I got the following email from Easyjet today.


Dear Customer,

We regret to inform you that as a result of industrial action in Paris Orly (ORY) on 21st, 22nd and 23rd October 09 your flight has been cancelled. The action by Ground Handlers at the airport is beyond our control and unfortunately we could not avoid subsequent disruption to easyJet flights.

You have the option in case of cancellation to claim either a free transfer or a refund for the affected flights, a refund may also be possible for return sectors to your journey should you now be unable to use these.

In case you have not been able to arrange a free transfer yetplease click here to search for available alternatives. If you wish to obtain a refund please go to our Help Section and submit a refund request. For further assistance please call our Customer Service department on 0871 244 2366 (calls cost 10p per minute plus any network connection charge; calls from mobiles and other networks may cost more) between the hours of 8:00am and 8:00pm on weekdays or 09:00am and 17:00pm at weekends.

Please accept our sincerest apologies for any inconvenience caused.

Yours faithfully

easyJet Customer Experience Team


After the initial surprise, I went online and managed to rebook myself on an earlier flight on the same day from Berlin to Paris. 4 hours later I get the same email!! Nowhere in the email does it refer to my flight number so I don't know if my newly rebooked flight is canceled or if Easyjet is just sending 2 reminder emails spaced 4 hours apart informing me that my original flight is canceled!

I get to my online account again hoping that it will be obvious there if the newly rebooked flight is canceled or not. The newly rebooked flight does not show as canceled so that's good right? Nope because it gets more confusing.

There is a link on their homepage to people affected by the problems at Orly. When I click on it, it says that my newly rebooked flight 4266 is scheduled to leave 3 hours later than originally scheduled and fly to CDG instead of Orly. None of this information shows on my booking though. So now I don't have any idea when I should show up at the airport or which airport I will be arriving in. I eagerly go to the "live flight arrivals" page and find that it is a dead link! And there are no phone numbers to call unless you pay several cents per minute!

So, what is going on here? Is this just the worst website, customer service airline in the world? Is anyone else flying on this flight 4266 from Berlin to Paris on Oct 22 who can tell me whether it is canceled or not?

Perhaps I am missing something, but if you knew there was industrial action at ORY, why would you book an earlier flight on the same day ?

For many reasons.
1. The website offered this flight as an alternative implying that it is flying and since the strike is a predictable disruption unlike the weather the airline can plan several days ahead on which flights to cancel and which not.

2. I have to be in Paris on Thursday
3. The strike runs until Oct 31, any other day for the next 2 weeks would also be strike days at Orly, so there's no way out.

Does someone have the easyjet telephone number for Berlin? I would appreciate that a lot.

Hi anandrg

A quick search in Google yielded the following:

Hope you manage to get something sorted!

Regards
Latitude40

Not helping your case, but making my point on Easyjet in CDG.

I stopped using their services for all their flights departing CDG. They have their own low-cost terminal there and its workers are all Easyjet or Easyjet direct's undercontractors.

They have been the most unfriendly and rude airline staff I ever met. They tried to deny me boarding with a recently expired french ID card.

I went to the french official custom agent and asked if I could travel to a european Shengen and non-Shengen area and was answered positively. But the Easyjet clerk made me look inside all of my suitcase for my passport

Same misfortune happened to my dad the day of my wedding. He had to book himself on AF on a last minute fare, flying with a similarly recently expired ID card which is valid for travel even to go to Turkey...

How can it be valid for travel if it is expired?

Well, I would have appreciated such advance warning last week. I found out at ORY that my Easyjet flight to NCE was cancelled due to industrial action - as were all other Easyjet flights ex ORY.
Had to book myself on AF.

No, not by a long shot. Actually as far as airline websites go the Ezy one is quite decent (and no, that's not a compliment to them, it's just the sad state of airline websites in general).

you are travelling on expired ID cards and it is Easyjets fault you have a problem ?? err excuse me but do you have a card that says you are exempt to regulations and no laws apply to you ???

You do not seem to have much knowledge of applicable rules for travel within the European Union.