To ask what happens now my flight has been cancelled?

[tpwk]

I was due on a flight that was cancelled tonight and the communication from the airline has been woeful.

Everyone at the airport just shrugged and said it wasn’t their problem, to go through the app and sort it out there.

I did that and I have a new flight tomorrow, and I’m in a hotel. I know things like dinner tonight and food tomorrow can be claimed back, but what about things like the Airbnb I’ve paid for for tonight in my original destination? I’ve messaged the hosts and explained that I won’t be there tonight, so I’m hopeful they’re going to keep the reservation for me, but if they don’t, then what?

How do I claim the compensation due under UK 261? What do I do now?

Travel disruption is a known risk of travelling anywhere. Most journeys are uneventful and you arrive more or less on time. Occasionally, it goes wrong. If you cannot tolerate occasional disappointment, it's better to stay at home.

You're just being stupid now. Cabin crew aren't just there to "serve you drinks".

get over yourself

You're just showing yourself to be incredibly dim and unpleasant now.

Or you're on the wind up.

‘Crew’ also includes the pilot and first officer. We had one that was delayed for that when one went off sick - we saw a pilot literally sprint past and then it came up ‘boarding’ 5 minutes later.

It sounds to me like they are trying it on with the compensation although I’m surprised the response is that quick. But I’ve only ever claimed from Croatian airlines (no response had to go through lawyer route) and Jet2 who just paid up but they didn’t respond for a couple of weeks.

Crew’ also includes the pilot and first officer.

Pedant time, sorry - it's captain and first officer, both are qualified pilots.

Obviously 👍🏻

The pilots were both there.

It’s begun again. The exact same message about delays on the app. Flight showing as delayed on flight radar. At this point In going to have to just give up on the holiday all together

No I am genuinely serious. Cancelling a flight because they can’t make money off us by selling us drinks is abhorrent

I have a feeling this might be a wind up?

bot at all. MN won’t allow me to attach screenshots, I’m just incredibly pissed off and frustrated. I don’t know how They can get away with this.

No,.you're not being serious or you haven't looked at the economics around this.

Cancellations cost airlines a lot of money (hotel accom, food etc and EU261 if it applies.), possibly for two sets if passengers if a round trip gets scrubbed.

Cancellations can also stuff crew rostering and aircraft utilisation.

There's absolutely no way somebody looked at prospects or not for on-board sales and said cancel on the basis of poor prospects for in-flight sales.

Also, (this from memory so open to correction) the general regulations for medium/large airliners in UK/Europe is that they have to carry a minimum of one cabin crew member for every 50 passengers or portion thereof...

Operating a commercial passenger carrying service minus cabin crew simply isn't an option in the airline world, regardless of on-board service.

@tpwk Some of us are beginning not to care! Book with a reliable airline!

Travel insurance doesn't cover not enjoying your holiday. If you're ill you get medical costs covered not any extra compensation.

We're in a similar situation. EasyJet cancelled last night on us on the way home from Basel. No staff. Just a "click on the app" notice!

we did. Offer of refund, voucher or alternative flight. There are no available flights. So booked my own hotel, and confirmed I want them to reroute me. Had it confirmed in writing they have nothing so to make my own way home and claim it all back. Told it has to be a direct flight.

Currently will be claiming around £1100 back. Had to travel 4 hours across Europe to get the one available flight back with Ryanair tomorrow night. So two nights of hotels, food/drink and trains. I've not accepted a refund as that can make it trickier to claim.

I won't be able to claim extended airport parking or tickets to an event today in the UK I am missing so my travel insurance will cover that.

it's a pain and hundreds of people in the same spot last night so I do get how frustrating it is.
We can't claim compensation as they're saying the weather is the cause but I can get nearly all my costs back (just have to make it home first to do that).

Yeah, that's exactly what happened 😂

I sympathise with your situation. It’s rubbish to be late getting on holiday. But I think generally people don’t understand how many moving parts there are in the airline industry and how much is outwith the airline’s control that can have a massive impact on service. The cabin crew that you saw will either have been getting on a plane, or coming off duty in which case they will likely have reached maximum flying hours allowed. That’s a safety feature that you cannot override. Lightning affects service even if it’s not at the departure or arrival airport because it means planes and crews are often stuck in the wrong place. I get the customer service is bad, but EasyJet are not going to want to cancel flights if they don’t have to.

What? You’re becoming increasingly unhinged. They didn’t fly on time because they were short staffed, and presumably once they were good to go ATC denied them a slot,

I totally get your frustration but neither of those incidents points to them refusing to fly because they wouldn’t make money serving drinks. You think that’s more of a financial loss than paying for 200 passengers to stay in hotels? Massive leap and, frankly, a bit weird.

If you genuinely believe that they cancelled the flight because they couldn't crew the trolley service, I don't think you should be allowed to travel, frankly.

The air crew are required for safety protocols - selling drinks is not their main job.

The primary purpose of having cabin crew is to keep you safe as a passenger. Which is why there are strict safety standards on every flight which stipulate minimum cabin crew requirements. It's a bit like a surgeon won't be able to operate on you if there is insufficient staffing level at the ICU. Yes, it doesn't impact the surgery itself but impacts your safety as a patient in recovery.
Surely, you can't be so ignorant as to suggest the airline would voluntarily spend £200 on your hotel just because they couldn't sell you a £5 glass of water.

My colleague had this, easyjet I think are notorious for trying to weasel out of their legal obligations. I claimed through Tui and got compensation no questions asked.

Oh, she knows that - she's just trying to wind people up.

I disagree. Consumer law protects consumers better from a wonky zip than it does from the very real financial and practical problems caused by travel disruption.

It's not always the airline's fault, obviously. But often it is, and even when it isn't, it's their choice which flights to cancel. That doesn't mean I think they should pay for the OP's AirBnB but certainly any direct costs should be covered. You often have to threaten small claims to get anywhere but you'll probably win if it's a standard claim and they'll have to cough up (now deliberately using that phrase as someone was disgusted by it on another thread this week!)

Maybe they are weasling but OTOH it's possible to look at the last two or three days of European ATC tactical updates on the public side of the Eurocontrol website and looking at that Easyjet may have a valid argument.

Eurocontrol info shows Europe wide ATC have been struggling due to CBs - Cumulonimbus aka thunderstorms, knocking out
big blocks of airspace which has reduced the capacity of several ATC centres to handle en-route flights > that means less flights per hour through effected airspace blocks > that leads to lengthy ground delays in the form of the infamous ATC slots.

It's entirely possible the OP's flight was cancelled at least in part as a result of this...

I've read some rubbish but flights cancelled because they can't sell drinks is ridiculous! Airlines will not fly in bad weather for safety reasons. That's not just you but pilots, cabin crew and aircraft. You really need a reality check before you go anywhere near a flight again. I'd be more than happy to deliver it!