easyJet have changed flights - options??

[Ifyoulikepinacolads]

Hi, package holiday booked for October half term next year. Don't normally book this far ahead but it was a good deal, free child place etc. easyJet have a mailed today to say our return flight time has changed. Instead of flying home at 6pm, the flight is now 10am. Part of the reason I booked was the flight times were great. I don't want to fly back at 10am and have an early start/rush etc on the last morning. The email said I can contact the help centre if I want to make an amend - but I can't see an answer to this in the FAQs. The booking T's and C's are huge but I can see it says a 'signifcant' flight change is only when it changes by 12 hours or me. So I'm guessing as mine is not significant, there will be a cost to amend the holiday. Has anyone got experience of this with easyJet? I can't face hours of trying to contact them via chat/contact forms etc!! So hoping someone can give me a quick answer....TIA

According to easyJet a significant flight change is one of 5 hours or more. You’re going to have to speak to their call centre re amendments.

@AttilaTheMeerkat where are you getting the 5 hours from? The info on the booking T's and C's says 12 hours....

I love a 10/12 flight. Means pack night before

good nights sleep. Get up and go to airport

what I choose

This is one of the drawbacks of booking flights so far in advance. Flight schedules are not set so far in advance so are always subject to change. TBH, I’d much prefer a 10am flight home as you’ll be back home early evening whereas if the return flight was 6pm you’d likely be getting home after midnight. Also, most accommodation has to be vacated by late morning anyway so you’d be hanging around for a 6pm flight possibly.

You’re right, this is called an insignificant change rather than a significant one. Sorry about that.

Thanks for the comments. I'm sure many people do prefer a 10am flight, but I don't, hence booking the later one and posting my question! The 6pm flight would get us home by 9/9.30pm at the latest (gain an hour coming home and don't live too far from the airport) everyone off work and school the following day. We would rather max the last day, leave our luggage, go out for walk/lunch. Yes, guess it is the problem with booking so far in advance

@Blondeshavemorefun good for you. But it's not what I choose, hence why I'm not happy about the change

Is there a later flight still on? I had mine moved earlier by email and called them and they changed it to a later flight no charge

I doubt you can get anywhere with this, assuming there is the option to cancel and get a full refund. Sorry.

I had an easyJet flight withdrawn with five months notice and only had a full refund.

At least it’s the same day, mine was moved the day before! Thankfully a day later was also possible and the hotel was able to offer an extra night for a very reasonable price £60 but meant I arrived home at 11pm and had work the next day

@IfyoulikepinacoladsIt’s a problem with Easy Jet and similar airlines. I’ve not had this happen with BA! They more or less run to their schedules and I often book 11 months in advance. It’s what you get with cheap as chips airlines. You don’t pay enough to get a reliable service.

Normally you have to accept or decline the changes. First time ever Ryanair moved our outbound flight a couple of hours earlier and I definitely had to confirm I was fine with it. Do they they have another flight the same day? You may be able to change, or maybe change to another airport with better times, but there is no guarantee it won't change again with it being 18 months out.

What do you want? A refund? Move to a different flight? That will depend whether it is worth pursuing it.

I once had flights going changed from 12pm to 6am. I know many like early starts, but with small children it was one reason I chose the holiday. However I didn't bother to change it as I had got a good deal when booking and so didn't really want a refund, as anything equivalent was now more money. There was an option to switch to a later flight if we preferred, but those times were worse for us than the 6am flight.

No, I don't think so but will double check. I tried to search up the same holiday dates/destination earlier but no holidays at all coming up... I think they must have been in the process of updating flights etc so my airport wasn't showing at all for my dates

Not sure what I want yet, I need to do a bit more research but wanted to know what is possible before I start potentially wasting my time. I purposely booked this airport for the flight times, there is another airport half an hour closer to me so if the flight times here are similar/on a par with my new amended flight, I'd rather move to the other airport. Or possible look at travelling on the Sunday - Sunday (currently Saturday to Saturday), again depending on flight times. I just feel like we've now gone from a 7 day holiday (well 6.5 days with a leisurely last day) to a 6 day holiday with an early start/rush and I wouldn't have booked the holiday based on the new flights. I know plenty of people prefer early flights but they don't suit us. I'd do an early flight going but not coming home. We got a 6pm flight home from Balearics at Easter and it was great, worked perfectly for us.

No option to accept or decline, just a notification which reads like an assumption that we accept. I have had a flight change before where I did have to accept (possibly with Ryan air but can't remember). However maybe this is different as it's a package holiday and not just a flight?

Def a risk of booking more than a year in advance

but if you are coming back on an early flight does that mean you go on an early flight too? So gaining some time the other end? Perhaps not it (supposedly) several flights a day

I have booked many budget airline flights before (I fly 4-5 times a year, always easyJet or Ryanair), often many months in advance and rarely had issues. I think it's because it's a package and these flights hadn't officially been confirmed/published yet (whatever the terminology is) when I booked the holiday - they weren't available to book as stand alone flights, just as part of the package holiday. BA don't fly from my local airports so don't really have much choice about who I book with .

We fly at 9.30am, land at 1pm so would be about 3pm/4pm when we get to the resort. This flight hasn't changed.

I had to cancel a package with them recently and it was fine. No reason needed, as it was more than 28 days ahead. However, the deposit refund was in the form of credit with them rather than a cash refund. Not a problem for me as I have another break booked with them so used the money towards that, but may be an issue for you.

@Orangeandpurpletulips thank you. This may be the easiest option and I'll look to rebook something else....

@Ifyoulikepinacolads We had far more cancellations and moving flights with budget airlines. So never use now but we are 30 mins from Heathrow.

Also endless waiting for DDs on budget flights that were hours late. DD on a school trip once didn’t get home at all on the correct day. Poor teachers had to find the group a hotel for the night. 24 of them!

I know its annoying but if you call them up I'd be surprised if they couldnt shift you to something better at more than a year out.

I got my money back no quibble from ryanair when they changed my flight time by 4 hours but packages have different Ts and cs.

I’m with you- I wouldn’t want a 10am return flight.

Jet2 did this to me and refunded me after a quick call. Worth calling EasyJet.