U2 8225 Vuelo Retrasado o Cancelado: Reclamación de Compensación y Reembolso

Easyjet say it was air traffic control problems but I was sent to 2 different boarding gates and at each gate was told there was a crew member missing. Arrived at Chania over 7 hours late.

I tried to check in on the easyjet app the night before our flight the following afternoon (at 15:35). I got boarding passes issues for the return flight but then got an error message saying they couldn't complete check in at this time but to try again later. When I googled I came across something saying that the website was doing maintenance so try again around 4am. I tried several times again the following morning before ee left for the airport but I kept getting the same issue so we had no choice but to go to the bag drop machines (even though we had no luggage to put in the hold. So that was the first inconvenience as we wanted to head straight through security but instead had to join a queue) to drop bags that we weren't dropping! I then asked a staff member where we go to get our boarding passes issued as we hadn't been able to get them from the mobile app. He pointed me to a separate colleague who had a computer. She then informed us that we had seat at gate tickets. I'd never even heard of this before! It made us very nervous to suddenly be told we may not get on our flight and that the next one isn't until over a day later. We were going away to celebrate our recent engagement so not a great start to the trip! As soon as the gate showed onscreen, we ran to the gate. There we were subjected to a circus. We were told that I actually did have a seat but my partner didn't (so their systems say different things - does anyone at easyjet even know what is going on?!). There was also one other sag customer who apparently was priority over us. The gate staff did the request for volunteers to fly the next day so we could have their place. One lady volunteered so that was 1 out of 2 seats sorted. We just needed one more person...how ridiculous to not have been told on the easyjet app that we were sag. As a customer I should at least be informed, so I can make a choice, right? I felt completely mis-sold and like we didn't matter. It's outrageous that they let you pay for your flight, you have to pay to get to the airport only to be told you may have to fly a whole day later. For a 3 day trip, that wouldn't really have worked for us! Eventually as the plane doors were closing, the gate staff told us that one man had checked in and so had his suitcase, but he hadn't come to the gate so my fiancé could have his seat. The strange thing was, they also said that the lady who volunteered to fly the next day could actually fly with us anyway so maybe someone else had checked in but was a no show? No idea. Again, their systems obviously aren't that great at logging real time data! So we got on the plane and my seat was at the front half and my fiancé's was towards the rear end. Next thing I know, he is walking towards me shaking his head. The man whose seat he'd been given and whose bags were being taken off the plane there and then, was there! All of a sudden, the lady at the gate appears and tells me and my fiancé that we have to either both get off the plane or I can fly without my fiancé and he can fly tomorrow. I suggested we find the lady who had originally volunteered to fly tomorrow to ask her to do that. The gate staff said we couldn't do that. I asked why she couldn't put a message out using the tanoy system. She refused. So I went up and down the plane to find the lady. Eventually we found her and she agreed to still fly the next day. They then had to do a security sweep of the area before my fiancé was allowed to sit down to check that an explosive hadn't been left. By now we had been denied boarding then accepted, then denied boarding and then accepted a second time...and now the plane had missed its take off time so we were then about 3 hours late landing in Chania which meant we couldn't do anything with our first evening! Such a waste of a hotel expense and first night of what was meant to a celebration of our engagement! We got an apology from the cabin supervisor who said she or the pilot was not told anything by the ground staff and that she would offer us a free drink! What a nightmare start to the holiday for us but also the other 100s of paying customers who ended up losing out on their first evening due to the time we ended up landing! Is there anything we can do about this? Thank you for your help.