does go to court - demonstrating their good (or bad) faith, etc..

Maybe you should speak to a no win no fee firm and see what they think.

clippy_girl

thanks a lot both for your help

basically i was so enraged i replied to them straight away stating-

"Thank you for response. However I do not accept your findings.

In order for the reason to be extraordinary, it must be unpredictable, unavoidable and external.

I am struggling to see how you choosing to schedule a plane that you have only purchased the day before for a flight and choosing to spray paint it meets any of these 3 criteria?

Or are you suggesting the pilot lied to the 200 odd passengers on the plane about the reasons for the delay?"

So unfortunately I have not marked it a NBA and it is a bit sarcastic

Im thinking though that I have asked them for a reason so if they reply with the same drivel i can move onto a notice before action.

If they do not respond to this or fob me off again i should start small claim court process.

so to clarify i start a claim as i have been delayed for nearly 5 hours and it is for them to defend the claim and 'prove' they are extraordinary circs?

I am more than happy to do small claim process but don't really have much knowledge of this area

if they are lying to people to get out of paying then i believe they are committing offences under s.2 fraud act and also committing offences under the consumer protection from unfair trading regulations for misleading consumers about their rights :mad:

clippy_girl

thanks a lot for your advice.

i will give them a week to get back to my latest email then will send a nba.

there are three of us so i will get it from the local county court and do it that way.

i have looked at the claim co's but they seem a total rip off ie if they settle before initiating court proceedings they still take at least 25% but if it goes to court then you need to instruct their solicitors!

i am happy to research the law in detail along with the cases and do it myself. just wanted to check the basics

i really cannot see how they can claim E/C as even if it the delay originally was genuinely due to E/C- that occurred in Dublin, delaying the plane to Gatwick and then delaying it arriving and departing in Marrakesh. The plane had not even left Gatwick to go to Marrakesh when we were scheduled to depart Marrakesh.

IMO when it was delayed leaving Dublin they could have arranged a plane to take the gatwick customers to Marrakesh in time and therefore take us back to gatwick in time but presumably chose not to

Vision25

Hello All

I've read through the guidance and thought I had the procedure and circumstances straight in my head, but I am slightly unsure now after receiving a standard reply email from easyjet - so I'm hoping that any sage experienced people could offer any guidance on whether to pursue a claim.

We are a family of four travelling home from Murcia on 6/6/14 to bristol. On checking in we where told the flight was delayed. When we got through to departures we found that bristol airport had a fire which delayed lots of flights leaving, but their departure boards also said some had gone and others arrived.

Flight was due to depart at 10.50, but we got away nearly 5 hours later. During that time we where given a voucher for food at Murcia airport. Also during this time at about 1.15pm it said the aircraft was on route but was stopping in alicante due to Murcia airport being closed, due to military emergency. I did notice during this that two commercial aircraft left, which was a Ryanair and jet2 (easyjet to gatwick).

With various thoughts and reading the instructions on flight delay I thought I had a good case for the 400 euro each compensation, however I received a circular email from easyjet yesterday apologising for the delay which was caused by an unexpected runway closure.

I'm still in the mind of applying but I'm just thinking of the number of people that would be affected as substantial numbers of flights where delayed from bristol not just with easyjet, but with other airlines.
Lastly I'm not sure which runway closure easyjet is citing - but on both airport circumstances flights where still landing and landing.

Any thoughts, or even advice on this before I do send a hopeful letter, please reply

Rich