Easyjet failed duty of care sorting accomodation

pecunianonolet

Hi all,

My parents in law were supposed to fly from Funchal, Madeira to Berlin. However, the flight was cancelled due to bad weather (high winds) and basically the whole airport came to a stand still in Funchal with ca 30 flights cancelled. Being high season the Island is basically fully booked.

Easyjet does not have any own ground handling staff and is outsourcing to a third party. That third party was only handing out a piece of paper with some rights and phone numbers. My mother in law is awaiting a hip replacement and is only able to walk short distances and needs regular resting breaks for longer distances. Both of them speak no English and we have been with them all the time. 

We called EasyJet and asked for rerouting option and to provide accomodation. The first phone call didn't really lead to anything and we got cut off. We phoned again and spoke with a diferent agent. We were offered rerouting via UK, which we declined because both only hold EU ID cards and that wouldn't work with travel to UK. We  eventually managed to log a claim with yet again another agent for accomodation and were given the go ahead that we should change the booking in the app to the next available direct flight, resulting in a 1 week extra stay. We were promised a call back by the agent after 60-90 minutes for accomodation but that never happened. 

We were monitoring accomodations via booking.com and could see them disappear quickly. Easyjet claimed that i case they are unable to sort things out the passengers need to go ahead and sort 3 star equivalent. The only thing available was 4 stars and we asked the Easyjet operator if we should go ahead and if he could approved the cost via phone. The Easyjet agent wasn't able to provide this sort of information and insisted that we should wait for their team.

In the meantime, the airport filled up with photographers and TV cameras capturing the scene. The airport (not the airline (s)) started to hand out water and bananas to waiting people and chairs were brought out for people to sit. 

As my partner and I were staying longer and had a small hotel room we left the airport to check in to our place and dumped parants in law and luggage and waited for a call back. 

Needless to say that this never happened. It was now 7pm and we called back to Easyjet and the agent found our accomodation booking and said he is surprised nothing has happened and that nobody got in touch via call, email or text. He checked again and said he is unable to book anything because nothing is available. We said that by now literally everything is fully booked and that we can't gurantee a 3 star accomodation. We stressed that "reasonable" is a very vague interpretation and were given the go ahead to book a place for 7 days. We stressed the mobility problems, that the passengers don't speak English, the anticipated hip surgery, etc. Easyjet agent confirmed on the phone thy can spend 50 GBP or ca 60 € per day between them for food and drink.

We ended up booking a 5 star Savoy and while in process the last room of the cheapest category disappeared and we had to take the next higher class. The cost for 7 days with breakfast is nearly 3000 € and this was the cheapest option available. 

We are super worried that we won't see any money from Easyjet and end up with a long case of emails, lettrs, phone calls and eventually having to go as far as to court. 

We are under the impression, that we gave Easyjet at least 6-7 hours to solve the case and provide either a direct flight with an alternative carrier, an alternative flight with 1 EU stop over or take them up on anything they offrer via app and sort a hotel. We asked if calls are recorded and were assured this is the case. We asked severl times if they can specify what they deem reasonable. 

If we would not be with them and would have sufficient credit card limits to care for them, Easyjet wold have left seniors with no place to sleep as they don't have either the means or credit cards to quickly splash out 3000€ for an unplanned 7 day stay. Loss of income as both are still working too on top.

Have we acted in the right way and have chances to see our money back or will we need to mentally prepare for a long case? Should we use a lawyer?

https://www.madeiraislandnews.com/2023/05/madeira-airport-with-42-arrivals-and-37-departures-canceled-since-midnight.html

eskbanker

Despite the lack of alternatives, I wouldn't be surprised if EasyJet put up a fight in response to a claim for a week in a 5* hotel, but there's no point in considering paying for any sort of legal advice until seeing their response to the claim.  What's done is done, but best to ensure that you preserve as much evidence as possible, in terms of screenshots of hotel booking enquiries, etc, and keeping notes of the details of each phone call and so on.

If they reject some or all of the claim, post details of their reasoning back on here and you should get some thoughts on potential next steps....

pecunianonolet

eskbanker said:

Despite the lack of alternatives, I wouldn't be surprised if EasyJet put up a fight in response to a claim for a week in a 5* hotel, but there's no point in considering paying for any sort of legal advice until seeing their response to the claim.  What's done is done, but best to ensure that you preserve as much evidence as possible, in terms of screenshots of hotel booking enquiries, etc, and keeping notes of the details of each phone call and so on.

If they reject some or all of the claim, post details of their reasoning back on here and you should get some thoughts on potential next steps....

We got screenshots of literally everything, photos, etc. and we had a place ready to book for half the price when still available but Easyjet didn't want us to book it and left us until the very end of the day when they shut down the hotline leaving us with no other option with literally othing else available. We also have all the recordings of the numerous phone calls made during the day trying to sort things proactivly. 

CKhalvashi

eskbanker said:

Despite the lack of alternatives, I wouldn't be surprised if EasyJet put up a fight in response to a claim for a week in a 5* hotel, but there's no point in considering paying for any sort of legal advice until seeing their response to the claim.  What's done is done, but best to ensure that you preserve as much evidence as possible, in terms of screenshots of hotel booking enquiries, etc, and keeping notes of the details of each phone call and so on.

If they reject some or all of the claim, post details of their reasoning back on here and you should get some thoughts on potential next steps....

I'd also suspect the same, it's going to be difficult to prove that there were no alternative options, especially as a 5* for maybe one night and then downgrade to 3* would be considered reasonable.

Again, if they reject, we can see what we can do to assist.

Reasonable is a very vague interpretation but for a low cost airline 3* would be in general (not necessarily in this case) more than generous, for a First Class long haul ticket, 5* likely would be deemed to be a minimum acceptable standard. Your claim (excluding if Switzerland was involved when it may not be) be against Easyjet Europe who have their Head Office in Austria and their fleet registered in the same. Easyjet Group is made up of 3 different airlines which are completely separate from each other, each with their own aircraft and crew operating to legal specifications of the market they operate in. You have been clear in your post that this does not involve Easyjet UK who maintain a Head Office in Luton.

For whether you can claim should the matter go to court for legal advice, you will need to understand the specifics of Austrian law. I unfortunately can't answer this for you, but you should be able to do it yourself.

The only similar experience I've had (with regards to weather) was at Southend. The ground handling staff will generally give vouchers in the event a delay is likely to go over 3 hours. These vouchers are generally coming from the airport and will be recharged back to the airline under an agency agreement.

In general principle under the UK courts reading of this law (which comes from EU law) will be that it's necessary to minimise costs for all involved. If legal action were to be taken, I would deem it unlikely to be the case that there were no flights at all to self-route for 7 days. You are not restricted to Easyjet (or any airline) for re-routing as long as the ticket conditions remain broadly the same (under comparable conditions). The first companies I'd have been looking at in this case would be Ryanair and TAP (the national airline who can route back via Lisbon) if Easyjet couldn't come up with anything.

eskbanker

pecunianonolet said:

eskbanker said:

Despite the lack of alternatives, I wouldn't be surprised if EasyJet put up a fight in response to a claim for a week in a 5* hotel, but there's no point in considering paying for any sort of legal advice until seeing their response to the claim.  What's done is done, but best to ensure that you preserve as much evidence as possible, in terms of screenshots of hotel booking enquiries, etc, and keeping notes of the details of each phone call and so on.

If they reject some or all of the claim, post details of their reasoning back on here and you should get some thoughts on potential next steps....

We got screenshots of literally everything, photos, etc. and we had a place ready to book for half the price when still available but Easyjet didn't want us to book it and left us until the very end of the day when they shut down the hotline leaving us with no other option with literally othing else available. We also have all the recordings of the numerous phone calls made during the day trying to sort things proactivly. 

Sounds like you're well prepared for any ensuing fight then, but hopefully it won't be necessary!

CKhalvashi

pecunianonolet said:

eskbanker said:

Despite the lack of alternatives, I wouldn't be surprised if EasyJet put up a fight in response to a claim for a week in a 5* hotel, but there's no point in considering paying for any sort of legal advice until seeing their response to the claim.  What's done is done, but best to ensure that you preserve as much evidence as possible, in terms of screenshots of hotel booking enquiries, etc, and keeping notes of the details of each phone call and so on.

If they reject some or all of the claim, post details of their reasoning back on here and you should get some thoughts on potential next steps....

We got screenshots of literally everything, photos, etc. and we had a place ready to book for half the price when still available but Easyjet didn't want us to book it and left us until the very end of the day when they shut down the hotline leaving us with no other option with literally othing else available. We also have all the recordings of the numerous phone calls made during the day trying to sort things proactivly. 

In addition to my comments above, this should make your life a little easier.

The points above though, having not heard the calls or seen the screenshots, still stand.

eskbanker

CKhalvashi said:
In general principle under the UK courts reading of this law (which comes from EU law) will be that it's necessary to minimise costs for all involved. If legal action were to be taken, I would deem it unlikely to be the case that there were no flights at all to self-route for 7 days. You are not restricted to Easyjet (or any airline) for re-routing as long as the ticket conditions remain broadly the same (under comparable conditions). The first companies I'd have been looking at in this case would be Ryanair and TAP (the national airline who can route back via Lisbon) if Easyjet couldn't come up with anything.

But just to be clear, it remains the airline's responsibility to arrange rerouting, not the passenger's!  Same for accommodation - in many cases it's more pragmatic for passengers to take matters into their own hands, especially if the airline has failed to come up with anything (as here), but that doesn't change the legal responsibility....

CKhalvashi

eskbanker said:

CKhalvashi said:
In general principle under the UK courts reading of this law (which comes from EU law) will be that it's necessary to minimise costs for all involved. If legal action were to be taken, I would deem it unlikely to be the case that there were no flights at all to self-route for 7 days. You are not restricted to Easyjet (or any airline) for re-routing as long as the ticket conditions remain broadly the same (under comparable conditions). The first companies I'd have been looking at in this case would be Ryanair and TAP (the national airline who can route back via Lisbon) if Easyjet couldn't come up with anything.

But just to be clear, it remains the airline's responsibility to arrange rerouting, not the passenger's!  Same for accommodation - in many cases it's more pragmatic for passengers to take matters into their own hands, especially if the airline has failed to come up with anything (as here), but that doesn't change the legal responsibility....

But the reality is very different from the law as we both know.

The passenger has a right to do this and claim for it under comparable conditions. In many cases (including this) it's far easier to do this.

eskbanker

pecunianonolet said:

Loss of income as both are still working too on top.

Forgot to pick up on this earlier - the airline won't be liable for this, so that would be a matter for their travel insurance, if the policy covers such eventualities.

If the underlying cause of the flight cancellation was weather-related then that'll probably excuse the airline from any liability for compensation under article 7 too, so it'll just be the right to care provisions of article 9 that apply.

eskbanker

CKhalvashi said:

eskbanker said:

CKhalvashi said:
In general principle under the UK courts reading of this law (which comes from EU law) will be that it's necessary to minimise costs for all involved. If legal action were to be taken, I would deem it unlikely to be the case that there were no flights at all to self-route for 7 days. You are not restricted to Easyjet (or any airline) for re-routing as long as the ticket conditions remain broadly the same (under comparable conditions). The first companies I'd have been looking at in this case would be Ryanair and TAP (the national airline who can route back via Lisbon) if Easyjet couldn't come up with anything.

But just to be clear, it remains the airline's responsibility to arrange rerouting, not the passenger's!  Same for accommodation - in many cases it's more pragmatic for passengers to take matters into their own hands, especially if the airline has failed to come up with anything (as here), but that doesn't change the legal responsibility....

But the reality is very different from the law as we both know.

The passenger has a right to do this and claim for it under comparable conditions. In many cases (including this) it's far easier to do this.

Absolutely, the passenger has the right to do this, but not the obligation, so the airline has no grounds on which to challenge an extended stay of a week if they (airline) had failed to identify an earlier rerouting option.

pecunianonolet

Thanks for all the comments. 

We did try to get rerouting via alternative airlines. One of the Easyjet operators asked if we are able to get a shuttle bus or taxi to Lisbon so even if we told them we are on Madeira, they had booking number, etc. they needed to be educated that it's around 1000km from here to reach Portugal mainland or ca 500km to the Canaries. 

When my OH was on the phone to Easyjet to see if a flight via Zurich to Berlin is possible they not wanted to do that either. I, in the meantime, spoke to Edelweiss Air ground staff and they said check in would be closing in 15 minutes and that in case we get rerouting via Easyjet call centre we should hurry up. It never happened as we got disconnected after we were put on hold by Easyjet. That flight actually left Funchal that day (flight number WK285, in case somebody wants to check Flightradar).

Below are the screenshot from booking.com

You see that in all of Funchal there were 6 places available. The screenshots were taken at 8.15pm, basically 5 minutes after we got off the last call for the day with Easyjet. That call lasted almost an hour.

A Golf & Spa Villa on position 1 followed by a yacht on 2, the Savoy on 3 and another 3 even more expensive places. All places are far away or higher up in the mountains (roads here with 10% or more incline are not unusual).

My OH and I are staying unintentionally a 15 minute walk away from the Savoy in our own place we booked ages ago as we remote work here for a week. The Savoy seemed sensible as they do breakfast and are in short reach and were central and close to the harbour and sea where it is flat and walkable. We are in reach for check in, check out and any other emergency business, language barrier, etc. 

Within the minute of finding, selecting and entering data to make the booking after the Easyjet call somebody else snapped up the room and the next best available was the one with sea view.

At checkin, the staff told us that they had a lot of people booking due to flight cancellations and that their occupancy level increased on that day by 30%, running in the high 80ish %, which would only be comparable to new years festivities. We wil try to see if the hotel can confirm this to us in writing somehow, so we can show a connection with airport events and unusual increase in hotel bookings.