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EasyJet has refused compensation to a passenger who was wrongfully offloaded from a flight to Spain, insisting airport staff had confirmed he had “insufficient or invalid documentation” – even though his passport was valid for the journey.
Stephen Jackson, 66, was turned away from an easyJet flight at Manchester airport on Saturday morning, 12 October.
Two members of ground staff working for Britain’s biggest budget airline told him his passport was unacceptable for his flight to Alicante.
In fact, the document was perfectly valid for his golfing trip to the Costa Blanca resort of Torrevieja with three friends.
Three years ago The Independent told easyJet, along with other major airlines, the exact post-Brexit rules for British travellers to the European Union.
UK passports must meet two conditions:
- No older than 10 years on the day of outbound travel to the EU.
- At least three months to expiry date on the intended day of leaving the EU.
Mr Jackson’s passport met both conditions, yet he was turned away at Manchester airport and had to return by train to his home in Preston.
As easyJet had wrongly denied him boarding, the airline owed him £350 in cash compensation along with a refund of the return fare for the journey he was not allowed to make.
The retired aeronautical engineer applied for the compensation he was due. He assumed the airline would investgate his claim, identify the mistake and pay up.
He then contacted The Independent. EasyJet confirmed a mistake had been made and promised to recompense the passenger for his losses as well as paying statutory compensation.
But on Monday evening, easyJet told Mr Jackson in an email: “As per confirmation from our airport staff they have documented that you were refused carriage due to insufficient or invalid documentation which is required to travel with easyJet.
“Therefore, this instance of ‘Refusal of Carriage’ does not meet the eligibility criteria for Compensation claims under the Regulation guidelines.”
The rejection of Mr Jackson’s compensation claim raises serious concerns about easyJet’s complaint-handling culture. It indicates the airline had failed to investigate the case.
Had a check been made, it would have immediately become clear that ground staff working for easyJet were at fault.
The message rejecting compensation for Mr Jackson ended: “Thank you for choosing easyJet and we hope to welcome you on-board again soon.”
He described the airline’s behaviour as “absolutely incompetent”. Tuesday would have been his final day on Spain’s Costa Blanca playing golf in the sunshine with three friends. The weather forecast for Preston is overcast with a 90 per cent chance of rain.
A spokesperson for easyJet said: “We are sorry on this occasion the customer service agent got it wrong as they referred to outdated information.”
For many months, easyJet applied its own invented version of the rules, until the airline finally agreed to comply with the actual requirements in April 2022.
The easyJet spokesperson continued: “While situations such as this are rare, we are going to reissue the guidance to all ground and contact centre agents.
“EasyJet takes the training of our customer service agents seriously to deliver the best possible service to our customers. We are in contact with Mr Jackson to apologise for the error and to provide compensation for the inconvenience we caused.”
Separately, an easyJet passenger from Edinburgh to Corfu at the weekend says he was told by ground staff that his passport would “expire” on 24 October 2024 – and he was warned that had he been returning in two weeks rather than only one week, he would have been denied boarding.
In fact, his passport is valid for travel to Greece and the rest of the European Union until early in 2025.
