Flight delay and cancellation compensation, Easyjet ONLY

jpsartre

I would go to money claim online.

Owen2003

jpsartre wrote: »

I would go to money claim online.

Thanks very much I'll let you know how I get on..........

JPears

If you haven't already done so, you need to download and read Vauban's superb guide.
Also put your flight detials into Bott online and EUclaim online checkers to get an indication of your claim validity.

You'll need to re-send your claim to easyjet giving 14-21 days for full refund and compensation payment, marked as an NBA/LBA before starting the small claims route.

Owen2003

JPears wrote: »

If you haven't already done so, you need to download and read Vauban's superb guide.
Also put your flight detials into Bott online and EUclaim online checkers to get an indication of your claim validity.

You'll need to re-send your claim to easyjet giving 14-21 days for full refund and compensation payment, marked as an NBA/LBA before starting the small claims route.

Thanks - will do!

moschopsnz

Long description however I have highlighted my questions in red..

On June 17th earlier this year I booked a direct Easyjet flight from SCQ to MXP for travelling on the 15th January (flight EZY2522). The flight was for 2 persons and due to the advance booking only cost a total of 37.50 Euros.

On 17th August I was advised my flight times had changed, brought forward by 25mins which I accepted, but then on the 24th September I was advised that the flight had been cancelled.

This flight was part of a much larger itinerary, the journey was to take me from Spain to Milan where I have a connecting flight to Bangkok on 16th January and ultimately after a few more stops on the way over the period of a few weeks arriving in New Zealand. Getting to my destination in Milan on time therefore was essential.

I advised Easyjet of this and they kept trying to force me to accept a refund however having already looked at alternative flights found competing airlines noticed there were no other direct flights and those with a stopover included were now showing prices nearly 10 times what I had originally paid.

I told easyjet I would not accept a refund and insisted they provide me a re-routed flight. I told them I was flexible with the departure airports and could fly from 1 of 2 alternative airports that were within 1.5hrs travel time from SCQ. I also said I would be happy to have them fly me to 1 or the 2 alternative nearby airports to MXP as long as they were then able to provide public transport to MXP.

Over the next 7 weeks I spoke to them on the phone, via email and via their online chat trying to get a confirmed re-route but to no avail, they kept insisting they weren't required to do this and that the only course of action was for me to accept a refund.

This morning I got off the phone where they have now agreed that I need only book an alternative flight and they will then refund me the costs. This works for me so I told them I would look for flights and in the meantime asked they send confirmation to me in writing to my email address - they agreed and confirmed my email address.

I have not received written confirmation yet - should I wait for this before I go ahead and book alternative flights?

The cheapest suitable alternative flights I can find are currently coming in around 212 euros for 2 persons - approx. 175 euros more than I originally paid.

I advised the easyjet agent that alternative flights would cost more and they did not raise any concerns around this and only directed me on how to submit my claim via their website. While waiting for their written confirmation however I have read on their website "The alternative transport must be within the price range you paid for your original return flight or as close to it as possible.", since the cost are approx. 8 times the price I am now wondering are they going to flag this as being an issue?

Due to my experience dealing with them now, telling me refund where only possible and then backing down to provide a refund on alternative flights, I would like to find out if this caveat they have put on their website is legal or something they can hold me to or should I be fine seeing that I am booking the cheapest possible alternative with the same service?

As a foot note however - even if they do refund my new flight costs, since the journey is split into 2 legs as opposed to being direct the cost for hold luggage is now double since it is charge per leg. I had not yet booked the hold luggage on my original tickets since I was unsure how many bags I would be travelling with however at the time of booking I was aware of the per bag cost but with the new flights even though the per bag costs (per leg) are similar between airlines due to there being 2 legs now I will be paying double. I would understand there may be nothing I could do (i.e. claim) about this since I had not originally booked hold luggage however my connecting flight from MXP does have 2 hold bags pre-paid so I knew I would have at least that. Could there be any precedence in claiming for the increased luggage costs incurred due to the replacement flight no longer being direct?

Thank you in advance!

JPears

The regulation (article 5 and 8) clearly states that the airline is responsible for alternative flights re-routing at their expense.
Few, if any of the low cost airlines will voluntarily make you aware of this or do it for you. Indeed you have discovered easyJet's "trick" of pushing you to accept a refund, absolving them of any responsibility to you.
You are correct in assuming that easyJet's T&Cs are nonsense with regard to the re-routing costs limits. As long as the travel conditions are comparable, they are liable. They would appear to have changed their T&Cs as when I flew (or didn't) last year is was termed as "reasonable". Fortunately EU law trumps and T&Cs the airline tries to put in place.
You may struggle with the luggage costs, as these aren't comparable travel conditions.
The other difficulty is that you will presumably need to make a legal claim (which is what it will probably come to in my experience) through the Spanish court system. Do they have a system similar to the small claims court in the Spansih system?

moschopsnz

Thank you JPears.

You mention that a legal claim may need to be made, would it have to be via a Spanish court? Is this just an assumption on my location due to the flight originating in Spain or would it be required because it originates in Spain?

I am from the UK and my flight previous to the SCQ to MXP is a few days previous where I fly from London (STN) to SCQ via Ryanair on the 10th January, I will only be in Spain for 4 days.

It was actually quite frustrating when booking because even though I was going to the UK website they were charging me in Euros, there was no option to pay in GBP.

JPears

If you are UK based you should be able to make a claim against easyJet in the UK. That will make your life easier.
You could go through CEDR, but again from personal experience, this takes forever and a day. I put my claim in at the beginning of August. to CEDR. I'm still waiting for an adjudicator to be appointed over 3 months later......

It is common amongst most airlines that if you book a flight in EU non UK origin then they will quote you in Euros.

healthyhero

hi
Just to let you know I was on your flight and have now just been awarded £1044 via cedr.I spelled out all the details to them as easyjet rejected my claim too.there was 3 of us thats approx 400 euros each. I am so glad we went for it as after returning from our hol I wanted to completely forget about the fiasco.I hope you have a similar success

Thomascat13

Hi everyone

Was hoping for some help with my flight compensation battle with easyjet.
I was on flight number EZY1852 from Santorini to Manchester on 10th September 2018. We were delayed almost 5 hours or should I say we arrived at our destination 5 hours late. I filled in the ready reckoner on their website claiming compensation and got this response:

We’re sorry that your flight was delayed. Our assessment and legal team has carefully reviewed your claim and the circumstances around your flight and have confirmed that your compensation claim is not eligible for compensation payment under EU Regulation EU261/2004. Please note that this may not match with the information you were given on the day of travel, as our staff in airports, and on-board, may not have had all the information concerning your delayed flight.

Our assessment of your claim
To further explain what happened on the day; a combination of reasons contributed to the overall delay of this flight. The aircraft scheduled to operate this flight arrived late into Santorini. Initially, the outbound flight has been given a delayed ‘air space’ departure slot to Santorini due to arrival regulations there. Our customers were already boarded and eventually the aircraft had to return to the gate as the aircraft toilets did not function on the ground. During this process, the departure clearance was missed and a new one had to be applied for. In the case of your flight, the delays then pushed our crew into their maximum legal operating hours to be able to complete the flight back to Manchester. There are strict industry wide rules on the number of hours our crew are allowed to work. To protect the safety of our customers and crew, these hours cannot be exceeded. We do take reasonable measures to avoid delays and cancellations to our flights by having replacement crews and spare aircraft available in our network. In the circumstances, higher than expected levels of disruption meant that our spare aircraft had already been deployed. With regard to the crew, it was necessary to make a diversion to Malpensa to replace the existing crew.

I have lodged an appeal with CEDR, presenting our evidence, and easyjet have come back with a very good defence defending themselves. My understanding of the delay was that the flight coming from Manchester to pick us up from Santorini was delayed due to ‘the toilets not working’ however it is difficult to understand if they simply couldn't use the toilets on the runway or when taxiing or they knew the toilets wouldn't work when airborne?

Looking at an official report they have attached it states ‘aircraft pushed back from stand ready to depart in MAN, and was given a long ATC slot, due to the toilets not being able to be used until airborne, the aircraft had to return to stand in order to allow passengers to use the airport toilets. This resulted in a delay to the flight (this one and ours) and the flight in question diverted to Milan to pick up replacement crew to continue’

Would like some advice on how to offer a defence to this, as they are stating this is an extraordinary circumstance beyond their control.

Thanks in advance