Article written by Dom Sacco with thanks to Matt ‘DatedRhyme’ for the intel
Several UK streamers and members of the games industry were left stranded at Schiphol airport in Amsterdam after visiting Twitchcon 2022.
A return flight to Luton in the UK was cancelled due to runway damage during the UK heatwave, leaving some of those affected stuck in Amsterdam and having to rebook hotels or find other arrangements.
The flight was supposed to depart Amsterdam at 6.50pm CEST on July 18th 2022. A flight coming to Amsterdam from the UK was also delayed then cancelled.
Some also struggled to get their luggage back, though the customer service team from Schiphol airport has in the past hour or so of writing this helped some travellers get their luggage back.
Some streamers and visitors to Twitchcon said the earliest flight they could get home was a few days later, leaving Twitchcon visitors stranded.
Those affected included UK streamer Stallion (and his lead technical manager Ravey88), Nikoheart, p0wher, RetroKrystal and others.
Nikoheart – who had to spend £500 in rebooked flights and hotels – added in this below video: “This is one of the most horrific experiences I’ve endured. Easyjet has absolutely failed myself and many others at the point of this flight.
“We were unaware with what to do, there was no ground crew and a lot of us were stranded. A lot of us tried to rebook our flights, but the earliest flight was two days after. For myself, it was three days after the point of cancellation.”
Reimbursement claims
Some of those affected are seeking reimbursement from Easyjet for the extra money they had to spend on hotels and a new flight.
MrRabbitGB said Easyjet is refusing to reimburse them, as is Ravey88.
Ravey88 told Esports News UK: “Easyjet said that they won’t entertain compensation due to the cancellation not being their fault but here’s my piece: The runway at Luton was damaged and repairs carried out and runway reopened at 5.30pm UK time. The flight coming to Amsterdam was delayed and then cancelled causing our flight to be then he cancelled.
“Our flight was delayed five times before they cancelled it and my opinion is our flight was cancelled due to an earlier flight being cancelled NOT because of the issues with the runway at Luton. Therefore they should be allowing compensation claims as well as a reimbursement claim for the additional hotel, food/drink etc.
“I did also submit a claim for compensation too. I did try a claim with my travel insurance for loss of earnings but they don’t cover cancelled flights.
“In total I am roughly £700-£750 out of pocket which is a combination of loss of earnings and the additional costs of hotel, food/drink, taxis etc.”
Ravey88
“I haven’t even claimed the full amount I spent for food and drink as they only cover €25 per person per day for food and drink, but prices in Amsterdam are very high and you’d struggle to eat breakfast, lunch and dinner including drinks during the day (which on the hottest day and week of the year was a lot). I bought 3 500ml bottles of water which cost €10.50 so you can imagine the costs.
“If I get the same response on my claims then I will be taking legal action and contacting the relevant ombudsman/governing bodies.”
Update (August 16th 2022): Nikoheart says he is outraged after receiving his compensation claim back from Easyjet (shown below).
“My flight that was offered was for three days later (Monday initial flight, offered Thursday for flight back instead) and to be compensated only one day because flights were available within 24 hours, when they literally weren’t… I seriously can’t understand this.
“I’ve tried to contact their customer support email to do any kind of appeal, there was nothing on their email today to appeal so if we don’t hear anything from them within the week, I’ll more than likely be going to a small claims court.”
Esports News UK understands that Nikoheart booked flights to return on the 21st, but EasyJet flights were available to book a day earlier on the 20th and so the airline is not able to reimburse customers for this additional time. However, as a gesture of goodwill on this occasion Easyjet will be reimbursing him for his additional expenses.
Update (July 28th 2022): Ravey88 says Easyjet has reimbursed him for everything except one €50 food claim due to it not being an itemised receipt, and also one Uber trip, as Easyjet said it was a private arrangement (“despite it being the same as the Uber trip they did accept, albeit from the airport rather than to the airport”, Ravey explained). Easyjet also declined to pay out compensation.
Easyjet sent Esports News UK the following statement: “Due to a temporary runway closure at Luton Airport on July 18th resulting in disruption to airline flying programmes, unfortunately flight EZY2162 from Amsterdam to Luton was cancelled.
“We did all possible to minimise the impact of the disruption for our customers, notifying them directly of their options to rebook or receive a refund and provided hotel accommodation and meals where required. Any customers who needed to arrange their own hotel accommodation and meals or alternative transport where no easyJet flights were available will be reimbursed for reasonable expenses.
“Whilst this was outside of our control, we are sorry for any inconvenience caused. The safety and wellbeing of our customers and crew is our highest priority.”
Easyjet also said it is in touch with some of those affected to assist with their expenses.
Note: Esports News UK understands compensation is different to being reimbursed for any expenses being incurred as a result of a cancellation. Easyjet’s policy is to reimburse expenses for alternative flights if no easyJet flights were available, and travellers who need to book their own hotel accommodation as a result of this, will also be reimbursed by Easyjet.
The cause of the cancellation in this instance is classified as an ‘extraordinary circumstance’ as the runway closure was outside of airlines’ control and according to regulations, no ‘compensation’ is due. However, we understand travellers affected can book an alternate flight then claim back the cost from Easyjet, as a reimbursement.
Lost luggage, people passing out and having to pay £500 extra: Nightmare Twitchcon airport account from UK streamer MrRabbitGB
Another UK streamer, MrRabbitGB, told Esports News UK they experienced massive delays which caused them to miss their original flight, leaving them stranded, and that Easyjet and Schiphol lost their luggage.
“Monday was the day of our original flight,” said MrRabbitGB. “We arrived by uber three hours before our flight, was told that we couldn’t check in before they opened check-in and that once it opens it gives us basically an hour and a half to get too our gate. We checked in around five minutes after it opened.
“In the basking heat we were forced to stand in a security queue with an expected wait time of three to four hours, given only one bottle of water throughout the entire line. We started at the main entrance and looped outside in the heat in tents, which barely protected us from the heat, people were getting frustrated that staff were placing people ahead of the queue and not paying attention to people skipping in-line.
“Easyjet offered zero support about the flights only telling us that we would be charged for missing it and would have to pay a further £220 for a new flight. We had to fork out over £500 extra for two days of hotels without any compensation from Easyjet.”
MrRabbitGB
“Once we finally got back inside to the queue, there were people just walking in front of us jumping the queue entirely. The second queue was a massive loop downstairs just to get through a single boarding pass gate. At this time it took us around an hour and even after explaining to them that if we didn’t get any further we would miss our flight.
“Once we made it through the border pass gate there was a queue up the stairs just to get to the second floor outside security, no extra water was given or basic human needs. We saw at least two or three people at this point pass out due to the heat and lack of water/food.
“Once we saw security it was atrocious how poor it was, around 60 gates we could go through yet they tried to seperate the thousands queuing into six open gates. Going super slowly through and not allocating enough staff to get the thousands through in time.
“After we got through security, we rushed to our gate to find out that we weren’t the only people who missed the flight, around 20 people including me and my girlfriend missed the flight, during the entire time there were zero announcements about flights or information given out, no texts telling us the gates open or closed.
“Easyjet offered zero support about the flights only telling us that we would be charged for missing it and would have to pay a further £220 for a new flight. We had to fork out over £500 extra for two days of hotels without any compensation from Easyjet. Come today (Wednesday July 20th 2022) we managed to get through security and border control fairly quickly, only because it was very early in the morning but as we were going through, the queues started to build everywhere.
“Boarding the plane was fine and all until we landed in Manchester to find out that Schiphol and Easyjet never actually loaded our luggage, and we were told we just had to fill out a form and maybe in the next week we may or may not get our luggage back.”
MrRabbitGB
We are now home with none of our luggage, we’ve no idea where it is and we had a very stressful three days after spending two days at twitchcon.
“Some other people at the gate had their flights cancelled today as well to Luton, we all had chats that day about where to go. Four lads who were there got flights to Luton instead for today, and at our gate we looked and saw that the Schiphol to Luton was cancelled, so we’re assuming that they didn’t make their flight today also.”
Update (July 25th): MrRabbitGB says he now has his luggage back, but Easyjet are refusing to reimburse for extra money spent, saying the situation apparently wasn’t its fault. Esports News UK has reached out to Easyjet for comment.
While the blame seems to be with the airport, a flight attendant told MrRabbitGB that Easyjet is required to ask the airport to make an announcement before departure, in case anyone is on their way.
“On Monday there was only one air hostess which helped us, who was furious with how Easyjet handled it and said she would speak to her higher ups about it and complain to the airways team. Overall the experience with them was terrible, we had zero communication or support from Easyjet or Schiphol Airport, just a basic: “It’s your fault, figure it out yourself.”
More on Twitchcon 2022
Twitchcon took place in Amsterdam this weekend from Saturday July 16th to Sunday July 17th 2022. The convention is a gathering place for streamers and celebration of all things Twitch streaming, and it was the first one that got underway since the pandemic.
It featured Twitch Rivals tournaments, a Hearthstone LAN, community panels, musical performances, meet-ups and more, plus a partner party took place on Friday July 15th 2022.
Twitchcon 2022 in Amsterdam also featured a host of UK talent including the likes of Frankie Ward, Iain Chambers, Darroch Brown, Geo, Ireland’s Dagda and more.
Twitch also announced some changes, including a reduction in the threshold for streamers to receive payments, from $100 to $50.
We’ve reached out to Twitch for an update on some of the Twitch Rivals results and other news, in particular any relevant UK angles for us to cover.
Dom is an award-winning writer and finalist of the Esports Journalist of the Year 2023 award. He graduated from Bournemouth University with a 2:1 degree in Multi-Media Journalism in 2007.
As a long-time gamer having first picked up the NES controller in the late ’80s, he has written for a range of publications including GamesTM, Nintendo Official Magazine, industry publication MCV and others. He worked as head of content for the British Esports Federation up until February 2021, when he stepped back to work full-time on Esports News UK and offer esports consultancy and freelance services. Note: Dom still produces the British Esports newsletter on a freelance basis, so our coverage of British Esports is always kept simple – usually just covering the occasional press release – because of this conflict of interest.
