Flight Cancellation - Hotel Expenses for Non-refundable booking

Granthami

My flight from Faro to Glasgow was cancelled and I was rebooked by Easyjet for a week and a half later. I have claimed expenses from Easyjet incurred during my extended stay, which they have paid some of. Due to personal circumstances, I had to leave 4 days before the rebooked flight. The hotel bill was non-refundable (I had booked the hotel at the start of my extended stay until the date of the rebooked flight). Easyjet, via numerous chats / emails / phone calls, are refusing to pay the hotel bill for the nights I did not stay, even though I have explained that the booking was non-refundable and the total bill was expenses incurred until I returned home (Easyjet would not book me on an earlier flight, nor will they pay for the flight I booked myself to return home early). Should I pursue the remainder of the hotel bill with Easyjet? And if yes, any advice on how to go about this, other than contacting customer support, which is getting me nowhere! Thanks in advance.

eskbanker

I suspect that, having accepted EasyJet's later flight home, you're probably not going to be able to reclaim the cost of an alternative one that you chose (even though you could have insisted on this at original cancellation time), and if EasyJet are aware that you didn't stay for the booked duration then yes, I can see why they might object to paying for unused nights, even though it could be argued that this is them having their cake and eating it.

If the reason for the cancellation was something within their control then you may be due a compensation payment that would make inroads into the costs, or your travel insurer may be willing to refund costs incurred that aren't recoverable from the airline, depending on your reason for flying home sooner than planned.

Granthami

Thanks, eskbanker. The cancellation was not in their control - it was the Air Traffic Control systems crash at the end of August that caused the cancellation.

I  have given up on getting the return flight cost reimbursed, just wondering where I stand with expenses incurred prior to returning home, which I consider the hotel bill to be.

Even though I didn't stay the last few nights, I had to pay the hotel the full amount (ironically, I booked the cheapest hotel and as such, was a non-refundable booking).

It does seem a bit off that me leaving early actually saved Easyjet the cost of of meals etc they would have to have paid had I stayed, along with the full hotel costs. My insurance company is not helping either