Freddorick

I know of a case where a someone successfully sued TK to reroute onto LH. They bought the ticket themselves after TK refused and sued for the ticket price. The claim amount was quite substantial though (I think 6k+ Euro) and they filed in Germany. But this might be different in different countries.

That being said, W6 will never rebook you. If you send them a claim they will deny it. And odds are that we are talking about less than 100Euro fare difference here, so its really not worth the trouble.

However, you can refund either for cash or credit (+20%), or change dates / and or destination (in some radius around the destination point). So if you plan another trip over expensive dates choose these or check whatever they are offering, sometimes you can score a real deal!

PGberkshire

So, 30 days +
No response from Wizz, despite the promise to conform to EC261 rules and reply within the month.

PGberkshire

Update:

They responded saying not possible. I asked for them to confirm this is their position and provide details of their legal dept.

Often1

Why not simply send a letter before action and proceed to an MCOL proceeding? Seems that delay just works in the carrier's favor.

momoflyingguy

Definitely continue with legal action. do not give up. show them they cannot get away with it.

gnargel

Why? There is a pandemic going on. Airlines basically have to cut routes if there is not enough demand and/or are travel bans imposed to survive. I am sure Wizzair is in severe financial difficulty as is. Just because you are legally permitted to do so, doesn't mean you have to do so..

momoflyingguy

So steal money from passengers in order to save themselves from financial difficulty? If they need charity, then let them ask for it and i might even give them some, but not by robbing their passengers from what is legally their's.

Often1

I did not suggest that OP will suceed in his MCOL action. Indeed, the EC non-binding Guidance from March/April suggests otherwise and it is well-reasoned. But, that does not change the fact that if OP is going to pursue this, he needs to escalate this and MCOL is the easiest way. He doesn't need the address of the "legal department" what he needs to do is send a letter before action (form on the MCOL website) to the corporate address and be done with it.

My suspicion is that he spends time & effort and sees nothing for it, but that is different than the process.

gnargel

As far as I am aware - but please correct me if I am wrong - Wizzair is not refusing to refund/provide a voucher to the OP, so I am not sure why you are stating that Wizzair is robbing and stealing?

Also, I doubt this ticket (or a replacement ticket) was very expensive to begin with so threatening with a lawsuit seems a bit of an overreaction in any case.

Often1

A refund is a return of the original form of payment, e.g. a credit item posted to one's credit card. A voucher is not a refund in any sense of the word and most certainly not under the Regulation. The question of expense is no particularly relevant for one with a UK address. The MCOL procedure is accomplished online and while there exists a remote possibility that one might be assessed the filing fee for a frivolous claim, it is remote. This claim likely fails on its merits under the circumstances, but it is not frivolous. The system is set up for what are definitionally "small" claims.

UKtravelbear

One issue here is that there isn't (to my knowledge) a precidential judical ruling or regulatory finding clarifying the 'comparable conditions' clause of the regulation so it's down to individual airlines to interpret - hence refusals and inconsistencies.

Also Wizz isn't a member of IATA and many scheduled carriers won't deal with them because of that.

A decision by MCOL in the UK (AKA the small claims court) isn't precidential and it would need a losing passenger to take it to a higher court and that costs money.

The fact that law firms like Bott and Co haven't taken up 'comparable conditions' case tells me something - i.e. it's not comething they think they can win.

And a further complication is that the OP was flying Wizz (a Hungarian airline) on an intra continental European Route and an MCOL judge may just not want to get involved in that as it's not clear how the UK is involved. There is a UK based subsidiary but are they the right defendent?

Im a new user

That's simple. You just need to formulate your request to the airline properly: "I demand that you re-route me under comparable conditions at the earliest opportunity. Alternatively, should there be an available seat under uncomparable conditions on an earlier flight, you may choose to re-route me on that flight instead. Should I be more than two hours late to my destination, I also demand assistance under article 9 (right to care)." This gives the airline the choice between putting the passenger in a hotel (potentially for weeks) until there is a flight on the same airline and re-routing on a different airline. A wise airline would then pick the cheapest option (which probably means re-routing on a different airline).

Should the airline refuse to do anything, the passenger would try to re-route himself and obtain food and hotel rooms while trying to pay as little as possible for these expenses and then bill the airline. I'd imagine that a court would think that re-routing on a different airline is acceptable if it costs more to stay in a hotel until it becomes possible to travel on the airline originally booked.

That's the airline's problem, not the OP's problem.

Aren't they mostly into the fixed compensation (�250/�400/�600)? The 'comparable conditions' part rarely comes into play in those cases.

I think that the OP has to sue in the country of departure (Austria) or the country of destination (Poland), maybe also in Hungary due to the location of the airline's corporate headquarters. There is an international small claims procedure for people living in the EU, but UK people might be unable to use that procedure due to Brexit.

AviosTreasureHunter

I know I am very late to the party here.
But read through this as am in similar situation to OP.
On reading the CAA guidance, and having taken AF to Court over this very issue, I believe it is very easy to argue that airline MUST re-route you on another airline if can get you there same day.
I do not believe the wording of 261 allows for airlines to only offer you flights on their own services or partners.