EasyJet left family ‘exhausted’ in limbo after being forced to pay £700 during 72hr ordeal

They had planned to spend a day in London before flying north to Inverness where they call home.

However, the family was met by a number of unfortunate delays and last-minute cancellations which left them “exhausted” and forced them to pay more than £700 in additional flight costs and hotel accommodation fees.

The mum said the ordeal began when her 6pm easyJet flight from the Hungarian capital was delayed due to bad weather.

“Our flight with easyJet from Budapest to London was supposed to fly at 6pm on June 27, but it was delayed,” the disgruntled passenger explained.

“Then around 10pm we managed to board the plane but the pilot said he had no idea what time we would leave because of the bad thunderstorms around Hungary, Germany and France and because of air traffic.

“We had been sitting on the plane for hours, during this time the crew was very nice, offered free drinks and snacks, they tried their best to keep everyone calm, but slowly everyone had enough of waiting. My son, who is 10 years old was exhausted and we were getting impatient.”

At around 12.30am, six hours after the scheduled take-off time, the pilot informed passengers that they would be taking off at around 1.10am but just minutes later, they received an email from easyJet telling them their flight had been cancelled due to air traffic and bad weather conditions.

“The couple behind us showed this email to the stewardess, they had no clue about it, neither did the pilot,” the mum explained, “Then after they had been shown the email, the pilot said ‘Sorry but the flight has been cancelled’.”

According to the family, the pilot assured passengers on the flight that easyJet staff would be available to help organise accommodation for the passengers who were removed from the aircraft and help them find their bags.

“That never happened,” the mum said, “The easyJet desk was closed at the airport, and we were advised to check accommodation options on the easyJet app - but none of them were available.”

In an easyJet email seen by GB News, the company apologised to customers for the delay.

It read: “To further explain what happened on the day; air traffic control restrictions substantially regulated the air space due to capacity/staffing issues, which resulted in long delays to flights as aircraft waited for air space 'slots' to operate, sometimes for several hours.

“Ultimately and in the case of this flight, the delays pushed our crew into their maximum legal operating hours which meant we had no option but to delay your flight overnight. There are strict industry-wide rules on the number of hours our crew are allowed to work.

“To protect the safety of our customers and crew, these hours cannot be exceeded. We do take reasonable measures to avoid delays and cancellations to our flights by having replacement crews and spare aircraft available in our network. In the circumstances, these options were not possible as the delay to your flight was a direct result of air traffic control restrictions.”

The family then went on a wild goose chase to find a hotel near the airport. They hailed a taxi around 2.30am and tried five or six different hotels but were told each was fully booked up because of other cancelled flights.

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The mum, who works as a dental nurse in the cultural capital of the Scottish Highlands, then decided to take an “expensive” cab back to the city centre and stay with family for the night.

“It was 4am when we managed to get in bed,” she said.

“We had spent almost 10 hours in or around the airport for no reason, no one was available to help to get any accommodation, and we needed to organise everything for ourselves with our own money.”

Unfortunately for the young family, the ordeal was only just beginning.

A hotel reservation that had been booked and pre-paid for June 27 at London Gatwick where the family had intended to rest before flying up to Inverness the next day was cancelled after they failed to check in.

The mum phoned the hotel to try and change the booking to the following day but was told she would need to make a new reservation and would need to pay again.

The hotel advised the family they could try and reclaim the cost from easyJet.

After managing to book themselves on a new flight on June 28, the family was once again met with problems.

“The next day the flight was scheduled for 4pm. We had arrived at the airport around 2pm and everything just started again, delay, delay, delay,” the mum said.

“All the passengers from the following night were exhausted, they didn’t have family in Budapest to help them out, so we felt like the lucky ones.

“Many people had stayed in the airport, sleeping on benches, chairs, floor, young and old people alike, same experience, no one tried to help them to find accommodation, everyone just ignored them, they just got a ‘sorry, everything is out of our hands’.”

After the delay, the flight eventually left Budapest at 9pm which meant they had already missed the connecting flight to Inverness before even taking off.

When they arrived in London the family tried to speak to easyJet staff about the possibility of being put on the next flight.

However, they were told to organise the flight themselves with staff telling the family it “wasn’t their problem”.

“They [easyJet staff] were not helpful at all. We were told to organise everything for ourselves on the ‘live chat’ via the easyJet app.

“We did, but we were advised to buy new tickets for a next-day flight with our own money. They didn't care at all about what had happened in Budapest.

“They said they give service from A to B, then from C to D, what happens between B and C is not their responsibility. So I asked them, ‘Whose responsibility then?’

“My first flight had been delayed for hours, then cancelled, then the next day the same flight was delayed again so I missed my connection but it has nothing to do with easyJet?”

Purchasing a new flight to Inverness, to the tune of £300, the family thought their troubles were now a thing of the past but were hit with another blow just the next day.

“We stayed at a Premier Inn at London Gatwick, and spent the next day at the airport, with my husband and 10-year-old boy, but it was the third full day of travelling, waiting, stressing ourselves and spending money everywhere on food, accommodation and tickets,” she explained.

After arriving at the gate, the family was told the flight to Inverness was delayed but just minutes later were told the flight had been cancelled because the flight was “understaffed” and therefore not allowed to fly.

“Just like before, there was no help, no support, the staff were rude, they were just pushing all the passengers out of the airport without help.”

With the Inverness flight rescheduled for June 30 at 7pm, the family attempted to return to the Gatwick Premier Inn, but it was fully booked.

“After a couple of phone calls, and a taxi, we got to another Premier Inn about 30 minutes from the airport, but we were very annoyed, very disappointed and very exhausted,” the dental nurse said.

“We needed to organise, find and pay for yet another night at a hotel, another dinner, another breakfast and another lunch with our own money.

“On June 30, we finally flew from London to Inverness, which of course was delayed.

“We were lucky because my husband and I still had a day off, but if not, we would have lost another two days at work as well.

“Those added days cost us around an extra £700 in flight tickets, taxis, hotels, meals and two extra days of stress.

“We have tried to reclaim expenses for the flight delay and cancellation but they’ve all been denied. They apologised, but everything that happened was apparently ‘out of their control’.

“In London, they said being short-staffed was the reason for cancelling my flight, but when I received a letter back from easyJet they told me the flight was ‘cancelled for reasons outside of our control’ which obviously was not true.

“After all this, we have been advised by Citizen Advice to contact the Civil Aviation Authority, so we did. And now we are just waiting to see if we can do something, or not.”

A spokesperson for easyJet said: “We are sorry that the family’s flights were unable to operate as planned. This was due to delays caused by weather-related ATC restrictions which caused the crew to reach their maximum regulated legal flying hours.

“We always look to do everything possible to minimise the impact of disruption for our customers. The family were provided with options to rebook or receive a refund and unfortunately, as hotel accommodation and meals were in short supply we advised that should they source their own, we will reimburse them for this.

“While this was outside of our control, we are sorry for the inconvenience this caused and we have been in contact to provide them with their options and settle the outstanding expenses they’ve incurred. The safety and well-being of customers and crew is easyJet’s highest priority.”