personal finance

easyJet passengers voice anger over unpaid compensation


Passengers who had their holidays ruined after easyJet cancelled their flights at the last minute say they are being forced to wait months for their compensation because the airline seemingly won’t pay up.

In recent months Guardian Money’s Consumer Champions have been contacted by a number of readers complaining that the airline seems to be refusing to pay them.

Some of the frustrated passengers had taken the airline to the arbitration service CEDR and won their cases. The airline is bound to pay up if told to by the arbitration firm but, months on, the passengers claim the money awarded has still not been handed over.

Gill Parkinson was booked on an easyJet flight from Liverpool to Palma in May. The airline cancelled the flight, saying previous delays meant staff had run out of hours.

Parkinson asked for the €1,600 (£1,400) compensation that she, her partner and two young children were entitled to for denied boarding under the EU rules, and the arbitrators at CEDR agreed. But despite the July ruling, she says she is no closer to seeing the money.

“They have told me on numerous occasions – including after emailing their chief executive – that they will pay it, yet it still remains unpaid,” she says. “First they ruined our holiday – we lost our hotel and car hire and so on – and now this. It’s a ridiculous way to treat people.”

Nicola Eldridge is equally furious. She says the company ruined her holiday and has since shown “it couldn’t care less”. Back in February she booked three tickets to Athens. But when she tried to check in a month before the July flight, she found that the booking had been cancelled over fears that her Barclaycard had been used fraudulently. The airline had not told her but allowed her to rebook the same flights – at a £150 higher cost.

On the day of the flight they presented themselves at the Gatwick departure gate, only to be told that the airline had cancelled their tickets at 3.23am that morning – again, she says, without informing them.

The flight took off without them, meaning they lost £600 worth of accommodation they had booked. All her efforts to get the airline to refund and compensate her have been sidestepped, she says.

“I keep getting told that someone important is dealing with this, but nothing happens. We have been loyal customers of easyJet, but no more. I just don’t trust them to make a booking any more,” she says.

A board showing cancelled flights



Some easyJet passengers’ flights were cancelled at the very last minute. Photograph: Fabrizio Bensch/Reuters

Frank Tubman says he has been left frustrated by the airline’s inability to pay after his May flight from Malaga to Southend was sent to Liverpool due to cloudy conditions.

The airline had seemingly failed to put in place a contingency plan, meaning there were no staff to unload the luggage, and no coaches back to Essex. He says that at 3.30am the group, including four children, were forced to hire two taxis for the four-hour drive back to Southend.

Tubman says he was cheered when easyJet agreed to pay the €3,623 compensation for the eight passengers. However, the money has not arrived, he says, despite a promise to pay within 20 days.

And there are others. Jeannie Maroni says she has been waiting more than three months for a £313 refund. Paul Thomas is still owed £1,500 after easyJet cancelled flights from Bristol to Madrid.

EasyJet says it will always pay compensation when it is due, paying the majority of CEDR cases with 14 days. “We are continually working internally to reduce the small number of instances where the process takes longer than it should. We are progressing the claims highlighted to us and would like to apologise for any inconvenience caused by the delay.”

CEDR said airlines generally pay the compensation it awards. If there was evidence that this was not happening, it would ask the Civil Aviation Authority to intervene.



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