Flight rescheduled with Wizz Air

MrAdamS6023

Hello everyone;

I've just come back from holiday; but I had a problem with the flight rescheduling which caused me some grief.

I booked Wizz air flights to Antalya which were scheduled for 10am 25th Oct outbound flight and a 6.05pm inbound flight on Nov 1st.

However, Onthebeach emailed me on the 21st Oct, four days before my flight; advising me that the flight schedule have been updated to 11:55am outbound flight and a 9.25pm inbound flight both on the same original days.

At the time Onthebeach advised me that since it was still the same day departure the updated schedule will be automatically accepted.

With no other Wizz Air alternative earlier flights at the time I didn't think I could do anything about this.

However I did pay extra to choose these earlier flights that would suit me and my family; especially travelling with young children. I feel that; having paid extra for these flight times; I have lost out and had I chosen flights scheduled later in the day; then perhaps those flight times would have been cheaper.

I think Wizz Air have scammed me over this rescheduling; these later flight times must've been cheaper for them to operate.

Would appreciate if anyone can give me some advice on whether I can get back some compensation on this?

Thanks in advance.

la531983

Would seem very unlikely Wizz Air only changed the times a whole four and eleven days beforehand. This probably looks like a case of they told the third party (On The Beach) weeks or months before and they maybe forgot to tell you until just before you left, which is a peril of using a third party in the first place.

Think you need to find out somehow when the schedule actually changed, because if it really was with less than 14 days notice i THINK a different set of rules apply. You haven't been "scammed", slot availabilty changes all the time.

eskbanker

Were the original flights actually cancelled, or retimed (retaining same flight number), or operated at the usual time with your booking moved from one to the other?

MrAdamS6023

Thanks for your input; la531983. I'll see if I can find out more from agent; Otb.

@eskbanker - the flight numbers remained the same; so i guess in your words, retimed.

eskbanker

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82192092#Comment_82192092

Unfortunately, rescheduling of flight times by a few hours doesn't qualify for any compensation - in some cases airlines will offer to refund you if you no longer wish to travel, but after flying there's no redress available to you:

https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/travel/flight-changes/

If you have evidence that you paid extra to select earlier times, versus what you'd have paid for the later flights, then you could try a complaint to Wizz, but I really wouldn't hold much hope of extracting anything from a budget airline in such circumstances, especially if you approach it with the mindset that they're 'scamming' you…

Edit: on reflection, if you landed back in the UK more than three hours after you originally expected to, and the airline notified the agent of this less than two weeks before departure, and the cause was something within the airline's control, then you may be entitled to compensation under the UK or EU 261 flight delay/cancellation regulations.

Ayr_Rage

Always be wary of travelling the weekend when BST ends in the UK or when DST changes in other countries.

A lot of airlines adjust their schedules at those times.

la531983

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82192144#Comment_82192144

This would be accounted for well in advance. In any case the timing changes here are more than one hour.

This will all boil down to when Wizzair told the entity that booked the flight. In this case that entity is On The Beach. If OTB decided to hold onto this info for weeks or indeed months, and only actually told their customer 4/11 days before, there certainly is nothing Wizzair have done wrong and nothing "statutory" that can be claimed.

Caz3121

had you been checking your flights regularly on the airline website? (this is particularly important if you use a third party) As has been said this will be have been the change from Summer to Winter timetable (winter timetable started 25th October) I suspect the change would have been made some time ago and would have been picked up on the airline website

When I have had schedule changes I have usually spotted them first on the website before being notified by the airline (even though I book direct)

Ayr_Rage

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82192179#Comment_82192179

I did say "schedules" not just a one hour change and as above was probably done well in advance, late notification is one peril of having a third party involved.