Airline or Travel Agent?

j.m.a.l.

Hello,  

I have had a good look through the forum and haven't been able to find the answer to my question .

I booked a return Wizzair flight through lastminute.com as their offer was the best I could find. The outbound flight was delayed in excess of 4 hours and so I submitted a claim via the online portal, including a PoA letter for the passenger I was with. 

I have now had a response from Wizz to say that they will not be able to process because lastminute booked so they have to make the claim. I was under the impression that they would owe compensation to the passenger who was travelling? They had also advised me via live chat that the payment was being processed (which I have a screenshot of). 

I have contacted lastminute and they have said they cannot help. I'm not sure which I now need to escalate with.
Many Thanks for any advice

JPears

I'm not 100% certain but I think LM.com will have to make the claim (for which they will charge you an admin fee)

You may have to force the issue if they won't cooperate by sending an LBA/NBA with 7 days notice then start small claims proceedings.

For future reference, always book direct with airline. Its very very rare you will save more than a few £s but save yourself a whole lot of hassle.

eskbanker

My understanding is that the passenger needs to claim directly against the airline rather than via the agent used to make the booking, and Lastminute's Ts & Cs certainly take this view:

https://www.lastminute.com/terms/terms-and-conditions.html#flight_deniedboarding

If your Flight is delayed or cancelled, you may have rights to a refund and/or compensation from the airline under European Regulation (EC) No 261/2004 (the Denied Boarding Regulation) or other equivalent or replacement legislation. This however, is the responsibility of the airline and we are not liable under any circumstances. If your Flight is delayed or cancelled any claims for refunds or compensation must be made directly to the airline.

Having said that, I haven't seen a clear authoritative and independent source that states this unequivocally, although the regulations certainly envisage the airline not having a direct contract with the passenger:

"operating air carrier" means an air carrier that performs or intends to perform a flight under a contract with a passenger or on behalf of another person, legal or natural, having a contract with that passenger

onashoestring

Wizzair are responsible for paying compensation if the cancellation was not due to exceptional circumstances beyond the airlines control.

However they may need a LM reference number / e-mail to process the claim and confirm that you are the individual entitled to receive it . 

Have you asked LM for the reference numbers/ e-mail address  they used when making the booking ? 

Exodi

It's always been the airline you'd claim from.

Even if you were on an ATOL package holiday, you'd claim compensation from the airline directly.

eskbanker

Exodi said:

It's always been the airline you'd claim from.

Even if you were on an ATOL package holiday, you'd claim compensation from the airline directly.

As above, that's my understanding too, but do you have anything definitive that OP can go back to Wizzair with, i.e. something with more authority than 'someone said so online'?!  I failed to find anything from a quick search earlier so it would be good to have a reliable source....

Exodi

eskbanker said:

Exodi said:

It's always been the airline you'd claim from.

Even if you were on an ATOL package holiday, you'd claim compensation from the airline directly.

As above, that's my understanding too, but do you have anything definitive that OP can go back to Wizzair with, i.e. something with more authority than 'someone said so online'?!  I failed to find anything from a quick search earlier so it would be good to have a reliable source....

I've just claimed EU261 compensation from Easyjet directly, despite booking through Thomas Cook, but I take your point that is of no use to the OP who can't just say "Exodi from MSE said so".

Both EU261 and the UK legislation bringing EU261 into UK law state throughout that compensation and associated terms are applicable to the air passenger only: https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2019/278/pdfs/uksi_20190278_en.pdf

EDIT Reading the EU261 interpretive guidlines: https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX:52016XC0615(01)

In particular '2.2.6.   Scope of the Regulation in relation to the Package Travel Directive'.

I guess that my experience is probably not relevant as I would have fallen under the package travel directive, but I'm not sure if just the flight purchased through lastminute.com would have?