A holidaymaker whose return flight from Cyprus to Bristol was cancelled due to bad weather earlier this month has slammed easyJet after it “abandoned” passengers and left him stranded on the island for a week. Stewart Scott claimed he was left over £600 out of pocket after paying for extra accommodation, meals, transfers, airport parking and alternate flights after limited flight options meant he was unable to travel back to the UK for a week.
Mr Scott, who lives in Somerset, was due to fly from Paphos to Bristol on the evening of March 8, but said that due to weather conditions in the UK, the departure kept getting pushed back until around 10.30pm, when it was abruptly cancelled. Mr Scott claimed that by the time the announcement was made, there were no representatives from easyJet at the airport, and said that the remaining terminal staff told him: “It’s nothing to do with us; you have to leave the airport.”
Mr Scott said: “I can understand the weather, but it’s the simple fact that at half-past-ten at night they literally said, ‘your flight’s been cancelled go to gate six at Paphos airport, collect your luggage'. And bearing in mind the time, there was no help getting transport to hotels, no help to change to another flight.
Read More Bristol easyJet customers given apology after they were left 'stranded' in London
“Everyone got their phones up, and the spaces that were left on flights to other parts of the country [in the coming days] booked up quickly because there were three-quarters of a plane of people all trying to get home.
“There was no help whatsoever getting a room for the night. There was an older lady beside me crying on the phone to her daughter, there were families with children, and everyone just didn’t know what to do.”
Despite family members back in the UK trying to help him secure another flight, Mr Scott, whose car was parked at Bristol Airport, was unable to get on a return flight back until March 15 with airline Jet2, which left him on the island a week longer than expected. With no funds left to cover the last-minute extension, Mr Scott stayed in the cheapest accommodation he could find. He said: “I was basically in the middle of nowhere, by myself, it was falling to bits and very uncomfortable.”
Mr Scott said that trying to contact easyJet to get help with rebooking and to find out about reimbursement was nearly impossible. He said: “There was an automatic apology email, but did not contain any help or advice.
“The only way I found out anything was by refreshing their app. Even then, I had no other option apart from cancelling to claim either a voucher or a refund into my bank account. Needless to say, I didn't want a voucher as I just did not want to go through that again. It was disgusting, they just abandoned us.”
After much back and forth, Mr Scott said that easyJet had refunded the majority, but not all, of his original return flight and has agreed to pay for his accommodation along with one taxi journey. However, the airline has yet to decide whether it will refund him for his replacement return flight.
He said easyJet's handling of his return flight and refund claims had put “a massive damper” on what was meant to be a special trip for his family. He said: “It’s mentally draining for the whole family", adding that as he's a full-time carer for his wife, his daughter had to take an extra week off work to cover for him."
"You don’t abandon your customer"
Bristol Live also spoke to another passenger from the same flight who echoed Mr Scott's experience. Julie Saunders from Wiltshire said: “We were just told to collect our bags and that we would have to book taxis, find our own hotel and our own way back to the hotel, and there weren't any flights available.
“I just walked out the door and was in a complete panic. It was the first time I'd flown without my husband or family. To be left with no information, with nobody answering the phone, and I literally had no money on me.
“There was nobody [from EasyJet] to help. You don’t abandon your customer, they still had a duty of care, and they didn’t uphold it.”
Fortunately for Mrs Saunders, she had been on the island to visit her son and daughter-in-law, who were still nearby and able to lend her money and help book a very early Ryanair flight departing two days later to Stanstead Airport. Upon her return, Mrs Saunders said that her husband had to take time off work to pick her up at the airport and take her to Bristol to collect her car, costing him half a day's wages, along with fuel and airport parking.
She estimates that the price of her accommodation for two extra nights, taxis and the flight was over £500. Mrs Saunders said easyJet had only agreed to cover the extra cost of the return flight, one night in the hotel and one taxi journey but she was still trying to get the company to address the rest of her expenses.
But she said that it’s not just the financial implications of the delay that have been problematic. She said: “It caused me dreadful stress. I literally didn’t sleep for two days, I hadn’t seen my son for six months, and it completely ruined what was supposed to be a really lovely time with them.”
easyJet's response
A spokesperson for easyJet said: “Due to adverse weather conditions resulting in the closure of the runway at Bristol Airport, the flight from Paphos to Bristol on March 8 was unfortunately unable to operate.
“The safety and wellbeing of our customers is our highest priority and we did all possible to minimise the impact of the weather disruption, providing free rebooking options and securing hotel accommodation and meals for customers where possible.
"We know hotel accommodation and flight options on some routes to the UK were unfortunately limited at this time as a result of the weather disruption impacting all airlines and while this was outside of our control, we are sorry for difficulty this will have caused and we advised any customers who made their own arrangements that they would be reimbursed.”
Read more:
- Ryanair launches new Bristol Airport routes for summer 2023
- Man refused to swap plane seats so mum could sit with kids because 'it's not his issue'
- Bristol easyJet passenger describes flight chaos as 's***show' after taking all night to get home
- EasyJet Bristol passengers left 'stranded' after flight diverted to Gatwick
- Bristol Airport snow chaos: The 'trauma' as passengers wait in vain on planes for hours
