Easyjet flight cancellation - expense claim issues

moremoneyplease

Hi, we had a nightmare journey recently with Easyjet flying back from London Gatwick to Belfast on a Sunday evening. Delayed 5 hours at the airport then finally cancelled at 11pm. No help whatsoever just told to check the App or look for an email to refund or rebook.

There were 7 of us in our party including my elderly mother and daughter in law who is disabled and also their baby.

We were offered no assistance in finding an alternative flight or accommodation for the night.

Due to the number of people who were trying to find an alternative flight the online booking was painful, taking ages and when you thought you had something throwing you out when you went to pay saying no longer available. 

After trying to find an alternative Easyjet flight from any London airport we could find nothing.  The only flight we could find to get us back later the next day was from Heathrow to Dublin where we would have to get a train back to Belfast.  With the demand on the flights to Ireland increased so had the prices of course!  We had to pay a total of £2,588 for replacement flights.  We then also had to get ourselves from Gatwick to Heathrow where there were no 3* or less hotels, what Easyjet said they would cover. By the time we reached Heathrow it was 2am where we had to sit and wait for check in to open at 6am.

My issue is that I have contacted Easyjet and filled in all the forms.  They have refunded the original flights which cost £1,641 but refuse to reimburse for the additional costss incurred to get home.  Are we not entitled to have the difference in the cost of the flights reimbursed?  They have only agreed to pay £60 for food and drink, nothing for the flights, taxis or train to get us home.  Why should we be so much out of pocket when we only booked the alternative flights because they cancelled last minute.  My son and I had work commitments on the Monday and Tuesday so needed to get back asap so waiting for the next Easyjet flight with availability on the Tuesday was not an option.

If anyone has any experience of successfully fighting this and have any advice please, it would be greatly appreciated.  Thank you

Aylesbury_Duck

Have you spoken to your travel insurance provider?

Voyager2002

DO NOT ACCEPT THE REFUND!

By law, you are entitled either to refund or rerouting -- not both. Once you have accepted the refund, that is the end of their liability towards you.

Assuming you do not accept the refund, you are entitled to re-routing: the full cost of the journey to your original destination (unless Easyjet make the booking for you, which is what would happen in an ideal world).

You are also entitled to "care" while unavoidable delayed: food, hotel, and so forth. There is nothing in the law that says that you are limited to hotels with a certain number of stars: ideally the airline would make the hotel booking for you but otherwise you should make a sensible choice without "taking the mickey".

Did you pay for your original Easyjet flights by credit card?

eskbanker

As above, the airline is liable to arrange rerouting to get you (all the way) to your destination, at the earliest opportunity, so if they fail to do so then passengers can take matters into their own hands and make their own reasonable arrangements, and reclaim the costs.  It will often be a struggle, especially where the alternative arrangements are significantly more expensive, but that shouldn't be the passengers' problem....

Keep pushing EasyJet and if their final response is inadequate, go to AviationADR, and ultimately small claims - your travel insurer is likely to reject a claim if it should be met by the airline.

Do you know the reason for the cancellation?  If it was deemed to be extraordinary circumstances beyond the airline's control (e.g. weather or air traffic control restrictions, etc) then they have no further liability to you, but if it was within their control they're required to pay fixed-tariff compensation over and above any reimbursement of expenses.

This subject is usually discussed over on the travel boards, with one specifically dealing with extracting money from airlines after delays and cancellations, so it might be worth getting the admins to move it there:

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/categories/flight-delay-compensation

Maybe worth familiarising yourself with the airline's obligations, there is plenty of info in the main MSE article:

https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/travel/flight-delay-compensation/

and the CAA has a document specifically about rerouting:

https://www.caa.co.uk/publication/download/18744

moremoneyplease

Thanks for your helpful comments.

We were encouraged to request the refund if we could not find an alternative flight with Easyjet so did that thinking the cost would then help towards the new expense and get the ball rolling with that part at least.  I thought the 2 things would be dealt with seperately.  They are not stupid are they if that means we then lose rights on the costs of the alternative flight.  Is it too late for me to do anything? 

I will look into AviationADR thank you.  It seems unfair that they make it this difficult.  When you're tired and just trying to get your family home you do what you think is right at the time and at 1am we were desperate!

The delay they told us was because they were waiting on a co-pilot and member of cabin crew to man the flight.  My annoyance is that if they knew they didn't have any staff available or en-route they could have told us a lot earlier and there may have been more options available. 
Appreciate your advice. Thank you

eskbanker

moremoneyplease said:

We were encouraged to request the refund if we could not find an alternative flight with Easyjet so did that thinking the cost would then help towards the new expense and get the ball rolling with that part at least.  I thought the 2 things would be dealt with seperately.  They are not stupid are they if that means we then lose rights on the costs of the alternative flight.  Is it too late for me to do anything?

So did you actually specifically apply for the refund rather than having it offered to you in settlement of a larger claim?

moremoneyplease said:

The delay they told us was because they were waiting on a co-pilot and member of cabin crew to man the flight.  My annoyance is that if they knew they didn't have any staff available or en-route they could have told us a lot earlier and there may have been more options available. 

This is a bit more promising though - on the face of it it would be worth submitting a compensation claim (£220pp), although it wouldn't be a massive surprise if they tried to wriggle out of liability by claiming extraordinary circumstances (not obvious how from what you've shared, but they can be quite creative....).

moremoneyplease

On the App the options were only request a refund or choose an alternative flight. Being as there wasn't a suitable alternative flight I felt the only option was to choose the refund for that flight.  I wasn't offered or didn't see anything about taking the balance of the original flight off the cost to book an alternative flight. 

I've already applied for the compensation but haven't had a response in relation to that yet....like you say probably got a way of wriggling out of paying that too so massively out of pocket  

eskbanker

moremoneyplease said:

On the App the options were only request a refund or choose an alternative flight. Being as there wasn't a suitable alternative flight I felt the only option was to choose the refund for that flight.  I wasn't offered or didn't see anything about taking the balance of the original flight off the cost to book an alternative flight.

No, airlines won't offer that as an option - their obligation is to offer you the choice between refund or rebooked flight, but if you deem the alternative flight not to be suitable then that has to be dealt with manually as a separate exercise, as the regulations don't specifically address that scenario.

saajan_12

moremoneyplease said:

On the App the options were only request a refund or choose an alternative flight. Being as there wasn't a suitable alternative flight I felt the only option was to choose the refund for that flight.  I wasn't offered or didn't see anything about taking the balance of the original flight off the cost to book an alternative flight. 

There wouldn't be any point in that, given they are effectively supposed to fund the difference anyway rather than you paying it (the way its done is they pay the whole new flight instead of a refund + pay the difference). 

You say you weren't able to find an alternative flight in the app - was the flilght you ended up on via Easyjet, or another airline? If Easyjet, was that flight really not available in one part of the app? 

Ideally what you should have done is if no suitable flight on the rebooking options, then ignore either option and go ahead and book (reasonable) travel yourself, and then deal with it all afterwards. At this stage, you'll have to see if you can appeal to them to undo your refund request and instead request reimbursement for the rerouting. 

eskbanker

saajan_12 said:

You say you weren't able to find an alternative flight in the app - was the flilght you ended up on via Easyjet, or another airline? If Easyjet, was that flight really not available in one part of the app?

They flew from Heathrow, which rules out EasyJet!

moremoneyplease

Nothing on Easyjet until the Tuesday afternoon which was not practical with a 7 month old baby, disabled young mother and lady in her 80's as well as work commitments!  We flew BA/Aer Lingus from Heathrow. There was no assistance or guidance apart from being told to use the App or make our own arrangements.

I will speak to customer services and push for the difference in costs at least. I'm not holding out any hope for the taxi costs.  Thanks