easyJet reveals why cancellation fees can cost more than your plane ticket

An easyJet plane
-Credit: (Image: Reach Publishing Services Limited)


An easyJet customer was shocked when they discovered the cancellation fee for their flight cost more than the price of their ticket. The customer paid £43.99 for a flight from London Gatwick to Rome.

But they soon realised they had accidentally booked the wrong date by mistake. They were taken aback when they found out the cancellation fee was higher than the original ticket price.

Changing the date of the ticket was also leaving them out of pocket. The traveller contacted the airline over X, formerly known as Twitter, to demand an explanation.

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They said: "How do you justify a £49.00 cancellation fee on a £43.99 ticket? Literally tried to cancel seconds after I booked as booked the wrong day by mistake…now either no refund or a £75.00 change of date (£60 change fee!). Justify these charges please."

They shared a screengrab of details of a cancellation page which showed their 'Flights-marked for cancellation' at £43.99 with a 'Cancellation fee' of £49.00, leaving them with a disappointing 'Total refund' of £0.00. The airline responded to offer their apologies.

It asked them to send over a direct message for more help with the issue, Mirror reports. easyJet provided a statement to clarify its cancellation policy, saying that customers can make changes to their flight for a 'small fee'.

On its website, easyJet says that if you want to cancel a flight within 24 hours of booking, this would incur a charge of £49 if you are doing it online and £55 if you are do it through the customer services team. If you want to make a change to your flight 60 days or less before the flight, this will cost £49 online or £54 through customer services.

easyJet said: "Offering the choice for customers to make changes to existing bookings for a small fee is one way we help keep fares low for everyone and provides flexibility to change flights rather than losing a booking altogether. Customers are able to change within 60 days and up to two hours before departure for a fee of £49, plus any fare difference between the two flights.

"For changes made more than 60 days of departure, a reduced fee of £25 is applicable, making it one of the lowest airline change fees available." In this case, the customer was able to get their money back.

The airline explained: "On this occasion, as a gesture of goodwill we have waived the change fee." Any refunds are paid into the bank account from which was used to make the original booking.