EZY - Hotel costs and cancelled flights
 

Hi everyone,

I'm soon gonna fly CGN-LPL and the return flight has been cancelled (without notifying me by the way) so I booked the next possible flight one day later. EasyJet's website states that they are going to pay for a hotel if I have to stay a night in order to catch the next flight. But they won't pay for any hotel won't they? It sure sounds tempting to book some expensive hotel that I wouldn't have booked otherwise but I can't imagine that they are going to pay for everything. Will they pay anything anyway? I've read so much across the internet that easyJet simply doesn't pay anything at all.

Thanks in advance

hmm seems a bit suspect them paying for hotel, you sure about that?

if they pre canx a flight then you will have/or were to receive an e-mail stating this and the new flight they have booked you on. Off the top of my head though they would not give you hotel accomodation for this inconv...... did you read it off the t + C's if flights are canx on the day due to tech, weather etc

In saying that they canx the ema-prg a few weeks ago and did not hotel the pax

regards

bmibabyFC

Well http://www.easyjet.com/en/book/regulations.html#delays reads: So what do you think? Sounds all a bit vague to me. "easyJet shall offer you hotel accommodation" yes well... but am I supposed to book a four star hotel? I can't imagine they didn't come across that opportunity to exploit their terms :confused:

You will be given a voucher to a hotel of Easyjets choice or they will actually take you to that hotel after check in and an Easy person will sign you in so to speak.

If you book a hotel yourself, then you have more or less said to easyJet that you don't require their assistance. easyJet will book you into a hotel that they deem to be satisfactory, if you go and book a four or five start hotel yourself (and in your own words, that you wouldn't have booked otherwise) easyJet will quite rightly tell you where to go!

Regardless of what Easyjet T&C's may imply, EU leglislation states that you are entitled to claim up to Euros 250 compensation if :-

(a) The cancellation happens within two weeks of the flight .
(b) The only alternative flights are > 4 hours different from the original.

Providing the delay/cancellation is down to them (U/S aircraft, Crew shortage - quite common at the moment apparently) Obviously they are not going to advertise this fact !! Don't let them sway you otherwise. Mention the EU !!!

Take a look here :- http://ec.europa.eu/transport/air/ru...ctsheet_en.pdf

Hmm I called Customer Service and asked them about the above quoted T&C snippet. The lady (which only introduced herself with her first name by the way) told me that I could book a hotel of my choice and could send a copy of the bill to their Luton address so they know how much money to send me. Sounded a bit like wishful thinking to me. Should I call again? I guess they're gonna tell me something completely different then. Wanna place a bet? ;)

@QWERTY9: Do both, a) and b) have to apply? I guess so. Because in my case the cancellation wasn't within 2 weeks.
I think the worst thing about this is that they did not notify me about the cancellation. If I hadn't logged in to "my easyJet" - or whatever they call it - by coincidence I wouldn't have ever seen that.

No, they DO NOT both have to apply !

That PDF is an interesting read so thanks for that but do you have a link to the law in question? Or the name of that law so I can search it myself?

This is a link to the law:
http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/...en00010007.pdf

You are always entitled to "assistance" if the airline cancels your flight, whatever the reason and however long in advance they cancel it - so they should pay for your hotel bill. However, I would suggest not splashing out too much - if you book a 5* hotel they could try claiming that this was unreasonable.

If you are informed within 2 weeks (but more than 7 days) before departure, you are also entitled to compensation of €250-600 depending on the length of the flight, unless the alternative flight offered departs < 2 hours before AND arrives < 4 hours after the scheduled time of your original flight.

The airline does not have to pay compensation if the cancellation is due to extraordinary circumstances outside their control - however, they still have to provide assistance (i.e. pay your hotel bill).

However, be warned that, although these are your legal rights, with some airlines you have to take them to the small claims court to enforce them - I'm not sure what EZY's practice is though.

Interesting. Given the existence of small claims courts in many countries now, one would think that passangers would be entitled to cash in many many cases.
I'm not sure however if is that easy, consider that very likely the airline is established in a different country.

And, some things are not clear anyway.
Take my case. Intercontinental return fly cancelled, moved to the following day. Assistance was given OK in the foreign country.
Hotel, transportation and re-booking of all lost connections regularly provided at arrival in Europe.
No idea if the cancellation was due to extraordinary circumstances, altough I think the answer from an airline would be always yes.
Should I be entitled to cash in all honesty ?

Legally, this is quite clear. Provided the cancellation was within the control of the airline and, if the flight was from outside the EU, it was operated by an EU carrier, you are entitled to cash compensation. Whether you should be entitled to this is another matter!

Now here's a final disagreement that I'd like to get rid of. Some people claim EZY will book me into an "adequate" hotel and others (including the customer service) say that I have to book one myself and send the bill to them afterwards. What is right here?

The EC regulation isn't explicit about this although it implies that the airline should sort it out for you. As far as I'm aware, this has not yet been tested in court. In reality you will probably have to do it yourself.