Should airlines sell you a seat on a flight they know will be late?
The ability to book a flight with barely an hour’s notice and fly around the world that same day is one of the wonders of modern travel. However, such efficiency falls down when the flight is running late, and your last-minute plans are scuppered.
But what if the flight was already set to be delayed when you booked it? And your plans destined to be ruined? Should the airline tell you?
David Dible was the victim of such a misfortune.
“I bought a ticket on [Easyjet’s] website on June 28 to travel a few hours later from London to Edinburgh as I had been told my mother’s health was deteriorating fast and she might die,” he said.
Mr Dible booked the flight at lunch time to depart from Stansted at 8pm that evening but on his way to the airport received a text saying the service would be late. The plane did not board until 10.40pm and arrived at Edinburgh gone midnight. But as the service was just shy of three hours late, Mr Dible was not eligible to compensation, as governed by EU legislation.
“You cannot believe how annoyed I was to find out [the flight would be late],” he said. “I had paid £140 for a single ticket on a flight that [they] knew when I paid for it was going to be close to three hours late.”
Mr Dible said that Easyjet had already informed people travelling on the flight that it would run late before he booked his seat. “As you can imagine, I would not have booked this flight if I had this information,” he said.
His mother has since recovered but Mr Dible says an airline should not be allowed to sell a flight on the same day that it knows will be late. “This is something that should not happen to anyone else,” he said.
Easyjet initially rejected a claim for compensation on the basis that it was delayed just two hours and 52 minutes, rather than the required three-hour threshold. But has since offered a full refund as a gesture of goodwill.
A spokesperson for the airline told Telegraph Travel that the flight was delayed “due to the knock-on effects of a technical issues with the aircraft”.
“Customers are able to book their flights close to the time of departure which allows them to travel at short notice,” the spokesperson said. “Earlier flight delays do not always carry on to impact future flights as operational decisions mean that we frequently restore the schedule to run on time.”
The spokesperson said that Easyjet operates “the largest number of flights per year of any UK airlines” and that its network punctuality for 2018 is 76 per cent. “We would always advise customers to monitor a flight tracker that provides the latest information on the status of flights.”
Telegraph Travel asked the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA), the governing body for UK airlines, whether airlines have a duty to inform customers of whether a flight they are about to book could be late. A spokesperson said it was a matter for the airline.
Though Easyjet might not mention if a flight could be late at the time of booking, its website does issue a warning to customers booking seats for travel on the same day.
It says to “make sure you arrive at the airport in good time to board your flight” and reminds passengers that gates close 30 minutes before scheduled departure time.
A flight later in the day might have a better chance of catching up on the schedule if earlier services are delayed, however, it also means a greater chance that there is knock-on impact from those issues.
Research by Telegraph Travel last year showed that an Easyjet aircraft can fly as many as 29 flights a week to 14 different destinations. Should any single flight be delayed, there’s a chance the next one or two might as well.
