Whizzair Cancelled Flight

[webbscatering]

At 1400hrs on the 28th of February 2023, Whizzair cancelled the flight from Luton to Egypt and rescheduled the flight for 815hrs on the 1st of March 2023.

 

They cancelled two flights simultaneously that afternoon which caused chaos at the desks with over 300 hundred passengers needing help.

 

My partner and I made our own arrangements to stay at the adjacent hotel also paying for meals, refreshments, and taxis,

can we claim out-of-pocket expenses?

 

I've been on the Whizzair website to start the claim but am petrified I might mess it up, again any advice would be great.

 

In the past, I've used Claim Solicitors to get compensation but they fleece me for half the money for just sending out letters

I'd like to try to do it myself with the advice and help from CAG.

[Ethel Street]

Tagging @Kyosanto who is knowledgeable about this.

 

What reason did Whizzair give you for the cancellation?

[webbscatering]

Looking through all that was sent to me the answers No, did not give an excuse.

I've attached everything that was sent to me.

 

The offer of accommodation was not refused because if you don't respond in time you lose that offer and have to wait for another, which is fair enough as there was people in more need than me.

 

Whizzair pt001.pdf

Edited March 8, 2023 by webbscatering
removed personal info in attachment

[Kyosanto]

Quote

My partner and I made our own arrangements to stay at the adjacent hotel also paying for meals, refreshments, and taxis, so can we claim out-of-pocket expenses?

 

Yes, you can claim expenses regardless of what the reason for the delay was. (EC261 Art. 9)  Normal airlines would be happy that you made your own arrangements instead of taking up their hotel vouchers (because of the high number of people usually involved in those cases, less work for them), as long as the expenses are reasonable. We will have to see here if Wizz acts normally, or try to argue that they offered you something that you did not take. Also I see that they didn't offer you any transportation so the taxis are definitely on them.

 

If you have any evidence that the offer was no longer available to you at the time you made your hotel booking than you have a rock solid case. (for future information) it is good practice to email the airline immediately with something like "As there is currently no hotel offer available to me I will be making my own arrangement and claim from you later".

 

Separately from your expense claim you should also submit an EC261 claim for 400 Euros per passengers. This is the one where they have the right to invoke excuses to get out of paying, but it won't affect your expenses claim. The burden is on them to explain why they shouldn't pay. You should be able to fill it in directly with the airline as well.

[webbscatering]

great advice Kyosanto.

also, I've spoken to the Insurance company just to make them aware of the situation and they've logged it down and await the outcome of the compo claim with Whizz

[webbscatering]

Filling out the compo claim form and one question asks did I book through a third-party travel agency?

I booked through Love Holidays but I read on CAG that they deny being a travel agency, should I say yes or no?

also, claiming for my partner but it's asking to upload a power of attorney, is this because I'm claiming for her as she is just a companion and not my wife?

Would it be best to do a separate claim for her instead of a joint one?

Edited March 8, 2023 by webbscatering

[Kyosanto]

Love Holidays is still a travel agency albeit a non ATOL protected one. Refunds normally go through the agency (good luck with that) however as this is not a refund but a claim they really should pay you directly. Better say yes than lying anyhow since they will know already where the ticket is from once they look it up.

 

I'm not really sure why they're asking for a power of attorney if you were on the same ticket, but if can get them a signed letter from your partner it's probably easier to deal with it as a single claim than separately.

 

Finally don't worry about "messing it up", there is nothing to mess up from this point, just send them your expense claim - no need for a fancy letter, just the flight you were on, the ticket number and all your receipts - and get that paid in. You can then file your EC261 separately (and prepare for possible rejection on the latter, but for 800 euros it's certainly worth pursuing for a while).

[webbscatering]

thank you Kyosanto, I'll get this done tomorrow

[webbscatering]

Quick update:-

Welfare Reimbursement has been received by Wizz Air

Power of Attorney has been drawn up using a free service by rocketlawyer.com, this was the simplest PoA one I found and the only problem is you have to sign up for a free one week trial but can cancel after you've drawn up the contract.

Soon as the partner has got it signed off by a witness we'll start the claim process.

[Kyosanto]

Thanks for the update.

 

I'm sorry i may have been wrong about love holidays. According to the old thread they are just a broker and your contract is directly with the airline... but according to their own website some of their products are now ATOL protected, so who knows really what they are. 

[webbscatering]

Exactly Kyosanto who knows what they are???

 

Update:-

General Power of attorney has been witnessed and signed.

The compensation Claim is now lodged and awaiting their response

[webbscatering]

At the moment I'm quite impressed with the way Wizz is dealing with this claim and received this today and needless to say we're going for the cash.

Still waiting for a response to the out-of-pocket expenses!

 

Dear Customer,

Thank you for contacting Wizz Air Customer Service Department.
 

The delay of the flight W9-5127 on 28 February 2023 on the LTN-HRG route was not caused by extraordinary circumstances and therefore, in accordance with Regulation (EC) No 261/2004 of the European Parliament and of the Council, you are entitled to compensation of 550 GBP for each passenger. 

We would like to inform you that we can offer you two options to perform paying the compensation: 

1) Payment to WIZZ account: we will credit an additional 20%, which in this case corresponds to a WIZZ credit amount of 1,320 GBP.

The amount will be available to the account holder immediately after it has been uploaded, with a one-year time limit. The balance on the WIZZ account may be used to book and pay for tickets and to purchase additional services to an existing booking. 

or, 

2) We can offer the compensation amount of 1100 GBP by bank transfer. In case you chose this option, please specify the following details in your reply: 

[Kyosanto]

Well done, and lucky! Not only your flight was long enough to go into the long haul compensation bracket, they're also giving you £550 whilst the british version of the law only suggests £520.

 

It's good to finally see a good story about Wizz (after they were voted worst airline in the UK last year!)

 

Have they accepted to pay your hotel expenses as well?

[webbscatering]

No news to report apart from they are dragging their heels on making the actual payment, I've tried chatting to some muppet on the chat but got nowhere.

Attached are the confirmation emails about the payments.

Tried calling customer services on 0905 707 0000 but the line goes dead.

Tried asking the Chat Muppet for a contact email but said didn't have one.

How do I contact Wizz to see the status of my claim?

 

wizz air m janes-1 edited.pdf wizz air k webb-2 edited.pdf live chat 12-05-2023.pdf

[Kyosanto]

Wizz Air
Mr József Váradi	CEO
Email	Jozsef.Varadi@wizzair.com

[webbscatering]

So this has been a nightmare!

Messaged everyone at Wizzair and got a response on 31st May informing me one payment was made via a Claim firm Airhelp, why did this happen? this is a story for another day!

1st June Wizzair asked for the Bank details and power of attorney again? So still waiting for for compensation for passenger #2, this claim was not done through Airhelp.

Still waiting for out of pocket expenses to be paid.