Flight delay and cancellation compensation, Easyjet ONLY

The_Leopard

My family and I were one of the many who were caught up in the Gatwick closure a few days back. We were one of the lucky ones in that we managed to make it to our destination albeit via driving to Birmingham and flying via Munich to Milan (a brilliant 16 hour trip door to door with a 1 and 3 year old!).

We were originally booked on a return flight to Milan with Easyjet (£582 returning in Jan). Advice at the airport was to find any flight we could, book it, and Easyjet would refund the difference. We booked a same day one way flight with Lufthansa from Birmingham for £857. So, after a bit of a mad rush and some help from a Birmingham based pal we got the flight and completed our journey. My car is now in Birmingham however which is over 4 hours away from my home.

Easyjet have confirmed they will refund the £857 within 14 days. However, I spoke to their customer service team and asked whether they would refund the cost of our flight back to Birmingham to get my car so I could get my family home and complete my journey. The rep reassured me they would (and I repeatedly asked for confirmation of this-just so I’m clear etc). Lo and behold, Easyjet have since confirmed they won’t refund our return flight to Birmingham (€474) starting that it was a private arrangement made after the disruption.

EasyJet still have the original £582 cost of the Gatwick flight and haven’t refunded any of this despite me no longer requiring the flight home due to the cancellation and subsequent change of travel plans. Their t and c’s state:

- Reimbursement for the part journey not made; or
- reimbursement for the part or parts of your journey already made if the flight no longer serves any purpose in relation to your original travel plans, together with, where relevant, a return flight to the first point of departure, at the earliest opportunity

This incident has cost me over £1000 and Easyjet £275. I don’t expect to fly for free and would be happy if Easyjet just refunded the return leg that we still have booked to Gatwick with them that we now no longer require due to having to go back to Birmingham.

My question is whether it is worthwhile I continuing to press with this claim (ie am I interpreting their terms and conditions correctly?) or am I being unreasonable and should just put this down to experience?

davidrab

Looking for advice. Easyjet flight from Mykonos to Gat wick in June was delayed arrival in Gatwick by 4 h 20m . As a result missed all onwards connections that day and had to stay overnight in Gatwick and buy an expensive new ticket on to Dublin.
Easyjet paid EU compensation for the lengthy delay
However they refuse to pay for the overnight stay and the new ticket from LGW to Dublin.
Is this unreasonable? What do I do next?

Justice13075

Who were you supposed to fly with from Gatwick to Dublin? If it was another airline then Easyjet do not have to pay you anything other than the compensation for being late into Gatwick.

Tyzap

The_Leopard wrote: »

My question is whether it is worthwhile I continuing to press with this claim (ie am I interpreting their terms and conditions correctly?) or am I being unreasonable and should just put this down to experience?

Hi,

Under the circumstances your best way forward would be to ask Easyjet for a deadlock letter or a direct referral to CEDR.

It doesn't cost anything, other than time, and should resolve your question.

Good luck.

The_Leopard

Thank you Tyzap. I will do and will update. Easyjet have refunded the biggest expense today (£857) which has been very prompt-I did have concerns I’d be waiting forever after reading some of the experiences in this thread.

FaustoFalcone

Hello I’m new to this site! My family were caught up in the Gatwick mayhem on the 20/12/18. Planned trip to Santa’s Lapland Finland. Flying to Ivalo. There was heaps of confusion on the day and there were 10 in our group. The communication was lacking in every way. I accept it was a difficult day and rare circumstances. After many hours we were told to proceed to the gate (originally a 6 am flight. We were then told no more info and that actually we needed to go back to the departure lounge. We all refused. Eventually after about 8 odd hours the EasyJet guys came to the gate with chocolates and easyJet hats to appease the children and we were told we would hopefully be getting a coach or train to Luton airport which did happen and we flew at 8pm 14 hours after schedule. We were part of a package booking. We were never given details of choice to cancel and re book. We were entirely at their mercy. We had £3 vouchers each and then £10 vouchers each which we were given a few minutes before we left for Luton somcouldnt use as they didn’t accept the vouchers on the flight!! We have written to travel agent and Santa’s Lapland as net result was loss of first day and 3 hours sleep before our day in Santa’s Lapland. Our travel insurance have already said no to claim but I’m still pushing as in my view the sightings of the drone were just that. No prosecutions, no findings of any sort of anything so all we have is air traffic control stopping flights. It seems that we may get nowhere with travel insurance but just want to know your thoughts on the EU regulations side and if you think it’s worth pursuing Gatwick (BAA) / EasyJet separately alongside our travel agent and insurance. Is any one else doing anything? We spent £12500 on the 2 day trip and we only got to enjoy 1 day and feel so aggrieved that it seems that no one is going to accept any liability or pay out! I could have lost my phone and received compensation!! Please please help if anyone can! Regards

Tyzap

Hi FF,

As you say, it was a difficult day. From a regulatory point of view this problem may fall partly under two different regulation, it's just not very clear.

I don't think it falls, wholly, under the EU261 regulations as it’s a Package Travel Directive issue which we don't have any experience of here.

Even if it did come within the EU261 regs it would be classed as an EC due to ATC closing the airport on safety grounds. I'm sure they would owe you a duty of care for food, drinks etc but again I'm unclear which regulation that would come under.

It's new ground as the PTD has only just been brought into law.

Good luck.

pbdias

Good morning.

Our flight got delayed 2h10m, and instead of arriving in Gatwich airport at 10.30pm it arrived 00.40am

That means that our transport home got a lot more reduced and the next train home was at 2.15am, meaning more 1h30m of wainting, or the options were a mixing of national express that would make the commute home like 3 hours.

We used an Uber payng 65£ instead of the usual 16.60£ for 2 persons if we arrived at time.

Can we ask for a refund of the extra cost ?

Thank you.
Regards,
Pedro

legal_magpie

Pedro, where was your flight from?

JPears

Probably no. Unfortunately easyjet's obligations end at the point you get off the aircraft.