I have flown with easyjet on a regular basis and have until now found them to be a reliable airline.

On 2 July 2006 my flight from Barcelona to Luton EZY2270 was cancelled half an hour before departure. We were told the flight had not left Luton due to staff shortage. This was the third flight cancelled by easyjet from Barcelona that day. A month later and following two complaint letters easyjet had not refunded my ticket (we flew home ryanair the next day). I spent 40 minutes in a telephone queue at 10/p per minute this morning to find out what they were doing.

Under EU/UK law you are entitled to €250 compensation per person for cancelled flights at such short notice. easyjet is refusing to pay this as it considers staff shortgage due to staff sickness to be an 'extraordinary circumstance which could not have been avoided even if all reasonable steps had been taken' I consider staff shortage due to over-rapid expansion to be entirely avoidable.

As a consequence despite having flown easyjet more times than I can count I won't be using them again.