Easyjet fiasco

[debz1]

My son, daughter and law and three very excited grandchildren (8,7 and 4) set off to catch their flight from Luton to Palma yesterday pm. On arrival they were informed there was an hour delay so they settled in at Frankie and Benny's. Finally the flight was called and they set off for the departure gate along with a couple of hundred other couples with young children. Suddenly an announcement was made that the flight had been cancelled due to the crew going over the the time they could fly. My son said it was utter chaos with Easyjet offering no customer service at all. Finally they were informed that they could book another transfer or get a refund. After a panicky phone call to us at home ( they couldn't access the airport wifi) we discovered all Easyjet flights were sold out until next Sunday! We finally booked them a BA flight from Heathrow to Madrid leaving 10.20 today then an onward flight to Palma leaving an hour and a half later. They got a taxi to Heathrow and stayed last night in a hotel. As you can imagine it was very stressful, especially with young children who were beside themselves.

Yesterday was the busiest day of the year to travel but surely some provision by the airline for another crew should have been in place. The upside is that Easyjet paid for everything...taxi, hotel and flights which cost £1700.

Happy to say they are now safely in PP albeit 20 hours later than planned and very tired

 

[Disorderly]

Oh dear, how sad. I suppose that on one of the busiest days of the year, getting hold of alternative crews may be very difficult. So good to hear that easyJet paid for the onward travel and costs. My sons had a problem in Paris some years ago when an easyJet flight was cancelled (last flight of the evening) and they were put up in a hotel, given expenses and flown home the next day. The service was excellent, but it wasn't at a busy time.

If there's any consolation, I'd rather be with easyJet than Ryanair or Monarch if something goes wrong.

I do hope they get over the disappointment and have a truly lovely holiday. PP will work its magic, I'm sure.

 

[its cd]

Hi

We flew home yesterday evening and saw that the Palma to Luton easy jet had been cancelled with a lot of concerned people wondering just how they were going to get home ..... must have been the return leg

Glad they are all there now ......

 

[Jonsey]

Not sure what's going on with these EJ flights at the moment. The 6.00am EasyJet outward bound from Luton this morning was delayed almost 2hrs. This has had a knock on effect for the Palma-Luton return flight which is now running over 2 hrs late. Exactly the same time delays were experienced by friends of ours last week when returning from Palma.

 

[snowy2007]

Not sure what's going on with these EJ flights at the moment. The 6.00am EasyJet outward bound from Luton this morning was delayed almost 2hrs. This has had a knock on effect for the Palma-Luton return flight which is now running over 2 hrs late. Exactly the same time delays were experienced by friends of ours last week when returning from Palma.

This is strange as the 6:00 flight is the first leg of the day plane would have been at Luton overnight can only be a mechanical or crew problem, lots of things happening at Luton now, not good.

 

[Jonsey]

This is strange as the 6:00 flight is the first leg of the day plane would have been at Luton overnight can only be a mechanical or crew problem, lots of things happening at Luton now, not good.

Absolutely. This is the reason we always choose the 6.00 flight out. Certainly it's in the first half dozen of take offs in the morning, and we're usually having a 'cerveza' by 11.00! But to have it happen twice in eight days is not good. Our friends said that their delayed departure from Palma (10.05am) was due to crew problems on the outbound flight from Luton? Don't know the reason for this morning's delay, though

 

[debz1]

They have obviously overstretched themselves in this busy period and have no resources with either planes or crew when things go wrong. Easy for Easyjet to offer a full refund with no thought to the stress and upset that this will cause to families that have been looking forward to their holiday all year

 

[Disorderly]

Quite agree. And some airlines think nothing of changing your flight time from early morning to late evening, completely trashing your first day plans. You can't be compensated adequately for that kind of disappointment......and certainly not for a total cancellation.

 

[alcanadakid]

Complete chaos today at EasyJet checkin/bag drop. People were getting there early as has been suggested, but EJ staff weren't letting people join the queue until 2 hours before flight time. The "queue to join the queue" stretched back at least 50m. From the start of the official queue to the counter was 40 minutes, but those at back of the unofficial queue would probably take well over an hour.

Part of the problem was that there were 4 EJ flights scheduled close together with 6 counters to deal with them all.

 

[pips]

We flew out 29/7 with EJ, it was due to leave at 23.35, the flight was delayed 1.5 hours, ? Air traffic control, never know whether to believe them or not, have had several delays recently due to medical emergencies. On arriving early we couldn't check in, too early, told to go away for 40 mins. I always pre book seats, I know it's an extra cost but personally I think it's worth it, speedy check in so we had no queue. No wait at security, queues but moving swiftly, no wait at passport control either, straight through with the usual wave. Good sleep on the plane, woke up 10 mins to landing. On saying all this I'd swim to PP and walk home if I had to.

 

[Teacu]

Pips - after all is said and done, the last sentence of your last message sums it all up...