Cancelled Whizz Air Flight Compensation or Expenses? im so confused!

Street_Hawk

Hi All, 

Just looking for some advice from those who might be able to help. My Parents booked a Holiday package with On the Beach, Flying from Gatwick to FARO Portugal. 
long story short, the day they were due to fly out, they were sitting in Gatwick Departures waiting for their Gate number to board the flight. 

The flight was with Whizz Air & with Zero notification the flight was cancelled! Reason given was they "Lost the Plane" that was it! No Whizz Air Staff to help, nothing! 
Both my Parents were escorted by Airport staff out of departures to retrive their luggage, and then go back through passport control before they could try to find someone in the Airport to help. There was no help at all from anyone.

They had to book a one-way flight with another airline whilst in the airport with Easyjet to get to Portugal and salvage what remained of the holiday (with the flight being the following day at a much higher cost). 

They flew the next day and lost 2 days from the holiday as a result. Someone from "On The Beach" contacted them not long after they arrived at the hotel, Apologising for the Inconvience caused and provided a full refund. little did they know the refund cancelled the return flight (originally with Whizz Air), transfers everything! 

They incurred expenses as a result of the Cancelled flight by the airline and by On the Beach. 

One the beach had already provided a full refund for the flights by cancelling everything whilst they were abroad.

Whizz Air have offered $800 Euro's Compensation.

Expenses my parents have had to pay out total £1,252.00 (Taxi's, New Flights etc).

So my question is this..

Before they accept or decline the offer from Whizz Air, (Please bare in mind this is their 2nd offer as the first offer was just $400 Euros, & i had to track down & Contact the Whizz Air Business Leadership team to get a response, due to Whizz Air Customer Services simply ignoring all emails after their original offer). 

Is Compensation & Expenses rolled into one? or should this be treated seperately? 

I'm no expert and have tried my best to help my parents out with this, but even im stuck in this minefield tbh. so any advice would be a huge help and much appreciated.

Tia x

Upsidedownandaround

They should be enitled to either a refund of their first flight or a reroute for the cancellation plus compensation.

They would be entitled to the cost of their new outbound flights they bought as a 'reroute' if that was the only suitable flight however wouldn't have been entitled to a refund in those circumstances if they chose a reroute.

If Wizzair has already refunded OntheBeach for the outbound flight though then the cost of these new flights for this would be minus the refund for the initial flight. Although it may be that Onthebeach cancelled the flights for the refund as their agent rather than a reroute. In those circumstances Wizzair will have done what is asked and given a refund rather than a reroute so it would be difficult to argue they should pay for the reroute.

Did they speak to Onthebeach about their options when the flight was cancelled?

They would then be entitled to the set standard compensation for flight cancellation unless it was for extraordinary circumstances which I think would be 400 Euros each. This sounds like what they are being offered.

Unfortunately I think this is all Wizzair may be legally required to provide.

Wizzair are not responsible for the costs and expenses of your parents or Onthebeach cancelling their transfers etc and return flight.

Any other costs they would have to take up with Onthebeach in my view.

Street_Hawk

Upsidedownandaround said:

They should be enitled to either a refund of their first flight or a reroute for the cancellation plus compensation.

They would be entitled to the cost of their new outbound flights they bought as a 'reroute' if that was the only suitable flight however wouldn't have been entitled to a refund in those circumstances if they chose a reroute.

If Wizzair has already refunded OntheBeach for the outbound flight though then the cost of these new flights for this would be minus the refund for the initial flight. Although it may be that Onthebeach cancelled the flights for the refund as their agent rather than a reroute. In those circumstances Wizzair will have done what is asked and given a refund rather than a reroute so it would be difficult to argue they should pay for the reroute.

Did they speak to Onthebeach about their options when the flight was cancelled?

They would then be entitled to the set standard compensation for flight cancellation unless it was for extraordinary circumstances which I think would be 400 Euros each. This sounds like what they are being offered.

Unfortunately I think this is all Wizzair may be legally required to provide.

Wizzair are not responsible for the costs and expenses of your parents or Onthebeach cancelling their transfers etc and return flight.

Any other costs they would have to take up with Onthebeach in my view.

Thanks for the info, I just wasnt clear on what should happen here was all.

No there was no communication from Whizz Air after my parents reached out to them intially, neither did they speak with On The Beach either from what we understand. my Parents were essentially on their own with all the flight chaos at the airport &  Zero help at the airport or even a Represenative of Whizz Air available.

I will speak with my Parents and see how they feel about it all. hopefully we can get a final resolved. 

Thanks for taking the time to reply, much appreciated.