Raw Deal: The not so simple option of flight voucher from easyJet

Jackie Silburn had difficulty paying for an easyJet holiday with a voucher from the airline

However, on October 31, 2015, a flight from Sharm el Sheikh to St Petersburg crashed in North Sinai.

Egyptian and Russian authorities opened an investigation into the crash. On November 17 Russian authorities stated that the crash was caused by an explosive device onboard the flight.

As a precautionary measure, the British Foreign & Commonwealth Office advised against all but essential travel by air to or from Sharm el Sheikh.

This meant that Jackie, from Carnoustie, was given the news in December her flight would be cancelled.

She was given the option of a refund for her £408 outlay or a voucher. Jackie told the call-centre operative that as she was going to book another holiday with easyJet she would take a voucher.

This was a decision she soon regretted. When she tried to use the voucher to book an easyJet holiday Jackie was told that it wasn’t acceptable as it was only valid for flights.

At this Jackie phoned easyJet and told them that as she couldn’t use the voucher then she would take the refund instead.

However, she was swiftly informed that she had already been issued with a voucher and could no longer have a refund.

Jackie explained she had told their customer services operator she’d be booking a holiday and advised everything would be OK.

She was told they’d ring her back after listening to the original call. They never did. She also emailed a complaint to customer services but this was also ignored.

Jackie contacted Raw Deal, telling us she was very unhappy at the lack of a refund and had booked and paid for a holiday with a different company.

This would have been a sale easyJet would have got had they refunded her.

We contacted easyJet and they soon had much better news.

A spokesperson told us: “EasyJet is sorry Mrs Silburn’s flights to Sharm el Sheikh on January 26 were cancelled.

“Following the change to the Government’s advice on travel to and from Sharm el Sheikh, easyJet suspended all flying between the UK and Sharm after Wednesday, November 4, and won’t resume flights until after the Government’s advice changes.

“EasyJet has suspended flights on this route up until Friday, May 27, 2016. EasyJet has offered all affected passengers a flight voucher for the value of their flights or a full refund.

“We advised Mrs Silburn of the cancellation for her flights on December 16 and apologise that there has been a delay in her receiving her requested refund.

“This has now been processed to Mrs Silburn’s account.”

A now happy Jackie said: “Thank you very much for getting easyJet to refund my money.

“I had tried writing, emailing and phoning on numerous occasions without being able to make any progress. Once again, many thanks.”

Raw Deal: Refund refused for a flight that never flew