Easyjet Flight Cancellation and Claiming Compensation

abeezar

Hi

I had an Easyjet DIRECT flight booked for my family in June 2022, which was cancelled 24 hours before departure. I rebooked to my destination by paying almost 2.5 times with 1 change having a Night layover at the airport as there were no direct flight options. 

I raised a claim with Easyjet and the claim was fully approved and paid in July 2022.

Question: Am I eligible for a further claim as I faced inconvenience? 

1. Spend a reasonable amount of time rebooking the flights on a working day.

2. Bear the inconvenience with my Family / Kids due to a night layover at the airport due to an early morning flight.

3. I lost a day due to the above.

   

Please let me know if can claim compensation.

Thanks and Regards,

AB   

onashoestring

abeezar said:

I raised a claim with Easyjet and the claim was fully approved and paid in July 2022.

Question: Am I eligible for a further claim as I faced inconvenience? 

…..Please let me know if can claim compensation.

 

What exactly have you received from Easyjet so far ? Have they refunded you for the new flights that you booked ? 

Any entitlement to additional compensation will depend on the reason that the first flight was cancelled. 

eskbanker

Unless the cancellation was due to extraordinary circumstances outside their control, then you're entitled to the fixed-price compensation laid out in the regulations and mirrored in EasyJet's notice of rights - this would be intended to cover matters such as those you list but you can't claim for them as such.

https://www.easyjet.com/en/terms-and-conditions/notice-of-rights-for-flight-delays-and-cancellations

abeezar

onashoestring said:

abeezar said:

I raised a claim with Easyjet and the claim was fully approved and paid in July 2022.

Question: Am I eligible for a further claim as I faced inconvenience? 

…..Please let me know if can claim compensation.

 

What exactly have you received from Easyjet so far ? Have they refunded you for the new flights that you booked ? 

Any entitlement to additional compensation will depend on the reason that the first flight was cancelled. 

The Full Cost of booking alternative flights and refreshments has now been paid.

Can I also claim for the reasons above? I don't think I can ...but you never know until you ask

1. Right to compensation

Has your flight been cancelled?

Has your flight been delayed so that you arrive at least 3 hours after the original scheduled arrival time?

Have you been denied boarding involuntarily?

If so, you may be entitled to the following compensation:

• £220 / €250 for flights of 1500 km or less;
• £350 / €400 for flights within Europe of more than 1500 km, and all other flights between 1500 and 3500 km;
• £520 / €600 for all other flights of 3500km or more.

onashoestring

Yes compensation can be claimed unless the cancellation was due to extraordinary circumstances outside the airlines control, 

abeezar

onashoestring said:

Yes compensation can be claimed unless the cancellation was due to extraordinary circumstances outside the airlines control, 

I filed for compensation and in 2 weeks' Easyjet approved the claim.

Ridiculous

Can anyone help, it seems like the rules on exceptional circumstances are very vague.

We were initially due to fly from Kos to Gatwick at 4.30am on Thursday 18th August with Easyjet. This was initially delayed until 7pm and then again until 10.30pm that night. However, we didn't actually end up taking off until 12.17am on Friday 19th August.

We were not told at the time the reason for the delay. When we got to the airport at 7.30pm for our 10.30pm departure we were told there was a system error with our flight and we couldn't check in (despite already having checked in online) or get any food vouchers until we had checked in. We were told both crew and plane were in Kos by airport staff, but there were no easyJet staff anywhere to confirm this. We were eventually given new boarding passes and food vouchers at 9.15pm.

There was no communication from easyJet at all, other than the initial email delaying us until 7pm. The 10.30pm delay just appeared on the flight time on the easyJet app, there was no further email notification. There were no easyJet representatives at the airport and attempts to find out whether the delay would be further extended went unanswered. Our flight time 10.30pm came and went, the flight disappeared from the departure board and no-one came to give an update. One of the other passengers even phoned easyJet customer service in England to try and get an update, but they couldn't tell us anything.

Eventually, at 11.30pm the captain came and made an announcement to say that he 'apologised for the disruption and the carnage that marked the end of your holiday". He apologised that there would be no catering on board the aircraft and advised us to 'head into a shop very quickly and getting something as we have almost nothing to give you." 

Once we were on the plane the Captain explained that our delay was due to previous bad weather at Gatwick. “The crew that were supposed to take you back went completely out of hours, there was no way they could legally do the trip and so unfortunately our operations people had to take the decision to cancel that particular side of the operation and bring us down to get you on your way back to London instead.”

We eventually started boarding at midnight and departed at 12.17am (Greece time) on Friday 19th August. We landed at 2.16am (London time).

I understand that weather is an exceptional circumstance, and causes delays, however the thunderstorms at Gatwick eased by Wednesday evening, so it seems unfair that they can use this to justify a 19 hour delay to our flight. From what I have read it seems like this would be classified as a knock on effect after the bad weather had taken place. 

I filled in the compensation claim on the easyJet website but they have rejected my claim, stating

"To further explain what happened air traffic control restrictions were in place across London Gatwick substantially regulating airspace due to thunder storms. Long delays to flights built up as aircraft queued for ‘slots’ for airspace to operate. The delays continued throughout the day, knocking on to later flights. Your plane due to operate your flight was heavily disrupted and crew required full legal rest to operate. We do take reasonable measures to avoid delays and cancellations to our flights by having replacement crews and spare aircraft available in our network. In the circumstances, these options were not possible as the delay was a direct result of adverse weather conditions."

Do I have any reasonable grounds to take this to Aviation ADR or do I just have to accept that we are not going to get any compensation for our extended delay? 

Thanks in advance.

Westin

@Ridiculous - not a nice end to your holiday and those creeping delays at overseas locations can often be frustrating when firm news on a rescheduling is not known.

I would just add that it was not just thunderstorms around Gatwick/South of England that day but storms over large parts of mid Europe which probably created the perfect storm (excuse the pun) for short notice ATC restrictions and delays.   That day/time there were ATC flow restrictions over parts of France, Germany and northern Italy - all likely air space routes for the aircraft and your flight route.

Whilst waiting for the flight you certainly should have had a ‘duty of care’ provide by the airline, this to cover things like refreshments, meals and a hotel if an overnight delay.  These things can be hard to always organise it seems particularly at smaller airports, but instead you should be able to make a claim with receipts for all reasonable welfare purchases during the delay.

I think you may have more of a battle on your hand to claim EU261/UK261 compensation for the actual delay if as I suspect a larger weather issue was at play that day.

Ridiculous

Thanks Westin. It was a long and painful end to the holiday and I had hoped that we might be able to get something back for it. I will look at putting in an expenses claim. I just wondered if it was worth appealing as all other flights seemed to be coming and going from Kos all over Europe, it was just ours that got stung with a massive delay.

There were two things that I had read which made me wonder whether we might have a case...

The Bott & Co website says "Bad weather must also affect the ‘flight in question’ for airlines to use as a defence. If your flight was delayed because of the knock-on effects of a different flight being affected by bad weather, your flight should be claimable."

Becket Chambers also says when considering adverse weather conditions, it is important to remember that Recital 14 applies specifically to “the operation of the flight concerned”. Therefore, it should be questioned whether the weather conditions were relevant to the flight in issue or an earlier flight and any delay to the claimant was simply a knock-on effect. If the latter, then it could be argued that previous inclement weather on a preceding flight does not give rise to “extraordinary circumstances”.

Westin

@Ridiculous

I think Bott&Co have a flight delay checker on their website.  You could try that to see what it says about your flight.  I'm not however sure how user accurate it is.  Whether it knows the delay reason of if the algorithms are more set to suggest compensation is payable just because the scheduled arrival time and actual arrival time are greater than 3hrs - who knows.

The weather delay to the 'flight in question' is interesting.  Feel sure it should not be a reactionary delay from multiple flights prior, but is it reasonable that if the outbound LGW KGS flight was delayed, then the returning KGS LGW would be as well.  No airline will be able to have crewed aircraft parked around every outstation on the off chance that the original outbound flight is running late therefore to fire up the standby aircraft on a Greek island.

I think in your case it would be interesting to ascertain if you can why the initial 04:30 to 19:00 rescheduling occurred.  Whilst the later rescheduling (19:30 to 00:17 flight may have been due to weather and ATC flows, the earlier delay may have very different delay reasons, some of which are or should be within airline control (like crewing).  

 

Ridiculous

No I'm not sure on what basis these flight delay checkers work either. Bott did say we were eligible, but is that just because we were delayed? I don't know.

Thanks for your replies Westin. I have completed the form on Aviation ADR and will wait and see what they say. It's probably a no, but at least I will have tried.