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British Couple Deplaned From Flight Hours After UA 3411 Incident

The Independent reports that the pair were not informed of their statutory rights with regards to overbooking after their removal from a Catania-bound EasyJet flight.

Just hours after the now-infamous deplaning incident took place aboard United Airlines Flight 3411, it has emerged that a British couple were removed from a Sicily-bound EasyJet plane at London Luton Airport (LTN) after the flight was oversold.

The incident involving the two passengers, named by the Independent only as Manoj and Viddha, occurred after the couple boarded Catania-bound EasyJet Flight EZY2383 on the 10th of April. The pair were then asked to leave the flight after it became apparent that there weren’t enough seats for all passengers.

After the couple were deplaned, the outlet reports that “Britain’s biggest budget carrier then broke the rules on overbooking by failing to tell the couple about their rights to compensation and alternative flights.”

The paper reports that EasyJet did not follow the correct procedure in removing the couple from the flight. While overbooking is a common phenomenon, European rules state that a carrier must first ask for volunteers who are willing to travel on a later flight in exchange for financial compensation.

Simon Calder, the outlet’s travel editor, explains that if it’s not possible to find volunteers, “the passengers chosen to be offloaded must immediately be given hundreds of pounds in compensation and provided with written details of their rights. Finally, the airline must find alternative flights to get them to their destination as swiftly as possible.

While the couple had attempted to clarify their rights after their removal from the flight, multiple EasyJet representatives failed to inform them that they were due compensation for their deplaning and had the right to access a prompt alternate flight to Catania. The pair were told that the only available flight was four days later.

EasyJet apologized for the incident and confirmed that staff failed to mention that the couple were due compensation.

“We want to reassure customers that we will be providing additional training to every contact center agent now to make sure that future customers are not put through a similar experience. We are genuinely sorry for what has happened,” it told the paper six days after the incident.

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