Thread: Easyjet hell, confused about compensation

I recently flew to Spain/Gibraltar for my step-brother's wedding. About 10 of us were booked with Easyjet from Gatwick to Gibraltar.

We were supposed to leave at 7am on Saturday 20th September, so to get there from the Isle of Wight we had to travel on Friday evening and wait at Gatwick overnight.

The flight was initially delayed by 2 hours, and then by a further 5 hours and was rerouted to Malaga. We were given £9 worth of vouchers each to buy food, but n practice some people couldn't use them as they were too tired and miserable to stand in a queue for 30 minutes.The initial reason given was staff shortage, but when we got on board we were told it was because their pilot wasn't qualified to land at Gibraltar.

A coach was then laid on to take us from Malaga to Gibraltar, about a hundred miles away. This added about a further 7 hours delay, totalling 14 hours.

As I understand it, the EU rules say that you get 400 Euros each compensation if your flight is cancelled, but not if it is delayed. I don't fully understand how the difference is defined, as I would argue what happened to us, with the destination change, made the outcome so different that the effect was the same as a cancellation.

I haven't tried to claim anything yet, as the tickets were all booked by my brother and he is still on holiday.

Does anyone know what we should expect to get? I'm prepared to go to court if necessary.

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We were supposed to leave at 7am on Saturday 20th September, so to get there from the Isle of Wight we had to travel on Friday evening and wait at Gatwick overnight.

The flight was initially delayed by 2 hours, and then by a further 5 hours and was rerouted to Malaga. We were given £9 worth of vouchers each to buy food, but n practice some people couldn't use them as they were too tired and miserable to stand in a queue for 30 minutes.The initial reason given was staff shortage, but when we got on board we were told it was because their pilot wasn't qualified to land at Gibraltar.

Can't have been any fun. But I think they have fulfilled article 9, due under article 6.

Article 6
Delay
1. When an operating air carrier reasonably expects a flight to be delayed beyond its scheduled time of departure:
(a) for two hours or more in the case of flights of 1500 kilometres or less; or
(b) for three hours or more in the case of all intra-Community flights of more than 1500 kilometres and of all other flights between 1500 and 3500 kilometres; or
(c) for four hours or more in the case of all flights not falling under (a) or (b),
passengers shall be offered by the operating air carrier:
(i) the assistance specified in Article 9(1)(a) and 9(2); and
(ii) when the reasonably expected time of departure is at least the day after the time of departure previously announced, the assistance specified in Article 9(1)(b) and 9(1)(c); and
(iii) when the delay is at least five hours, the assistance specified in Article 8(1)(a). You could have walked out and got a refund, no good of course.
2. In any event, the assistance shall be offered within the time limits set out above with respect to each distance bracket

As I understand it, the EU rules say that you get 400 Euros each compensation if your flight is cancelled, but not if it is delayed. I don't fully understand how the difference is defined, as I would argue what happened to us, with the destination change, made the outcome so different that the effect was the same as a cancellation.

They got you to your destination, so it's definately not a cancellation. I'm only giving an opinion, I'm no expert on this....so please don't take it as gospel.

Gib is a grey area reading the regs, though I don't think it matters, as as far as I can see only article 8(1)(a) and 9(1)(a) and 9(2) apply.

If it was me I'd still write to Easyjet and set out why you were not happy, and telling them what you want.

EUR-Lex - 32004R0261 - EN

I am getting very cynical about this now, maybe Easyjet did just cancel it and moved you over to an alternative, which would clearly be a cancellation. The two different stories you got are very suspicious and commonplace when they are fibbing.

Did they change your flight number Zamzara? That would be a good start. If it was merely a re-routing I think this would apply:

Sometimes airlines are unable, for any number of reasons, to fly to the destination printed on the ticket. If your flight is diverted, the airline must get you to the destination airport on your ticket or reservation* - at no extra cost to you. Sometimes the airline may arrange buses or ask you to take a train and send in the receipt to be reimbursed. The AUC would prefer that passengers were not asked to make the initial outlay in this way, but accepts that it may sometimes be unavoidable. The important point is that it should, in the end, not cost you any extra to get to your destination. However, if the airline arranges a bus and you choose to go by other means you will have a struggle to get the airline to reimburse you.

*The main exception to this would be if a flight was disrupted to avoid war or civil strife

http://www.caa.co.uk/default.aspx?ca...90&pageid=4432

I would still write to Easyjet, then the AUC. I would also read the Montreal convention. If you think you have a case obviously you could win in court.

Good luck with this.

Thanks for the info.

Another question I have is if we turn out not to be entitled to the fixed compensation, can we claim actual losses under general consumer laws? The terms and conditions obviously exclude all liability, but as such terms generally have no effect, is there a statutory exemption for airlines?

It may be worth checking the flightmole forum flight Mole Forum which discusses these matters in more depth and look at claims that other passengers have made against EasyJet and other airlines for cancellation and delay

Totally agree, It's always my first port of call. Hugh & crew certainly know their apples. I just wish the site was bigger, but they certainly know how to rubbish an 'extraordinary circumstance' claim. Not relevant to this this thread...but worth knowing.

Well the situation so far is I wrote to them asking for €400, and quoted the case of Harbord.

They initially seemed to be cooperating, admitted that the flight had been canceled, and asked for the names of the other people on the flight.

But then they wrote back saying the disruption was due to extraordinary circumstances and that I would receive nothing, but they didn't even bother to say what the extraordinary circumstances were!

So today I've sent a lba, and unless they give in first we'll see if they turn up in court to explain these 'extraordinary' circumstances.

Well Zamzara, if you don't get any joy from easyjet, report them to the Civil Aviation Authority. They have a customer complaints section and will investigate for you. Email Phill.Pearce@caa.co.uk, and he shall respond.
Regarding these EU rules,and €400 compensation, can anyone tell me what the timescale is when a flight is cancelled. ie has it only to be a short time before take off, or can it be several days/weeks?

Their response to my letter before action was a resending of the same 'extraordinary circumstances' letter, with a few words changed near the end. The letter is obviously just a canned response and shows they haven't even looked into the circumstances.

In my experience companies like this only take any notice one the summons has been received. Good luck.

I don't want to complain though. Easyjet have clearly stated they are not interested. Does that body have the power to award compenation, and do I have to use them rather than going to court?

Right I've just found out it is a criminal offence under the Civil Aviation Regulatons 2005 (2005/975) to fail to pay the prescribed compensation.

Therefore I have also complained to the AUC and asked them to take action, but unless they assure me they can get the compensation paid as well, court action starts Monday morning.

N1 has been issued.

Also was quite please to see this today.

Easyjey have been taking me for a fool and trying to get me to sign a waiver/confidentiality agreement/statement of non-liability. I told them no. Being muppets, they admitted the full claim to the court anyway but still haven't paid.

I have now received a CCJ against them for £385 to be paid forthwith. I'm about to write and say that unless they pay very quickly, they can expect the bailiffs.

I'm also instigating a further criminal complaint for misleading actions under the Protection from Unfair Trading Regs 2008.

Superb - keep going and let us know how you get on.

They eventually paid up in full the same day I asked the court for a warrant of distress. The court were able to refund the fee for that.

The CAA say they are investigating, TS haven't responded, pretty much as expected.

EasyJet should be rebranded to Lemon Airline “guaranteed to leave a sour taste in your mouth “

Let me explain what happened and has leaded me to make the above statement.
On the 18th December 2009 my friend was book on a flight from Luton London airport to Belfast. This flight was cancelled fine I accept you have no control over the weather. She was told to book another flight which she did for later that evening I think it was flight 169. Anyway she waited the whole day at the airport just in case there was an update. Please also note that quite a few times during the course of the day your staff abandoned the EasyJet counter on a number of occasions. This can be simple confirm by checking the log in and out on the terminal servers at that point (The joys of working for an IT company you know about these things). 2 hours before the flight none of your staff or agents were either at the baggage check in or were at your EasyJet counter. Needless to say that when the EasyJet counter was opened we and 14 other people were informed that it was too late and that the pilot refused to wait to load the bags and the plane left with out my friend or the 14 other passengers. Your staff then informed everyone that they need to get on the internet to sort out another booking. Now I need to stop you here surly it was your staff or agents that screwed up why must the customer fix the screw up. By the way you are still responsible for the actions of your agent no contract or action will resolve you of this. On the 19th December 2009 at 8am we returned back to Luton London Airport and stood again in the cue. Eventually We managed to get to speak to your so called agent / staff member Amanda Noo (Something) lady with a lot of attitude and black hair with glasses. She should never have been in a client facing position as she doesn’t have the skills to deal with people. Especially your customers who pay money. Anyway it was explained to her in detail as to what had transpired the day before. She claims she was unaware of what had occurred. I find this very had to believe. She called the so called manager via a mobile phone in the back office and he or she must have brought her up to speed. She returned back to the counter and informed us that she was doing us a big favour and would put my friend on a flight on the 24th December 2009. At this point it was just to much for my friend who broke down in tears. At this point and Amanda will remember me I muttered that We were in a 3rd world country ( How did I come to this conclusion simple (1) Your website was not updated timelessly and didn’t match the Luton London Airport. (2) Staff not on your counter. (3) Customers who by the way you need to remember pay money into your company which allows you to continue to trade not been timelessly updated. (4) Your staff / agent are unable to advise your customers of what was happening. (5) No management staff on hand to back up your staff or Agents with information. In fact I challenge you to travel to South Africa which according to the world is a 3rd world country and find the same amount of incompetency. The public would not tolerate it. Needless to say your staff member or Agent declined to assist us any further and I at that point immediately apologised she was not interested and instructed all staff to no longer assist us and while I was talking to her she walked away (Once again sign of someone who is unable to deal with a member of the public) not willing to understand the frustration and the trauma that we had gone through or the expense. Eventually and hour and a half later we were able to get my friend booked on a flight. My friend who by the way is Miss Christine Mcleod eventually caught a train to HollyHead and caught a boat across to Ireland. I would also like to point out she is from South Africa and is going to be returning back to South Africa with a mind set that EasyJet are totally useless as a Airline. I am sure this is not something that you want. As they say you can spend a heap of money on good advertising and it only takes one unhappy customer to trash that effort.

I would like to point out that I had to travel back and forwards to the Airport in total 56 miles who going pay for that cost wear and tear and petrol? Parking costs in total £15-00 at Luton Airport who is going to pay that cost? 6 hours of my time which I could have being doing business, who is going to pay for that time? Then there is the cost on your clip joint telephone line which is never answered as it was flooded by calls. I wonder if your company is and ISO reg company if so you need to relook at how things are done as you failed on so many levels. I also wonder do you have a business continuity plan? If you do no one implemented it or if they did the staff or agents didn’t know what to do.

Here is hoping you have a great Xmas and let’s hope you do not ruin anyone else day! Please get some professionally trained staff who at least can deal with customers in a manner which leaves the customer with a feeling of being loved not screwed. In fact if you take a walk over to Ryan air counter. You will immediately see a difference from the cowboys you employ. Plus interesting they have a little sign which actually reflects everything that we went through while doing business with your company. I think you would agree that’s very interesting!

Regards

Martin Fox