Took on EasyJet and Won

sh856531

During the power cuts in Malaga in April we were stranded at the airport at 1am with a baby, along with a lot of other people. We did our best to muddle through but as you might imagine, being stuck at an airport with nowhere to go, in a powercut, with a baby - it was horrendous and expensive. EasyJet were nowhere to be found and didn't provide us any assistance. We worked hard to minimise our expenses in the expectation that EasyJet would eventually be able to help us get back home as they are legally required to do.

In reality, they did next to nothing to assist. If I didn't know better I would say they actually tricked us into accepting a refund, presumably knowing full well that we were stuck in Malaga and in accepting the refund, we would apparently forgo any right to assistance or expenses. Naturally they didn't tell us this when asked explicitly. We instructed them to only pay our refund if they were sure it wouldn't prevent us claiming expenses as we were still stuck. The refund came through 30 seconds later and the chat closed immediately. They were either incompetent, or cynically knew exactly what they were doing in forcing a refund on us.

So we were forced to arrange our own flights back home. Long story short, EasyJet used every trick in the book to claim that they were not liable for any expenses we incurred in resolving the fact that they left us stranded. For the avoidance of doubt, we never claimed any "compensation" just expenses that we incurred. We understood fully that a power cut is beyond their control. However the law requires that they render assistance in either case, and they set their ticket prices in accordance with being able to meet these obligations.

I'm not usually a litigious sort but I was so incensed at their obviously deliberate strategy of obfuscate and "just say no" that I took them to Aviation ADR, with every intention of taking them to court if necessary.

Aviation ADR actually came through for us and ruled that EasyJet owed us everything that we had claimed. 

I offer this in part to highlight that EasyJet's legal strategy appears to be one of - just say no at every request, knowing that most people will just give up in frustration. Don't - as long as you are being reasonable, proportionate and fair - get the AviationADR to adjudicate the matter and there is a very good chance you'll win. EasyJet are just awful and based on my experience and other postings here and elsewhere, I think their actual strategy is to deny deny deny, in the hope that enough people will give up before court, that it won't matter if they lose a few cases in the end.

For us, it took around 5 months but they've been instructed to pay us over £600 - essentially everything we were forced to pay when they cancelled their flight and left us up the creek. My only regret is there really doesn't seem to be a way to force something more punitive on them. Their strategy is so brazen that I think they should be forced to pay something quite punitive rather than just what they were required to pay by law all along.

Its depressing that a modern British company would seemingly so deliberately and aggressively flout the law, but you can win if you're willing to stand your ground

Best of luck

NoodleDoodleMan

"EasyJet were nowhere to be found and didn't provide us any assistance."

Yes a SAD airline - Stranded, Abandoned and Dumped...........our experience likewise.

RavingMad

Well done and thanks for sharing. How did you get home in the end? Booked the 1st available flight?

sh856531

RavingMad said:

Well done and thanks for sharing. How did you get home in the end? Booked the 1st available flight?

It was a bit of nightmare. We tried to get EasyJet to book us onto a flight but there was none available for a week. Ironically - if we had just said, well that's you're problem EasyJet - they would have had to pay for us to have an additional week in Spain. Part of why I was so angry at them was, we did everything we could to minimise, their expense. 

So we ended up arranging our own flights via Ryanair after a couple of days and that was when EasyJet started claiming it was now nothing to do with them. Our claim specifically hinged on the fact that we could prove they didn't offer any practical assistance, they didn't offer to book us on another airline and they deceived us - either deliberately or through incompetence as to what would happen if we accepted a refund. 

MyRealNameToo

sh856531 said:
My only regret is there really doesn't seem to be a way to force something more punitive on them. Their strategy is so brazen that I think they should be forced to pay something quite punitive rather than just what they were required to pay by law all along.

Punitive damages pretty much dont exist in the UK, instead regulators fine firms with that money either going to fund the regulator or be passed back to the government. 

The idea of them are weird in my mind... in a Motor accident case which whilst tragic the family of the deceased would have gotten under £100k in the UK, in the US they got $1m plus a further $50m in punitive damages. I can't fathom why the family should get so much more money than they should be entitled to just to punish the hire car company who's driver hit the family member. 

Presumably you arent ever going to fly EasyJet again?  I know with another budget airline you are basically barred for life from flying with them if you reclaim monies from them unless you reimburse them.

The one time easyJet were late for us it wasnt any hassle to claim the monies we were due.