Extraordinarily Delayed

My flight between Cologne and Gatwick was delayed leading to the email exchange below.

>> To: customer.service@easyjet.com
>> From: itayemi@someemaildomain.com
>> Subject: Re: [[ Reference ID: 106912622 ]]
>> Sent:
>>
>> Good day Sir/Madam, I bought what is an expensive ticket (167.11 Euros) to fly between Cologne & Gatwick on the 4th of January due to an urgent need to be in London.

I got to the airport before 7pm. There was no communication of the delay until the attendant at the checkin desk told me there was a 2 hour delay. Which then became a 4 hour delay.

After 4hours 55 minutes we were ferried to the plane. A fellow passenger told me that Easyjet would have had to make a full refund if the delay exceeded 5 hours. I think this is a little underhanded. All my subsequent plans which depended on my arrival in London on time were shot. My Monday was shot as well because I then spent the whole day recovering.

I am writing to express my concern and permit my saying so, my displeasure at the events surrounding the flight. While I understand stuff happens, (I learnt only about the weather issue in Gatwick at 1:45am when we were actually on the plane) but this was a little too much. While we were waiting at the terminal, the updates on the plane status were infrequent and sometimes only announced in German. I might as well have spent the night comfortably in Germany and flown much cheaper on a later ticket from say RyanAir for example. In addition, you should also realize that being based in Nigeria, every Euro or Pound I spend is denominated at a ridiculously expensive exchange rate due to the devaluation of the Naira so while 167 Euros may mean 167 Euros in value to an European, it’s much more to me.

As the gentleman behind me said “every single person on the plane had a right to be grumpy but he was keeping his cool because he didn’t want to be thrown off the flight.”

Of course we didn’t actually take off until 3am which is actually 75 minutes after the 5 hour limit. Total delay time came to over 6.25 hours. This is my first flight on EasyJet which turned out to be not so “easy” for me. The long & short of it is that I think a refund is in order 🙂

Thank you

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From: customer.service@easyjet.com [mailto:customer.service@easyjet.com]
Sent: Friday, January 09, 2015 3:58 PM
To: itayemi@yahoo.com
Subject: Re: [[ Reference ID: 106912622 ]]

Dear Ayotunde

Thank you for contacting easyJet Customer Services.

I am sorry for any inconvenience caused by the delay of your flight. I have looked at the Flight Disruption Report(FDR) for flight EZY 5378 Cologne-London Gatwick 4th January 2015.

The FDR states that the delay was due to severe fog in London Gatwick, effecting visibility, and causing arrival and departure slot restrictions. The delay was classified as Extraordinary, this means that it could not have been avoided, and no compensation can be paid. The FDR determines the official reason for flights that are delayed by more than 3 hours. A copy can be obtained from The Civil Aviation Authority, one of our governing bodies.

Our passenger and crew safety is of paramount importance to us and we will not fly if it is deemed unsafe to do so. I realise that this is not the response that you were hoping for and I hope that you will not allow this experience to deter you from travelling with us in the future.

Regards

Christine
easyJet Customer Services

fly us: www.easyJet.com
follow us: www.twitter.com/easyJet
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From: donotreply@easyjet.com [mailto:donotreply@easyjet.com]
Sent: Friday, January 09, 2015 5:01 PM
To: itayemi@yahoo.com
Subject: easyJet

PLEASE GIVE US SOME FEEDBACK

Dear AYOTUNDE
You recently contacted our customer service team and we would be grateful if you could spend a few moments to provide us with some feedback on the service you received.

If you wish to take part please Click Here

Thank you in advance.

easyJet Customer Services

If you would prefer that we do not contact you again for feedback you can Click Here.

Then the email above came in shortly after the response from Christine. I ignored it, but maybe I should have sent a response giving them some negative feedback.

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So a week later I am at Heathrow waiting for my flight to Cassablanca to start boarding. I had checked in and was looking at the notice boards for the boarding gate. It was slightly over 30minutes to departure time, the boards still showed “Please wait”. I approached one of the information staff (blue skirt suit) and asked about the flight. She told me airlines had up to 30minutes before departure to display the boarding gate.
About 5minutes later, “please wait” became “flight delayed for 15minutes.”

The lady made her rounds around her counter and ended up by me looking up at the board so we got talking again. I commented that at least the there was an update and the Easyjet story came up. She laughed and said they were too cheap. She never flies them. That the bigger airlines operating in the UK would offer you a meal voucher if there was a delay close to 3 hours, and over 3 hours they would pay for your hotel especially if it’s a night trip. I told her that at roughly 170 Euros the flight wasn’t exactly cheap. A few more lighthearted words and she went back to her stand.

My original email was quite longer than the version above but the but the textbox on the Easyjet website for submitting the contact messages was limited so I had to pare it down to fit. I did get the meal voucher but would have included the text below in my message but for lack of space:

“Oh. I got the meal voucher which either allowed me a small sandwich for the full value of 4.50 Euros or a cup of expensive coke for 3.40 Euros, but not both. I chose the coke.”

And that is my Easyjet story.