Without doubt the worst flight experience of our lives.
I am not one to leave bad reviews, and would not consider myself, or my husband, a difficult customer to deal with. However, this horrific experience with EasyJet absolutely ruined our trip, and cost us a great deal of emotional stress and additional expenses!!
My husband and I were on our way to Switzerland to celebrate our 1 year wedding anniversary. We went to the Clapham Junction station 3 hours before our flight to get a train to Gatwick Airport. Upon arrival, all trains to Gatwick were suspended due to a suicide on the train tracks. We left the station with another couple in the same situation and called an Uber, but the ETA was 15 minutes before our flight took off. We then returned to the station to see if there was any update, or if a train service had resumed, but all trains were still suspended. We then called EasyJet to explain the situation and tell them that there was no possible way we could make our flight, as there was no way of getting out to Gatwick on time. We asked if there was any other flight we could get on, but they said there was nothing they could do for us. So, we asked for a refund or credit of the outbound flight. When we were told a full refund was not possible, we settled on a refund of the taxes for our first flight. After numerous times of trying to get them to see that we were in a situation that we had no control over, the operator said the best they could do was refund the tax paid on the outbound flight, which equated to 26 pounds... very generous of them, wow! The sadness of the situation definitely helped put things in perspective, but such an incident is comparable to that of a natural disaster. It was completely out of our hands and we had no way of making our flight, regardless of how hard we tried.
This resulted in us purchasing a later flight from London City Airport, with Swiss airlines, costing us an additional $280.05. We had an all day tour already purchased for the following early morning in Switzerland, and had to get there Friday evening. Not the best start to our 1 year wedding anniversary :-(
That Sunday evening, we arrived at the airport for our return flight back to Gatwick airport with EasyJet. We scanned in and went through security as normal, without any issues. The flight was delayed by an hour, not boarding until 10:30pm, so we waited in the lounge area. When the plane began boarding, my husband and I went up to the counter to have our boarding passes scanned. When we arrived at the counter, our boarding passes repeatedly failed to scan through. At this stage, we have our boarding passes ready, booking confirmation, seat number, flight number etc, yet our passes won't scan through. The airline attendants are trying repeatedly, but they won't scan. They pull us aside and say that our payment must have not gone through. We know our payment went through, so my husband pulls up the receipt + email confirmation on his phone to show the flight attendants. Now they are confused/flustered, as are we, and are calling their headquarters to find out why we are not in the system. The airline attendant then tells us that the easyJet agent we spoke to with regards the refund for our outbound flight, had completely REMOVED US FROM THEIR SYSTEM and cancelled our return flight! We explained to the airline attendants that we NEVER asked for a refund for our return flight, we wanted to keep our return flight, and had only requested a refund for our outbound flight. The whole flight has been boarded by now, and the airline attendants are telling us that they can't let us on the flight because it has been fully booked, and the next flight out to London won't be until Monday!
To the airline attendants credit, they were just as upset as we were, and couldn't believe the agent from EasyJet would make such a MASSIVE error! This meant we had to purchase ANOTHER flight for the next day, Monday morning, so we could get home....Yes, this is now the 4th flight we had to buy for a 3 day trip!!
Not only is this seriously affecting us cost wise, but I had just started a new job and had to cancel all my classes that I was supposed to teach on that Monday. This has now significantly affected my work standing, and I also received no pay for that day. Not to mention the stress the situation caused at a time when we should have been celebrating our 1 year wedding anniversary.
Since returning, we have reported the situation to Easyjet, who said they would investigate it further and get back to us within 3-5 days. It has now been 7 days and we still have not heard anything back. Overall, this was an incredibly stressful and disappointing experience with Easyjet. The complete lack of empathy and desire to fix a situation that has caused two of their customers such a significant amount of financial and emotional stress. Please be wary using this airline. read more