Easyjet refusing to pay after cancelling flight

Miccrow

Good afternoon all, would be interested in views and advice on the below scenario please.

My 18 year son and 3 friends were in Faro for a week early July.

Their flight home - EZ3164 - was due to leave on 11th July, 22.20. It was originally delayed 3 hour+ and then approx 2.00 12th July was cancelled.

My son and one other friend had to be home for work evening of 12th July so they both booked Jet2 flights home on the morning of the 12th, arriving mid-afternoon and making their evening work.

Easyjet put a new flight on, not one of their scheduled flights from Faro at approx 16.00 on 12th July, EZ9164. I still have all the boarding passes from both the cancelled 3164 and new 9164 flight.

I claimed compensation for all 4 passengers. I have now been informed by Easyjet that the only compensation they will pay is to the 2 who didn't make their own way home.

Easyjet claim my son and his friend didn't travel on 3164 and are therefore not eligible for compensation. This is despite them having checked in for the flight originally, deposited luggage and had boarding passes.

I pointed out that NO ONE travelled on 3164 - Easyjet refer to it as "delayed" in their response to the compensation claim, and point out that instead the other two lads travelled home on 9164. They even refer to 9164 as their "new flight" in their email comms, which I also still have.

I am awaiting their response but would be interested to hear any views or advice if they reject my request for compensation for my son and his friend.

In addition to the above, all 4 were left in Faro airport overnight as Easyjet claim they "couldn't find accommodation for them", despite plenty of others being accommodated by Easyjet during the evening. I appreciate elderly and families with children, who were accommodated, should come first but I feel they saw 4 young lads and just felt they could leave them to it. Approx 8-10 other youngsters were also left behind at the airport. Easyjet comms also told them at approx 5.10 in the morning that if they wanted to try and find their own accommodation then Easyjet would pay, as long as it was up to 3 star hotel. At that point the next again morning it would have been pointless trying to find a hotel who would accommodate them for a few hours.

In addition they were provided with no sustenance or vouchers for the entire time they were at the airport.