A Bristol woman has accused easyJet of making it difficult for people to claim refunds for flights cancelled due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Tabitha Warne, who had a flight to Nice booked for March 28, says the airline has been sending emails telling her she can reschedule it for free, without informing her it has been cancelled.
The chartered accountant and her boyfriend had each spent £114.63 on return flights for a skiing holiday, as well as paying £32 each to an insurance company to cover the journey.
Miss Warne, who lives in the city centre, only learned of the cancellation yesterday (March 24) when she typed the flight number into the easyJet website.
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The 25-year-old’s journey had been cancelled two days before, but she claims easyJet did not send her a message about this or update the flight status on its app.
When she found out, she tried to call easyJet, but says she was disconnected before she could even be placed on hold, and was unable to find any mechanism on the website to request a refund.
'Pretty unfair'
Miss Warne said: “If we were told we were not entitled to a refund, we would be able to claim it on insurance, but there was no information.
"It's not looking like I'm going to lose my income through coronavirus, so I can afford to not get a refund, but for people who have lost their income and don’t know how they are going to carry on, potentially losing out on several hundreds of pounds seems pretty unfair.
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"We are still getting emails letting us know we can change our flight to a later date if we are worried, and the emails don't actually say our flight has been cancelled.
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"It's as if easyJet are just hoping we will rebook, without giving people the option of a refund. I can see why they are doing that, but it's a bit naughty really.”
The website displays a 'contact us' form, as well as forms to apply for compensation or claim for expenses, but Miss Warne believes the lack of a form specifically for refunds on cancelled flights has led to confusion for customers.
She said: “There are hundreds of comments on easyJet’s Facebook page, with people going spare because they don’t know how to claim a refund.
"It’s obviously a difficult time for airlines. I don’t want to demonise the airline, but it would cost them nothing to put a message on their website letting people know if they are entitled to a refund.”
Bristol Live put Miss Warne’s complaint to easyJet and within an hour it refunded her.
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A spokeswoman for the airline confirmed that under EU regulations, refunds will be available to people whose flights have been cancelled due to coronavirus.
She said: "We take our EU261 responsibilities seriously and so any passengers on cancelled flights can transfer online to an alternative flight free of charge, receive a voucher or claim a refund through our contact centre.
You can also get updates about the latest coronavirus news for Bristol, North Somerset and South Glos with our Facebook group.
"We are experiencing high call volumes currently as a result of Covid-19 affecting travel plans as well as local restrictions affecting our customer service teams getting to work.
"However we are working hard to overcome these issues to support our customers as soon as possible at this difficult time and we thank them in advance for their patience and understanding."