Wizz Air dumps passengers 200 miles from destination in middle of the night

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  • ASK1945
    Participant

    “‘Find your own way home’: Wizz Air dumps passengers 200 miles from their destination in the middle of the night”.

    News tonight across many online sources.

    “Travellers were shocked when their Wizz Air flight from Tel Aviv to London’s Gatwick ended up being diverted after it was delayed. Speaking exclusively to The Mirror, on April 18, travellers explained how they were stranded “in the middle of the night” (at 3 am). Due to delays the flight missed its slot at Gatwick and had to divert to Luton. Things got even worse for passengers as no slots were available at Luton so they were diverted to Doncaster instead”.

    No buses arranged, no trains, and one taxi for over 200 people. Brilliant marketing for future travel (not).

    2 users thanked author for this post.

    cwoodward
    Participant

    With Low cost airlines you rend to get what you pay for and in most cases Low Costs = Low Service delivery.
    Costs and overheads need to be cut to the bone in order to deliver the ‘low cost’ fare and this sort of nonsense is the result.
    If you use low cost airlines frequently it is certain that you will eventually experience something like the above.
    Its a lottery.


    ASK1945
    Participant

    [quote quote=1210147]With Low cost airlines you rend to get what you pay for and in most cases Low Costs = Low Service delivery.[/quote]

    I don’t use low-cost airlines, or anything else “low-cost” for that matter. So I agree with you. However, there is a low bar of customer service below which if a business goes it costs them more than if they had a higher customer service. Wizz Air went below this low bar, in my opinion. How much would it have cost them to put on a few buses to take people back to Gatwick? How many of these 200 passengers will use them again in future? How many people looking today for flights will avoid Wizz Air?

    2 users thanked author for this post.

    CathayLoyalist2
    Participant

    With this example and many similar examples of appalling service across many industries they,in this case Wizz Air, believe they can get away with it. As for avoiding Wizz Air in the future how many people still fly Ryanair given the poor publicity they get regularly. Yes those affected will not fly with Wizz Air again but for everyone else it is the low fare they chase until they get inconvenienced. Will BA suffer medium term following the bad press over the past few months and probably for the next few months. maybe not- time will tell

    1 user thanked author for this post.

    cwoodward
    Participant

    I would venture to suggest that most that use low cost carriers do not read BT and that regular users have not much interest in service delivery as the vast majority already know that there is none.
    The people that get caught out and are disappointed and are inclined to complain are the often the infrequent travellers or business travellers looking for a bargain.


    ASK1945
    Participant

    [quote quote=1210179]I would venture to suggest that most that use low cost carriers do not read BT[/quote]

    Sorry cWoodward, your point is irrelevant: the story is spread across Europe and in the newspapers here in the UK. And I don’t think your next point is necessarily accurate.

    I wrote: “How much would it have cost them to put on a few buses to take people back to Gatwick?”. Doncaster is one of Wiz Air’s hubs in the UK and the staff there could have arranged transport to Gatwick with a few phone calls. I hazard a guess that this morning some staff in their Doncaster HQ are getting a rollicking because in this instance Wizz Air – which didn’t previously have a Ryanair-type reputation – is now bracketed with them. It was a poor business decision.


    Nick Pike
    Participant

    A poor business decision indeed. It makes one wonder what on earth the airline was thinking. Did it really think that it could just dump passengers in the middle of the night with no assistance whatsoever?

    Presumably all passengers could claim under EU261 for their expenses in any event- which would lead to a far greater cost in management time then they would save in not hiring coaches- or indeed taxis.

    3 users thanked author for this post.

    FaroFlyer
    Participant

    [postquote quote=1210179]

    It is probably true that most who use low cost airlines do not read BT, but it is probably also true to say that most users of legacy airlines do not read BT. Indeed, I would venture to suggest that most people do not read BT. That is not a criticism of BT, but simply a statement of what is almost certainly fact.

    I use low cost airlines frequently because the legacy airlines do not generally serve my local airport. BA do, and LH do, as does TAP. There are also seasonal flights by a few others. However, there is generally no choice other than low cost. You seem to imply that those using low cost do so because they know no better. How very condescending of you.

    2 users thanked author for this post.

    BackOfThePlane
    Participant

    [postquote quote=1210147]

    ‘Tend to get what you pay for’ – clearly not in this situation!

    3 users thanked author for this post.

    TominScotland
    Participant

    I just received an e-mail from Gatwick Airport with the heading “Thomas, we’re giving away a £500 flight voucher from Wizz Air”. Is that to cover the taxi from Doncaster?

    3 users thanked author for this post.

    cwoodward
    Participant

    FaroFlyer Thanks for you condescending and perhaps unnecessarily unpleasant response to my post.
    For the record I agree re readership but then of course I would as I never did imply in my post that most people read BT.


    ASK1945
    Participant

    [quote quote=1210235]I just received an e-mail from Gatwick Airport with the heading “Thomas, we’re giving away a £500 flight voucher from Wizz Air”. Is that to cover the taxi from Doncaster?[/quote]

    I got the same last night. The whole world may not read BT but it seems that the management of Gatwick and Wizzair do 😂

    3 users thanked author for this post.

    SimonS1
    Participant

    When you screw up like this it always gets the headlines.

    Right now I’m doing almost all my flying on Ryanair because frankly they still manage to get from A to B on time without dozens of cancellations.

    1 user thanked author for this post.
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