Surprisingly Easy: My Wizz Air Compensation Claim
On a recent Wizz Air flight to Italy I was hit with a delay which allowed me to claim compensation from Wizz Air.
Although the airline does not have the best reputation when it comes to fast pay-outs of claims, I was actually surprised how easy and quick the process was for me.
EC/261 compensation delay
Even before leaving my home for Bucharest Airport to fly to Treviso, I received both a text message and an email from Wizz Air informing me that my flight had been delayed.
Instead of the scheduled departure time of 1.30 pm, the flight was now rescheduled to depart at 4.20 pm.
A quick look at Flightradar24 learned that a completely different plane than originally planned was scheduled to operate my flight to Treviso.
Instead of the originally assigned plane, our flight would be operated by another Airbus A321 after it had completed its morning run from Bucharest to Madrid and back again.
This strongly hinted at some kind of operational problems, as the plane originally scheduled to operate my flight had been parked the entire morning at Brussels Charleroi Airport, presumably due to some kind of technical issue.
As any avgeek knows, if your intra-European flight is delayed by a minimum of three hours and the airline is to blame for it (which it is in case of such operational problems), you have the right to EC/261 delay compensation.
Bucharest Airport
Unfortunately, I couldn’t risk spending more time at home because I had to leave for the airport early in case Wizz Air still found another way to operate our flight a bit earlier than the delayed departure time.
Although the gate area in the basement of Bucharest Otopeni Airport was insanely crowded, Wizz Air handled the delay quite well.
According to EC/261 regulations, the airline has a duty of care to its passengers in case of a long delay and has to provide food and drinks or reimburse passengers for such costs.
The gate agents handed out sandwiches and bottled water to all passengers of the Wizz Air flight to Treviso, which is perfectly acceptable for a delay of around 3 hours.
Flight to Treviso
Boarding through the bus gate commenced precisely 2 hours and 35 minutes after the flight’s originally scheduled departure time.
Knowing that it would take quite some time to board a fully booked Airbus A321 with a total of 230 passengers, I realised that this flight would be a close call when it came down to claiming compensation or not.
Under EC/261 regulation, the crucial factor for determining delay compensation is the delay upon arrival at the final destination airport, not the delay at departure or an intermediate point on your itinerary.
Simply put, if the delay would be more than 3 hours I would be entitled to receive 250 euro compensation from Wizz Air.
If the delay was less than 3 hours, I would not be eligible for compensation.
Landing at Treviso Airport
Flying with a low-cost airline like Wizz Air is normally a rather uninteresting affair at best – but this flight was entirely different.
Once we crossed the Adriatic Sea and started our descent towards Treviso Airport, my eyes were constantly glued to the screen of my phone to check the time.
Our landing turned out to be a nail-biter similar to Max Verstappen’s final lap overtake over Lewis Hamilton at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix to clinch the Formula 1 Championship in what was one of the most dramatic ever sporting wins.
At times, it appeared that the pilots had successfully reduced our delay and that we would land within the 3-hour delay limit.
We eventually touched down on the runway of Treviso Airport at 5.48pm, being 3 hours and 3 minutes late.
I was certainly relieved to find out that I was eligible to claim the 250 euro EC/261 delay compensation by just 3 minutes!
Claiming compensation
The flight to Treviso was my 76th ever Wizz Air flight and the first one on which I had a significant delay.
I had therefore no experience claiming compensation from Wizz Air and I was certainly curious how long it would take.
I heard from some friends that the compensation process with Wizz Air can be lengthy, as it took them several months to receive a response and payment for their claims.
Indeed, in the UK Wizz Air has quite a bad reputation in this regard as the airline failed to pay out passengers in 401 cases even after a court had ruled against the airline.
Filing my delay compensation claim was however an easy affair.
Wizz Air has an online claim form that requires passengers to log in with their flight details or Wizz Air profile credentials to file a compensation request.
You have the option to choose between cash or a higher amount of money in Wizz Air credit when claiming compensation from the airline.
As the average price of all my Wizz Air flights is probably around the €15 mark, and I don’t usually fly with low-cost airlines if a flight is above 50 euro, I chose cash money over Wizz Air credit as it’s much more valuable to me.
After filling out the compensation claim form and attaching a Flightradar24 screenshot as proof of the delay, I submitted my claim and began the waiting process for a response from Wizz Air.
Bank transfer
I filed my compensation claim two days after my flight and almost instantly received an email that it would take Wizz Air up to 30 days to answer to it.
I was therefore pleasantly surprised to receive a second email 6 days later acknowledging my claim.
It read: “Please be informed that after reviewing your case, we would like to confirm that you are eligible to receive compensation in the amount of EUR 250 for your flight OTP – TSF 3161 on 27/04/2023 in accordance with Regulation (EC) No 261/2004.”
The email also stated that the money would be deposited on my bank account within 10 business days.
In the end, the money was already on my account within 2 work days after receiving the email, which really was lightning fast.
Last year’s experiences with compensation claims filed with British Airways and LOT Polish Airlines took between 1 and 2 months before the money was finally transferred to my account, so Wizz Air’s response time was certainly a lot faster to my great surprise.
Conclusion
Despite the negative reputation that Wizz Air has when it comes to compensating passengers, I was pleasantly surprised by how fast and easy the compensation claim process was for me.
Not only was it extremely easy to file a claim for my delayed flight, the 250 euro in EC/261 compensation was paid out swiftly too.
I do hope my positive experience is not a one-off and that it indicates Wizz Air is committed to paying out compensation claims in a timely matter.
Never miss out on travel news
If you want to stay up to date on the latest travel news, make sure to regularly check the Paliparan website.
Or subscribe to the Paliparan Twitter, Facebook and Instagram pages to receive instant updates!
hello Koen!
Thank you so much for the super helpful article. I have one question: how could you find the originally planned plane for your flight and the one you actually flew in? I had a flight delayed almost 4 hours yesterday and am filling out the compensation form.
thank you again!
Best,
I managed to find out because I tracked it throughout the day on Flightradar24 and saw the plane assigned to my flight being changed. Could easily see that it was an irregular operation as there was simply no way that plane could do Bucharest-Madrid-Bucharest and be back on time to fly Bucharest-Treviso-Bucharest according to original schedule. It however helps if you do know a bit about the way airlines plan/operate flight schedules – a good way is looking back at the previous days of flight history how they were operated then.
Hi Koen,
I was wondering if you could share with me a screenshot of your email response from WizzAir (starting “Please be informed that after reviewing your case”) including the title and the email address of the sender? I have recently applied for compensation due to a delay but their email response has them asking for banking details etc that I supplied when I filled out the claims form. The email looks very legit (no errors, contains my exact flight details etc) but I’m a bit hesitant to send such details without being totally sure it’s a real email/address (I can’t find any evidence on WizzAir’s website about their customer service email addresses plus it seems odd to me given I gave all of said info through the online form already), and seeing someone else’s definitely legit email would do a lot to put my mind at rest that it’s not a scam. Thanks!
I added a screenshot of part of the e-mail I received to the article. It was sent by customerrelations1@customerservices.wizzair.com – not sure if it’s an email address you can actually contact, or if the emails from this address are all automated. Like you said, they *should* already have your bank account as you had to enter these details on the form when claiming compensation!
It was definitely odd – but the email address does match (just a different number) and they cited the claim’s unique reference ID (which I didn’t realise before) so it’s definitely real and from WizzAir! Just think it’s fairly poor for any company to set a precedent of asking for banking details over email… Especially when they ought to have it already! Thanks for the help.
Koen, it looks like you’ve been paid by wizzair to right a positive feedback for them.
I have been denied boarding in July 2023 due to these bastards overbooking and until now I still haven’t been able to get my compensation and the refund for my return tickets.
Fucking appalling customer service.
I was paid compensation for my delayed flight! I’m not affiliated with Wizz Air, nor have I ever received any form of payment or other kind of freebies from the airline. I’m just giving credit where credit is due, and am critical when criticism is warranted.
You can easily find some critical articles about Wizz Air as well on this blog written by my hand. For example about the issues Wizz Air faces in the United Kingdom. This includes their disregard of claims made by passengers who were on delayed/cancelled flights to or from the UK, and even the brazen disregard of court orders against them from British judges.
Unfortunately, it does seem that some people are struggling to get their compensation from Wizz Air (which I did acknowledge in the article!), while others (like me) had absolutely zero issues with it. I do hope you can get your outstanding claim solved soon. Keep on pressing them!
What is the format of the bank account that you fill in? My banks has instructed me to add RS35 in front of my foreign account number but then the last 4 digits of the bank account do not fit in. I wonder if it wil be possible to receive the compensation with the foreign currency bank account only? Of course, I filled the country and the bank name.
Thanks!
Standard IBAN format, so RS35 does seem to be correct for a Serbian bank as the first four digits. Not sure how many digits Wizz actually allows you to fill in? Didn’t have any issue with my 24-digit Romanian IBAN number.
It only allows 18 digits/ characters. That is the lenght of my bank account without RS35…
wizz air no more !!! it looks they have multiple problems !! their aircrafts looks horrible !!! I will fly with easyjet/BA or ryanair in worst scenarios. I doubt Wizz air will be here in 10 years !!! they can’t manage their fleet of aircrafts properly !!! they should sack their staff that can’t deal with aircraft management !!!
wizzair is running a scam !!!! no doubt about it !!! still watiting for my compensation !!!
I would not even claim as my flight was only €20 ….but because I missed a flight and had to stay in hotel because of them !!! i would claim what im owed !!!
Your article is weird as to date, except your article I have seen NO ONE to be paid on time for the compensation !!!
most people have to go to court !!!
Wizz air is a scam !!! dont fly with them !!!! shame on European authorities to allow wizz air to run their scams !!!! corruption at its best in Europe !!!