Our compensation experience with easyjet

stoem

Just thought I'd post our experience with easyjet here.

We're a family of 5 and very experienced travellers due to the fact that I (dad) am German and we often travel back and forth from the UK to Germany in addition to 'normal' holidays.

In July 2015 we were booked on an easyjet flight to Palma, Mallorca. We arrived at Luton with enough time to check in but the queue meant we ran short of time, however we managed to check in and easyjet found it appropriate to delay us further and charge us for 1 extra kilo of luggage...
We headed straight for security which took an average time of about 20 minutes. Once we cleared security the screens showed 'gate closed' and we were advised we had missed our flight.

We managed to track down the right gate and pleaded that they let us board (plane was there, door was still open). Children were very upset by this stage.
Eventually the gate supervisor allowed us to board but we found that not enough seats were left and we were offloaded. Children all in tears at this stage. This was for a 6am departure.

Since it was high season we struggled to find an alternative flight but managed to track one down that evening from Heathrow with BA/Iberia. This cost us around £800 one way. Urgh.
Easyjet were not helpful and basically blamed us for being too late to the gate. We felt that we stood no chance to make it, that they overbooked the flight and that they shouldn't have checked us in if we couldn't make security.
They couldn't offer us any alternative flights for several days. Other people also missed flights despite having been at the airport hours before departure.

We drove to Heathrow by black cab at a cost of £90. We found a gastro pub and (due to getting up at 2.30am) settled in like zombies for the afternoon.

The flight left at around 8.45pm and we reached our destination at around 1am the next day, having been up for nearly 24 hours. Our youngest was falling asleep standing up in the end, I've never seen anything like it. A day from hell basically.

After our holiday I contacted a flight compensation website (flight-delayed dot co dot uk which I can highly recommend) who reviewed our case and said we had a good case for a claim under the 'denied boarding' rules.

They wrote to easyjet on our behalf. Easyjet did not reply. We then took the case to the CAA and made a complaint against easyjet there. Our claim was for the Iberia flight cost, taxi, food and €250 compensation per head.
The CAA contacted easyjet who this time replied and accepted liability. Easyjet was meant to settle the claim within 8 weeks. These 8 weeks are up in early January but so far we have not heard from them.

I am confident we will get compensated. The €250 per head are a nice bonus but I would have been happy to receive just the costs we incurred. The compensation company will take 25% which seems fair.

I'll keep you posted on any eventual payout but my advice is: do not rely on what the airline tells you. If you think you weren't given enough time to clear security after arriving at the airport on time and checking in then you may have a case.

Good luck.

Justice13075

Sie sprechen gut Englisch als Deutsch (hope that's correct)