Raw Deal: Remember, airlines have to pay for a flight delay

WHEN the law says that a customer is entitled to compensation, they should get compensation. And not just some of it, all of it – every last penny that is due.

Kathleen and Murray Stewart, from Montrose, holidayed in Italy last June.

All went well, they had a buone vacanze, as the Italians might say – until the return flight was cancelled. They were supposed to be flying from Nice and were put on another flight quite quickly.

But instead of easyJet returning them to Edinburgh they landed in Newcastle.

Because the return had been scheduled for midnight, the Stewarts had booked a hotel in the capital. This booking was supposed to have been cancelled by the check-in staff at Nice, but wasn’t. Kathleen and Murray were charged for it.

Then they had to pay their train fares back to Montrose.

But the law protects people whose flights have been cancelled through no fault of their own.

And the Murrays fairly quickly had their air fares repaid. But getting expenses returned for food in Newcastle, the train journey and the Edinburgh hotel booking proved to be another matter entirely.

Kathleen reckons she sent at least 20 emails to easyJet, each time meeting its requests for copies of train tickets, food receipts and the hotel bill.

But she seemed to be getting nowhere. When the calendar leafed past seven months since the holiday with no sign of refunds, she turned to Raw Deal.

We reckoned the problems with the buone vacanze had preso troppo a lungo (that’s “taken too long”) to sort out. We told easyJet we were non felice (“not happy”).

The firm got on the case. It sent us a statement saying: “We are sorry Ms Stewart’s flight from Nice to Edinburgh was cancelled due to a technical issue which resulted in crew exceeding their legal operating hours.

“A cheque was issued for flights compensation, although unfortunately there was a delay in processing her other expenses.

“We have been in touch with Ms Stewart directly to apologise for the delay and to organise a bank transfer.”

“We always pay compensation and expenses when it is due.”

Kathleen told us: “Thank you for sorting this issue out. We are to be fully refunded for our expenses.

“You have done in a couple of weeks what I have been trying to do since June last year.”

Never mind the dodgy Italian phrases, all we’ll say is: that’ll dae us.

Everyone should get every last penny of compensation that is due to them. The money is a lot better in your pocket than in theirs.

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