Apparently delaying their passengers is not enough for Wizz Air, the most unfortunately named airline that operates in Europe, if not the world. As recently reported over at consumer blog Tékozló Homár, Wizz Air have now instituted a new policy to try and keep people with complaints away. While emailing them is still free, there is a three week turnaround for such inquiries, which doesn’t exactly bring the word “snappy” to mind. So if you need to get a hold of them fast, you’ll have to call, and it will be Ft 225 per minute (€0.91 or approximately $50 (actually $1.40)), and that’s just to be placed on hold.
I can’t say I’m surprised Wizz would prefer to be unavailable to their customers, as the four times I’ve flown with them, the most punctual they’ve managed to be was half an hour late, which while not comparing to the five hour delay they once sprung on me, does not make for a happy passenger, just like a couple weeks ago, when the Easyjet flight I didn’t book, because although cheaper it took off three hours later, taxied to the runway behind the plane we obviously hadn’t yet been allowed to board for technical reasons.
They’re always a good two hours late flying out of Zagreb.
Except the time they announced a two hour delay, watched us disperse to the restaurant and then called boarding the moment I put my first spoonful of risotto in my mouth.
Thanks for the heads up about Wizz. I haven’t flown with them before, but had been considering it. Perhaps I’ll stick with Malev, who although making the atmosphere on board the plane something like ‘Con Air’, and who can’t decide which gate the plane is actually parked at, at least left and arrived on time.
By the way, 225 Ft is more like $1.50, which is still a bit of an insult when charging the customer to call them.
anon600ad, I think you missed the irony in the remark: ‘€0.91 or approximately $50′…
I flew with Wizz a few times, never again! They were always late, the last time I used their ‘services’ there was a 5hr delay, arriving to our destination at 3am.
…apparently I did. Guess you had to be there. Anyway…whatever, the point remains, budget airlines are the same everywhere. We have ‘tiger airways’, an offshoot of Singapore Air, that routinely cancels its flights without warning, stranding countless passengers at regional airports in the middle of the night with no public transport to get them back to civilisation. I understand the concept of cheap airlines, but not so much why it was that the staff also had to be rude to you as well. Still…I guess in the case of my experience with Malev, (a budget airline in practice rather than ticket price) actually training staff to have manners would be a costly exercise. Just as it seems impossible to educate drivers here about what those white painted lines across the road mean. You know the ones, something to do with a killing zone for those not lucky enough to be driving a car? (Re: traffic reports)
I’m off to Mallorca in July with WizzAir, so at the end of the month I’ll give yall an update how it went. Wish me luck!
In fairness, when the Wizz plane taxied away did it actually take-off or go down to the Lufthansa shed where Lufthansa do all the repairs for Wizz?
Well, whatever happened, I’ve seen Wizz uber-delayed enough times to never want to travel with them on their big-fat-pink plane.
It actually took off for London 3.5 hours late.
I flew with Wizzair once between Luton and Zagreb and back in March 2008, and I was delayed only 30 minutes or so in each direction. I guess I must be one of the luckier ones!
I’ve been a ‘loyal’ customer of Wizzair for the past 1.5 years – but not by choice! The Viccair left me in Sofia for extra 24 hours (guess the emotional pain), and stupid me complained, referring to European passenger rights (http://ec.europa.eu/transport/air_portal/passenger_rights/information_en.htm)
regulation 261/2004 – I got 250 euros in credit, which I had to use on travelling with them again. I got a good deal, since they managed to be delayed again (this time 72 hours) on my next journez, so I got more compensation. I’ve actually managed to get more money out of their delays than I have ever paid them, but luckily it is over now. I can finally go to an airport with normal connections and use airlines with which I can estimate my arrival time better than “sometimes this week”.
Wizzair does answer the emails, albeit with about 2.5 weeks delay. CCing the Hungarian General Inspectorate for Consumer Protection (www.gvh.hu) and Homar also help in Wizzair gaining speed
Once we supposed to take off at 10am which was postponed to 2:30am, to the day after but at least I had the chance to discuss this issue with the captain and his crew in a mall close to Vecses. The captain honestly explained that Wizzair actually have seven “flyable” planes, while they have at least 17 routes a day with the more disadvantageous travel restrictions than Ryanair or Airberlin.
Mr.Captain also told me that he and his fellow pilots were trained on TU134s. I found this rather interesting because Wizzair flights take off and reach the travel altitude in two stages and the seatbelt sign is on for more than half an hour. Still better than Aeroflot, which often employs ex-military cargo plane conductors who approaching the ground with 750km/h at 45 degrees.
I was due to fly back from Poland, Katowice airport on the 24th of July 2008, however as normal I always check on the internet for delays etc. On checking flights out of Katowice to Belfast I could not find my flight and decided to give Wizzair a call and unfortunately was on hold by telephonic robot for over an hour at a cost of £1.00 per minute. At this stage I was very angry and decided to call Belfast International airport who kindly told me that Wizzair had pulled all of their flights out of Belfast as of the 17th of July. I was devastated, I my heavily pregnant wife and my 2 year old daughter were left stranded in Poland and had no way of contacting Wizzair. I looked on the internet for alternative flights and they were an absolute fortune and the best I could do was to fly from Prague the following Sunday,4 days later and a 5 hour journey by car. I have since sent multiple emails to Wizzair and have had no response. I would not recommend this airline to anyone and as far as I am concerned they are unprofessional and you cannot get in touch when anything goes wrong.
mark sloan: you’ve just described a typical hungarian service provider. we’ve yet to receive a credit for a flight cancelled 1.5 years ago despite being promised twice.
It is incredible that companies like this one are allowed to operate in the EU. They cancelled my flight, and not only that..they cancelled the flight following day, so I got stuck in a shitty airport for two days, I missed my job, I lost money, I lost time…in conclusion: BEWARE, MAFIA OPERATED AIRLINE
I wish I had seen this before Monday. I spent 14+ hours at Stansted waiting for a flight that never turned up. We were on a promise that it would would be scheduled for 00.20, 12 hours past it’s departure time. It was eventually canceled and we were chucked out the airport at 2.00 in the morning and told to go and an book another flight. When I left the Polish passengers were ready to stage a sit in, good luck to them. How to get money back? The email says you need to fax them all reciepts and a letter saying the flight was cancelled, but there was no one form Wizz Air there to give us a letter or any help…
I was waiting for a flight a couple of weeks ago and felt very sorry for the Wizz customers who after having to sit around for ages through numerous delay calls, were finally informed that their flight had been cancelled. On that day, I was grateful for having read this board. I don’t quite understand how Wizz can be an airline if they don’t actually fly anywhere. Perhaps they could just rent out their planes as hotels…something like the hotel boats along the Danube.
This airline is defenitely to avoid! I flew them from Brussels to Katowice on 25.09.2008. In the begining the delay was said to be 2 hours but then suddenly our flight vanished from the screens and there was nobody to inform us what was going on. Three hours after the scheduled departure we were let to the gate but the door did not open and we stuck there for another half an hour until we were informed that we would be boarded to a bus and transported to Liege which is more than 100 km away from Charleroi! Noone told us how long we would be waiting at Liege, they did not answer any questions!
I booked a flight from Katowice/ Cracow whilst travelling in Poland.
Wizz air does not fly from Cracow it merely entices people to book in the belief that it operates out of Cracow airport. Katowice is a different city over 100 Km away.
false of misleading advertising perhaps???