Claiming more than statutory compensation

Macavaty

Dear all,

I would be grateful for some advice on behalf of my friend. She was bumped off her return flight (Wizzair) from Bucharest to London owing to overbooking. The airline looks like it is going to give her the statutory compensation; it paid for a hotel in Bucharest, etc. and has given her a form to fill in to claim the rest.

The earliest replacement flight they offered her was something like one week after the one she was bumped off. She is an NHS ward sister and had work commitments before then so she had to book on another airline and had to pay significantly more than the compensation amount for the air fare home. She is now out of pocket by several hundred pounds and I am wondering (a) if it may be possible for her to recoup this from Wizzair and (b) how best to go about it if it is possible.

Thanks in advance for advice on this. 

eskbanker

Under article 8 of the EU261 regulations, the airline is responsible for rebooking passengers onto an alternative flight "at the earliest opportunity", even if this means using another airline, at no extra cost to the passenger - the best way to do this is to reject the airline's initial offer as unsuitable and convince them to pay for the alternative, but it should be possible to make a case after the event that this was necessary.

However, Wizz Air don't have the best reputation and so it's unlikely that they'll reimburse the cost of a flight with another airline without a struggle, but she should submit her (valid) claim for the cost and see what their response is....

Grumpy_chap

Macavaty said:

Dear all,

I would be grateful for some advice on behalf of my friend. She was bumped off her return flight (Wizzair) from Bucharest to London owing to overbooking. The airline looks like it is going to give her the statutory compensation; it paid for a hotel in Bucharest, etc. and has given her a form to fill in to claim the rest.

The earliest replacement flight they offered her was something like one week after the one she was bumped off. She is an NHS ward sister and had work commitments before then so she had to book on another airline and had to pay significantly more than the compensation amount for the air fare home. She is now out of pocket by several hundred pounds and I am wondering (a) if it may be possible for her to recoup this from Wizzair and (b) how best to go about it if it is possible.

Thanks in advance for advice on this. 

Proceed with the compensation claim as per above.
In parallel, does she have travel insurance to claim from?  No harm in submitting a claim - the travel insurance will simply deduct whatever is recovered from the airline in any settlement.

Macavaty

Thanks to you both. Useful to know the chapter and verse of the EU regulations. I don't think she had insurance, alas. I will write something for her to send to Wizzair and go from there. I may post back here if anything interesting happens.