Claim against Easy Jet

jack_and_jill_2

We have been reading your forum for quite some time and decided to make a claim against EasyJet for a flight that was delayed for some 21 hours back in August 2008.
Earlier this year we wrote to Easyjet making our claim and got no response, we followed up with a second letter but again got no response.
We have now made a Small Claims Track Court application and have just received Easyjets defence.
The claim relates to a flight from Manchester to Paphos on 31 August 2008 which was eventually cancelled due to technical problems and which was replaced the following day by a chartered Titan Airways flight which eventually landed at Paphos 21 hours late.
We also claimed for the failure to provide transport to and from the overnight stay hotel, the failure to provide or offer any food or drink during the first four or so hours of the delay, the failure to offer or provide any food or drink the following morning prior to the 11.00 take off time and the failure to have any food available on the flight to Cyprus.
The defence is quoting The Montreal and Warsaw Convention to say that the claim is out of time, the extraordinary circumstances beyond our control point and a further defence saying that they are the contracting air carrier and not the operating air carrier who are the party responsible for the claim.
We have not seen this latter point mentioned in your forum but possibly think that the involvement of Titan Airways as the replacement carrier has given Easyjet a chance of using this defence. We obviously had no direct contract with Titan so possibly this is another intimidating smoke screen.
If anyone has an opinion on the subject or wants any further information I will respond as appropriate.

Cheers

Jack and Jill