My flight has to Jordan been cancelled - should I rebook

[EileenW]

I had been looking forward to a trip to Jordan later this month (solo traveller), however WizzAir have very kindly (not!) informed me that my booking from Luton to Amman has been cancelled (just under 14 days notice).

In two minds what to do. Yes, I know the region is very tense at the moment however Jordan is very safe and I had been looking forward to going. I planned to get Christened at the Bethany Beyond the Jordan Site and had even made arrangements with a local Priest to do so. Gutted about the flights being cancelled doesn’t even come close.

I don’t really understand the right to rebook, and hoping that someone can explain? I paid about £80 for these Wizz flights. I’ve looked online and Ryanair, BA have all stopped their flights until the 1st December. The only carrier that is operating on my dates is Royal Jordanian (out of Heathrow, not Luton) but the fare would be £600. Legally speaking, if I did go ahead and book these flights would WizzAir refund me these costs? That is a lot of money - but I really still want to travel (FCDO does NOT advise against travel to Jordan). I would be a lot more confident in booking if I was assured that I would get the money back, as it is a lot. This is not really helped by the fact that Wizz Air don’t seem to have an accessible email address where I can email the screenshots of the £600 flights (being the cheapest) so I can get their agreement before I book them.

Can someone who understands this better than me explain my legal rights in this situation (without commenting on my travel decision - each to their own)? Does it have to be me who books the replacement flights (with a different airline) or can Wizz Air do it for me? Wizz have cancelled all of their own departures from Luton to Amman until January.

Thansk in advance.

I work for an airline not wizz air. So because they have cancelled their flights and presumably are refunding you that’s all they need to do. If you want to rebook with another airline then you can but any charges or fares you pay they aren’t obligated to reimburse you for that. It also needs to be you that makes the booking as they won’t do it.

Hi Deebee - the email says that I have the choice of a refund or rerouting. So if I declined the refund and chose rerouting, would what I put in my OP apply?

I will see if I can copy the email I received for clarity. These things are never easy to understand!

This was the email here. I’d rather choose the rebooking than the refund. As Wizz do not have any alternative flights to Jordan (they have cancelled them all), I would have to book with another provider and presumably send my receipts?

If you press the reroute button it will just say no. Whenever, I’ve been rerouted, the original airline has sorted. You could pay but I’m not convinced you’ll get your new flight money back.

When this happened to me with Ryanair, the options were a lengthy land travel portion, or re-booking for when their flights re-started again, about 7 months later. Sorry

Seriously? How can airlines just cancel bookings?

They don't mean they will cover you flying with another airline, that would cost them a fortune and be bad business. They mean you can choose to fly at a later date with them or be refunded.

If you send a picture of 600 flights they will just ignore you or give you a short no.

Sorry about your flights, but as PP say, they 1000% won't cover these other flights.

Of course they can. Weather, wars, maintenance to the plane etc...

Are you not a frequent flier OP? I've had a lot of flights cancelled on me, and been told to pick a new date or get my money back.

This really does happen fairly regularly for various reasons.

@FupaTrooper - their email (in the grey box) literally says:

”If you incur any costs due to the re-routing, such as accommodation, transfers to alternative airports, rebooking fees (even with other carriers or modes of transport), or expenses for meals and refreshments, you can request reimbursement by submitting a claim via our website. Please note that we can process refunds based on itemized receipts for the claimed expenses.”

In my experience, they mean (for example) if you were flying to NZ and the first leg went okay and then your second leg (from Singapore to Auckland for example) got cancelled and you were stranded in Singapore.

They don't mean if they cancel before you have taken off from home.

But I could be wrong. Give it a go :)

When my Wizzair flight to Ljubljana got cancelled a few years back, the re-routing option they came up with when I spoke to them was to fly to Bucharest.

They wouldn't pay for me to fly to Ljubljana with another carrier as I wasn't stranded abroad trying to get home.

I wonder if part of the issue for Wizzair is that they'd need to fly a much longer route to avoid the dodgy airspace.

The work on such tight schedules to keep fares low, that it may not be feasible any more.

When easyJet cancelled our flights one time we rebooked with Lufthansa because it was the only tickets we could get and easyJet covered the cost. It was loads more money but they paid up.

Could you speak to your insurance company? I did and they said don't choose refund, choose rebooking. We paid Lufthansa up front and claimed it back through the easyJet website - once the flight was showing as cancelled and I'd selected rebooking, there was an option to submit expenses so I did and they coughed up for the lot.

When the airspace is full of missiles zipping hither and yon, they sometimes make the decision that discretion is the better part of valour.

Without prior confirmation from Whizz Air I wouldn’t risk it if you can’t afford to lose the extra money. Air Fare contracts are notorious for being very one sided and lots of small print you need to understand to the letter when trying to do a cancellation / rebook etc. Also consider what would happen if there is an escalation while you were there - your travel insurers might be interested in the fact that all carriers with the exception of Jordan Airlines have currently cancelled - have you checked they are still comfortable covering Jordan ? Insurance companies do their own risk assessments over and above Foreign Office advice.

There is a reason everyone ( with the exception on Jordan airlines) has cancelled. The region is very unstable and the geopoliticians are awaiting what the response to Israeli targeting of Iran will be, in addition to the other unrest and implications of who wins the US Election will also have a major bearing. While they aren’t specifically warning against travel to Jordan ( other than a specific distance from the Syrian border) general advice re the entire region is extreme caution.

Only some of the grey box is showing in your screen grab but in my (20 years in the travel industry) experience, costly re-routing with another airline only applies to last minute / on the day cancellations where you are effectively stranded, not 2 weeks before travel.

Given Wizz Air's reputation frankly consider yourself lucky if / when you get your original £80 refunded back, never mind claiming any more.

You can find CAA rules below; you 'may' have the right to be booked with an alternative provider but frankly with 14 days notice, with Wizz Air and given that everyone else has cancelled their services too you've got absolutely no chance.

www.caa.co.uk/passengers-and-public/resolving-travel-problems/delays-and-cancellations/cancellations/#:~:text=Although%20most%20airlines%20will%20book,onto%20that%20alternative%20transport%20instead.

I think wizz may very well have done you a massive favour by cancelling your flights to Jordan in the near future...

Stay safe at home. Wait and see if it's worth booking later. Right now it isn't.

Could you travel from a difference airport? Out of nosiness I went on Skyscanner and they’ve got some flights on there for only a few hundred from stanstead

I have to say, anyone with any knowledge of the history of the region would know to avoid Jordan (and Syria) for optional travel now that Lebanon is being targeted. Sorry OP. Bad timing.

Can you hop via a different airport? So create a stopover? Just remember that you might have to actually get out and re-check in yourself.
Also remember that most travel insurance does not cover act of war so bear that in mind if your flights back get cancelled or similar.

Alternatively you will just have to postpone until someone stops violating their airspace with drones...

Or fly to Aqaba if Easyjet still flies that.

Important Aside

Slightly off topic, but, given the current situation, do check that your travel insurance is still valid for Jordan.

"Right to rebook" always depends on the flight. Typically, a passenger has legal rights based on (1) the domicile of the airline (2) the country of origin for the flight and (3) the country of destination for the flight. The "Terms and Conditions" for the exact flight you booked can't reduce your jurisdiction-based legal rights, but may give you more.

Your original booking was on a UK airline, origin UK, destination Jordan so probably UK law is your best bet. Be careful using advice based on people's past experience, mainly because until 2020 flying Wizz and/or flying out of London would have meant that your trip fell under EU Passengers' Rights, and it no longer does. The current UK laws are designed to be an equivalent protection, but details may differ.

Have you tried rebooking via the link they gave you in Option 1 of the email? You don't have to finalise it; just curious if it allows you to get that far. You also may also want to call the number in their Option 1 link for disrupted travel and ask them if they can approve your alternative itin and and tell you how to submit it for compensation.

I've been in a similar situation to you a few times but have been able to rebook on another airline which is part of the same network (for example, if your original flight had been on BA, you could have rebooked online on Royal Jordanian, as they are part of the same "OneWorld" network). A disadvantage of super cheap airlines like Wizz, while I love their prices, is that they usually operate alone and don't have a network of airlines to fall back on.

FWIW, I traveled solo around Jordan in December 2015/January 2016 and that was also a time when tourism was hit hard by events in the wider area. Many Jordanians I met felt like they were perfectly safe at home, but understood why people weren't coming from abroad. Local contacts, like the priest that you've been working with, can be a great source of info on conditions on the ground at any given time.

As an aside, I'd trust Royal Jordanian - I'd booked a crazy cheap flight on Etihad with a long layover in Istanbul, but the flight from Istanbul to Amman was operated by Royal Jordanian and they were really professional and efficient. My luggage was delayed at IST and they found it and delivered it to my hotel very quickly - it got there before I did! I would not hesitate to use them again. I hope you get to go to Jordan - now or later, depending on what makes sense.

If they’ve cancelled at least 14 days in advance, your only options are refund, another WizzAir flight or taking it up with your travel insurance. They do not have to put you on another airline. 14 days is a legal threshold for flight cancellation compensation.

If they had cancelled <14 days then there are a few very limited exceptions in which it may be possible to get them to put you on a different airline on an outbound flight.

Clearly the situation is sufficiently unstable on that route that multiple European airlines do not want to put their crew or planes at risk no matter how safe you personally feel it to be.

Definitely do this, as you will be travelling against the advice of FCDO your travel insurance could be invalidated.