Pula to Bristol 14th July - Conpension claim rejected

FuffyCat

Like most threads on here and to no one's shock, our compensation claim was rejected for a ~3:15 hr delay on a flight from Pula to Bristol from EasyJet.

While waiting in the airport we were getting notifications saying it was delayed leaving Bristol (the previous leg), something about ATC. However, on boarding the plane, the pilot suggested it was some technical fault with the aircraft, flying in a new crew and a nervous passenger. So nothing to do with ATC. We were also checking the Bristol airport site and other sites that had no ATC announcements. So EasyJet were lying?

We submitted the claim, which was rejected with a vague explanation:

"We always review claims fairly and in keeping with EU/UK regulation.  We know how frustrating delays can be. We always aim to provide the best possible experience when flying with us, however, from time-to-time situations arise which are outside of our control and unfortunately when this happens we are unable to offer compensation.

To further explain what happened on the day; on the previous sector there was a runway closure due to the equipment operating your flight was affected by an unforeseen issue , resulted in long delays to flights. Ultimately and in the case of this flight, the delay pushed our crew into their maximum legal operating hours. There are strict industry wide rules on the number of hours our crew are allowed to work. To protect the safety of our customers and crew, these hours cannot be exceeded. We do take reasonable measures to avoid cancellations and delays to our flights by having replacement crews and spare aircraft available in our network. In the circumstances, these options were not possible as the delay to your flight was as a direct result of the runway closure ."

What in the world does "on the previous sector there was a runway closure due to the equipment operating your flight was affected by an unforeseen issue"?

We were not aware of any other flights delayed this much from Bristol on the day and I'm unable to get data from 14th July.

There was no way to reply to this rejection so we submitted a formal complaint asking for more explaination.

Does anyone have any experience with this kind of wording?

la531983

Was it an afternoon flight?

The delay was likely clocked up on its morning working.

FuffyCat

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82082390#Comment_82082390

Yes it was 14:30. The previous leg was Bristol to Pula, but not sure what it was before. We didn't see any other delays at Bristol on the Bristol to Pula one,

la531983

There would have been a flight from Bristol to somewhere else and back before the one to come and collect you.

TadleyBaggie

Actually the flight from Bristol to Pula was the first working of the day for the aircraft, it was due to take off at 10:35 but was delayed to 13:37. The previous flight for that aircraft was the night before from Glasgow.

FuffyCat

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82082482#Comment_82082482

Wow thanks, this is super helpful!

So the delay was caused only by the previous flight?

la531983

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82082482#Comment_82082482

Ha fair enough, thats a lot of dead time in the morning for a plane to be sat around!

FuffyCat

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82082482#Comment_82082482

Do you, by any chance, have access to the tail number of the aircraft please? I'm trying to investigate what actually went wrong. Although we have pushed back on EasyJet to ask too, however I have trust issues with them!

TadleyBaggie

Plane was G-EZTA

https://www.flightradar24.com/data/aircraft/g-ezta

la531983

^^^^this wont tell you the reason for the delay, though.

Be worth seeing if any NOTAMs were in force.

FuffyCat

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82082570#Comment_82082570

No I guess it won't.

I've been trying to sign up to a NOTAM site but unsuccesfully. I've submitted a query to the website owner.