EASYJET discrimination

Distressedcustomer

Below is an email I have just sent to Easyjet Executive Office, I would welcome you views and advice?
Thank you

To:
ella.bennett@easyjet.com
johan.lundgren@easyjet.com
garry.wilson@easyjet.com
Jan 18 at 10:51 AM

To:
Ella Bennett, Group People Director
Johan Lundgren, Chief Executive Officer
Garry Wilson, Excutive Office of easyJet Holidays.

Dear Ella, Johan and Garry,

I would like to personally escalate an issue and inform you of a very distressing experience I have just had with a Easyjet Holidays customer services manager on the telephone today 9am 18Jan20.

It is with regards to my holiday booking below I made yesterday 17Jan lunctime with easyJet Holidays I made online on the advice I was given by phone by an easyjet sales advisor just before I made booking and also you had done this for me before last year. I was told I can immediately book seats once I made the online booking and I made it on this basis. This clearly was wrong advice.

This is important, We are a party of three, 2 adults and our adopted daughter. For health reasons I need to sit in an extra legroom seat next to my daughter and therefore the only suitable seats are 1D,1E,1F (with 1E or 1F in which my daughter can sit next to me).

I was told I can only do this 30 days prior, therefore immediately the wrong advice was given to me before I made the booking by your advisor. As it will be peak season I know these seats will not be available unless I book it now.

A simple goodwill request has now turned into a nightmare with the manager insisting he can only do this 30 days prior which is a total contradiction to a Flight only booking (which you can book immediately) even though you are offering the same service, therefore discriminating against two types of your customer.

When I said it is important my daughter sits next to me (being adopted this is important) and ask if he could do this for me, the sales manager still insisted he cannot, even though in my opinion he could do it to offer good customer service and to rectify the misadvice given by easyjet which was the condition I made the sale, he still insisted he could not.

Therefore in order to book a holiday that meets our needs, I asked for a full refund (I had made full payment) so I can book with another holiday company that does offer this simple service at the time of booking for holiday packages, he said he could not.

Not only has this experience left me quite distressed (a simple request to add the only possible seats to sit together), I am feeling quite sickened by it all, especially from a customer experience point of view. My daughter on hearing this is now saying she does want anything to do with easyjet.

Not only are you discriminating between two easyjet customer types, you are discriminating against a family with needs. If you played back the 25 mins conversation I had I do not believe it is something you would want the public to hear, it is not a great advert for easyjet and I do not think you will sell many holidays especially in this competitive market that pushes on the service provided, this will be seen as a backward step for easyjet.

It has not even been 24hrs since I made the booking and I have the right to cancel with full refund if I was misadviced and misold a product, as it is a clear breach of the Consumer Rights Act 2015.

Please could you personally assist with this matter and provide me with the great customer service I simply ask of you or provide me with an immediate full refund and I will gladly book with a different holiday company never to return to easyjet.
Thank you.
Yours sincerely,
A distressed customer

silvercar

From the easyjet website:

"Choosing a seat

You can choose where you’d like to sit for a small fee. Seats can be chosen when you book or later via the easyJet app or through Manage Bookings.


On bookings with more than one passenger, allocated seats must be selected for all passengers on the booking otherwise we cannot allow any allocated seats to be purchased. "



Are you suggesting that the app or 'manage my bookings' isn't working for you?

Distressedcustomer

That is correct, as I made a Holiday booking rather than Flight only (their policy/T&C dictates I can only do that 30 days prior) but before I made the online booking, I made a call to a sales advisor who said just ring up after I made online booking which I thought fine as in my last years booking they did that for me.

It is important for my health I have these particular seats as these are the only extra legroom seats which a child can sit in, but the customer service manager did not care!

Hence, not only are they discriminatory against a family with needs, they are discriminating their own customers types for exactly the same flight! There is no reason to do this as all other holidays operators give you a service to immediately book a seat.

silvercar

You are correct: http://www.easyjet.com/en/help/easyjet-holidays/your-flight

The rules changed on 28 November 2019. Apologies for thinking you had it wrong.

I would go down the special assistance route, where they say "if you have told us about your needs, we will select a suitable seat for you..."

See contact info here, http://www.easyjet.com/en/help/boarding-and-flying/special-assistance

that applies to easyjet holidays as well as flights.

unforeseen

I don't understand why being adopted makes it imperative that she sits next to you, assuming that you are the one needing extra leg room. Is it not possible for her to sit in another seat with the other adult?

Pennywise

What if someone else with "needs" has already booked those front row seats? That can happen whenever you book. Even if you could book the seats today, after booking the holiday yesterday, your chosen seats could have already gone. There are usually more "extra legroom" seats at the emergency exits over the wings.

suki1964

Surely its only one extra leg room seat required - yours?

Your daughter could sit with the other adult in another row, or depending on age, in the row behind

Distressedcustomer

To answer you both

Adopted children suffer due to past trauma, in this instance my daughter suffers anxiety if moved away from me. All other seats a chil cannot sit in as all other deemed emergency exit.

At time of booking those seats are free being 8 months away.

It is not an unreasonable request, but the wider point still stands holiday customers are discriminated against flight only customers...why?

Undervalued

Distressedcustomer wrote: »

When I said it is important my daughter sits next to me (being adopted this is important) and ask if he could do this for me, the sales manager still insisted he cannot, even though in my opinion he could do it to offer good customer service and to rectify the misadvice given by easyjet which was the condition I made the sale, he still insisted he could not.

Therefore in order to book a holiday that meets our needs, I asked for a full refund (I had made full payment) so I can book with another holiday company that does offer this simple service at the time of booking for holiday packages, he said he could not.

Not only has this experience left me quite distressed (a simple request to add the only possible seats to sit together), I am feeling quite sickened by it all, especially from a customer experience point of view. My daughter on hearing this is now saying she does want anything to do with easyjet.

I struggle to understand why "being adopted" makes it "important"

Also what do you actually mean by "important". Do you mean it is imperative or just desirable? After all, it seems your daughter is old enough and otherwise able to express a view about the airline.

Also, your wish for extra legroom. That is something most people would like, particularly those who are tall. Again, is there a medical need that makes this essential or are you just trying to grab something that most people would quite like given the choice?

Your complaint doesn't seem to offer any real reasons why you should get special treatment. If there are valid reasons did you explain them when trying to book?

Undervalued

Distressedcustomer wrote: »

To answer you both

Adopted children suffer due to past trauma, in this instance my daughter suffers anxiety if moved away from me. All other seats a chil cannot sit in as all other deemed emergency exit.

At time of booking those seats are free being 8 months away.

It is not an unreasonable request, but the wider point still stands holiday customers are discriminated against flight only customers...why?

Why not? being a "holiday customer" is not a protected characteristic!

Different people will pay very different amounts for a seat on the plane. By the same argument those paying more are being discriminated against!

Lots of people, both children and adults, suffer anxiety for all sorts of reasons. Quite how an airline assesses which of those is the most deserving of a particular seat I have no idea.

Ganga

I fail to see any " discrimination ",you might not get the seats you would like but as has been said,people with greater needs might have beaten you to them