easyJet expenses: meals, hotel and transport reimbursement

easyJet and care on the ground

easyJet’s published welfare policy is to hand out refreshment vouchers at the gate during long delays and to book hotels itself when a cancellation leaves passengers overnight — but at its busiest bases (Gatwick, Luton, Geneva) a wave of cancellations quickly outruns the ground staff, and passengers are told to arrange a hotel and claim it back. That instruction is a valid route: Article 9 is satisfied either by easyJet providing the care or by easyJet reimbursing what you reasonably spent when it did not.

Claim through the “expenses” section of easyJet’s delays-and-cancellations form, one claim per booking, with itemised receipts. easyJet reimburses reasonable meals, refreshments, an ordinary hotel room for the nights you were stranded and transport between the airport and the hotel. It does not have to pay for alcohol, upgrades, a hotel across town when one was available nearby, or a rental car you preferred to a later flight. Spending that easyJet could have avoided by re-routing you sooner is still recoverable if you asked for re-routing and none was offered.

Expenses are separate from fixed compensation: an extraordinary cause such as an air-traffic-control restriction at Gatwick removes the compensation, never the meals and hotel.

What easyJet must provide while you wait

Article 9 of Regulation 261/2004 (UK261) sets the duty of care. For a cancellation or denied boarding it applies immediately; for a delay it starts at 2 hours on flights up to 1,500 km, 3 hours between 1,500 and 3,500 km (and on all intra-EU flights over 1,500 km), and 4 hours on longer flights. easyJet must offer meals and refreshments in reasonable relation to the waiting time, two telephone calls or e-mails, and — when a stay of one or more nights becomes necessary — a hotel and transport between the airport and the hotel.

When easyJet does not provide it

The Court of Justice held in McDonagh that the duty of care has no time or money limit and that passengers who had to pay for their own care are entitled to be reimbursed for expenses that were necessary, appropriate and reasonable. Reasonable means an ordinary meal, a standard hotel near the airport, a taxi to that hotel — not alcohol, a five-star suite or a rental car home when a later flight was on offer.

Care does not depend on the cause

Unlike the fixed compensation, care is owed whatever caused the disruption: weather, an ATC strike or an airport closure removes the compensation but leaves the meals and hotel untouched. easyJet cannot answer an expenses claim with “extraordinary circumstances”.

How to claim expenses from easyJet

1. Keep itemised receipts (not card slips) for meals, hotel, transport and calls, with dates.
2. Submit them through easyJet’s official channel (https://www.easyjet.com/en/help/delays-and-cancellations), one claim per booking, with the flight, the delay or cancellation and the total per receipt.
3. Claim expenses separately from compensation: they are two rights and easyJet can owe both.
4. After a refusal or 8 weeks of silence, escalate to AviationADR; small claims for expenses are common and simple.