Swiss Tony

I booked 5 tickets for the family to go from the UK to Austria on easyJet. Now it seems we can't all travel.

I see I can rebook onto another flight but the change fee is quite punchy and it seems we have to transfer all 5 passengers at the same time.

Is there anything I'm missing here? At the end of the day I got the 5 tickets for Ł200 return so I might just have to suck up the Ł120 loss. The only problem I can see in doing nothing is that we'll be allocated seats together but some may get cancelled off on the outbound (and it seems inevitable on the return) risking the party being split up. We will have a checked bag so the question will be asked as to where the other passengers are.

danielonn

Sorry to say that you will be out the money but may get the taxes refunded. When you agreed to purchase the EasyJet Tickets you were purchasing non refundable tickets. You may be able to get credit for future travel but don't hold your breath with Easy Jet.

ft101

easyJet will refund the APD without any admin fee, so 3 x Ł13 just for making a phone call. There may be an Austrian equivalent too which would further lessen the financial blow.

Ldnn1

+1. And to be clear you don't need to cancel/change all passengers together - you can make individual changes but has to be over the phone, can't be done online.

lehovec

Out/In bound treated as two different flights, even if booked together, so no, you will no be split up. If the remainder of your party are on the same booking seats will be together if available when checking in.
No question asked about checked in baggage, it is only the person that is checking the bag in that has to turn up at the desk so at that point most likely they will not even realise some of your party are not travelling, unless you tell them.

ft101

That's not quite correct. Although all 5 will be given adjacent seats at check in, the 2 actually travelling may be separated by a row or up to 3 seats (plus aisle). When the missing three aren't flagged through security, the seats allocated to them may be given away to strangers.

lehovec

They will not be flagged at security, the only place they will be flagged as missing is at the gate. And even in this case seats will be given to someone else only if there is people on standby.
I have booked three seats many times for me and my OH to end up with the middle seat empty. It was only once that the seat was given away as there was passenger on standby. Risky strategy but if booked well ahead it is cheap way of getting extra empty seat and worked out for me in 99% cases.

The way to avoid being separated in the way ft101 is saying is to check in only those two people who are actually travelling. On easyJet app/website you can check in people individually and so if you check in two out of five people in sucession from the same booking they will get seat together (of course if available).

ft101

Not going through security is what flagged it up in one of my cases as that gives easyJet time to re-allocate seats without losing time. At the gate is too late. I've had a few instances, once where I got a free seat when a mate called off at the last minute and no-one on standby so the seat was empty, and once where a couple expected an empty seat beside them but found me in it.

lehovec

EZY system is not connected to the security gates/scanners and unlike BA's doesn't have ready to fly requirement. So the system will not know whether you cleared security or not and will not reassign seats at that point.
EZY will know that you are not travelling and if necessary rearrange seats:
a) if you tell them
b) if you failed to check in, 40 min before departure
c) if you checked in, at the gate.