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Last flight to LGW out of BCN on the 17th was cancelled after we arrived at the airport. (Weather, they claim.)
We made an attempt to find alternative flights via the EasyJet app. None available 17th, 18th, 19th. So we booked FR to STN the following day instead.
FR went fine but dropped us into STN mid rail strike. No STEX, all buses booked, we had to taxi it home or stranded.
EU261 claim denied as expected (exceptional circumstances). And a quick peek at that day shows many other flights turned back or cancelled, so probably was reasonably exceptional.
Reimbursements claim largely rejected too! 70% of costs rejected. Flights rejected as there were “EZY flights available within 48 hours” (not true). Taxis to and from BCN hotel, and taxi at the other end also rejected as “private arrangements made before/after disruption”. They accepted the hotel.
What now?
Reply (to which address?) firmly asserting their mistakes and requesting action?
If it fails, ask via letter before action if that’s their final response?
Then MCOL/CEDR/AviationADR?
Or give up and Amex Plat it?
Thank you, wise HfPers.
@TheOtherN it’s a bit complicated! Easyjet doesn’t owe you for the taxi home from Stansted, that is a matter for insurance, but depending on the cost it may or may not be worth a claim after the excess.
In respect of the taxis from and back to the airport, it depends whether they were offering something to get you back to the city which you rejected and made your own plans.
It is strange they agreed to pay for your hotel since, while it is not probative it is at least indicative that they considered they owed you Article 9 ‘Right to Care’ costs whereas the rest of what you say suggests they are relying in the EC261 Interpretative Guidelines 4.2 :-
“However, where an air carrier can demonstrate that when the passenger has accepted to give his or her personal contact details, it has contacted a passenger and sought to provide the assistance required by Article 8, but the passenger has nonetheless made his or her own assistance or re-routing arrangements, then the air carrier may conclude that it is not responsible for any additional costs the passenger has incurred and may decide not to reimburse them.”
I hope you kept screenshots of the app showing no availability on any flights because EasyJet’s defence will be that you didn’t give them a fair opportunity to reroute you, so if you went off piste and booked your own flights, that’s at your own expense. Easyjet doesn’t participate in CEDR but rather AviationADR so if you reach a dead end with Easyjet I would lodge a case with them. If looking at the app is your sole evidence of contacting Easyjet for a rerouting, I wouldn’t go to MCOL as it’s just too thin to warrant paying the fees.
Indeed, wish I’d had a chance to screenshot the lack of flights in-app, but it was a chaotic day.
Their distruption handling is broken, in-app. The check-in staff advised there were no flights (again, wish I’d recorded it) and to book flights separately. We only checked in-app because the staff also advised to book the hotel that way. However, without being able to book an alternative flight in-app, there was no way to book a hotel in-app either.
It feels like the hotel taxis are linked to the denial of the flights in the backend IT logic and they didn’t manually assess the claim.
Their own reply denying flight reimbursement is contradictory. It’s classed under “Flights available within 24 Hours” and then a specific note “EZY Flights were available within 48 hours of your disrupted flight”. (So … which is it, EZY?)
Ah well. One an email explaining the situation in more detail may provoke some human assessment.
Write up your attempts and sequence in which you tried to resolve these things and failed. Depending what time it was, state of youe phone battery etc., quite likely you’d not have been able to get through to Easyjet phone centre after your online attempts failed.
I would wish you had been more precise and more prompt in your notes but you did seek help at the airport and you did speak to a representative of Easyjet and that helps a lot in terms of ypur having given them the opportunuty to help you.
So draw up a timeline *sequence* of your attempts. Don’t assign specific timings – just an aporoximate start and end to the block of your attempts. It was night and you needed somewhere to sleep and to sort out a means of getting home asap and systems weren’t working for you despite attempts and you did ask people but this did not solve those problems and in the circumstances you did reasonable things.
In particular unless you know it exactly don’t be drawn into saying and don’t say a time for your search for a replacement flight online. If you get it wtong they can use it to damage your credibility – and they can see in their systems.
Assuming you did log in you could do a DSAR to Easyjet for details of your system (app or website or phone, if applicable) access on relevant days – that would pinpoint that you made an attempt. Until you have the exact time, just rely on positioning your online attempts within a sequencw of activities in a timeline (block of time) starting aporox x time and ending approx y time.
Read their ts and cs in case there’s anything else you may have missed that you need to cover off, before you send it off.
I’d smarten up my aporoach and give it.a firm go and would pursue it if they still try to refuse.
PS, why taxi. were you encumbered with luggage and aged grandmother etc? small children in tow late at night? was there no cheaper safe practical alternative available at the time of night?
Btw you were legally entitled to transport to Gatwick, if the most practical alternative you could find landed you at STN, and I suspect travel to your home might have been actually cheaper than to LGW. And my first thought was transport options are not that good from STN especially late day and evening. So if you check(ed) alternatives and in your circumstances (see above), a taxi may be perfectly reasonable and could even work out cheaper for Easyjet than public transport alternatives. Provide a note as to why taxi vs alternatives to EZ when you resubmit
Thanks LL.
Regarding taxis, yes the taxi from STN to North London cheaper than a taxi to LGW and then onward travel from there. Further, there were no transport options from STN due to rail strikes.
Will firm it all up and try again.
All good stories deserve an ending. After replying with a reasonable explanation of events, and wrapping up the firm email by asking the company to uphold their legal obligations, a reply came back a few days later agreeing that all monies should have been reimbursed.
And 10 days later the rest appeared in my account.
All’s well that ends well. Thanks, HfPers.
Great to hear it worked out!
Well done TheOtherN and thanks for coming back to let us know of your success.
Sorry to hijack this thread, but can I ask TheOtherN what email address you used?
I had an EC261 seemingly automatically rejected by EasyJet where the tracker says an email has been sent, but I haven’t received. I can see why… my flight due in at 23:00 EasyJet system says landed 01:57, but this is the time the plane landed and not when doors open etc. Fortunately I video recorded the plane doors not open and google for the time to prove this! I have no way to send comments or pictures to EasyJet though, and won’t let them away with this after they made me earn flight club membership then didn’t send and after they blamed a 2 day delay previously on the weather when the pilot told us fault with the plane!
Hi Niall
After they rejected the first claim, I responded to the usual customer support email (customer.support@easyjet.com) but didn’t get a confirmation the email had been received, so I followed up the next day with a fresh email to the same address quoting their reference number, and another contact via their webform on the website.
One or other of those got through. I would try both.
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