Attention WizzAir Execs: Your Chance to Shine—or Sink!
To Whom It May Concern, we are writing this letter not out of outrage, but rather in sheer astonishment and disbelief at how a major company based in Europe has chosen to handle its mistakes and communicate with its passengers.
July 19th, 2024
To provide some context, we were scheduled to depart from Palma Mallorca on July 19th of this year, traveling to Rome on WizzAir flight 6032. This day coincided with the global IT outage, resulting in our flight being delayed by 4 hours. While this was certainly disappointing, we did not hold WizzAir responsible, as it was an exceptional circumstance beyond the airline's control. However, it is important to note that WizzAir representatives were entirely unreachable during this period. The passengers of this flight were subjected to a total of five gate changes, and all informational messages regarding new departure times were received 1-2 hours too late. As we finally got on the flight, nothing about the delay or poor communication was addressed.
The real problems began when we landed in Rome, as our luggage, along with that of most other passengers, did not arrive. While such incidents can happen, the issue was exacerbated by the complete unavailability of WizzAir personnel to provide guidance on the whereabouts of our luggage. As a result, we were reluctant to leave the baggage area for fear that our luggage might appear on the belt. After waiting for 2.5 hours, along with other passengers, we were finally informed that the luggage had never left Palma, and we were instructed to file a missing baggage claim. This process took an additional 3 hours to obtain the claim tag. We had to make a quick and unexpected booking at a hotel in central Rome where we checked in around 4am (on the 20th), hoping that our luggage would come with the next morning flight.
Furthermore, before we left the airport, we were informed that neither WizzAir nor their contracted company could deliver our luggage to Positano or Capri, our holiday destinations once it was located. No information was provided regarding when we could expect our luggage to arrive. We personally attempted to contact WizzAir up to 30 times without success, and we were further frustrated by the WizzAir website's constant breakdowns and incorrect information, preventing us from tracking the next flight from Palma.
July 20th - 24th July, 2024
Following the initial debacle with our baggage on July 19th, as well as on the 20th (as the luggage had not arrived on the first next flight out), we rented a car, tried to be flexible, and decided to continue our travel plans without any clothes whatsoever. We drove down to Positano late on July 20th, as we had received no new or further information regarding the status of our bags. The drive was spent attempting to contact WizzAir, but to no avail. On the morning of July 21st, we finally received some good news from the lost baggage department at the airport in Rome: WizzAir had informed them that our bags would indeed arrive, but on the last flight of July 21st. We made the difficult decision to forfeit Christian's (husband) ferry ticket and for him to drive up to Rome to collect the bags, while Jenny (wife) took the planned ferry to Capri.
Christian arrived at the airport at 10 pm on July 21st and waited. Unfortunately, he was informed that the WizzAir flight was delayed by 4.5 hours and would be arriving at 3:30 am. At 3:50 am on July 22nd, which happens to be Christian's birthday, the flight had still not arrived. According to the WizzAir website, the flight was en route. However, upon inquiring with the airport staff in Rome continuously between 10 pm (21st) and 3:50 am (22nd), both the staff and Christian were finally told that the flight had been canceled that afternoon. One main thing they noted, as they themselves looked at the website, was that it was strange that WizzAir's website still showed it as en route.
Indeed, it was and still is strange. Christian had just wasted nearly 24 hours of his vacation, a ferry ticket, and over 150 euros in petrol to drive to a flight that was never coming, all because WizzAir cannot provide their partners, or their passengers with correct information.
Christian decided to drive back to Capri and spend the rest of his birthday sleeping. In the following days, we heard nothing from WizzAir or their airport partners and were unable to reach anyone within the company. We then drove back to Rome on July 24th as we were scheduled to fly back to Copenhagen early on July 25th. We decided to stop by the airport on the off chance that our bags had arrived. By some miracle, we found our bags in the lost baggage area and were able to take them home with us. We have no idea how long the bags had been there, as no information was provided by WizzAir. We truly wonder if we would have ever been contacted by WizzAir or if our bags would have been lost forever if we had not acted on our own. On the 25th we left Rome an flew back with SAS - Scandinavian Airlines , we all managed to arrive (us and the luggage).
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In Closing
In closing, the six days we spent without our luggage proved to be a significant inconvenience, as it would be for anyone. This inconvenience was compounded by the fact that we spent several hours each day attempting to contact #WizzAir, essentially doing their job for them. The lingering fear that our bags were completely lost was exacerbated by WizzAir’s apparent lack of a functional system for tracking individual baggage.
This experience (which is not ours alone) continues to expose a glaring flaw in the business models of low-cost airlines: a focus on cost-cutting at the expense of essential customer service. Despite the prevalent rumors about the challenges faced by #lowcostairlines, our previous experiences have consistently shown that affordable fares do not necessarily equate to poor service. However, our recent experience with WizzAir starkly contrasts with this. The efficiency and low fares, that could be stated as admirable goals, should never come at the expense of basic operational support and effective communication.
So, the fundamental question remains: How can a company that excels at minimizing costs also excel at managing customer trust and satisfaction?
In writing this, I want to emphasize that I expect to be contacted by someone from WizzAir's senior management with a comprehensive explanation of how they intend to address these systemic issues and provide an appropriate offer of compensation.
Wizz Air you have a chance to make this right. Prove us wrong and demonstrate that you can prioritize customer service alongside your business model.
The ball is in your court.
Sincerely,