An Edinburgh couple whose flight was cancelled after the plane was struck by lightning have been denied compensation by easyJet.
James, 75, and Margaret Digance, 74, were set to fly back from Krakow to Edinburgh on April 14, however the flight was cancelled after the aircraft was hit by lightning during a storm in the capital and needed to be repaired. The stranded pair were then left in limbo by the airline company until 10pm - at which point they were told that the next available flight wouldn't be until Monday 17, Edinburgh Live reports.
However, James and Margaret needed to be back home in Dunfermline for their granddaughter’s birthday that was taking place on the Sunday. easyJet booked the couple into a hotel opposite the airport for the night, but James said they never heard anything further about alternative travel arrangements.
Instead, a kind Polish had to help couple book new flights - setting them back a whopping £1,318.63. They were also unable to get a direct flight and had to travel from Krakow to Frankfurt and then to Edinburgh, getting in on Saturday afternoon.
James said during this time the only flight-related correspondence he received from easyJet came at 5am. The email said he and his wife had been booked onto a flight travelling from Krakow to Belfast and then to Edinburgh - getting in late on Saturday night.
easyJet claim to have kept in regular contact with James and updated customers that they were finding them alternative travel - however the couple have disputed this. They apologised for the inconvenience caused and said they had made arrangements for the couple to return home the next day, but by this point they had already made alternative plans.
“My wife and I arrived at the airport in Krakow at around 7pm as our flight was due to depart at 9.05pm from Krakow”, James said. “We were first informed of a two hour delay after dropping off our bags at the airport but at 9pm we were told, along with a group of other disgruntled passengers, that the flight had been cancelled.
“The young woman sitting behind the EasyJet desk said the next flight was Monday April 17 and just laughed, we didn’t know what to do as we felt as though we had just been abandoned. The battery on my phone had almost run out and we are both in our mid 70s and struggle with technology but thankfully a lovely Polish woman Edy who was flying to Edinburgh helped us.
“EasyJet put us and a number of other passengers up for the night at the Garden Hilton but this was not without difficulty as the staff at the hotel had to contact EasyJet for the vouchers. We had to get back for our granddaughter's birthday party on the 16th so Edy booked us flights from Krakow to Frankfurt and then to Edinburgh from her tablet.
“We were both really tired after being up from 7am in the morning and it was now past 11pm, so we headed to our beds, fully expecting compensation from EasyJet the next morning.”
However, James says their compensation request his since been denied by the airline, who cited ‘Exceptional Circumstances’ due to a lightning strike. James said he was sent a letter from EasyJet explaining that the plane was hit by lightning on departure from Edinburgh and was no longer safe to fly until repairs were carried out, which led to the cancellation.
However, he considers this to be a regular occurrence, and had found in his own online research that airlines have previously been taken to court to define ‘exceptional circumstances’ in cases similar to his - and lost. He is now planning to contact Civil Aviation Authority Passenger Advice Complaints Team (PACT) to take the matter further.
“Their rerouted flight back took around 10 hours to arrange, so they cancelled the flight and it was not the quickest route back as we had established that was Frankfurt.
“I am prepared to take them all the way until I get what I am owed. It was not good enough for them to email us at 5am to say they had found alternative travel.
“This is for every single passenger that was impacted by the cancellation of the Krakow to Edinburgh flight.”
An easyJet holidays spokesperson said: “We’re sorry to hear that Mr and Ms Digance’s flight home was cancelled due to their aircraft being struck by lightning earlier that day. In situations like these, it’s our priority to get our customers booked onto an alternative flight as soon as possible and source hotel accommodation if needed.
“In this instance we contacted our customers to let them know that we were sourcing them an alternative flight home, and also to provide details of their overnight accommodation. We remained in regular contact that evening, letting them know we’d sourced them a flight to Belfast, and at 5am the following morning we confirmed that the customers were booked onto flights back to Edinburgh via Belfast that day.
“However, we understand Mr and Ms Digance chose to book themselves an alternative flight home instead. Whilst circumstances like these are out of our control, we’d like to apologise for the inconvenience Mr and Ms Digance experienced.”
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