Nina (name has been changed) was to board at 6:55 p.m., Friday, October 7, in a plane connecting Nice Côte d’Azur airport to that of Paris Orly. Except that not everything went as planned.
“As we are ready to take off, we are told that there is a radio failure and that engineers will arrive. When you are phobic about the plane, it is not terrible to learn that”says the Niçoise, this Wednesday, October 26.
Passengers wait while engineers try twice to repair the radios, according to the 50-year-old who was traveling to the capital to spend the weekend with her daughter.
Change of plane
After about half an hour, the pilot indicates that he must change planes. “What happens next is quite surreal. They disembark the passengers who are in the back but realize that they are facing an organizational problem: they cannot leave them without a crew except that this crew must prepare the new plane.”
Nina remembers a “frozen situation”, with customers stuck on the tarmac for half an hour, children lying on the ground. “They bring a bus to park us until the crew of the first plane can move into the second to welcome us. It’s grotesque!”
“The stewardess yelled at me”
Around 10:30 p.m., the passengers are installed in the new aircraft while the pilot waits for a flight window to take off. “There is an abject scene. A mother takes out her bank card and asks a hostess if she can buy something to eat for her 7/8 year old son.” The hostess would then have replied, in a contemptuous tone: “When you have a child, you show foresight”.
“I call the same hostess to ask her if she has an idea of the time of arrival because I am expected. She yells at me, claiming that she too has worries and that she has two children who await his return”recalls Nina, still shocked by this behavior.
Landing at the wrong airport
The plane finally took off around 11 p.m., instead of 6:55 p.m. “The flight is going very well, the flight attendants offer us a small packet of crisps and a drink. I ask for ice cubes and they tell me that, for that, I have to take a paid drink…”
15 minutes from landing, the pilot announces yet another program change. It is too late to land at Orly, so you have to go to Roissy. It is then after midnight.
“We put a bus at our disposal to make the 41 kilometer transfer but everyone jumped on it. I had to take a taxi, which cost me €70, knowing that the round trip with easyJet was still not cheap, at 186€”laughs the Niçoise.
“No excuses, no compensation”
Nina understands the chain of problems but denounces the lack of organization and, above all, of information. “No excuse, no compensation, while some passengers had to take a hotel near Roissy for the night.”
In the event of a delay of more than 2 hours for a flight of less than 1,500 kilometres, which is the case between Nice and Paris, the company must cover refreshments, catering and hotel costs (and transfer between the hotel and the airport) if the departure cannot take place before the following day. They must reimburse you for the advanced costs if support is not provided.
Reimbursement of the ticket is only possible if the delay exceeds 5 hours and you give up your trip, specifies the site du service-public.
The straw that broke the camel’s back? The return flight, on Sunday evening, where many passengers who were on the way met, was also 2 hours late and landed at almost 1 am in Nice. “The low cost, some have no choice. We do it but we regret it infinitely…”
Contacted, the airline easyJet did not immediately comment.