Flight delay and cancellation compensation, Easyjet ONLY

amandac3189

Thank you :-) It was a technical fault with the plane... so let the battle commence when they tell me it was an extreme circumstance!

amandac3189

Is there anyway of sending them something to say a technical fault is not extraordinary in the original letter to save time? Legal info i can send with the letter?

Thanks for peoples help!!!

amandac3189

Thank you. Have written the letter stating a technical fault is not an extraordinary circumstance. Wish me luck! :-)

ShazzieGee

paul_76 wrote: »

Hi,

I am after some guidance please on a claim we are trying to make against Easyjet, which they have so far dismissed.

My family and I were delayed by 24 hours on a flight from Malta to Gatwick in 2010, which was initially caused by a fault to the plane. The plane was fixed after several hours but by then the crew were outside of their flying hours and were unable to fly us back. As a replacement crew was not available, we were put in a hotel overnight. We flew back the next day – presumably on the same plane (although we now had a different flight number).

We contacted them about compensation at the time, but they rejected this on the basis that the delay was caused by a technical problem which was beyond their control. After reading about the recent EU ruling, we thought we would have another go and recently sent of a letter using the MSE template. This is the response we received yesterday…..

“Thank you for writing to us.

A letter has been received dated 19 February 2013.

I am sorry to learn of the delay to your flight. We strive to provide a timely and efficient service for all of our cherished passengers. Please note that it not our intention in any way to cause stress or burden to their personal schedules. We our best to minimize disruption periods. However due to unforeseen circumstances, achieving a timely departure and arrival is not always possible.

Your flight EZY 8824 on March 22 2010 from Luqa Airport, Malta to London Gatwick Airport was delayed due to a serious technical emergency, requiring our immediate attention. As this instance was beyond our reasonable measure of control, I will not be able to process an EU Compensation. Be assured that we will strive to be punctual in our services, bearing in mind the safety and well being as well as the personal schedules of our customers.

Wish you pleasant journeys ahead.

Yours sincerely

Aris
easyJet Customer Services”


It’s much the same response as we had first time around, but they have again ignored the fact that they could not provide a crew to fly us home when the plane was fixed, which caused the bulk of the delay to our flight.

Is this worth pursuing further?

Thanks
Paul

Paul, if you read this can you let me know how your claim is going, I am putting in a claim for the same flight and have been advised by easyjet to claim via Directline holidays as it was booked as part of a package - I will not bother to claim if there is no chance of getting compensation. TY

ShazzieGee

Paul, if you read this can you let me know how your claim is going, I am putting in a claim for the same flight and have been advised by easyjet to claim via Directline holidays as it was booked as part of a package - I will not bother to claim if there is no chance of getting compensation. TY

Bossworld

Did everything via email in Feb for a flight taken Feb 2010. Finally received a verdict today - €400 compensation each for a 7 1/2 hour delay, distance ~1507km.

Card has expired but posts above have put my mind at ease so will reply back advising them of a new card.

clayton79

I just wanted to canvas opinion on whether my offer of compensation from easyjet is fair before I accept.... Although what I will say is they have turned my claim round in approx 10 days!!!

On 13th Sept 2008 we were delayed leaving manchester for Tenerife by an hour.

Once in the air and two hours into the flight we were told problem with air craft and needed to turn round as no team to fix at Tenerife airport.

Plane returned to gatwick where we were told we would board another flight and continue our journey but no we were sent to a nearby hotel after much waiting and told we would be picked up around 430am the following morning.

The upshot is we should have arrived in Tenerife around 8pm on the 13th Sept and instead arrived approx midday on the 14th.

I've been offered €400 today should I accept?

clayton79

amandac3189 wrote: »

Hi All

I was delayed for 5 hours on Saturday. In order to claim can you send Easyjet an email or do you have to send it in writing?

Thanks

I sent an emil and had offer back within ten days,

clayton79

It is yes!! Only me on this booking.

Morsicatio_2

Hello - I have been posting updates to my letter chain between easyJet and myself on one of the earlier pages, but not sure it is reaching the active community. With apologies, then, I am re-posting the full (and complete?) letter chain between easyJet and myself.

Easyjet Compensation: Liverpool, JLA to Portugal, Faro Airport, 27/06/2012 Hello Everyone

I am new around here, but have been a reader for a good while. The information here is very useful, congrats to everyone who contributes and keeps everything in order.

I have an easyJet claim I am at loggerheads with, really. I have read through much of this thread, but everyone else has individual factors in their claims that makes it difficult to know what to do next.

Let me begin at the start, which is usually a great place to start, unless you're watching memento, in which case, starting in the first place is a dubious proposition. Alas, I digress!

1. My partner and I were scheduled to fly with Easyjet from Liverpool, JLA to Portugal, Faro Airport, 27/06/2012. This was scheduled to leave 09:35. The flight arrived 187 minutes late at Faro Airport, Portugal. The scheduled flight length was c.1850km, therefore I have sought compensation for €400 per delayed passenger in my party. The total being €800 for all passengers.

Paraphrasing, the above was my first contact with easyJet. Following this, they responded with this:

2. "We are writing to say how sorry we are for the delay of your flight on 27/06/2012 to FAO airport. Regrettably this was caused by an unforeseen problem with the systems in the airport terminal and this affected the schedule of the aircraft planned to operate your flight. We recognise the significant inconvenience that this will have caused you and would like to assure you that we strive hard to provide the best possible service to all of our customers and hope that you will give us another chance in the future.

Yours sincerely

easyJet Customer Services"

I responded saying their response was not sufficient, and did not address the initial problem.
I am not too sure what I said in the response because it was via their online complaint, and only their reply is sent back via email. The reply was as follows:

3. I am very sorry to hear that your flight was delayed. We work hard to provide you with a punctual and efficient service and make every effort to minimise flight disruption so that we can get you to your final destination as quickly as possible. I understand that the delay you suffered was inconvenient for you and you were not able to reach your hotel on time.

As you will remember from our Terms and Conditions, when your flight is delayed for more than one hour beyond its scheduled departure time, if you do not wish to travel on the delayed flight you can choose a free re-route on the next available easyJet flight or you can cancel your seat and receive a credit for future flights with us. I understand that you chose to travel on the delayed flight. For this reason, I'm afraid we cannot offer you any compensation. You may be able to claim back the costs of any additional expenses as a result of this delay through your travel insurance. For more information on your rights, please click on the following link:

LINK REMOVED

I recognise that you feel that the amount of voucher is not sufficient. The vouchers given to passengers are for refreshments and according to EU regulations.

Thank you for taking the time to get in contact with me and let me apologise again for the inconvenience. I understand how disturbing it must have been for you.

Regards,

Chandra Bhushan
easyJet Customer Services

Interestingly, no one actually vocalised that a free re-route on the next available easyJet flight or cancellation for credit was a possibility at the time of the delay. This is probably due to my ignorance of the ToS, but surely they should have vocalised these options when we asked what we could do at the time?

Next, the online templates became available for making claims for delayed flights, so I simply put the above delayed flight details into the template and re-submitted to easyJet. The response:

4. I am very sorry to hear that your flight was delayed.

In order to assess your claim please send me the scanned copy of consent letter duly signed from the other passenger. You can find the document in the attachment.

I await your response.

Regards,

Chandra Bhushan
easyJet Customer Services

He didn't attach the form, so I replied:

5. Thank you for your response. Your colleague Chandra Bhushan has failed to attach said document so I am unable to forward this to the other passenger present within this particular booking. Please kindly forward this to myself at your earliest convenience.

Yours faithfully,

The form arrived. I filled it out and re-submitted.

They replied:

6. Thank you for contacting us again.

After checking our records, I can see that your flight was delayed by 3 hours 11 minutes due to complete electric failure at the terminal. The reason for the delay was classed under European Law as an 'extraordinary circumstance' which was outside airline's reasonable control. For this reason, I'm afraid I cannot offer you any compensation. I apologise again for the inconvenience caused as I understand how inconvenient it must have been for you.

I regret I am unable to assist you with this concern further as we are unable to provide compensation for the delayed flights which are delayed due to extraordinary circumstances. If you have any other concerns, please write to me and I will be pleased to assist you.

Regards,

Nidhi
easyJet Customer Services

So I responded:

7. As you are well aware, the reason for delay, as we were informed at the time of the delayed departure, was due to insufficient cabin staff. This was the information that was provided by easyJet personnel on the ground, and if it were not true, I deem this an act of disinformation, for which additional compensation should be due.

Given you have now changed tact with the reasons for delayed departure, and sight the clause which details 'extraordinary circumstances', you will also be acutely aware that this clause is open to interpretation and is extremely obtuse in its definition of 'extraordinary circumstances.'

Electrical failure is in the remit of engineers to rectify, whom you should employ to avoid such eventualities, if this was indeed the reason. This is hardly an extraordinary circumstance. The previous reason of insufficient cabin staff seems to have then been a falsification, for which additional compensation is now due.

If your following correspondence does not agree with this, may I ask you provide a deadlock letter, which I am able to present to the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA), the European Consumer Centre (ECC) and, if needs be, to a judicial court for suitable resolution.

Yours sincerely

Their response:

8. I appreciate that you may seek the advice of the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA), the European Consumer Centre (ECC).

As I have mentioned in my previous response, your flight was delayed due to complete electric failure at the terminal. This resulted in shortage of crew. The primary reason for the delay was 'electric failure' which means your flight was delayed due to 'extraordinary circumstance' as this was outside our reasonable control.

European Commission guidelines say that if a flight has been cancelled or delayed because of 'extraordinary circumstance' or something beyond airline's reasonable control, passenger is not entitled for compensation.

After reaccessing your claim, our decision is final that we cannot offer you any compensation and we are unable to assist you with this matter further.

Regards,

Nidhi
easyJet Customer Services

At this point, I contacted the CAA, who advised the use of their template to be sent to easyJet. CAA also advised, should settlement not be forthcoming, to contact them once I had sent easyJet the CAA template. This I did. As ever, easyJet responded:

9. Thank you for sending us your query.

Once again I am very sorry that your recent flight was delayed. We work hard to provide you with a punctual and efficient service and every effort is made to minimise flight disruption so that we can get you to your final destination as quickly as possible. I understand that the delay you suffered was frustrating and inconvenient for you.

As you will remember from our Terms and Conditions, when your flight is delayed for more than one hour beyond its scheduled departure time, if you do not wish to travel on the delayed flight you can choose a free re-route on the next available easyJet flight or you can cancel your seat and receive a credit for future flights with us.

According to European Law (EC Regulation 261/2004), you may be entitled to compensation if your flight was cancelled or you were not allowed to board your flight. Compensation does not apply to delays, as was the case with your flight.

You mentioned the preliminary ruling (Sturgeon v Condor & Böck v Air France SA) which was only heard by the Fourth Chamber of the ECJ. In our view this preliminary ruling has only served to confuse an otherwise clear piece of legislation. Furthermore, a preliminary ruling is not afforded the status of binding authority on anything other than the case to which it refers. We are currently seeking to clarify this issue through the courts.

In addition, even if the Sturgeon ruling was upheld, the reason for the delay was due to complete Electric Failure in terminal, this resulted in crew being out of hours for which, as this is classed under European Law as an 'extraordinary circumstance' outside our reasonable control, means that for all these reasons, I'm afraid we cannot offer you any compensation. I apologise again for the inconvenience caused and I understand how frustrating it must have been for you.

Yours sincerely

Alrinda Dcosta
easyJet Customer Services

So the story sits, for the time being! Sorry about posting a saga right there, but wanted to give a complete background.

For now, I have re-contacted CAA with the response (9) from easyJet. They have yet to contact me regarding what a next step may be, but I thought someone here may be able to advise me on where I could go from here? They haven't actually proved the electrical failure at the terminal, and other flights were leaving from the same terminal. This flies in the face of what they were saying - no apologies, pun intentional. Also, their story has changed from the initial response (1) and from what we were told on the ground.

The original complaint was logged early December, 2012, so it has now been a fair few months. Any advice anyone has, will be much appreciated.

Cheers
:beer:

Following advice from Mark2spark, the following correspondance has been sent by myself on 18/02/13:

10. Dear Sir/Madam


As you are aware, it is your obligation to provide documentary evidence that conclusively demonstrates the reason for the delay. I shall require such documentation to corroborate your story, and the given reason for the delay.

Further, I would like to enquire how it may be possible that given "complete electrical failure" at the terminal, other flights were able to leave unimpeded - as I was able to witness on the day? Further, why could an arrangement to move departure gates, prior to the elapsed time delay, not have been achievable? This seems like a reasonable solution to an otherwise avoidable problem, and far from what is deemed to be an "extenuating circumstance."

I look forward to your response

I shall update with a response from easyJet when they reply...

Well, update, 15/04/13, sorry I haven't visited in a while! Glad to see loads of people getting pay outs - this thread is chokka full of useful information. This has kind of taken a back burner, but easyJet replied with following:

11. Thank you for sending us your query.

I did confirm that the reason for the delay was due to complete Electric Failure in terminal, this resulted in crew being out of hours for which, as this is classed under European Law as an 'extraordinary circumstance' outside our reasonable control, means that for all these reasons.

As you do require documentary evidence that states the reason for delay, we would request you to contact the Civil Aviation Authority.

I replied:


12. Dear Sir/Madam

As you are aware, the obligation to provide documentary evidence for purposes relating to a delay relies upon the airline. As such, I would kindly, once again request, that documentary evidence be supplied.

Again, I await their response. Any advice on where to go from here would be great. Shall I contact the CAA with the request they mention, or shall I wait till they refuse to provide any evidence? I just want to exhaust any measure prior to LBA if I can, though it looks like it is heading in that direction... They responded with the below chain:

13.
Thank you for your reply.

On behalf of easyJet, I would like to extend my personal apology for the inconvenience you experienced as a result of the delay of Flight EZY7193 on 27th June, 2013.

In light of the current state of the economy, and in today’s competitive airline industry, travelers expect the best value for their travel dollar. easyJet strives to provide this value through a mix of safety, on-time performance, courteous and professional service, and a wide range of destination options. We want to make travel on us a convenient and trouble-free experience for our valuable passengers and I am truly sorry we failed to do so on this occasion.

In order to get a require documentary evidence stating the reason for delay, we would request you to contact the Civil Aviation Authority.

It is our goal to provide exceptional service on every occasion, and I hope you will provide us with an opportunity to restore your confidence. Your support is important to easyJet. We look forward to your continued patronage and the privilege of serving your air travel needs again soon.

14.Dear Sir/Madam


As I have now requested that you provide documentary evidence on two occasions, and you have failed to do this, could you please confirm in writing that you have:

1). Declined to provide documentary evidence and
2). Advise that it is not your obligation, contrary to current law.

This will assist me in taking the claim further. Many thanks for your time in advance.

15. Thank you for your reply.

I did confirm that the reason for the delay was due to complete Electric Failure in terminal, this resulted in crew being out of hours for which, as this is classed under European Law as an 'extraordinary circumstance' i.e. outside our reasonable control.

According to EU regulation and easyJet policy I am unable to comply with your compensation request. As you do require documentary evidence that states the reason for delay, we would request you to contact the Civil Aviation Authority.

Please consider as this is last response, honestly further I don't have any information to share. Once again I sincerely apologise for the inconvenience caused due to disruption.

Thank you for choosing easyJet.

16. I appreciate you have confirmed the reason for delay, but I was not asking for the reason; I was asking for documentary evidence that substantiates the reason for delay. You are bound to provide this by current EU law, and it is your prerogative to do so when asked. I am simply asking for confirmation from yourself that you are refusing to do this

17.I certainly understand you are looking for the disruption report of your flight. As a customer service representative I am unable to provide you with report.

I mentioned in last response that to get a report you have to contact the Civil Aviation Authority. Once again, I sincerely apologise for the inconvenience caused. Please consider as my last response. Honestly, I do not have any further information to share in your case.

Any advice on what the suggested next step may be, any tricks I may have missed or any comments in general will be greatly appreciated. Thanks!