Wizzair - Flight Cancelled By Bad Weather and Expense incurred Issues

[Titfield]

My brother was booked to fly from Pristina to Luton on 2nd October 2023.

He was at the airport when the flight was cancelled due to bad weather.

The airport staff were not able to provide any assistance so my brother booked his own hotel and took taxis each way to / from the airport. He got a message from Wizzair that a special flight had been organised for the next day (lunchtime) which he caught.

The problems:
1) Wizzair is refusing compensation saying the flight was cancelled due to bad weather in the UK. Yes there was bad weather but all arrivals and departures at Luton did operate apart from the Wizzair flight albeit some with delays. Are there any rules for what constitutes bad weather or can each airline just declare bad weather as it suits them? Wizzair is refusing to provide any documentation for their bad weather flight cancellation procedure claiming it is against their internal rules.
2) The taxi driver mistakenly filled out one of the receipts wrongly showing both as journeys from the airport and not one from the airport and one to the airport. He has an email from the taxi driver confirming it was his (the taxi drivers) fault but Wizzair wont accept this email as proof and are refusing to reimburse this journey. 25 euros.
3) As a result of the delay the car park where my brothers car was parked at Luton have charged him an extra 24 hours parking (at an exorbitant rate). Wizzair wont reimburse this claiming it is a consequential loss which isnt covered. £31

Thoughts anyone as to how we can at least recover the taxi fare and the extra car parking?

PS The consumers association do not want to know.

TIA

 

[Titfield]

Compensation is only paid when cancellations or delays are caused by matters within the airlines control. Weather is not in the airlines control. However my brother is questioning whether this cancellation / delay was genuinely due to weather or for some other reason. By saying it was bad weather the airline do not have to pay compensation. How can we find out what the real reason was?

Il risarcimento viene pagato solo quando cancellazioni o ritardi sono causati da questioni sotto il controllo della compagnia aerea. Il tempo non è sotto il controllo delle compagnie aeree. Tuttavia mio fratello si chiede se questa cancellazione/ritardo sia stata effettivamente dovuta alle condizioni meteorologiche o per qualche altro motivo. Dicendo che era brutto tempo la compagnia aerea non è tenuta a pagare un risarcimento. Come possiamo scoprire quale fosse il vero motivo?

 

[atillathehunn]

As far as I know there is no set definition of 'bad weather' unless it is that imposed by NATS (flow rate needs slowing down due fog or high winds). You can true to argue that compensation is due because all other flights operated. I doubt you will get very far with this. The only thing you could try is to go through one of the claims firms - if they accept the claim, there's a good chance you'll get the money.

Assuming the hotel and taxi has been paid, along with food, I think you will need to draw stumps. Bad luck on the receipt, but they're not likely to budge on that.

The park is as they say, a consequential loss.

 

[Mojo]

The regulations say that "Air carriers should compensate passengers if they fail to do this, except when the cancellation occurs in extraordinary circumstances which could not have been avoided even if all reasonable measures had been taken."

If you can prove that every other plane that day that passed through the area of bad weather did operate, it may be worth escalating this in line with their complaints procedure and possibly considering taking it to the alternative dispute resolution company that WizzAir subscribe to.