Am I entitled to a full refund from Easyjet if they cancelled outgoing flight but not return?

tomhirvin

I hope you can help.?
After spending hours on the internet I am still none the wiser as to my rights. 
We were supposed to be flying on Easyjet to Greece a few weeks ago but the flight was cancelled and of course because of Coronavirus we were not allowed to go to Greece. However, the return flight this Friday 31st July from Crete to Gatwick has not been cancelled.
When my wife called Easyjet to get a refund they fobbed her off with vouchers or rearranged tickets but my understanding of EC261/2004 is that we are entitled to a full refund from Easyjet if they cancelled outgoing flight but not return? Both outgoing are return were booked at the same time under the same reference number. I want to call them tomorrow to demand a refund but want to know that legally I am correct.

Any help would be gratefully received.

bagand96

You are correct.  When they cancel a flight you are entitled to a refund of all flights on the same booking.  That is the only caveat, that the flights were booked together and are under the same booking reference.

Mrsn

Yes you should be entitled to the refund, hopefully EasyJet will accept this when you speak to them.

tomhirvin

Thank you very much for clearing this up. I have already been on hold for an hour to Easyjet so hopefully I can speak to them soon.....Yeah right. They are quickly becoming as popular as Ryanair because of these shady refund policies.

macman

Your refund rights have nothing to do with EU261/2004. That relates to compensation for late departure or cancellation, and was anyway suspended several months ago.
If booked under same reference no. then yes, you can request a refund: I believe with EJ this can be done online.

eskbanker

macman said:

Your refund rights have nothing to do with EU261/2004. That relates to compensation for late departure or cancellation, and was anyway suspended several months ago.

I've seen other posts where you've asserted this but EC261/2004 covers both refunds and compensation, and its refund rights under article 8 continue to apply, even where no compensation is due under article 7.  I asked you previously to support your contention that the regulation was suspended but still haven't seen anything that confirms this - there will naturally be no compensation payable given the extraordinary circumstances, so no actual suspension would be needed anyway, as article 5(3) applies:

An operating air carrier shall not be obliged to pay compensation in accordance with Article 7, if it can prove that the cancellation is caused by extraordinary circumstances which could not have been avoided even if all reasonable measures had been taken.

macman

This may help:
https://ec.europa.eu/transport/sites/transport/files/legislation/c20201830.pdf
Yes, I accept your point that EU261 has not actually been suspended (as the directive already allows for non-payment of compo in extraordinary circumstances), but to claim a refund invoking it is not really necessary or helpful, as the airline may then confuse a refund claim with one for compo, and deny it.
Surely a refund can simply be claimed under basic contract law, since the carrier has failed to provide the service paid for? Why complicate it?

eskbanker

macman said:

This may help:
https://ec.europa.eu/transport/sites/transport/files/legislation/c20201830.pdf
Yes, I accept your point that EU261 has not actually been suspended (as the directive already allows for non-payment of compo in extraordinary circumstances), but to claim a refund invoking it is not really necessary or helpful, as the airline may then confuse a refund claim with one for compo, and deny it.
Surely a refund can simply be claimed under basic contract law, since the carrier has failed to provide the service paid for? Why complicate it?

The OP of this thread is one of many where being able to cite the provisions of EC261/2004 is directly pertinent, in terms of the defined linkage of outbound and return legs of a single booking, so that cancellation of one requires the airline to offer a refund of both.  I'm not aware of any 'basic contract law' that mandates this at that level of detail, so being in a position to quote a binding regulation that does specify this seems worthwhile for those in that position.  Likewise there has been plenty of coverage of airlines (like many other travel companies) seeking to fob customers off with vouchers, so the clear mandated requirement to reimburse in cash is another useful weapon in the customer's armoury.

I do take your point about potential confusion though, and read another thread recently where the traveller sought a refund but received a response denying compensation, so there is always the need to be careful when claiming, but on balance still feel that the specific protections afforded by EC261/2004 are highly valuable when compared with the vagaries of 'basic contract law' and so wouldn't have any hesitation in citing them....

bagand96

macman said:

Your refund rights have nothing to do with EU261/2004. That relates to compensation for late departure or cancellation, and was anyway suspended several months ago.
If booked under same reference no. then yes, you can request a refund: I believe with EJ this can be done online.

Not for the first time on this forum, you are posting completely wrong information. 

EC261/2014 has not been suspended. 

EC261/2014 regulates for exactly the situation the OP has posted about. It states that in the event of a flight cancellation the passenger is entitled to a refund of the cancelled flight as well as any other flights on the booking that are unusable as a result of the cancellation. 

searchlight123

I am in the same position as the OP and having not being able to get thru to EJ customer services i messaged thru Twitter. I did get back a response staitng i could also claim for my non cancelled return flight but nowhere on their website could I find the facility to do this. I have now received an email from EJ stating that a refund is coming to me but it doesn't say whether this covers both flights or just the cancelled outgoing one as I also received check in details for the return flight that was still operating!!

I await with bated breath. 

ad_man

macman said:

Your refund rights have nothing to do with EU261/2004. That relates to compensation for late departure or cancellation, and was anyway suspended several months ago.
If booked under same reference no. then yes, you can request a refund: I believe with EJ this can be done online.

Not only is it false information that EC261/2014 has been suspended and is not related to the OP's entitlement to a refund but the belief 'this can be done online' is equally misguided – the OP had explained that his wife had been fobbed off by Easyjet with vouchers or rearranged tickets and that the return flight was still going ahead. There is no way then that Easyjet will have allowed him to apply for a refund online for both flights.

It is also worth bringing to the attention to others that Easyjet have been disguising cancelled flights as ‘consolidated action’ i.e. an unauthorised move to another flight from the one booked. In my own case I had booked outward and return flights to meet up with my son  who was flying in from another destination. The gap between us both arriving and departing was well under an hour. I then discovered that Easyjet had cancelled my return flight and moved me to another flight leaving 4 hours later – they had made no attempt to inform me  of this. I’m not interested if it’s 4 days or 4 hours - the flight I booked was cancelled and the flight they attempted to move me onto (different flight ref number of course) was A. not authorised by me and B. not appropriate. Added to that I had ‘speedy boarding’ booked on both flights and the one they tried to move me onto was ‘seat on allocation’.   

What I would advise for anyone in similar circumstances is to not waste time hanging on the phone. Send an email to the CEO which will then be redirected to customer service (I had a reply within a few hours) and explain your rights to a full refund. The moment they try to duck out of issuing said refund – claiming for example your flight was not cancelled but just ‘consolidated’ – you email back informing that you will now action a chargeback and do not engage in any further conversation. Ignore any check in details or whatever they may later send you. Then action the chargeback making sure you speak with authority i.e. you are clear about rights to refund which Easyjet in this example were disputing – my chargeback was credited before I had even finished the call.