Don't fly Air Europa!
 

I bought a return ticket from AirEuropa:


Origin: Lisbon – Destination: Madrid – Flight Nº UX1158 – Date 31/08/2011 – Time: 19h30
Origin: Madrid – Destination: Lisbon – Flight Nº UX1157 – Date 04/09/2011 – Time: 18h35


On the 31st of August, the flight UX1158 (Lisbon-Madrid) was delayed for more than 2 hours, and finally cancelled at 23h. The reason given to the passengers for the flight cancelation were technical problems related to the aircraft.


The passengers were then taken to the AirEuropa Customer Service Office at the Lisbon Airport to have their flights rescheduled. My flight to Madrid was then booked for the following day: Flight Nº UX1156 – Date 01/09/2011 – Time: 15h45.




Given the Regulation (EC) No 261/2004 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 11 February 2004 establishing common rules on compensation and assistance to passengers in the event of denied boarding and of cancellation or long delay of flights, I requested the compensation according to Article 7, paragraph 1 a) of the referred regulation, of 250 euros for the inconveniences caused.



Besides this compensation I also requested the extra transport expenses I had between the airport and my place of stay in Lisbon, according with the referred regulation, Article 9, paragraph 1 c) “transport between the airport and place of accommodation (hotel or other)”.



Of course the reply of the company 15 days later was:


"We are very sorry for the need to cancel the mentioned flight, with it being impossible for the company to perform this flight as was originally programmed, due to an unexpected flight safety shortcoming, being this an extraordinary circumstance for the company."
(...)

We would like to inform you that, in accordance to Article 5.3 of Regulation (CE) 261/04, the carrier shall not be obliged to pay compensation if it can prove that the cancellation is caused by extraordinary circumstances which could not have been avoided even if all reasonable measures had been taken, being specified on Whereas nº14 and 15, when it is consider a extraordinary circumstance: as political instabilit y, meteorological conditions, security risks, unexpected flight safety shortcomings and strikes that affected the operation of an operating carrier, or the impact of an air traffic management decision.

On the other hand, the whole passage received assistance like accomodation in a hotel, and shuttle airport - hotel - airport."


Since I find this "extraordinary circunstances" reason veeery ambiguous I insisted on the complaint:


"You must agree that the definition of "extraordinary circumstances" in EU Regulation 261/2004 is somewhat vague: “political instability, meteorological conditions, security risks, unexpected flight safety shortcomings and strikes”. However, I could not see any reference to mechanical failure of the aircraft in the regulation. I must underline the fact, that the maintenance of the equipments used by your airline company is your responsibility, therefore if there’s a failure of your equipments that interferes on the service delivery your customers paid for, it’s (logically) your responsibility. From your reply, one could presume, that you’re saying that problems with the maintenance of the aircraft led to flight safety shortcomings. I sincerely hope that’s not the case for the sake of AirEuropa passengers and fleet. I understand that you’re are interpreting the regulation on your supposed benefit, but using that statement goes against what a customer expects from an airline service: getting to the destination, on time and safely."


Some days ago I received a reply...
Plain repetition of the first reply, but asking for my bank account details to transfer me the taxi expenses I had...around 14euros. Well..better than nothing, but I'll never fly Air Europa again for sure.
Seriously this "unexpected safety shortcomings" is very tricky excuse...

http://ec.europa.eu/transport/passen...ent_bodies.pdf

Scan down this document and you will find the address and contact details for the "competant authority" in Portugal. Complete the application form, you can find here...

http://ec.europa.eu/transport/passengers/air/air_en.htm

This also provides more detail, which you seem to know, that the EU does not accept mechanical breakdown as "extraordinary". The airlines are engaged in a war of attrition with passengers and the EU to try and get this regulation modified. We need informed passengers like you to persist.

If you get the national competent agency in Portugal to support your case, you can file in small claims and get a judgement against them on the back of this.

I hope you will persist....

Air europa....rude...incompetent....endless problems!
 

I booked tickets from London to Salvador, Brazil via Madrid for myself, my partner and our newborn baby. I didn't know that UK passport holders were not allowed to fly on a one-way ticket and was not informed this when booking.

Moments before boarding the plane in Madrid, we were told I was not allowed to board with my baby as we have UK passports. We were not told this when leaving the UK however, only once we were stranded in Spain. We were given no further assistance, simply told we could board the next flight in 3 days!

We had to wait several hours for them to retrieve our baggage, two pieces of which were lost containing all of our clothes, including necessary items for our baby.

When asking the airline customer service if they could provide us with a hotel, they said no and were very rude and unhelpful. They told us haughtily.....'we are not the airline, we are simply the customer service and we have no right to give you compensation....we just hear the complaint' ie....we can not help you and we don't care anyway.

So, we were stranded in Madrid with a baby, no clothes and nowhere to stay for 3 days.

When making a complaint to the airline I was told it was not their fault as Brazil makes it's own laws about entry. I wrote again to explain that my complaint was not that I was denied passage from spain, but that I was allowed to board in the UK, knowing that I would be denied boarding in Spain. They did not even bother to reply to that message, or my subsequent messages. If I had been told in the UK, I could have booked a return flight as I arrived 3 hours before departure. In Spain, they told me 2 minutes before boarding and told me there was not enough time for me to book another ticket.

Once finally boarding the plane 3 days later, I found the whole experience terrible....no vegetarian meals as ordered, uncomfortable seats with no place for the baby, rude and grumpy staff; they even make you pay for headphones (which don't work!!!)

Do not fly Air Europa.....trust me, they are criminal!

Shockingly bad customer service
 

Air Europa cancelled our flight on 23rd Dec from Havana which meant we arrived in London on Christmad day stranded as there was no public transport running. Their Customer Sernce was so bad it is shocking. They did not want to know. We explained the situation that we would live 2 hours away from London and that we would be stranded in London as there is no transport on Xmas day and asked them to help us but they did nothing.

We missed Christmas day with our families because of them. Their staff were so rude its beyond acceptable basically saying they couldnt care less. In Havana my husnad asked for at least an upgrade on the way home and they laughed and went what for?

We have written to them to compensate us for the flight cancellation but reading other travellers reviews we already know they are going to fob us off.

I travel often and use Emirates or BA regularly, this is my first time going long haul with another airline. I wont be repeating this mistake again. A word of caution if you are flying with them, apparently they seem notorious for cancelling flights and then fobbing customers off when they want to be compensated.

Pay a little extra and travel with peace of mind, dont use these cowboys!

Air Europa are an EU based airline. You are entitled to compensation under EU Directive 261/2004. Write to them and demand compensation. If they do not comply, you can write to the appropriate authority. If the flight landed in Spain first, you would write to them, if not you can complain to the CAA in the UK. You do noy have to be an EU citizen to claim.