Soldato
TLDR: easyJet cancelled while we were awaiting check in with no company representation or assistance for alternatives.
Full story:
I've experienced delays before but not a cancellation.
We arrived at Berlin airport at 8pm (by bus after our DB train had been cancelled) to check in for our 10pm flight back to Bristol, and as I looked at the departures board our flight status changed to cancelled.
There were no easyjet representatives at the airport.
Baggage drop was self service, and there was a swiss air employee helping people with the luggage labels.
People in the queue were saying that their easyjet app said the flight was still scheduled. Of course it was cancelled at this point, it said so on the board. People were just hoping.
The swiss air lady doing the baggage said that everything was fine and was helping people on my flight send away their luggage on the conveyor and into the abyss!
I held onto our luggage and we went round to a manned swiss air desk where a gaggle of fellow passengers had gathered, trying to find out if the flight was going or not. I knew it wasn't going, I just wanted some guidance on what to do next.
The swiss air person placed a box of leaflets on the desk and that was that as far as they were concerned.
It was an easyjet sheet of their policy on delays and cancellations. It instructed me to install the easyJet app, and from the manage bookings section I could look at alternative flights.
I did as instructed, but the flight was still showing as scheduled!
So there were a bunch of people waiting around for the app to update.
15 mins later it updated and there was a mad rush to book the earliest available flights. The best I could find was 6am the next morning from Berlin to Majorca, then a 5 hour wait and a flight to Bristol.
I booked a premier inn 2 miles away via booking.com and we got an Uber there.
Next morning we got our flight to Majorca, where easyJet staff were present. They got our Bristol flight moved forward to the next available flight so we weren't waiting around.
So, a 2 hour journey turned into a 15 hour journey. The thing that annoyed me was the fact that there was zero proactive help from easyJet (apart from at Palma airport where they were helpful). Things do go wrong, but I judge a company by how they try and help when things go wrong. easyJet did nothing at the point of cancellation. My partner is a nervous flier, but she was cool about the delay. If there were people with limited mobility or medical issues, or single nervous fliers, they would have been screwed.
With self service bag drop this is the future, no customer facing staff and no human help if things go wrong.
They've agreed to reimburse us for the additional expenses and I've submitted the compensation forms, but I'm still going to try and get back the money I paid for us to sit together on the original flights and the additional baggage allowance that I accidentally purchased in the mad race to book an alternative flight.
Rant over
Full story:
I've experienced delays before but not a cancellation.
We arrived at Berlin airport at 8pm (by bus after our DB train had been cancelled) to check in for our 10pm flight back to Bristol, and as I looked at the departures board our flight status changed to cancelled.
There were no easyjet representatives at the airport.
Baggage drop was self service, and there was a swiss air employee helping people with the luggage labels.
People in the queue were saying that their easyjet app said the flight was still scheduled. Of course it was cancelled at this point, it said so on the board. People were just hoping.
The swiss air lady doing the baggage said that everything was fine and was helping people on my flight send away their luggage on the conveyor and into the abyss!
I held onto our luggage and we went round to a manned swiss air desk where a gaggle of fellow passengers had gathered, trying to find out if the flight was going or not. I knew it wasn't going, I just wanted some guidance on what to do next.
The swiss air person placed a box of leaflets on the desk and that was that as far as they were concerned.
It was an easyjet sheet of their policy on delays and cancellations. It instructed me to install the easyJet app, and from the manage bookings section I could look at alternative flights.
I did as instructed, but the flight was still showing as scheduled!
So there were a bunch of people waiting around for the app to update.
15 mins later it updated and there was a mad rush to book the earliest available flights. The best I could find was 6am the next morning from Berlin to Majorca, then a 5 hour wait and a flight to Bristol.
I booked a premier inn 2 miles away via booking.com and we got an Uber there.
Next morning we got our flight to Majorca, where easyJet staff were present. They got our Bristol flight moved forward to the next available flight so we weren't waiting around.
So, a 2 hour journey turned into a 15 hour journey. The thing that annoyed me was the fact that there was zero proactive help from easyJet (apart from at Palma airport where they were helpful). Things do go wrong, but I judge a company by how they try and help when things go wrong. easyJet did nothing at the point of cancellation. My partner is a nervous flier, but she was cool about the delay. If there were people with limited mobility or medical issues, or single nervous fliers, they would have been screwed.
With self service bag drop this is the future, no customer facing staff and no human help if things go wrong.
They've agreed to reimburse us for the additional expenses and I've submitted the compensation forms, but I'm still going to try and get back the money I paid for us to sit together on the original flights and the additional baggage allowance that I accidentally purchased in the mad race to book an alternative flight.
Rant over
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