Flight delay and cancellation compensation, Easyjet ONLY

windmill26

Matt15 wrote: »

Hi all

I took an Easyjet flight in 2008 that was delayed by six and a half hours. As it was so long ago I no longer have the booking confirmation with the reference. However, I do know the exact date, scheduled time, flight number etc. Can I make a claim? I guess they should have a record of passenger names who were on that flight but are they likely to reject my claim as I can't provide the booking number?

Thanks in advance.

Hi,I didn't know date/flight number etc..I just remembered the month and year,I called Easyjet asking themto have a look in their sistem and to provide me with the info.They did.

Westhill11

I had an Easyjet flight from Gatwick to Inverness cancelled for two days in 2008. They blamed it on the snow although the airport was still open and planes were taking off. It seemed they were using the aircraft meant for domestic flights for overseas ones. At the time I was told I had to make an on the spot decision - to take a refund and try to get back to Inverness by rail or bus or come back in two days. No compensation was offered and no practical or monetary help towards travel or a hotel. They seemed to just assume I had extra money to find somewhere to stay. I put a claim in and they have asked for booking reference etc. I have written back saying who in all honesty keeps emails for 5 years, especially after having been told initially that there was no compensation due, just my hard luck for wanting to fly that day. It's more a matter of principle and I won't be surprised if they turn my claim down but it's worth a try after all the aggravation they caused me.

richardw

Btw https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/3119492

gems1584

We had a flight to go to Majorca but they cancelled it due to the ash cloud of 2010, then said we could rebook onto another flight - we kept trying but they were cancelling future flights too. In the end, we completely cancelled and got a full refund. This didn't help with the Hotel we were meant to be staying with and the inconvenience of waiting around for 3 days worth of annual leave waiting to hear if a flight was going or not before we decided to cancel it and just stay in the UK. As they gave us a full refund at the time, can anyone tell me if we are entitled to any other compensation or have complained about a similar situation and been successful in their claim? I wouldn't know where to start!

richardw

Did they provide care as Article 9 right to care of http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=CELEX:32004R0261:EN:HTML ?

Mark2spark

gems1584 wrote: »

We had a flight to go to Majorca but they cancelled it due to the ash cloud of 2010, then said we could rebook onto another flight - we kept trying but they were cancelling future flights too. In the end, we completely cancelled and got a full refund. This didn't help with the Hotel we were meant to be staying with and the inconvenience of waiting around for 3 days worth of annual leave waiting to hear if a flight was going or not before we decided to cancel it and just stay in the UK. As they gave us a full refund at the time, can anyone tell me if we are entitled to any other compensation or have complained about a similar situation and been successful in their claim? I wouldn't know where to start!

You can only claim for expenses occurred whilst waiting at an airport for the flight to depart. Like meals, refreshments, hotel stays. And only up to the point of cancelling and deciding to take a refund.

Morsicatio_2

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...

As ever, I shall update here with the response...

Mark2spark

If other flights were leaving, then a 'complete' failure doesn't sound likely. In any case, what stopped them moving departure gates to one that had the electric on? Surely this could have been achieved within 3 hours?
Sounds like bull to me.

Morsicatio_2

.

Mark2spark wrote: »

If other flights were leaving, then a 'complete' failure doesn't sound likely. In any case, what stopped them moving departure gates to one that had the electric on? Surely this could have been achieved within 3 hours?
Sounds like bull to me.

I'm pretty sure it is bull, but I'm not sure where to go from here. Do you think it may be worth putting the questions you've posed to them?

Cheers
:beer:

Mark2spark

Morsicatio wrote: »

.

I'm pretty sure it is bull, but I'm not sure where to go from here. Do you think it may be worth putting the questions you've posed to them?

Cheers
:beer:

It's up to the airline to *prove* that the EC's that they claim exist. I would ask for documentary evidence that supports their claim, and also for an explanation as to why several other flights were seen departing from the airport in the 3 hour delay time frame, in an airport that supposedly had 'complete' failure of the electrical system.
You may well also wish to ask why moving to a different departure gate was not achievable. I'll assume that you witnessed other passengers on other flights embarking through a gate in the normal manner?