easyJet cut flights

[Bob F]

Just had an e.mail from easyJet saying my 16.05 flight from JLA to Malaga on Wed 27 Jan 2010 is cancelled. Looks like they are cutting some of the afternoon flights on this route on certain days. They are offering refunds or free date transfer.

[ronturner]

Re cancellations of this type. Here is a question for the experts and/or the Travel Agents in our commuity.
If I booked a similar flight, say from la Rochelle to Gatwick with Easyjet to connect with BA to Orlando from Gatwick, and if the Easy flight was cancelled, who would pay the consequential losses of that cancellation? (Perhaps missed flight with BA or re booking with BA or extra hotel stay etc. Is this the kind of thing that my travel insurance would pay out on or as usual, am I left holding the can for this. The travel scenario above is a possibility, hence the reason for asking.
RT

[LPL]

I suspect that you would have to foot the bill, but you can get travel insurance to cover it.

But the hard part will be finding that kind of policy that covers that scenario in the first place.

[Bob F]

I am pretty sure the liability is purely with the booking made with easyJet. I think it is what is called a "Point to Point Airline", ie it is a one off booking from A to B with no other onward booking possible. I am in Spain now & the 16.05 flight on Wednesday was quite full. Sorry to rub it in but nice & warm & sunny!

[northbynorthwest]

Ron, both the replies by LPL and bobf are correct. Contract of carriage with Easyjet is for la Rochelle to Gatwick. It is not for any further travel beyond LGW. They are not liable for hotel/meal expenses or cost of rebooking with BA. BA are not liable for your means of getting to LGW unless it was via one of their flights or one of their code-share partners. What BA would probably do in this situation is put you on standby for the next available flight to Orlando....they may or may not charge you a fee for this.

This is one of the pitfalls of using a low cost carrier to connect. If flights are on time, no problem. But if there are any delays causing a misconnection then there are huge problems. For example, if I was to fly Delta from Atlanta to Amsterdam and then Easyjet AMS-LPL, and my flight into AMS was late, causing me to miss my connection on Easyjet. In this case, Delta are not liable for my AMS-LPL sector. However, they may be willing to sell me a seat AMS-LPL at a reduced rate because they or their code-share partner caused me to miss my flight on Easyjet - but they are under no obligation to do so. (It often depends on your attitude while dealing with their ticket agents.) With regard to my Easyjet ticket, it is a contract for a seat on that one particular flight. If I miss that flight, I have blown my part of the contract. If I want to fly to LPL on the next flight, Easyjet will gladly sell me a new ticket for that flight - and probably at the going walk-up fare price. They are under no contractual liability to refund my fare for the original flight that I missed, or to move me to the next Easyjet flight to LPL at no cost to me or at the cost of a rebooking fee. If, however, I had booked ATL-AMS-LPL on Delta / KLM, I will be rebooked by KLM onto the next available flight to LPL at no expense to myself. If there were no flights available to LPL, they would reroute me to MAN, and probably offer ground transportation on to LPL as well, because my contract with them is to get me to LPL.

Bottom-line, making connections using a low cost carrier exposes you to many risks should there be any delays for any reason. Making connections using full fare carriers will result in your onward connection to your destination being honored without you needing to purchase a new ticket. So, it is a calculated risk you take - perhaps saving some money upfront, but potentially losing significantly if there are any hiccups enroute.

[ronturner]

Thanks. These are very interesting replies, but one question remains. If I have a travel insurance policy which pays expenses in the event of "a vehicle breakdown, or a public transport provider failing to get me to the departure airport on time" (Which my policy does) do you think that they would pay out in the example I have given. Is Easyjet a public transport provider. Has anybody ever tested this? What are the expert opinions on this insurance issue? Since my flight would not be "through flights", each one is entirely separate, ergo La Rochelle, and Gatwick, to all intents and purposes would both be "departure airports"

[buspilot]

Ron,

I think that if a person has been given advance warning of the event (flight cancellation) that it will be ruled that you have been given adequate time to reschedule your journey, or at least that part of it that has been cancelled, to enable you to make your connecting flight, be it by traveling a day earlier. The onus is upon you to mitigate the loss. Also the passenger clearly accepted the carriers terms and conditions when making the booking. The insurer cannot be held liable for the carrier using those terms to cancel a flight, as the insurer is not party to them.