Easyjet - costs incurred by delayed flight

Chrissielr · 12th July 2006, 11:26

My husband and I were booked onto a 19:40 Palma flight from Luton flight on Saturday 14 May, but after sitting in the departure lounge until 19:50 all the passengers were called to the gate only to be told the flight was being delayed until 08:30 the next day. I'm sure you can imagine the mayhem (hence calling us all to the gate so that bad PR would be limited), especially when we were told we would have to fund emergency accommodation and transport ourselvs and claim back from Customer Services by mail.

On 6 June I sent a polite letter plus receipts requesting reimbursement of £152.85, but as of 6 July I still had not heard back from them. I went through the Customer Service telephone hell and eventually spoke to Aatish on 7 July who told me that my letter had been scanned in on 11 June, but, due to high workloads, was still in the English Language queue to be answered. I enquired as to when this might be and he said there was no deadline.

Am I wrong for being mad about this? I could (grudgingly) accept having to wait 28 days for a reimbursement, but over a month and still nothing is rubbish! As I am now fully stuck in County Court claim mode, I have considered sending them an LBA, then issuing a claim on MCOL to get my money back plus interest.

Has anybody got any comments/thoughts on whether this would be appropriate, or what else I could do to get Easyjet moving?

sequenci · 12th July 2006, 12:37

Quote:

Originally Posted by Chrissielr

My husband and I were booked onto a 19:40 Palma flight from Luton flight on Saturday 14 May, but after sitting in the departure lounge until 19:50 all the passengers were called to the gate only to be told the flight was being delayed until 08:30 the next day. I'm sure you can imagine the mayhem (hence calling us all to the gate so that bad PR would be limited), especially when we were told we would have to fund emergency accommodation and transport ourselvs and claim back from Customer Services by mail.

On 6 June I sent a polite letter plus receipts requesting reimbursement of £152.85, but as of 6 July I still had not heard back from them. I went through the Customer Service telephone hell and eventually spoke to Aatish on 7 July who told me that my letter had been scanned in on 11 June, but, due to high workloads, was still in the English Language queue to be answered. I enquired as to when this might be and he said there was no deadline.

Am I wrong for being mad about this? I could (grudgingly) accept having to wait 28 days for a reimbursement, but over a month and still nothing is rubbish! As I am now fully stuck in County Court claim mode, I have considered sending them an LBA, then issuing a claim on MCOL to get my money back plus interest.

Has anybody got any comments/thoughts on whether this would be appropriate, or what else I could do to get Easyjet moving?

i would certainly threaten them with court action.

send a pre-lim letter giving a step by step account of what happened. i would also let them know of your intention to write to the ombudsman/regulator.

then send an lba if nothing has happened from the original letter

best of luck!

StudentInDebt · 15th July 2006, 13:36

Quote:

i would also let them know of your intention to write to the ombudsman/regulator.

And who would that be?

Were you informed of the reason for the delay and whether or not the EU denied boarding compensation was applicable?

rjstott · 17th July 2006, 06:12

Right to care
1. Where reference is made to this Article, passengers shall be offered free of charge:
(a) meals and refreshments in a reasonable relation to the waiting time;
(b) hotel accommodation in cases
- where a stay of one or more nights becomes necessary, or
- where a stay additional to that intended by the passenger becomes necessary;
(c) transport between the airport and place of accommodation (hotel or other).
2. In addition, passengers shall be offered free of charge two telephone calls, telex or fax messages, or e-mails.
3. In applying this Article, the operating air carrier shall pay particular attention to the needs of persons with reduced mobility and any persons accompanying them, as well as to the needs of unaccompanied children.
Air Transport Users Council, CAA HOUSE, 45-59 Kingsway, London WC2B 6TE, United Kingdom.

So in light of your circumstances Easyjet breached this rule because they did not provide these things, you had to do it yourself. First off complain to the above address and get their spin on what should have happened. Do not accept delay from Easyjet, start a claims process with appropriate letters with the intent of going to court if not settled in full. In these circumstances it would be fair to claim not only interest on the full amount, since you paid out but also a reasonable sum for inconvenience caused by them not providing what you were entitled to.

Chrissielr · 17th July 2006, 12:44

Quote:

Originally Posted by StudentInDebt

And who would that be?

Were you informed of the reason for the delay and whether or not the EU denied boarding compensation was applicable?

Yes - the reason for dealy was staff sickness. When asked why a standby crew was not available, they could not answer.

Chrissielr · 17th July 2006, 12:45

Quote:

Originally Posted by rjstott

Right to care
1. Where reference is made to this Article, passengers shall be offered free of charge:
(a) meals and refreshments in a reasonable relation to the waiting time;
(b) hotel accommodation in cases
- where a stay of one or more nights becomes necessary, or
- where a stay additional to that intended by the passenger becomes necessary;
(c) transport between the airport and place of accommodation (hotel or other).
2. In addition, passengers shall be offered free of charge two telephone calls, telex or fax messages, or e-mails.
3. In applying this Article, the operating air carrier shall pay particular attention to the needs of persons with reduced mobility and any persons accompanying them, as well as to the needs of unaccompanied children.
Air Transport Users Council, CAA HOUSE, 45-59 Kingsway, London WC2B 6TE, United Kingdom.

So in light of your circumstances Easyjet breached this rule because they did not provide these things, you had to do it yourself. First off complain to the above address and get their spin on what should have happened. Do not accept delay from Easyjet, start a claims process with appropriate letters with the intent of going to court if not settled in full. In these circumstances it would be fair to claim not only interest on the full amount, since you paid out but also a reasonable sum for inconvenience caused by them not providing what you were entitled to.

rjstott thanks very much for this info. The guy I spoke to on the phone did mention the AUC, but in a manner which almost said "we don't care" if you contact them. Will start typing that letter right now!

StudentInDebt · 17th July 2006, 19:11

This is why Easyjet weren't exactly quaking in their boots when you mentioned the AUTC:

Quote:

2. If the airline does not give me assistance when my flight is delayed and I have to pay myself, can I get my money back?

The Regulation does not deal with this situation. But we think that the airline, having failed to honour its obligation under the Regulation at the time of the disruption, should be prepared to reimburse reasonable expenditure on those items listed under “assistance” in the Regulation on sight of receipts.

Quote:

Where we can help
..
If you have already made a written complaint to an airline or airport, and you are not satisfied with the outcome, we may be able to help, though we have no powers to compel service providers to accept our views.

There is the following Memorandum on the CAA website but I wouldn't hold your breath waiting to get this resolved
http://www.caa.co.uk/docs/148/DBC%20...ary%202005.pdf

For future reference, depending on your chosen carrier, you may have to force the EC regulation 261/2004 down their throats.

Chrissielr · 18th July 2006, 09:24

Quote:

Originally Posted by StudentInDebt

This is why Easyjet weren't exactly quaking in their boots when you mentioned the AUTC:

There is the following Memorandum on the CAA website but I wouldn't hold your breath waiting to get this resolved
http://www.caa.co.uk/docs/148/DBC%20...ary%202005.pdf

For future reference, depending on your chosen carrier, you may have to force the EC regulation 261/2004 down their throats.

They actually mentioned AUC to me and this explains why.

MrMatteh · 18th July 2006, 17:03

The only thing I can suggest is if you have Travel Insurance, claim the Delayed Departure benefit...

Some policies, *very few* may cover additional expenses.. but, none of the one that I deal with at work do!

rjstott · 19th July 2006, 10:44

I emailed the CAA today along the lines that the majority of airlines are not complying with the EC regulation No 261/2004. In particular they are not obeying Article 14 which requires them to provide information as follows:-

Quote:

2. An operating air carrier denying boarding or cancelling a flight shall provide each passenger affected with a written notice setting out the rules for compensation and assistance in line with this Regulation. It shall also provide each passenger affected by a delay of at least two hours with an equivalent notice. The contact details of the national designated body referred to in Article 16 shall also be given to the passenger in written form.

It is quite clear that airlines have re-written parts of the Regulation to suit themselves and in the process have managed to seriously mislead people about their rights. The example I provided to the CAA was British Airways who have a written policy on their web site but it fails to include the key word FREE and later suggests that refunds are only obtainable after the fact by application.
Most other airlines have also changed the key wording around what the regulation describes as EXTRAORDINARY CIRCUMSTANCES to suit themselves. The regulation doesn't define extraordinary but I don't believe they could exclude commonly encountered events such as aircraft breakdown, crew shortage or bad weather.
The regulation does not preclude claiming for additional compensation but states that the statutory compensation should be deducted from any settlement.
I will post any reply I receive. The CAA have a statutory duty under Statutory Instrument 2005 No. 975 to police these regulations in the UK.

StudentInDebt · 19th July 2006, 10:59

Quote:

The regulation doesn't define extraordinary but I don't believe they could exclude commonly encountered events such as aircraft breakdown, crew shortage or bad weather.

Actually it does, have you read it?

Quote:

(14) As under the Montreal Convention, obligations on operating
air carriers should be limited or excluded in cases
where an event has been caused by extraordinary
circumstances which could not have been avoided even
if all reasonable measures had been taken. Such circumstances
may, in particular, occur in cases of political
instability, meteorological conditions incompatible with
the operation of the flight concerned, security risks,
unexpected flight safety shortcomings and strikes that
affect the operation of an operating air carrier.
(15) Extraordinary circumstances should be deemed to exist
where the impact of an air traffic management decision
in relation to a particular aircraft on a particular day
gives rise to a long delay, an overnight delay, or the
cancellation of one or more flights by that aircraft, even
though all reasonable measures had been taken by the
air carrier concerned to avoid the delays or cancellations.

"Aircraft breakdown" is a technical problem which prevents the safe despatch of the aircraft - a flight safety shortcoming.
"Bad Weather" - meterological conditions incompatible with the operation of the flight concerned.

Crew shortage is a circumstance that would be covered as this would be down to the operator.

I agree that the carriers are being negligent in informing passengers of their rights under the act.

Chrissielr · 20th July 2006, 14:27

Right, following all of the advice I have cobbled together the following letter to go to Andy Harrison by Special Delivery tomorrow. Any comments would be gratefully received.

PRIVATE AND CONFIDENTIAL
Mr A Harrison
Chief Executive Officer
easyJet Airline Company Limited
easyLand
London Luton Airport
Bedfordshire
LU2 9LS

Dear Mr Harrison

Delayed flight – ESY2777, Sunday 14 May 19:15

I am very disappointed that a representative of your company has failed to respond to my letter of the 5 June and email of 23 June (enclosed).

Furthermore, I spoke to your customer service representative Aatish on 7 July and quite frankly I am shocked that there is no formal procedure in place for dealing with the financial impact incurred by customers due to delays. I had always reposed confidence in your integrity and expertise as a passenger carrier.

I now realise that your company’s treatment of my myself and my fellow passengers on Sunday 14 May is in direct contravention of articles of EC Regulation 261/2004. Namely Article 14 which requires passengers to be provided with written details of their rights for delays of 2 hours or more, and also Article 9 which requires you to provide refreshment, accommodation and telephone calls free of charge.

Therefore, I now require repayment in full of all costs incurred by myself within 14 days. Unfortunately if you do not comply fully, I shall have no further option than to begin a claim against you for the full amount plus interest plus my costs and without further notice.

Yours faithfully,

mailmannz · 21st July 2006, 11:17

There was a case earlier in the year when someone actually got off their backside and took Easy Jet to court for everything he was entitled to under the new regulations.

Of particular note was how the Judge told Easy Jet that they could not say to customers that a flight with the same flight number leaving from a DIFFERENT airport was the same flight.

It was also interesting that the judge hammered Easy Jet for misleading customers because the plane they said the problems were with WASNT the plane that was being used on the actual flight.

Seems the real problem is with airline operators who are pulling flights because they dont have enough passengers to make a profit (or break even) and then blaming the cancellation on technical issues. This to me seems something that the EU and Government MUST take more seriously and start fining or imprisoning airline executives!

Mailman

GraemeC · 21st July 2006, 18:50

I have two friends who sucessfully took easyjet to court for the costs of onward flights after the easyjet flight was cancelled due to 'bad weather'

In this case, Swiss Air and BA were still flying to the destination, hence my friends got a flight with them and later brought a case against easyjet for the cost of their flights, refund of the easyjet flights and reasonable costs for their time (probably based on their charge out rates at their law firms - ouch!)

easyjet settled for everything out of court, but it took quite a bit of time and determination

One pliot commented that it was perhaps a circumstance outside of easyjets control if their pilots were not as qualified to fly in the bad weather as the Swiss/BA pilots - an airline using an 'its outside our control as our pilots arent qualified enough' defence seems like commercial sucide to me (imagine what the press would do with that story)

In your case, clearly the delay was due to something within the airlines control, hence you should be able to claim all your expenses and get the cost of your flights refunded - good luck

Chrissielr · 3rd August 2006, 18:19

Well folks thanks for all your advice! I returned from holiday today to find this email in my inbox:

"Dear Mrs XXXXX

Thank you for your email about a refund. I would like to apologise for the delay in replying and can assure you this is not of our usual standards.

I would like to offer our sincere apologies for the inconvenience caused by the cancellation of your flight.

I can confirm that we have now authorised a refund for the taxi, hotel in Luton, meal costs total of £130.00 This will be credited back to the card used for payment on the original booking within the next 5-10 working days.

Unfortunately, we are unable to reimburse any further costs. Therefore, we would advise you to pursue any further claims through your travel insurers. To assist you with your claim, we are able to provide a letter verifying the cancellation upon request.

Just to advise, for quick reference many questions can be answered through our Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ's), which is available either through the home page of www.easyjet.com or through the ‘contact us’ section.

Thank you for contacting us, Mrs ROBERTS. If you need any further help, please contact us again either by calling 0871 244 2366 (calls cost 10p per minute; calls from mobile and other networks may cost more) or sending us an e-mail via the contact us section on easyJet.com.

Yours sincerely

Funda Collier
Customer Services Representative"

I can't quite believe this is in response to my original email of 23 June - more likely the letter to Andy Harrison.

Anyway, I shall be checking my bank balance daily until the 10 day deadline is up!

rjstott · 9th August 2006, 06:10

Well done, just proves that persistence pays off!

llevy · 23rd August 2006, 10:22

Changing a booking on easyJet incurrs a Flight Change fee of EUR 22.50. They then charge another cheeky EUR 15, for something called the Flight Fare Difference, even though the flight you are rebooking to is CHEAPER than the one you changed from. Surely that would mean that you paid the Flight Change fee but got a CREDIT or REFUND for the difference???? I call that daylight robbery.

This is just another example of the cheap, callous, and outrightly disrespectful attitude that easyJet has towards the consumer. It's high time this airline was exposed in terms of its bad business practice.

easyJet and the like are in dire need of an airline watchdog authority so that their cowboy practises can be severely curtailed.

Dealing with easyJet is an experience in deception from beginning to end. The first clue is the doublespeak phrase at the start of the website, which states "Book a Cheap Flight". Sure, some of the flights are cheap, but many many more are ridiculously expensive and anything but cheap. The cheapies are loss leaders. The no frills image is just extra profit. In the end the consumer has been a big loser to many destinations with easyJet. Often there are cheaper deals with the mainline carriers like BA, but people are conned into the cheap idea. The reality is often different. Not to mention the credit card surcharges at the end, which no doubt are higher than cost and therefore another hidden charge.

Lastly, if you do need help you call a series of numbers with a variety of charges which, in many cases are not advertised, and wait a long while to go through a large number of prompts to push this or that. One is either left waiting for a long while for actual help (which is often stroppy and offhand) or the service you are looking for (in my case the Customer Service Department) doesn't exist from a phone point of view.

The problem is that they have actually pushed out competitors from various destinations, initially with cheap fares, thus reducing competition in the long run, allowing them to control the market. Then up go the prices as demand increases. All this counts against the consumer in the end, who is easily led and conned in the short term.

I for one will vote with my wallet, attempting NEVER TO BOOK WITH easyJet again.

Brick Driver · 23rd August 2006, 12:50

I tickles me when people are happy to accept low fares but don't understand the Low Cost airline business model and complain about it.

To get a cheap flight you have to book early. The closer you get to the date of travel the higher the price of the ticket. This is one of the ways LoCo's make their money. If you book well in advance you will find that bargin. It also depends on demand. So for an early morning flight from London to Paris you should expect to pay more than you would a lunch time flight. This is simply because there is more demand for the morning flight because of business traffic. Mid week flights (Tuesday - Thursday) are often cheaper than weekend flights (Friday - Monday) simply because there is more demand from tourists on the weekends. This is why it is sometimes cheaper to book with a legacy carrier.

Now about changes on the ticket. Easyjet are not the only airline in the world to charge you for making a change to a ticket. Any airline will charge you if you buy a NON FLEXIABLE ticket and want to make a change later. Non Flexible means that you have bought a ticket for a specific flight at a specific time on a specific date. Where people often become confused is that the legacy carriers offer flexible tickets. These tickets allow you to change any part of the ticket free of charge. BUT flexible tickets are often double the price of non flexible tickets to compensate for not charging you to change it.

LoCo's operate on very tight budgets so the price the passenger pays remains low. FlyBe and Ryanair recently started to charge passengers for loading bags into the holds of aircraft. Simply because the baggage handler’s costs were high and these had to be added to the price of a ticket. Remove the baggage handlers and the savings are passed on to the passengers. If you want a bag put in the hold you pay for it so other passengers don't have to.

Now a word about the "taxes". Airlines are charged by the airports they use. These range from landing fees to parking fees and security fees. Depending on which airport you use these fees will differ. The airline is actually offering a seat at a very low price, as low as 99p with Ryanair, but the airport charges bump the price up. This is why LoCo's chose to use airports located outside the major cities they fly to. The inner city airports will charge a lot more than an outer city airport simply because of demand. The more an airport charges an airline the higher the ticket price.

Low cost airlines have made airline travel available to the masses through the way they operate. If it wasn’t for these airlines the likes of BA would still be free to charge what the wanted. The Low cost airline revolution was that threatening to the legacy carriers that they had to adapt their business models to stay in business. Remember post September the 11th? Only the LoCo’s remained profitable. This was because of the way they operate. Now that the legacy carriers have emulated this they are returning to profitable status.

Low cost airlines are so easy to use and if you watch what you are doing they are a great affordable means of travel. As long as you are 100% certain of when you want to travel, don’t alter anything on the ticket, don’t take over your luggage allowance and don’t buy anything onboard you can enjoy a very reasonable get away.

Hope this helps clear a few thigs up.
Yours
An ex airline industry employee

Rich44 · 23rd August 2006, 21:29

What you fail to mention is the general total contempt for the passenger exhibited by some of these airlines no frills doesnt mean no customer service the attitude of Easyjet and certainly Ryanair beggars belief, try complaining to Ryanair if you have a genuine grievance its pants at best

Grenson · 9th October 2007, 14:06

I would add another wheeze Easyjet employ:

I attempted to make a claim for hotel expenses for 3 people after a cancelled flight in Madrid, and they claimed that they 'do not accept credit card receipts' as evidence of payment -- ie. they want a hotel printout, even though the credit card slip stated the name of the hotel.

I wonder whether this is legal? I certainly can't find any reference to it on their website, so how were customers supposed to know that it advance?

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