Lowri Gallagher said her family had to sleep on the floor of Palma airport after their easyJet flight was canceled two days in a row. They then received a “gesture of goodwill” from the airline that she called “laughable.”
A family who had to sleep on the airport floor for two nights is upset with easyJet’s “laughable” and “inadequate” compensation offer after their vacation went wrong.
Their trouble began when two replacement flights were canceled at the last minute, forcing them to pay for other flights back home to Leeds, far from their home in Ferndale.
Lowri Gallagher, 30, from Ferndale, Rhondda Cynon Taf in Wales, was enjoying a trip in Mallorca with her partner, Shane Stevenson, and their young children, ages two and one. They had booked an all-inclusive trip with easyJet and were supposed to fly back at 11:20 PM on Wednesday, August 14.
They arrived at the airport around 7 PM, but by 8 PM, while trying to check in their bags, they received a message saying their flight was canceled. They sought help at the airport but found no easyJet staff available. Airport workers told them to wait, and at 8:30 PM, they got an email promising a new flight the next day at 2:30 PM. While other passengers received updates about later flights, the only advice they got was to book their own hotel.
Lowri said the cheapest hotel they could find was over £1,500 per night, and there were no easyJet staff at the airport to help them with refunds. They had to spend a lot of money on food and drinks and even had to borrow diapers for their son.
The next day, after being told their second flight was nearly five hours late, they found out that flight had also been canceled, and still, there were no easyJet representatives around. They finally managed to book a flight to Leeds that cost almost £600, and Shane’s mom came to pick them up after borrowing car seats. After spending the night with Shane’s family, they borrowed his sister’s car to drive back to Bristol to get their own car and head home to South Wales.
EasyJet later explained that the flight problems were due to bad weather and air traffic control issues at Palma airport. On August 19, they promised the family an apology, reimbursement for their expenses, and a “gesture of goodwill.”
However, the family only received their reimbursement after six weeks, and that was only after WalesOnline contacted the airline. The “goodwill gesture” from easyJet started as a £200 voucher, but after some discussion, it was raised to £240, which Lowri found insulting.
Lowri expressed her frustration: “The original £200 holiday voucher we received from easyJet, which we laughed at, has now turned into a £240 voucher added directly to our easyJet account without asking if we accepted it. The voucher means nothing to me because I will never fly with easyJet again. £240 doesn’t even come close to the stress my partner and I felt watching our babies sleep on a cold concrete floor, with no easyJet staff around to help us despite their claims that staff were present.
“They were not. This doesn’t cover the fact that we had to fly with another airline and ended up 300 miles from home because easyJet didn’t arrange alternative flights for us. It also doesn’t account for the six weeks we waited without being reimbursed for nearly £1,000 in expenses.
“If we had followed their poor advice and booked hotels ourselves, we would probably be over £5,000 out of pocket, with easyJet owing us that money. They think sending a £240 holiday voucher is enough compensation? No thanks.”
An easyJet representative confirmed that the company had apologized to the family. They added, “A member of our team will reach out to the family on Monday and offer them the gesture of goodwill as cash rather than credit.”
