Airlines will sometimes have schedule changes, whereby the schedule for a flight will be changed at some point before departure. As a traveler, you can often make these work to your advantage, since you can typically make a (reasonable) change without incurring a fare difference.
However, the policies do vary by airline, and it seems like EasyJet may have a particularly “unfriendly” policy in this regard, as shared by an OMAAT reader. I guess that’s not too surprising for a European budget carrier that largely makes its money on fees, but still…
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That’s a problem, and a little bit of transparency shouldn’t be too much to ask for. Airline contracts of carriage are one-sided under the best of circumstances, let alone when you see stuff like this.
While the European Union has strong air passenger consumer protections (in the form of EC261), that doesn’t really address situations like this, where a schedule change is published many months in advance. So it’s up to each airline to set their policy (though again, the issue here isn’t even the policy, but instead, the lack of publishing the policy).
Now, of course I should add the obvious caveat that there’s always a risk when you’re booking flights on separate itineraries. Also, the further out you book, the better the odds that there will be a schedule change. So I can’t say that I’m shocked to see a schedule change like this, and I think a potential €50 fee might just be the “cost” of this kind of an arrangement, when confirming travel far in advance, and hoping for things to work out.
Of course watch him pay a €50 fee, only to then have that afternoon flight have a schedule change as well. So I’m not sure I have any great advice here, though at least let this act as a warning to other travelers. With many airlines, a schedule change is essentially carte blanche to pick the flight you want. With EasyJet, it’s an opportunity to pay another fee.
Bottom line
While most airlines are pretty generous when it comes to how they handle schedule changes, EasyJet isn’t. The company’s policy seems to be that if they change the schedule for less than three hours, you’re stuck with the same flight, and have to pay a fee to change to a more convenient flight.
A great solo travel tip spotted this week on One Mile at a Time.
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