Money saving expert Martin Lewis has offered advice to WizzAir customers (Picture: Shutterstock/Rex)
Martin Lewis has revealed how WizzAir customers could be owed £100s in compensation if they used the airline in the past six years.
The money-saving expert told customers they could be due refunds for any issues such as flight delays or cancellations – dating back to 2017.
He said if the airline refused to refund customers for additional costs incurred, such as replacement flights they could now get their money back.
It comes after the airline has been forced to review previously rejected claims.
The UK’s Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) has said it is taking enforcement action against Wizz Air over concerns passengers haven’t been paid what they’re owed.
The airline is currently under enforcement action by the CAA (Picture: Shutterstock / Grand Warszawski)
The regulator recently found that Wizz Air failed to meet its legal obligations, particularly around providing alternative flights to enable passengers to get to their destinations when their original flight had been cancelled.
This left some paying for alternative flights and taking the airline to court to get their money back.
Wizz Air will now review some rejected claims, and the CAA has also told the airline to make changes to its policies and procedures going forward, stating that the way it treated passengers was ‘unacceptable’.
The airline blames the problems on its customer services team being unable to cope with increased demand caused by air traffic control strikes, staff shortages and airport constraints.
Whose complaints will be automatically reopened?
Your complaint will be automatically reopened if you were supposed to fly to or from a UK airport with Wizz Air on or after 18 March 2022 and you submitted one or more of the following claims, with receipts, that came to the value of £20 or above:
Replacement flight costs – because a replacement flight was not offered, or the replacement offered was unsuitable, for instance because it was days later, and earlier comparable alternatives were available.
Travel costs between airports if you were re-routed.
Care expenses, typically for overnight accommodation.
In addition, to be eligible you can’t have:
Only claimed for meals and refreshments.
Already taken steps to escalate your refund claim to a court or to AviationADR – the ‘alternative dispute resolution’ body Wizz Air uses.
If you’re eligible, you don’t need to do anything. You should be contacted by Wizz Air by 30 September 2023 and, if your claim is approved, your refund should be processed within seven working days.
If you disagree with the outcome of Wizz Air’s review, and the outcome of your original claim was less than a year ago, you can escalate your case to AviationADR. If the outcome of your original claim was more than a year ago, you can’t escalate the reviewed claim to AviationADR, but you can take it to court. See our Flight delays and cancellations guide for further help on this.
Advice and data taken from MoneySavingExpert.com
Here’s whose complaints won’t be automatically reopened
If you fail to meet the requirements outlined above, your refund claim will not be automatically reopened, so if you think it was unfairly dismissed you’ll need to request for it to be looked at again. You can only request for your claim to be reopened if your booked flight was no more than six years ago, beyond that it’s too late under law.
For those who meet this criteria, you can resubmit a claim by replying to your previous email exchange with Wizz Air. If you cannot access your email exchange, you can contact the airline’s existing bookings line on 0330 977 0444. Make sure you have to hand your booking number, case number, flight date and route, and the names of the passengers.
It’s important to note that this reviews process as a whole only applies to refund claims for extra costs you had because your flight was disrupted – it does NOT apply to claims for the extra compensation you can get under flight delay and cancellation laws (see more on this below).
Advice and data taken from MoneySavingExpert.com
The UK’s Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) has said it is taking enforcement action against Wizz Air.
