Failed easyJet claim

Bodkin64

Hi, I’ve seen lots of threads about flight cancellations but not seen this exact question, apologies if it’s duplicate of another thread.

Our EasyJet return flight from Menorca to Gatwick a couple of weeks ago was cancelled with just 3 hours notice, first we learned about it was turning up at the airport. We hastily assessed our options and discovered there was another EasyJet flight the same day going to Luton. We only had minutes to decide whether to rebook and there was (unsurprisingly) nobody around that was able to tell us anything about what we’d be able to claim expenses for, but I assumed we’d have no problem claiming our train tickets from Luton to Gatwick (to collect our car) on expenses.

I submitted our claim the next day (little over £30) but was slightly stunned this afternoon to receive an email telling me the claim had been rejected, the reason given being that, although the flight had been cancelled due to “crew issues”, we could have got another easyJet flight within 24 hours, I.e. the next day.

Having since looked at the small print of their cancellations policy, I do see that they say they will (try to) put you up in a hotel overnight if they don’t have a flight the same day and it looks like we fell foul of this. But my beef with easyJet is that, in the heat of the moment, with the dearth of help available in the terminal, how on earth were we supposed to have known this? 

I’m quite angry with easyJet about this, probably more so than I was about the original cancellation, even though (or actually because!) it’s such a small sum of money we’re trying to claim. Just because they’re so obviously taking the p*** with customers in this way. I want to complain but I’ve not found any way so far of appealing against the decision. Does anyone think it’s worth trying to appeal (ideally from previous experience) and, if so, do you know how? Incidentally it occurred to me that we could claim on our travel insurance however our excess is greater than the amount we’re trying to claim!

eskbanker

I'd argue that the regulations, mirrored in their document, require them to offer you rerouting to your final destination at the earliest opportunity, so another of their flights to the same city on the same day (plus modest ground transportation costs) would seem a more reasonable proposition than delaying until the next day:

Notice of your rights in case of flight delays, cancellations and denied boarding | easyJet

This document also explains how to take things further if you're unhappy, not sure who the post-Brexit UK national enforcement body would be, but there's EasyJet's own complaints process, and then ADR, and you could ultimately go down the small claims route if it got that far....

sharonmunt

My claim from easyJet has be denied . Flight canx in the morning due that night they have said it was air traffic control I don’t believe it was . How can I check and dilute this please .

Caz3121

there are a couple of flightcheckers you could try (EUClaim, bottonline) that you could complete your flight details and they advise whether compensation due or not. 

Bodkin64

eskbanker said:

I'd argue that the regulations, mirrored in their document, require them to offer you rerouting to your final destination at the earliest opportunity, so another of their flights to the same city on the same day (plus modest ground transportation costs) would seem a more reasonable proposition than delaying until the next day:

Notice of your rights in case of flight delays, cancellations and denied boarding | easyJet

This document also explains how to take things further if you're unhappy, not sure who the post-Brexit UK national enforcement body would be, but there's EasyJet's own complaints process, and then ADR, and you could ultimately go down the small claims route if it got that far....

Thanks for pointing me at this page. I think I’ll try easyJet’s own complaint form. Out of curiosity, exactly where on this page do you interpret that they’re required to provide rerouting ASAP? I think the section under the “flight cancellation” heading could possibly be interpreted this way, though having said that, sections 2 and 3 make no explicit reference to being able to claim reasonable travel costs to our final destination so they’d probably wriggle out of that. That said the basis of my argument would be the dearth of information available at the time to allow us to make a decision. Had we known, we’d have probably sought a hotel stay.

eskbanker

Malcyb said:
Out of curiosity, exactly where on this page do you interpret that they’re required to provide rerouting ASAP?

Section 2, point c.

Bodkin64

eskbanker said:

Malcyb said:
Out of curiosity, exactly where on this page do you interpret that they’re required to provide rerouting ASAP?

Section 2, point c.

Yes fair enough. Possibly I could reasonably claim that since they didn’t provide this we took the next best option - and it was remarkable that when we rebooked via the easyJet app they didn’t highlight that we could incur costs we wouldn’t be able to recoup.

Westin

I believe the CAA view ‘reasonable’ and ‘as soon as possible’ as an alternative option the same day.  

EasyJet have interpreted ‘reasonable’ as within 24hrs.

Bodkin64

A quick update…

I first tried complaining to easyJet directly, noting that it said on their “notice of your rights” page, “ If you would like to make a complaint please contact our customer relations team by filling out our Contact Form at www.easyJet.com/en/help/contact.” This proved to be utterly hopeless, as after a couple of days I got a clearly automated response that ignored my complaint and just referred me back to their compensation form 🤬.

I then got round to filing my complaint with Aviation ADR who claim to be responsible for easyJet complaints. I wasn’t encouraged by their rather ropey and confusing website, or by their appalling Trustpilot reviews, however to their credit they sent me an email 4 days later saying “I am pleased to report that I have now completed the initial assessment of your complaint and can confirm that it is within our jurisdiction. Your complaint will now be passed to the airline and they will be asked to confirm if they wish to defend the claim and, if so, to provide their reasoning and evidence in support. The airline has up to 28 days to respond.” … This sounded quite hopeful, since I can’t see that EasyJet has a leg to stand on, so I await ADR’s next communication with baited breath…

eskbanker

If you haven't already, then it would be worth citing Article 8.3 of the regulations, which obliges the airline to reimburse your costs of ground transport from the revised arrival airport to the originally booked one, so EasyJet are clearly required to fund your train from Luton to Gatwick:

When, in the case where a town, city or region is served by several airports, an operating air carrier offers a passenger a flight to an airport alternative to that for which the booking was made, the operating air carrier shall bear the cost of transferring the passenger from that alternative airport either to that for which the booking was made, or to another close-by destination agreed with the passenger.

Bodkin64

eskbanker said:

If you haven't already, then it would be worth citing Article 8.3 of the regulations, which obliges the airline to reimburse your costs of ground transport from the revised arrival airport to the originally booked one, so EasyJet are clearly required to fund your train from Luton to Gatwick:

When, in the case where a town, city or region is served by several airports, an operating air carrier offers a passenger a flight to an airport alternative to that for which the booking was made, the operating air carrier shall bear the cost of transferring the passenger from that alternative airport either to that for which the booking was made, or to another close-by destination agreed with the passenger.

I wish I’d spotted this before I lodged my complaint! Unfortunately now I’ve done it they don’t allow you to resubmit anything. However hopefully ADR have followed the same logic in supporting my claim.