Why have my easyJet flights been moved to a different airport?

Simon Calder answers your questions on how airlines are reacting to changing travel conditions and when to book for later this year

Ben’s booking with the airline has been changed from Gatwick to Luton (Simon Calder)

Q A couple of my easyJet flights this summer have been moved from Gatwick to Luton. Any idea why?

Ben B

A At first glance, such a move looks unusual. Gatwick has been easyJet’s leading airport in terms of aircraft and flights since it took over GB Airways in 2008. Conversely easyJet is Gatwick’s biggest airline, with all the benefits that flow from such scale – including flexibility of crew and aircraft resource management. So if anything was going to change, it would seem more likely to move flights in the opposite direction, into the largest hub.

But these are strange times. As with Ryanair, British Airways and many other airlines, easyJet is cutting back its schedules in response to weak demand – which itself is a result of the extreme uncertainty about what travel may or may not be possible this summer.

Carriers are caught between offering as much capacity as possible, in the hope that holidaymakers want to fly, and being wary of the risk of operating half-empty flights at low fares.

So easyJet is selectively cancelling flights where there are options from both London airports. It is a smart (if annoying) move that should allow the airline to operate one profitably departure rather than two loss-making trips.

A spokesperson for easyJet told me: “We are always trying to get as many customers as possible to their destinations and, with fewer flights operating, in a few cases this may mean transferring customers to a flight from an alternative airport to ensure they can travel to their destination on the same day.

“However if this is not suitable, customers are able to transfer to another flight for free or can request a refund for their entire booking.”

Not ideal, but about as customer-friendly as any cancellation can be.

If, though, coronavirus rates fall sharply across Europe, and bookings surge, easyJet may reinstate some flights. So keep half an eye on the website – if Gatwick reappears, I hope the airline will transfer you back without fuss.

Druif beach at sunset on the Caribbean island of Aruba (Getty/iStock)

Q I want your thoughts on flight prices. We are looking at going to Aruba in September and we usually book our flights around now. But they seem really expensive at the moment. Should we wait a few months before we try and book them?

Tracey M

A The only thing that would persuade me to book any kind of long-haul flight right now for September would be an implausibly low fare. For one of Tui’s excellent nonstop flights to Aruba, aboard a Boeing 787 Dreamliner, I would be looking to pay somewhere between £450 and £550 return. If I could find a flight for no more than £400, I would buy it.

Well, I have just checked the fare for London Gatwick-Aruba on 1 September for a week and found to my amazement that Tui wants £809 – more than twice as much as my “implausibly low fare” for the round trip of 9,400 miles.

Tui is saying to investors that its average selling prices for 2021 are about 20 per cent higher than in the last “normal” year, 2019, but even so I regard it as an implausibly high fare for a non-school holiday trip.

Routing from London Heathrow via New York to Aruba would be a pain, but Delta is offering a fare of under £600 – and all other things being equal I would certainly take that rather than pay over £800.

However, I suggest you relax until August. Holidaymakers are typically booking very late at present due to the uncertainties of the coronavirus pandemic. Tui will have quite a clear picture at the start of that month about the rate at which the flights are filling – and also what proportion of “seat only” sales it wants compared with those packaged up with hotels on the island.

Were I in your position, I would wait until just a week before departure in the hope that Tui cuts the price on the direct flight to a more appealing level – safe in the knowledge that an indirect trip (possibly via passenger-friendly Amsterdam on KLM) will almost certainly be available at a decent fare if the non-stop sells out.

Doha, Qatar: the country has been added to the UK’s red list for travel (Getty Images/iStockphoto)

Q Now that Qatar is on the red list, will I still be able to fly out on Qatar Airways? I already have a booking. I understand I will have to change inbound to avoid hotel quarantine?

Sheji

A The government has a “red list” of high-risk countries for which there are severe travel restrictions intended “to reduce the risk of importing variants of concern” to the UK. The main effect is to oblige arriving travellers to pay £1,750 for 11 nights in hotel quarantine.

Since the red list was introduced on 15 January, it has grown from an initial register of 16 nations to the current 35. The latest additions are Qatar, Ethiopia, Oman and Somalia (Portugal and Mauritius were simultaneously removed from the list).

Of these, by far the most significant is Qatar. Since the UAE was put on the red list, the nation’s airline, Qatar Airways, has become the leading carrier to the UK for passengers from the Middle East, Asia, Africa and Australia.

It currently operates four flights a day from Heathrow to its base at Doha, and a further three from Manchester, and these are planned to continue. Although this may not be what the UK government had in mind, it is perfectly legal. The carrier is perfectly entitled to bring in crew and cargo, and fly out with the added bonus of paying passengers.

The red list merely bans passengers from travelling on the inward flight – thereby significantly increasing risk to UK-bound passengers who are forced to travel by alternative routes, raising the complexity of the journey and the likelihood of infection to or from those travellers. It also makes arrivals from red list countries much more difficult to police. Anyway, your outbound departure is highly likely to go ahead as planned.

Coming home, whether or not you are obliged to go into hotel quarantine will depend on your starting point. If it is Qatar – or another nation on the red list – there is no way to avoid hotel quarantine, unless the policy changes while you are away. But from any other country, you simply need to buy a new ticket on a different airline and route yourself away from Doha (as well as Abu Dhabi, Dubai and any other red list airport). It’s certainly annoying to spend hundreds of pounds on another ticket, but it’s still better than the alternative.

It may be difficult to get money back rather than an easyJet voucher (Simon Calder)

Q A year ago I was booked on an easyJet flight which was understandably cancelled. From the cancellation email it looked to me like the only option was a voucher, so I accepted that. I “spent” it on a flight this May which has just been cancelled, and now I would simply like my money back. Is that going to be possible?

Katie F

A I fear not. As the world closed down a year ago, airlines suddenly found themselves cancelling the flights of millions of passengers. Under air passengers’ rights rules, every UK customer was entitled to their money back and should have been clearly offered the opportunity.

As I tweeted last March, though: “If BA or easyJet cancel your flight you are due a full refund within a week. But both airlines have removed the website refund option, to try to get passengers to accept a voucher instead. To get actual money back you must phone the airline within a year from the date of the flight.”

The airlines were in an unprecedented and extremely difficult position, but travellers have expressed frustration that they were steered towards a voucher – many assuming that was the extent of their entitlement. To be fair, travel companies including easyJet have from time to time offered a bonus if you accept a voucher, and I took one refund in this form. I knew that as soon as I clicked to accept a voucher that I had renounced my legal right to a cash refund. So even if a subsequent flight is cancelled, I’m getting another voucher, not my original money back.

I believe there is now a chance of flight prices rising fast (“voucherflation”, as I call it), driven up by people trying to use them up, which is making things worse.

You could certainly ask easyJet for a refund. If it is refused, as I imagine it will be, you could try Alternative Dispute Resolution. This is a free service.

It is also possible that the Department for Transport may instruct airlines who were not crystal clear about passengers’ legal entitlements to exchange vouchers for cash to people who want it.

Email your questions to s@hols.tv or tweet @simoncalder