Can I claim for lost earnings after easyJet axed my flight?
Simon Calder on easyJet compensation, passport rules and baggage
Q Last month my easyJet Sunday evening flight from Liverpool to Amsterdam was cancelled. This is the flight I use to commute every week to the Netherlands, where I am a contractor – and I get paid only for the hours of work I do. The airline offered me an easyJet flight the next day, which would get me there too late for my shift. There was a KLM flight the following morning from Manchester, which would have got me there almost on time. But easyJet’s “new Alternative Carriers option” says this applies only “from the original departure airport to the original destination airport”. The cash fare was £560, which I didn’t want to pay. Can I claim for my loss of earnings of £240? I have already successfully applied for my £220 in compensation for the cancellation.
Arthur Farley
A I regret that you are out of pocket as a result of some understandable confusion. Whenever an airline cancels a flight, for any reason, it immediately becomes responsible for getting passengers to their final destination as soon as possible. If the carrier cannot offer you a flight on the same day, it must – according to European air passengers’ rights rules – pay for a flight on another airline. Ideally. the cancelling carrier will book and pay for the replacement. But in many cases, the passenger must pay and reclaim from the airline.
I contend you would have been entitled to buy the extremely expensive KLM ticket from Manchester and claim it back. However, the information on easyJet’s “new Alternative Carriers option” confused you. This is a mechanism whereby easyJet books passengers on a rival airline. It has the considerable merit of not leaving the traveller temporarily out of pocket. I presume to keep the system simple and manageable, easyJet has limited it to alternatives on exactly the same route. Between Gatwick and Malaga, for example, there is plenty of choice on British Airways, Vueling and Wizz Air. But from Liverpool to Amsterdam, there is no competition.
Yet just because that “halfway-house” option exists, it does not trump your entitlement to reach your destination as soon as possible. Since you were unaware of this, you could in theory try to claim from the airline. But I would not rate your chances of success highly. Since the compensation you have received is only £20 short of your lost wages, I personally would call it quits. Next time, though, you will be fully informed.
Q I have a quick question for which I can find only conflicting answers. My wife’s passport expires in May 2024. But it was issued in January 2014. We are going to Doha on 8 November for a one-week holiday. Is her passport OK for this trip?
Glen MacD
A Your wife will be fine. Whether she needs to do anything more than just turn up at Doha airport in Qatar depends on the exact expiry date of your wife’s passport. The basic rule: a British passport must have at least six months remaining from the date of entry to Qatar. So if your wife’s passport runs out on or after 8 May 2024 then it will be valid (though if you are leaving on an overnight flight on 8 November 2023, arriving in Qatar the following day, it will need to be valid at least until 9 May 2024).
Should the passport narrowly miss the six-month stipulation, there is another solution: apply for the Hayya card. This online “fan permit” was brought in for the 2022 World Cup and will continue to be valid until 24 January 2024. To obtain the card, your wife’s passport needs to be valid for only three months upon arrival – so it will certainly qualify. You need proof of a confirmed hotel reservation to obtain the Hayya Card. Its other advantage is that it allows the holder to use the passport e-gates at Doha airport, though queues are rarely long.
One more aspect of red tape: Qatar is one of the very few countries that demands mandatory travel insurance. If you do not have a policy, you may be asked to buy one month of cover on arrival for 50 rials (£11.50).
I am not sure exactly what conflicting information you have been given, but I fear it might be some online nonsense about UK passports expiring exactly 10 years after the issue date. The date of issue of a British passport is relevant only when travelling to the European Union.
After the Brexit vote, the UK government negotiated for British passport holders to be “third-country nationals” along with people from countries such as Tonga and Venezuela. Accordingly, passports cannot be 10 years old or over on the date of arrival in the EU (and wider Schengen area). In addition, the passport must have at least three months remaining on the intended date of departure from the European Union.
Q My daughter has just flown back from Bali. The first leg was with Super Air Jet from Bali to Jakarta, followed by Saudia via Jeddah to Manchester. They were booked independently. Her first flight was delayed so she had to run to catch her next flight without collecting her baggage. So it is currently at Jakarta airport. Super Air Jet and Saudia both say it’s the other’s responsibility. How does she try and get her baggage back to the UK?
Martin B
A Neither airline is responsible for the missing baggage, I am sorry to say. Any time a traveller plans a “self-connect” rather than a through booking, it comes with risks attached: if the first flight is delayed, the onward connection is jeopardised. Your daughter no doubt allowed a reasonable amount of time to collect it at Jakarta airport and proceed to Saudia check-in for the onward flights via Jeddah to Manchester. Regrettably, the flight was late, leaving her with an awful choice between collecting her belongings from the carousel and missing the flight, or abandoning the luggage and catching the plane. Your daughter chose the latter; I would have done the same, given the huge financial downside had she missed it. But this leaves the baggage at Jakarta airport, 7,335 miles away from Manchester.
I presume it is now in the care of the airport’s lost and found department. If you can pinpoint the exact location, the first option has a very low chance of success: try to sweet talk the Saudia airport manager into fetching the luggage and loading it on a flight as a favour to a loyal passenger. That is a huge and implausible ask, and I fear likely to fail. The next possibility: getting it sent as cargo. This would involve stumping up quite a lot of cash (at least £100, I estimate). Again, someone needs to get the baggage from where it is to where it needs to be – that might be the cargo forwarder.
If both of these options fail, another long shot is that you know someone who will be passing through Jakarta airport, and who would be prepared to pick the luggage up and check it in. Most likely, I’m afraid, is that your daughter will need to decide between writing off the baggage and making a special trip out to Jakarta to pick it up.
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