Flight cancelled/rerouted

Adam_1999

Hello, 

I booked Wizzair flights from Leeds Bradford to Gdańsk for February 2024 but a week after booking (and after accommodation had been booked), I received an email confirming that the flight was cancelled and I was offered to be transferred onto a flight departing from and returning to Luton instead. According to Skyscanner there doesn’t appear to be any other flights to Gdańsk on our dates from any UK airport so we are minded to accept the transfer if we can reclaim our costs as we have paid for accommodation. 

Can anybody confirm what our rights are in this circumstance? Can we claim the cost of petrol to and parking at Luton as these are costs that would not have been incurred had Wizz operated our flight as planned? Wizz have offered a refund of the original ticket price as an alternative option if we don’t accept the new flights. However we will lose the cost of accommodation which naturally we would like to avoid. The MSE website mostly contains information about delays or cancellations within 14 days of the flight date, but neither of these are my scenario. 

Thank you,
Adam. 

Westin

I can’t see WizzAir paying out for your petrol and parking at Luton but no harm in asking.

You are certainly entitled to a refund if you don’t wish to fly from Luton.

eskbanker

As far as the CAA is concerned, the rerouting obligations within the regulations include transportation to the other airport, but this would typically be public transport costs rather than reimbursement of driving and parking:

Re-routing via alternative airports

6.8 Where airlines offer to re-route passengers to / from a different airport than the original flight, the airline should organise the transport to / from that airport. The CAA does not expect airlines to fail in this obligation. However, where such a failure occurs, the airline should provide prompt re-imbursement of any expenses incurred by affected passengers in travelling to / from the alternative airport and should inform the affected passenger directly, for example by email, about how to make a claim. 

https://publicapps.caa.co.uk/docs/33/Re-routing Guidance (CAP2155).pdf