-
Hi, I am on the delayed flight EZY2429 LTN-NCE, Easyjet today (15th September, 18:35) it has been rescheduled/delayed until tomorrow, 16th September 13.30.
It would be unlikely that I will make it in time for my plan (rugby match). So I have booked myself an earlier flight out of Heathrow with BA so I could get there (hopefully) with enough time to make the match. I am not too clear on my rights here, I assume that I would not be covered for transport to Heathrow, overnight accommodation, etc… but I am writing here to ask my next best move regarding the Easyjet booking?
Easyjet have sent the updated flight time and said that I can cancel for a full refund. I do not know the reason for the initial delay but ultimately boarding was abandoned because Easyjet needed to change the crew (and this would have taken them past the Nice curfew time, as I understand it), so we were stuck overnight. They were in the process of organising accommodation at Luton, but I wasn’t in a position to wait so made my own arrangements.
Should I just take the refund? Does it affect any future compensation claim in a material way? I made my own plans accepting the losses so this post is focusing on what to do with the existing Easyjet booking. Thanks in advance!I don’t think you’ll get very far with Easyjet on this one, you do not have the right to a rerouting due to a delay and if you do not fly on the flight they wouldn’t owe you any duty of care or compensation.
They’re claiming extraordinary circumstances anyway – delay with special assistance on a previous flight
You can have a refund and one good thing about Easyjet is if you’re on a return ticket not flying the outbound doesn’t cause possible headaches with the return
Thanks for your response. Yes, I assumed as much. The last three trips I’ve been on have had significant overnight delays but this one was particularly time sensitive for me.
At least the new flight was with avios so has softened the blow.I was hoping you had used Avios, last minute availability can be very good and it’s probably the best value you can get out of them! Hope you make the match!
Hope you get to the match in time and importantly after all the kerfuffle that the side you support wins!
According to EU rules, a flight which has been postponed by five hours or more is to be considered as cancelled. You have the same rights as in case of a flight cancellation.
Therefore you are entitled to a rerouting and duty of care. Don’t think its possible for EZY to book direct on BA so in your shoes id leave the flight as it is (do not cancel it as you forfeit your rights) and claim the cost back and the duty of care.
According to EU rules, a flight which has been postponed by five hours or more is to be considered as cancelled. You have the same rights as in case of a flight cancellation.
Therefore you are entitled to a rerouting and duty of care. Don’t think its possible for EZY to book direct on BA so in your shoes id leave the flight as it is (do not cancel it as you forfeit your rights) and claim the cost back and the duty of care.
At five hours or more of delay, you are entitled to a refund if you no longer wish to travel, but you don’t have automatic rerouting rights although many airlines will offer this. In taking the refund, you will forfeit your entitlement to delay compensation for which you actually need to travel on the delayed flight.
I posted on here about an easyJet flight I had that was delayed overnight, so I took an alternative carrier due to a time sensitive commitment.
They wouldn’t pay for the alternative flight and I went to adr who reaffirmed the airline’s response.
Out of interest I just checked my Nationwide FlexPlus policy and in this scenario of a 12+ hr delay (6+ for a up to 4 night trip) they would have paid out either the cost of the trip or the cost of a new ticket (whichever was lower)
Easyjet can’t reroute on anyone else even if you ask and realistically you’re going to get nowhere asking them to reimburse you for a ticket because you needed to travel on the same day as their departure but a few hours earlier. CAA position is a rerouting on another cartier is only required if someone else can you back earlier by 1+ days I believe.
I posted on here about an easyJet flight I had that was delayed overnight, so I took an alternative carrier due to a time sensitive commitment.
They wouldn’t pay for the alternative flight and I went to adr who reaffirmed the airline’s response.
I think that’s completely outrageous.
The passenger is forced to turn up on time for the flight or he loses his money yet the airline has the freedom to move it as far as another day? That’s completely asymmetric obligtions, given the strictness of the timing imposition on the passenger surely this must be unfair and the airline should be obliged to make it right.
I’d have taken it to MCOL and would have needed a very full explanation as to privileges and concessions awarded to the airline industry by which laws, otherwise I’d completely lose faith in the law.
I posted on here about an easyJet flight I had that was delayed overnight, so I took an alternative carrier due to a time sensitive commitment.
They wouldn’t pay for the alternative flight and I went to adr who reaffirmed the airline’s response.
I think that’s completely outrageous.
The passenger is forced to turn up on time for the flight or he loses his money yet the airline has the freedom to move it as far as another day? That’s completely asymmetric obligtions, given the strictness of the timing imposition on the passenger surely this must be unfair and the airline should be obliged to make it right.
I’d have taken it to MCOL and would have needed a very full explanation as to privileges and concessions awarded to the airline industry by which laws if the airline was allowed to get away with this, otherwise I’d completely lose faith in the law.
I posted on here about an easyJet flight I had that was delayed overnight, so I took an alternative carrier due to a time sensitive commitment.
They wouldn’t pay for the alternative flight and I went to adr who reaffirmed the airline’s response.
I think that’s completely outrageous.
The passenger is forced to turn up on time for the flight or he loses his money yet the airline has the freedom to move it as far as another day? That’s completely asymmetric obligtions, given the strictness of the timing imposition on the passenger surely this must be unfair and the airline should be obliged to make it right.
I’d have taken it to MCOL and would have needed a very full explanation as to privileges and concessions awarded to the airline industry by which laws, otherwise I’d completely lose faith in the law.
On what basis/legal proposition do you say MCOL could/would have provided a different answer?
The EU rules have been around for twenty years, with lots of very passenger friendly judgments in the interim but nothing to suggest passengers in all (or indeed very many) circumstances can rush off and buy tickets with another carrier and expect to be reimbursed; there have to be limitations. There is a very clear distinction of rights that arise from delays, cancellations or downgrading.
You say the obligations are asymmetric, but expecting passengers to turn up on time is rather different to the complexities of airline operations. The airlines don’t want these delays or cancellations; they cost them a lot of money, but they are inevitable.
I very much feel @tapnshres’s pain here but it does seem to be one to file under “life sucks” and move on. A good travel insurance policy would be key here but, as an American once told me, hindsight is 20:20.
I chose to go to Marseille a day early to avoid any such stresses which was a very expensive decision given hotel prices. Obviously everything went to plan (even down to Scotland being outclassed but not disgracing themselves) but if I were to do it again then I think I would have flown the same day and taken my chances.
I’m off to see Scotland lose to Ireland in a few weeks and that will very much be a fly in, fly out visit with my friend and I arriving on separate Air France flights. The chance of one of us not making it must be greater than 1% but life is too short to always have a buffer.
I’m now questioning my Olympics flights with EasyJet where we land only 28 hours before our first event. Seeing Scotland lose at rugby is pretty routine for me but the Olympics much less so.
I hope @tapnshres made it to the game in time and the stresses will be forgotten.
I posted on here about an easyJet flight I had that was delayed overnight, so I took an alternative carrier due to a time sensitive commitment.
They wouldn’t pay for the alternative flight and I went to adr who reaffirmed the airline’s response.
I think that’s completely outrageous.
The passenger is forced to turn up on time for the flight or he loses his money yet the airline has the freedom to move it as far as another day? That’s completely asymmetric obligtions, given the strictness of the timing imposition on the passenger surely this must be unfair and the airline should be obliged to make it right.
I’d have taken it to MCOL and would have needed a very full explanation as to privileges and concessions awarded to the airline industry by which laws, otherwise I’d completely lose faith in the law.
On what basis/legal proposition do you say MCOL could/would have provided a different answer?
The EU rules have been around for twenty years, with lots of very passenger friendly judgments in the interim but nothing to suggest passengers in all (or indeed very many) circumstances can rush off and buy tickets with another carrier and expect to be reimbursed; there have to be limitations. There is a very clear distinction of rights that arise from delays, cancellations or downgrading.
You say the obligations are asymmetric, but expecting passengers to turn up on time is rather different to the complexities of airline operations. The airlines don’t want these delays or cancellations; they cost them a lot of money, but they are inevitable.
@JDB I’m not suggesting passengers who booked a flight on one day so as to arrive in good time to attend a particular event, should “rush off and book another carrier” without having already given the carrier that has failed them the chance to provide timely transport. But if that carrier has failed them then as mentioned by another poster the EU at least accepts that more than 5hrs delay is as good as a cancellation. And IMV a delay with promised travel only on the following day definitely is every bit as bad as a cancellation. People have commitments the same as airlines do.
I’d expect courts to recognise this in their interpretation of rights conferred by EU261 and cover the person for the costs to achieve what the flight he paid for, sold to depart and land at a particular time that the passenger was tied to, did not, as that flight failed to operate at a timing within any reasonable timing as compared to the timing purchased. In other words the flight was as good as cancelled for the purpose this passenger had booked it.
My views are also reinforced by the fact that in Covid I had a number of flights booked with this same airline Easyjet and Easyjet *lied* when they cancelled my flights claiming they were not cancelled but rescheduled by 12-14 hours, when they’d cancelled my flights and other flights and consolidated them onto a completely different existing other flight. They lied. I am aware of libel laws in saying this and I kept specific notes at the time.
The OP was incorrect about 5 hour + delays – this only give gives rise to the right to a refund and, if you have already started your journey, a flight home. It does not give rise to any rerouting rights, nor the freedom to go and buy tickets from another airline and seek reimbursement. You are therefore expecting ADR or the court to provide a decision which is outside their powers. Fine, you may think this is unfair but it’s just as unfair to expect judges to do things they are not allowed to do or to say the AviationADR was “outrageous” in correctly applying the law.
The EU may change these rules (and we would likely follow), but I don’t think you would like the proposals that were supposed to be published in Q2 but may never emerge!
Luckily unlike, say the French legal system, judges in the UK can effectively change the law by their decisions. It’s not outside the power of a UK judge to make a reasonable interpretation and state why, on the basis of what he did this so as to define for precedent. Fairness and reasonableness and a better chance of an ordinary person having a chance against abuses or unfairness caused by those bigger than him is something we used to have a better chance of in Britain.
I know at MCOL level, strictly speaking, precedent can’t be created but a delay like this has to reasonably be considered a cancellation for this passenger or at least the substantive non-provision of the flight that was purchased.
Otherwise if my car breaks down I’ll just decide I’ll travel the following day.
Luckily unlike, say the French legal system, judges in the UK can effectively change the law by their decisions. It’s not outside the power of a UK judge to make a reasonable interpretation and state why, on the basis of what he did this so as to define for precedent. Fairness and reasonableness and a better chance of an ordinary person having a chance against abuses or unfairness caused by those bigger than him is something we used to have a better chance of in Britain.
I know at MCOL level, strictly speaking, precedent can’t be created but a delay like this has to reasonably be considered a cancellation for this passenger or at least the substantive non-provision of the flight that was purchased.
Otherwise if my car breaks down I’ll just decide I’ll travel the following day.
A District Judge simply does not have that latitude and the precedent in these cases has already been established by senior courts. The law on this point is already well established. Air tickets purchased on their own also aren’t governed by usual consumer legislation that considers fairness etc.
Even where there is a right to re-routing,being re-imbursed for buying your own replacement flight would require you to have given the airline a chance to put you on that flight, or another similarly timed one. You can’t just go and buy the tickets first (unless maybe you have made decent efforts to contact them and been unable to get through)
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.
Popular articles this week:
