Easyjet car hire - warning

WT70

I had an event to attend in Brittany, so booked a flight to Nantes through Easyjet - and also booked car hire on their website.

Easyjet cancelled multiple flights on the day I was due to travel (June 29), including mine. The only Easyjet person in the whole of the terminal was a young guy who was handing out leaflets written in French - and getting snippy with anyone who asked advice. There was very little wifi in the terminal - and anyway the Easyjet app kept crashing. I used Skyscanner to try to find alternative flights, with Easyjet or anyone else - and there was nothing for days.

So I had a mad dash across London to get to the Eurostar terminal, got on a train to Paris and did a couple more train rides across France to get where I was going.

I'd assumed that as everything was booked via the Easyjet website, they would take responsibility for me not picking up my hire car (I couldn't - they cancelled the flight).

However, they've now refunded my flight - but say my car hire has nothing to do with them and I have to deal with their "partner" Car Trawler, who - apparently - my car hire contract is with. Car Trawler's Ts&Cs say that you have to give notice of cancellation - which is difficult to do a) when your 6.45am flight is cancelled the same morning, and b) when you don't know they exist.

Easyjet also seem to be saying that because I clicked a button to accept a refund for my flight via their app, I can't now claim compensation for them cancelling my flight.

So my £300 car hire fee is unlikely to be returned. The £140 I spent on a hotel at Gatwick was for nothing. And the additional £600+ it cost me for last-minute train tickets is on me too.

My advice would be DO NOT BOOK ADDITIONAL SERVICES THROUGH EASYJET.

If you do book car hire with them, and your flight is cancelled, call this number for Car Trawler immediately: 01524 488018

Don't bother trying to contact Easyjet. It's impossible to speak to a person, and you'll end up having a frustrating and lengthy exchange with a bot. (I typed in the question: "What's the phone number for Easyjet customer service?" and the bot responded, "Easyjet is a digital company..."

Oh, and keep any email Easyjet sends you about cancellation. Apparently this is the form of proof that Car Trawler needs to explore any kind of refund. (You'd think they could just confirm with their "partner" Easyjet about cancelled flights - but no...)

Big, expensive learning curve for me... and another airline I'll be trying to avoid in future.