Q. My son was due to fly to Gatwick using easyJet on 17 July. He was returning early from a family holiday to get back to work. The flight was cancelled on the day, but we only found out when we got to Toulouse airport. The easyJet office at the airport offered a replacement flight on the Tuesday, but my son had to return to work before that. EasyJet told us we could get an Air France flight the following day and seek reimbursement for this from them. We paid €547.35 for the replacement flight, plus €30 ticketing fee. On returning to the UK I phoned easyJet and was told to send the Air France receipt to the easyJet office. Meanwhile they refunded the cost of the ticket for the cancelled flight. But they then said no compensation could be paid since the cancellation was due to air traffic control so it was not their fault. My written application to easyJet for reimbursement of the Air France ticket was ignored, as was a follow-up email. When I phoned, easyJet promised to investigate, but I have heard nothing more. SS, London.
A. EasyJet says that it has not ignored your requests and has not rejected your claim. It needs the receipt of the Air France flight by email in an acceptable format – such as a file in PDF, HTML or JPG format. It promises to make the refund when it receives this.
Q. I booked two flights from London to Milan with Alitalia for April this year. They were cancelled by Alitalia because of the Iceland ash cloud. Alitalia agreed in April to refund the cost, but it has not done so more than three months later. I emailed in May asking them to expedite this, but I had no reply. Am I going to have to take this to the small claims court? RM, Reading.
A You contacted us in July about this problem. Unfortunately, we then had the same problem as yourself – Alitalia has not responded to our communications either. Your refund of £328 was eventually credited to your card account in October – six months after you made your claim. It is unclear whether the refund was the result of our intervention, or whether this is simply how long customers of Alitalia must wait for refund requests to be processed.