EasyJet refuses to honour a promised £472 refund

A UK air traffic control outage the day before a passenger's easyJet flight to Budapest caused disruption at Gatwick. At check-in, easyJet staff refused to issue a boarding pass after a smaller aircraft with fewer seats was substituted, leaving 35 passengers unable to board.

The passenger was advised to book another flight and claim the cost via easyJet’s website; the next available flight was with British Airways and cost £472, which easyJet has since refused to refund. Customer service offered a string of conflicting explanations.

Staff first denied that the plane had been downgraded, then said the claim was rejected because the original flight had been booked through a third party, and later said the passenger was a no-show. A webchat included an agent saying, "the email address on the booking does not match the one on the booking." The system appears to have marked the traveller as a no-show because they were not allowed to check in and could not proceed to the gate, and staff did not override that status.

United Kingdom, Gatwick

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