Is there a worse airline than Easy Jet?

[Jambo]

My daughter works from home in the travel industry. She is really like a wholesaler for other Travel Agents although she does deal directly with the public often putting together packages of the more upmarket variety.

She sometimes gets away on  paid trips to holiday destinations where, say, a hotel chain might want to promote their hotels in a particular resort. She is away on one right now staying in some 5 star hotel in Italy. She was due to meet up with three other work colleagues on Saturday night at a Hotel at Gatwick so that they could all fly out together early on Sunday morning.

All the travel arrangements were organized and paid for by the Italian Hotel including my daughter's flight down from Edinburgh to Gatwick around lunchtime on Saturday from Edinburgh.

They booked her on Easy Jet.

First Easy Jet cancelled her flight at the Airport and gave instructions that passengers were to re-book using the Easy Jet App. Louise managed to book herself on the next flight that day which was around 6pm on Saturday with a further flight around 8pm. I may not have got the exact scheduled times for these two flights

There was no Easy Jet representative at Edinburgh Airport and some of the passengers on the cancelled flight were very annoyed and a few in distress. Louise told me that an older lady was in tears as she did not know how to re-book using the App and Louise did it for her.

Then apparently they started displaying various times for Louise's rearranged flight with it and the later flight both being postponed to later times. Except every time Louise's flight was postponed it got nearer to the departure time for the second and last flight down to Gatwick.

Eventually there was an Easy Jet representative in Edinburgh Airport and they had to check in luggage at around 5pm. At that time Louise specifically asked if there was any chance that her flight, which kept being postponed, was in fact going to eventually depart AFTER the flight which was supposed to be later. Louise was assured that would not happen and checked in her luggage.

You can guess what happened.

Louise flight finally departed for Gatwick at around 10pm which meant she had spent 12 hours in Edinburgh Airport. The only redeeming factor was that her employer had already given her 50 pounds for expenses at the Airport so she at least had dinner.

Fat chance of Easy Jet offering anything.

Message today about her and her three colleagues enjoying champagne cocktails. 😄

 

[Derek Dangleberries]

Worse than Easy Jet?

KLM UK flying from SOU to AMS ..unaffiliated with KLM .. was the worst airline I have ever flown with and is now long gone !!

To be brief.. We were left waiting at SOU for 8 hours due to an electrical fault, when we were finally boarded they were wheeling away a mobile gene and the cabin was in semi darkness using only emergency lighting. We were greeted by the purser using a megaphone saying that they were going to take off and charge the battery system during the flight but all was going to be OK because they weren't going to fly across the channel until everything was working OK.

 

 

[coxyhog]

KLM took over Air UK hence KLM UK.

The engineering arm is still going strong,my mate works for them at Norwich.

[Derek Dangleberries]

15 minutes ago, coxyhog said:

KLM took over Air UK hence KLM UK.

The engineering arm is still going strong,my mate works for them at Norwich.

Yep, KLM UK ceased operations in 2003 when it merged with City Hopper but I was referring to its early years in 98. They were a fucking disaster!

Hope your mate wasn't working for them then in Southampton!

Another interesting point from that incident (and an explanation as to why I said "unaffiliated") is that when I landed at Schiphol 8 hours late and missed my connection, KLM refused to help me as they insisted that KLM UK were independent .. even though it was the incoming flight's responsibility to find me a flight out.

[john luke]

1 hour ago, Jambo said:

My daughter works from home in the travel industry. She is really like a wholesaler for other Travel Agents although she does deal directly with the public often putting together packages of the more upmarket variety.

She sometimes gets away on  paid trips to holiday destinations where, say, a hotel chain might want to promote their hotels in a particular resort. She is away on one right now staying in some 5 star hotel in Italy. She was due to meet up with three other work colleagues on Saturday night at a Hotel at Gatwick so that they could all fly out together early on Sunday morning.

All the travel arrangements were organized and paid for by the Italian Hotel including my daughter's flight down from Edinburgh to Gatwick around lunchtime on Saturday from Edinburgh.

They booked her on Easy Jet.

First Easy Jet cancelled her flight at the Airport and gave instructions that passengers were to re-book using the Easy Jet App. Louise managed to book herself on the next flight that day which was around 6pm on Saturday with a further flight around 8pm. I may not have got the exact scheduled times for these two flights

There was no Easy Jet representative at Edinburgh Airport and some of the passengers on the cancelled flight were very annoyed and a few in distress. Louise told me that an older lady was in tears as she did not know how to re-book using the App and Louise did it for her.

Then apparently they started displaying various times for Louise's rearranged flight with it and the later flight both being postponed to later times. Except every time Louise's flight was postponed it got nearer to the departure time for the second and last flight down to Gatwick.

Eventually there was an Easy Jet representative in Edinburgh Airport and they had to check in luggage at around 5pm. At that time Louise specifically asked if there was any chance that her flight, which kept being postponed, was in fact going to eventually depart AFTER the flight which was supposed to be later. Louise was assured that would not happen and checked in her luggage.

You can guess what happened.

Louise flight finally departed for Gatwick at around 10pm which meant she had spent 12 hours in Edinburgh Airport. The only redeeming factor was that her employer had already given her 50 pounds for expenses at the Airport so she at least had dinner.

Fat chance of Easy Jet offering anything.

Message today about her and her three colleagues enjoying champagne cocktails. 😄

 

What was the reason for the cancellation?

 

[Stillearly]

36 minutes ago, john luke said:

What was the reason for the cancellation?

 

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2023/jun/12/easyjet-cancels-gatwick-flights-thunderstorms

https://www.independent.co.uk/travel/news-and-advice/easyjet-gatwick-flights-cancelled-b2355831.html

[coxyhog]

1 hour ago, Derek Dangleberries said:

Hope your mate wasn't working for them then in Southampton!

I worked for them at Stansted in 2002 & Norwich in 2004.At Stansted I started out doing 5 x 12hr nightshifts pw & then they switched it so I was doing 12hr nights & 12hr days in the same week....I didn't stay long after that.

What I don't get re EJ is why no other carriers cancelled lots of flights.Aircraft are designed to fly in poor weather.

[john luke]

1 hour ago, Stillearly said:

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2023/jun/12/easyjet-cancels-gatwick-flights-thunderstorms

https://www.independent.co.uk/travel/news-and-advice/easyjet-gatwick-flights-cancelled-b2355831.html

Thanks for that.  Not the fault of the airline so no compensation.  That said, asking customers to rebook is poor customer service; most airlines book passengers onto another flight and only if that is not convenient is it necessary to contact the airline.  

[Stillearly]

4 minutes ago, john luke said:

Thanks for that.  Not the fault of the airline so no compensation.  That said, asking customers to rebook is poor customer service; most airlines book passengers onto another flight and only if that is not convenient is it necessary to contact the airline.  

As Coxy said why did it only effect EasyJet to this extent... something fishy about the amount of cancellations they had 

[ChiFlyer]

In the US Spirit gets constant well deserved grief.

[Sherlock]

19 minutes ago, ChiFlyer said:

In the US Spirit gets constant well deserved grief.

I flew Spirit from BWI Balitmore-FLL Fort Lauderdale and return back in December last year.  An hour wait for luggage in FLL but I but that down to the airport and not airline. Apart from some boarding issues when leaving FLL, which resulted in a 1.5 hour delay, and incredibly tight seats and no legroom at all, for the price we paid,(110 dollars which includes the baggage fee as well) Spirit did ok.

[ChiFlyer]

37 minutes ago, Sherlock said:

I flew Spirit from BWI Balitmore-FLL Fort Lauderdale and return back in December last year.  An hour wait for luggage in FLL but I but that down to the airport and not airline. Apart from some boarding issues when leaving FLL, which resulted in a 1.5 hour delay, and incredibly tight seats and no legroom at all, for the price we paid,(110 dollars which includes the baggage fee as well) Spirit did ok.

FLL is not a well run airport for sure. I have flown multiple times in/out of BWI. BWI is ok, but not a great choice for a One World guy based out of ORD.

I was an East Coast (at times) IT warrior based out of ORD for decades. I never flew Spirit because of their rep. This is despite the fact that they had the only ORD service into Atlantic City where I worked for 6 months. I preferred to fly into PHL and drive down. Speaking of terrible airports PHL would rank pretty high on my list.

I can mention that I worked in India for the better part of a year. ALL of their airlines suck big time. One of them (I forget the name as I never flew with them) had a televised maiden flight. The plane burst into flames while taxiing down the runway.

A buddy of mine, who lived in Bangkok and did frequent business in India, noticed (as did I) that some of the cabin separations were held in place with duct tape on one of their major national airlines. He said he observed a guy leaning on one causing it to collapse. I don't think he was bs'ing me.

Oh, and the worst part of Indian airlines was they charged non-nationals considerably more at that time.

For an East Coast airport for a guy based out of ORD my favorite was DCA. It is old, antiquated in many ways, small, limited services, too many political nuts walking through with disturbing t-shirts (friends of Mango and Stinky methinks), but the flight schedule is very well adhered to. Geez, I wonder who else is flying out of there.    

Edited June 13, 2023 by ChiFlyer

[galenkia]

1 hour ago, Stillearly said:

As Coxy said why did it only effect EasyJet to this extent... something fishy about the amount of cancellations they had 

Read a while back they were having staffing shortages so couldn’t fully staff some flights.

[john luke]

2 hours ago, Stillearly said:

As Coxy said why did it only effect EasyJet to this extent... something fishy about the amount of cancellations they had 

 

33 minutes ago, galenkia said:

Read a while back they were having staffing shortages so couldn’t fully staff some flights.

https://www.bottonline.co.uk/about-us

 

I would consider using this firm on a no-win no fee basis.  Easyjet will claim bad weather and not their fault but it may be possible to show that staffing was the issue.  The pro of using this firm is that you have very little to do; the con is if you win you do not receive the full amount of compensation, as the solicitors take a percentage.

[Horizondave]

20 minutes ago, john luke said:

 

https://www.bottonline.co.uk/about-us

 

I would consider using this firm on a no-win no fee basis.  Easyjet will claim bad weather and not their fault but it may be possible to show that staffing was the issue.  The pro of using this firm is that you have very little to do; the con is if you win you do not receive the full amount of compensation, as the solicitors take a percentage.

Every single minute of a delay to a flight is accounted for with a reason. There could be 3 or 4 reasons from weather to ATC to staff shortages to late turn around etc. All delays/cancellations have to be logged with the authorities and those reasons are analysed by the airline for any potential payout. 

On any domestic, European or intercontinental journey operated by a European airline, EU Compensation laws apply still, although in the UK, there are now UK laws running alongside those EU laws. When writing to the airline, an agent will study the reasons for the delay or cancelation, and if there are reasons attributed directly to the airline for any delay into the destination of over 180 minutes then compensation could be applied. Even if the flight left over 180 minutes late, it is the delay on arrival that determines any compensation and that 180 minute rule applies at that point. ATC and weather are reasons why compensation may not be paid although some airlines will offer refunds on incidentals and expenses although that is not mandatory.

E.G If a flight is delayed and arrives at the final destination gate 190 minutes late and 179 minutes is down to the airline but 11 minutes of that is due the gate not being available, due airport operational reasons, then the airline can say no to compensation, it is a complex rules game.

Airlines have every right to point you to your travel insurance policy if they are absolved of blame for any delays etc.

Edited June 13, 2023 by Horizondave

[Aqualung]

After more than 30 flights between the UK and Denmark since 2014 I've no problems with EasyJet. Couple of delays here and there but nothing serious. 

Way better than Ryanair imho. 

[KWA]

I'm probably in triple figures with easyJet flights and most have gone by with little or no difficulties.

The outstandingly poor one was following the Wales v Scotland rugby many years ago when I was supposed to be flying back the next day from Bristol to Edinburgh.  Flight was cancelled and we were put on buses for the 400 mile trip to EDI arriving around midnight IIRC.  By that time Edinburgh airport was basically closed for the night and no buses or taxis waiting, and this was well before the tram line was even being thought about.

I was fine as I'd called a mate to pick me up, but lots of folk were just dropped and told to sort themselves out as easyJet had done their bit and got us to Edinburgh.

On the bright said there was next to no quibbling about refunding my flight and paying out the £250-ish compensation (flight cost was <£30 I think).

OP.  Despite there seemingly being no right for compensation, easyJet would still have had a duty of care so your daughter could have been fed and watered (no alcohol) at Edinburgh Airport at their expense.