Flight delay and cancellation compensation, Easyjet ONLY

wakemansof8

Will definitely do tonight when son gets back from work. Would you post email? Would be incredibly helpful. Good news about the 250 plus flight, our son is an apprentice and this bloomin weekend cost him everything he'd saved up.
I'll let you know tomorrow how we get on
Thanks

TBIRD

It's so awful isn't it?! Good luck with your claim, I'll definitely post any updates I get - this is a copy of what I sent - obviously just amend the expenses to suit your son's and attach files as necessary!
*********************************
EasyJet flight No. EZY8327

Dear Sir/Madam,
I am writing to you in connection with the above flight which I was booked on to depart 10th October 2014 from London Gatwick to Paris (CDG).
The flight was scheduled to depart at 20:30 but was cancelled.
At 12:30 am on 11th October we were involuntarily denied boarding 4 hours after our scheduled departure time. Under EU Denied Boarding Regulation 261/2004 and your “Rights During a Disruption” brochure, we are entitled to €250 per passenger for flights of 1500 km or less.

You may not reduce our compensation by 50% because we were not re-routed or offered an alternative flight to arrive at our final destination within 2 hours of our original flight arrival time.

In a text received at 12:30 am October 11th, you state:
“We're very sorry, due to adverse weather conditions in London Gatwick this evening your original operating crew have reached their maximum amount of flying hours. As a result your flight has been cancelled.”

I'd like to draw your attention to a copy of yesterday's weather report for Crawley, which details little more than passing showers yesterday in the Gatwick area (attached).

This coupled with the fact that every other flight to Europe departed from Gatwick that night provide little grounds for extraordinary weather circumstances. There was no indication whatsoever that our flight was cancelled due to grounds of health, safety or inadequate travel documentation. Furthermore, Easyjet's own words in the above text stipulate that the delay was caused by a lack of available operating crew – a situation in which any airline ought to have a contingency plan in place (i.e.: “all reasonable measures had been taken”).

I quote Regulation 261/2004 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 11 February 2004 Establishing common rules on compensation and assistance to passengers in the event of denied boarding and of cancellation or long delay of flights, and repealing Regulation (EEC) No 295/91:
“(12) The trouble and inconvenience to passengers caused by cancellation of flights should also be reduced. This should be achieved by inducing carriers to inform passengers of cancellations before the scheduled time of departure and in addition to offer them reasonable re-routing, so that the passengers can make other arrangements. Air carriers should compensate passengers if they fail to do this, except when the cancellation occurs in extraordinary circumstances which could not have been avoided even if all reasonable measures had been taken.”

This clearly was not the case.

The Regulations continue to state:
“3. If boarding is denied to passengers against their will, the operating air carrier shall immediately compensate them in accordance with Article 7 and assist them in accordance with Articles 8 and 9.”
Article 7 states that we as passengers of your airline are entitled to a right to compensation of “(a) EUR 250 for all flights of 1500 kilometres or less” which we fully request.

We have requested reimbursement for our entire outbound and return journey as set out in Article 8 of the Regulations; however, you did make full mockery of our Right to Care as set out in Article 9 of the Regulations, which state “passengers shall be offered free of charge:

(a) meals and refreshments in a reasonable relation to the waiting time;
(b) hotel accommodation in cases
(c) transport between the airport and place of accommodation (hotel or other).

We were not offered any meals or refreshments for the duration of our 7 hours in the airport. We were unable to make a reasonable journey back into London at 1am, so opted for an overnight stay at the hotel offered. However, upon finding out that our transport to/from the hotel would not be covered by Easyjet (and that the cost of a taxi was £14 per person and not £3 per person as the Easyjet representative had clearly told numerous passengers) we decided it was best for us to wait for the earliest train back to London from Gatwick and just return home.

Our total time in Gatwick airport due to this ordeal was 7 ½ hours.
Our total expenditure on travel to/from Gatwick was £22 plus £19.90 for our tickets home Saturday morning, equalling £41.90 (Booking confirmation and receipts attached).

I shall not discuss in depth the sheer and utter absence of customer service we experienced last night but shall say that after 5 hours of waiting at an empty information desk, we were met with a single Easyjet representative whose only response to whether our flight was to be cancelled was that she “didn't know anything”. A subsequent member of Easyjet staff reported that we would be entitled to 300€ compensation on top of the full flight refund. This is more than your stated 250€ policy but as it was confirmed in person by a member of Easyjet staff we would like to accept this offer. I have a recording of our conversation if you require it.

Because you shirked your duty of care and ruined not only our Friday evening but our plans to spend the weekend in Paris with family, we wholly request reimbursement for the above travel expenditures of £41.90 and 300€ as stated by a member of your Easyjet staff and as supported by the EU Denied Boarding Regulations.
We look forward to receiving the sterling equivalent within the next 14 days.
Sincerely,

TBIRD

and to clarify, i attached the following documents with the above claim:
- our boarding passes with booking ref
- copies of our return train tix to/from gatwick had we flown
- copies of our 2:00am gatwick tix to get home saturday AM
- weather report for 10/10/14

best of luck!!

wakemansof8

Thank you TBird. Youre a star! Will post updates as and when they happen

Caz3121

TBIRD wrote: »

The flight was scheduled to depart at 20:30 but was cancelled.
At 12:30 am on 11th October we were involuntarily denied boarding 4 hours after our scheduled departure time.

I think you have misunderstood "involuntary denied boarding" this applies where you have a confirmed booking for a flight, the flight operates but you are not permitted to travel eg in the case of overbooking and all seats taken so the flight departs but without you on board
You cannot be denied boarding on a cancelled flight, you are claiming EU compensation for a cancelled flight, denied boarding has not occurred here

lottie_123

I have had cheques from easyjet of €400 each I wanted it going straight into my account but didn't get a choice. Can they pay me in £ ? And can it go straight into my account? And have I been paid out the right amount. It was a 14 hr delay from turkey dalaman to Manchester. HELP PLEASE

TBIRD

update on paris flight EZY 8327 from LGW:

easyjet has replied via FB claiming weather as extraordinary circumstances and is attempting to deny claim. I called their bluff with the text/email they sent that related the impact to crews being out of hours which is on the list of EC's published "not extraordinary" list and gave them a bit of my mind in regards to their lack of fulfilling their duty of care IE stranding a plane full of passengers in the departure lounge without any offer of refreshment or any communication whatsoever.

also requested proof of the big 3:" unpredictable/unavoidable/external" (pdf link via CAA website. would post here but not allowed cause i'm new!) If they fail to provide the above I'll be taking it up with the CAA.

In the meantime, please check out easyjet's FB page - I'll be publishing my correspondences with them as/when I get them.

Vauban

Why would you take it up with the CAA? And why are you using a list of extraordinary circumstances that has no basis in law? Both of these things are likely to damage the chance of a successful claim.

TBIRD

I'm taking it up with the CAA because there was no adverse weather over Gatwick the day of our flight. Easyjet's classification is a blatant lie used as a blanket answer to shirk their responsibilities to passengers for compensation. It's passive intimidation and I'm not having any of it.

111KAB

TBIRD wrote: »

I'm taking it up with the CAA because there was no adverse weather over Gatwick the day of our flight. Easyjet's classification is a blatant lie used as a blanket answer to shirk their responsibilities to passengers for compensation. It's passive intimidation and I'm not having any of it.

As repeated on numerous occasions the recommendation of this forum is not to involve the CAA as it may be detrimental to your case. Just a reminder that easyJet contribute a significant amount to assist in the running of the CAA.