One or two compensation claims for delayed flight?

Frances_B

Would very much appreciate any thoughts or experience please.

My easyJet flight was 'delayed overnight' with four hours notice. I was sent a new flight number and told to print a new boarding pass.

The replacement flight the next day was then delayed also and arrived more than four hours late.

I wondered if the first flight should be claimed as cancelled or delayed?

Also if I can claim compensation via separate claims for both flight numbers given I did not arrive as scheduled on either the original flight date p, or the date after.

With many thanks in advance. 

eskbanker

If the second flight was a different flight number then that signifies that the first flight was cancelled, thereby triggering compensation rights unless the cause was extraordinary circumstances beyond the airline's control.

The delay to the second flight also triggers these, with the same caveat about root cause, so yes, two separate claims.

Frances_B

Thanks a lot - that is what I was thinking/hoping despite use of 'delayed' rather than 'cancelled' in the comms. I took a screenshot of them referring to technical issues with the plane for the first delay. They didn't tell us why the second flight was delayed.

Frances_B

As an update one claim will be paid and the other rejected - I presume they are working on the basis of the two flights on two different days with different flight numbers and requiring separate check ins and boarding cards being a single flight. I will most likely challenge.

eskbanker

Frances_B said:

As an update one claim will be paid and the other rejected - I presume they are working on the basis of the two flights on two different days with different flight numbers and requiring separate check ins and boarding cards being a single flight. I will most likely challenge.

Yes, it shouldn't be necessary to presume anything as they should explain why they're rejecting one claim (which one btw?), so worth pursuing for a clear answer and taking it from there, but on the face of it they're two separate and unrelated claims, so both should be paid.

JPears

Agreed. Did you make two, completely separate claims?

Frances_B

Thanks both. I made two separate claims, one per flight number, albeit the booking reference was the same. They have rejected the second flight claim on the basis that the claim has already been paid (against the first flight).

eskbanker

Frances_B said:

My easyJet flight was 'delayed overnight' with four hours notice. I was sent a new flight number and told to print a new boarding pass.

The replacement flight the next day was then delayed also and arrived more than four hours late.

Was the 'delayed overnight' wording (with or without quote marks) used by EasyJet or was that yours?  A delay wouldn't entail a new flight number or the need for a new boarding pass, so I'm just trying to understand their line of argument - do you know if the replacement flight was one that was scheduled anyway or was it perhaps just the same aircraft and crew operating a newly-arranged flight after taking the requisite amount of rest?  Which route was this?

Frances_B

They said it was delayed overnight. At the same time they emailed me stating:

'We’re writing to let you know that you have successfully transferred onto a new flight. You can find your original and new flight details below. '

It was definitely a new flight scheduled the next day just for those of us stranded.

Frances_B

To add, it was the same plane and crew as they needed their legal rest time hence the cancellation of the planned flight.

eskbanker

Frances_B said:

they emailed me stating:

'We’re writing to let you know that you have successfully transferred onto a new flight. You can find your original and new flight details below. '

That seems pretty clear then - the principle of compensation being due for both a cancelled flight and a delay to the replacement one was established in EU court in 2020, in case C-832/18 (A and Others v Finnair Oyj):

an air passenger who has received compensation for the cancellation of a flight and has accepted the re-routing flight offered to him is entitled to compensation for the delay of the re-routing flight, where that delay is such as to give rise to entitlement to compensation and the air carrier of the re-routing flight is the same as that of the cancelled flight

https://www.ejtn.eu/Documents/c-832.2018 12 marzo 2020 rerouting failed.pdf