Eu261 - flight re-booking to another carrier
 

Hi, my inbound flight CDG-KRK on July 8th has been cancelled. The next available easyJet flight is on Sunday, July 10th.

After spending half a day on EasyJet chat & customer support I got 4 different opinions of What I’m entitled to do…

1. Guy after checking all the easyJet options told me that he is rebooking me to luxair flight CDG-LUX-KRK. Unfortunately, when he was in the process of doing that the connection has been lost…

2. Repeating all that to another representative, I heard that they can only offer me refund or rebooking for the Sunday flight.

3. Another lady told me that I have to book a new ticket with another airline and then claim for reimbursement. But the alternative flight has to be economy and exactly the same routing eg quite expensive Air France flight.

4. Being worried that it might be found unreasonable, I’ve called again and then after the lady spoke with the manager, I’ve been informed that because it is still three weeks before the booked flight I’m not entailed to rebook to another carrier. I though that 14 days period is a cut off for the compensation, not my right to re-route the flight.

I’m quite confused at this point about what should I do. I’ll try another HUCA tomorrow but I’m loosing my hope to resolve it peacefully. We will be after a long flight bkk-zrh-cdg the previous day so staying few more days in Paris is not an option really…

you are entitled to travel on an alternative carrier on the same day

https://www.easyjet.com/en/help/boar...-cancellations

the website states: If there are no easyJet flights available to get you to your destination within 24 hours, you have the option to transfer to another airline, take a train, bus or hire a car.

ignore that, it's not compliant with eu261/2004. in any case - you're over 24 hours.

https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...90ca3fb944.jpg

Morning call without luck. Still they are claiming that because the flight is in more than 14 days they are not obliged to allow me to rebook to another carrier. I've wrote an official question but they say it might take 28 days to answer...

That is inconsistent with the Regulation. The 14 days is only relevant when it comes to compensation, all other provisions apply including rerouting at the earliest convenience and any additional expenses for accommodation and subsistence.

That’s what I thought. The l problem is how to force easyJet to obey the law…?

If easyJet are unable to transport you to get you to your destination on the same day then they are on the hook to reimburse you for alternative flights you are forced to buy to get you to your destination ‘at the earliest convenience’. If they refuse (after travel) then issue a claim via AviationADR or MCOL for reimbursement of all your recoverable expenses.

So should I just buy convenient LH CDG-MUC-KRK and then use their claim form (https://www.easyjet.com/en/claim/welfare) for reimbursement? What should I do with the current booking?

Ultimately a court claim. Book on another airline, even if the cost is considerably higher, and submit the expenses at https://www.easyjet.com/en/claim/welfare. If EasyJet fails to pay up, which is unlikely, then you can later issue a court claim.

No, you need in writing that EasyJet refused to rebook to another airline. Otherwise, EasyJet may allege that it was your decision to buy a ticket with another carrier and EasyJet would have rebooked you if you had given them the opportunity (bad faith yes, but not unlikely).

In fact, I would be surprised if EasyJet actually agreed to rebook you to Air France or another carrier. Most LLC will firmly refuse to rebook to other flights than their own (regardless of any obligation to do so under EU Reg. 261/04)

Sadly, airlines mostly have an incentive to play unfair and there is a significant chance that if you book directly with another airline and send U2 the bill - especially if it is high, they will refuse to pay. Depending on when you are based, you can then decide to us an Alternative Resolution Mechanism (ombudsman, etc) which is normally free and won't require you to hire a solicitor, or a court case (equivalent of a small claims court but that depends on national legal system), which may or may not involve a fee and may or may not require you to hire a lawyer of sorts depending on the country.

The reason why airlines have an incentive to play unfair is that most people won't do either, and if you do, it takes time, energy, and can be a stressful experience to many people. Airlines have lawyers on contract who will do this anyway, they do not care, but for you it will be personal. If the airline's lawyers find that there is a loophole (e.g. the airline offered a rerouting, there is no evidence that you asked the airline for another and that they refused, or their rerouting seemed acceptable etc) they will fight this, if they feel they do not stand a chance, they will also fight it in appearance but then may offer to settle out court at the 11th hour or then they might not (the right to be rerouted on another airline is not the most straightforward aspect of your rights, it has to be similar conditions and only if the airline can't offer a reasonable rebooking on their own flight, etc). In most cases, the best case scenario is that you will get what you were entitled to in the first places. In some but by no means all cases, the airline may be asked to pay the legal costs but that is likely to only happen if their attitude is deemed to have been unreasonable (ie if the case is really black and white) and if you use an ADR, it is definitely only what you were entitled to at most and will take time and energy before you get there.

So I would agree that if you plan to potentially go that route, the suggestion to ask specifically in writing and get their refusal in writing is a good idea as evidence is the name of the game with both ADRs and courts. As to whether the aggravation is worth it or not, it is an entirely personal choice, but anyone who thinks that going to court is a painless and/or certain route is over-optimistic in my view (or part of the very small portion of the population who get a kick out of those things, but the immense majority of normally constituted human beings don't).

I had another chat this afternoon and I've heard strange things :)

Ok - that sounds to me that the person you spoke to is not closing the door to reaccommodating you on an other airline if need be, but are hoping that in priority they can rebook you on U2 and don't want to clear the rebooking on others now (which obviously costs them money) that they then could not "take away" from you and find that they have a seat for you on their own planes after all.

It's a bit frustrating as you want the certainty, but I would say not entirely unreasonable. And I guess the question if for you to decide how long you are happy to wait before being sure. Given that there are 3 weeks before your flight, I'd say that waiting 24 hours should be ok, but if there is still nothing then, you might try and negotiate a deadline ("ok, I'm happy for you to keep trying till the end of the week but if there is still no U2 solution by Sunday, I want you to agree to then rebook me on another airline" or something like that).

Their bit on since they have offered you the refund or data change that matters more is nonsense. The regulation is clear that it is your choice to select any one of the different options the regulation foresees that works for you best. Often, airline will try the "oh but we offered you a full refund" line to sound like they are being generous, but it is not for them to decide if you want to be refunded, travel on a different date, or travel at the next available opportunity, it is for you alone to choose depending on what works for them and they are not in a position to limit your options among those.

Not true. I obtained professional legal advice from Which Legal Service when EasyJet cancelled our flight last month. It is sufficient to take screenshots of the page where EasyJet offers replacement flights, showing that it is offering no alternative flights on the same date (whether on EasyJet or another airline) as well as a screenshot from a price comparison site to show that you are booking the cheapest alternative flights.

Not a very prudent approach IMHO. The regulation is clear that it is for the airline to arrange the rerouting - although it has conditions that are imposed to it on the conditions under which that must be done. DIY rerouting is not a right per se, so the risk is always that the airline will say that they had solutions that they would have offered you and that you did not pick and chose to do your own instead (ie for instance they may say that they would have agreed to the flight you booked and they shouldn't pay commercial price for it when they could have used their industry agreements).

In that sense, if you have a way of specifically asking them, get them to specifically say no (ideally in writing but it should be fine to minute it), this will make your case a lot easier to demonstrate. If not, you might enter some fairly protracted discussion on whether other airline itineraries should have been pro-actively offered or if the airline can get away with "if this option is not acceptable to you, you can contact us on xxx" or whatever formulation they use is enough.

I'm not saying that the printout option will necessarily fail (for instance, if the airline start from the fact that they would not have offered a routing on other airlines, it may well strengthen your case), but it is not prudent in that it may switch the argument to the "did the passenger jump the gun by making their own rebooking instead of contacting the airline?" which would be unhelpful.

Ok, it's getting more and more interesting...

Moments later after mentioning EU261:

and finally:

(at this point chat has been closed by easyJet without any ending messages)

I've filled the form but I understand this is for compensation which I'm not eligible for nor I want.

So, to summarize - I have ordinary looking booking with both outbound and inbound flights intact. The inbound flight is not bookable, it doesn't appear on the EF... But at least I have black on white that they are refusing to re-route me to another airline because "they are not a travel agency" ROTFL