A day after a United Airlines passenger was forcibly dragged out of a plane during an overbooked flight, two Easyjet passengers were also removed from an overbooked flight at Luton Airport and were not offered compensation.
Manoj, 38, and Viddha, 35, were flying to Catania, Sicily, and paid about $851 for their tickets. The couple had planned out a six-day Easter vacation and booked a non-refundable tour package, which included accommodation and transfers, that amounted to about $1,600.
However, after boarding flight EZY2383 on April 10, 2017, the two got kicked off the plane since the flight was overbooked. According to BBC, the two were just told that the next trip was four days later on another Easyjet flight. The airline company didn't disclose information that the couple could fly on the same day with another airline or was entitled to compensation as per EU rules.
"This was an incredibly humiliating situation," Manoj said, "The airline had overbooked and we were involuntarily off-boarded from the aircraft by two airport staff in front of a packed plane." The couple was told to collect their luggage and go back to the airport terminal.
According to Independent, Easyjet, along with other airlines, oftentimes predicts the number of passengers who won't show up during a flight and intentionally overbooks it. However, if there are more passengers that show up compared to the number of seats available before take off, the company can legally choose any passenger they want to offload.
In order to compensate the selected passengers, airline companies must follow the European regulations about overbooking. Airline staff should look for volunteers who are willing to travel on a later flight and financially compensate them. However, if there are no volunteers, selected passengers must be compensated and provided with the fastest alternative flight available to their destination.
Now, according to the couple, Easyjet didn't follow these rules. The company never attempted to look for volunteers in the first place and that it didn't provide them financial compensation as well, that should be $425 each. Also, they weren't given an alternative flight on that very same day even if it was on another airline.
As for Easyjet, it did apologize to the clients for the inconvenience that was caused. However, the couple is still upset since their Easter vacation was completely ruined.
