Flight delay insurance

MrChips

Hello!

I have a travel insurance policy which pays out a small sum in the event of a delay to booked transport in excess of 2 hours.  In late 2022, my family and I took a Wizz Air flight from Gatwick to Budapest which was delayed by around 2 hours and I submitted a claim a few weeks ago.  Not unreasonably, the insurer asked for confirmation/evidence of the delay which they suggested I get from the airline itself.

I've contacted Wizz Air to request confirmation of the take-off time but initially they responded to say I wasn't entitled to the statutory compensation due to the flight being delayed due to exceptional circumstances.  I replied to say I wasn't seeking compensation, merely confirmation of the take-off time.  They replied to say that details of flight performance are a business secret.  I replied again to say I didn't even need to know the precise take-off time, just that it took off at least 2 hours late.  They replied again with a word for word repeat of their previous email about business secrets.

Any ideas where I go from here?  Do I have a right to get the information I am seeking from Wizz Air?

bagand96

Would the insurance company accept evidence from one of the flight tracking websites like FlightRadar24 or Flightstats etc? 

MrChips

Thanks - I'm not familiar with those sites, do they have historical data which goes back to October 2022?  I had a very quick look at the first one but couldn't easily find it if so.

bagand96

There's quite a few websites that track flights and log historical data, although many of them need a premium subscription to go back more than a couple of weeks or so. You may be able to get a free trial though.

What was the date of the flight and flight number (or route?) 

Also assuming you've checked that any excess won't wipe out the small amount of the claim? 

eskbanker

MrChips said:

Do I have a right to get the information I am seeking from Wizz Air?

No, I don't believe you do, in that there's no legal or regulatory provision that I'm aware of that would oblige them to disclose this to you, e.g. it's not personal data under DPA/GDPR, etc - having said that it's hardly business secrets when it's in the public domain at the time, but generally only for a week or two, so the time to obtain that information was immediately after the flight, rather than a year later....

MrChips

Thanks all.

The benefit is only £10 per person (no excess) for a delay between 2 and 6 hours, so for my family that would total £30.  Worth having if the hassle involved is not excessive but not a particularly large sum.  I didn't claim within two weeks as I wasn't aware of the clause until I had to claim for much bigger delay resulting from a more recent holiday (24 hours in that case!).

Date of flight was 21 October 2022, flight number was W6 2222 (LGW-BUD)

Scheduled take off time was 2155, but I have whatsapp messages from while we were sitting on the plane prior to take off timed at around 2350 and I highly expect we didn't take off until a few minutes after that.

bagand96

MrChips said:

Thanks all.

The benefit is only £10 per person (no excess) for a delay between 2 and 6 hours, so for my family that would total £30.  Worth having if the hassle involved is not excessive but not a particularly large sum.  I didn't claim within two weeks as I wasn't aware of the clause until I had to claim for much bigger delay resulting from a more recent holiday (24 hours in that case!).

Date of flight was 21 October 2022, flight number was W6 2222 (LGW-BUD)

Scheduled take off time was 2155, but I have whatsapp messages from while we were sitting on the plane prior to take off timed at around 2350 and I highly expect we didn't take off until a few minutes after that.

The only website I can find with data that old freely available shows your flight as departing 1h 42m late at 23:37 (takeoff may well have been later) and arriving 1h 14m late at 02:39. W62222 - 21. Oct 2022: Wizz Air (WZZ2BP) from London to Budapest (flightera.net)

When claiming compensation for flight delays under EC261 it is arrival time that counts.  I would expect the insurance company would also use arrival time as the deciding factor.

MrChips

Thanks for digging that out - very interesting.  I know for a fact it didn't take off that early due to my whatsapp messages with my wife (who they sat in a different row) timed at 23:42.

The insurance is as follows:

Delay Benefit: We will pay £10 per insured person after the first two hours and an additional £10 every following four hours up to a limit of £250 if you have arrived at your point of departure or connection and your pre-booked aircraft, ship or train is delayed. You must have already checked in.

So if the analogy is with a train, it's the time the plane leaves that's relevant.  But is that when they shut the doors, the plane starts taxiing, or when it leaves the runway - who knows!  I'll probably have to write this one off.