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.

This is very common since Covid. You can reroute with the same airline, they won’t buy you a £600 ticket!!

now it’s really not a good time to go, please be patient and go when it’s safer.

Hello, this literally happend to me last night. Supposed to be going to Amman Sunday from Luton to see family. All ready and organised. I was googling to see if there’s any actual reason but can’t find one as Jordan is safe. Like you the only rebook is not until January with Wizz air so chose the refund but that takes 14 working days. Jordanian air seems to be still doing flights which is what me and my young one are going to do. I was just checking everywhere before I book mine again so it don’t get cancelled again. Also it comes up to London Stansted instead of Luton and I think maybe Heathrow. Hope you make your trip.

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

There's no FCDO advice to not travel to Jordan. Just to avoid the Syria border. Ironically no concerns about the West Bank/israel border

Wiz air took exactly 11 months to reimburse me and defo not to that amount.

Sorry op.
Bless you.

Jordan is beautiful

Of course they can cancel for any number of reasons.
What makes you think they cannot?

What inwas going to point out bit this does it better!

Jordan may be safe but the airspace around it is like a game of Russian roulette.. OP may be happy to play but quite understably Whizz air are not

I'm not sire you could pay me enough to fly anout anywhere near Iranian or Isreali airspace right now.. expect the pilot of OPs flight feels the same

Like a few airlines Wizz announced a while ago that they either indulging in rolling cancellations or cancelling “until further notice” operations into that part of the world a while back.

Maybe Wizz were hoping the situation would improve and they could restart operations quickly, at short notice, so they have been holding into bookings until as late as possible and only notifying individuals just in time to avoid the compensation trigger.

The cynic in me notes that of course that also means that cancelling just before the comp deadline means they hold onto folks cash as long as possible, but they won’t be the only airline doing that.

From this summer:

https://www.businesstravelnewseurope.com/Air-Travel/Airlines-cancel-flights-as-Middle-East-tensions-rise

https://www.caa.co.uk/passengers-and-public/resolving-travel-problems/delays-and-cancellations/cancellations/

You need to speak to your airline to discuss then rebooking you on a different airline. You also need to find out the reason for the cancellation.

I am assuming it being river with only specific crossings over might be the reason.
Syrian 3km line has been on since 2011 or so iirc.

The rest is well safe. Loads of police around in Amman. Interestingly many tourists who are there seem to be actually returning people who know the place, from what we gathered. Overall tourism of course dropped. Shame. Many incredible sights.

www.moneysavingexpert.com/travel/flight-cancellation-compensation/ www.moneysavingexpert.com/travel/flight-cancellation-compensation/]]]]

You also need to find out the reason for the cancellation.

Given what’s on the news and just as importantly what has been announced by many airlines over the last few months I don’t think there’s any doubt about.

In any event I’m pretty sure if they have cancelled outside the compensation window the reason irrelevant…it only really comes into play if comp is an issue.

https://www.gov.uk/foreign-travel-advice/jordan

Hmm BA scrapped the London to Kiev route a few years ago. I called them and was rerouted with BA to Munich then Lufthansa to Kiev.

Didn't have to pay anything up front. No option to do this online though , had to make phone call

Rerouting can mean them putting you an an alternate carrier, but it is rare for low cost carriers to allow this on outbound flights, they generally find a reason to refuse. On return flights I've been rerouted at the cost of the carrier multiple times, usually on a code share partner

I suspect this is a large part of the reason low cost carriers only sell 'point to point' or one-way flights, although you can buy more than one at a time to create a return trip.

If they don't sell 'returns' then they're never actually obliged to get you back to your original starting point. As far as they're concerned wherever you are at the time is your starting point.

On the upside it means you can miss or scrap an outbound with no effect on the inbound, on the downside you're often up shit creek if they cancel at short notice and you end up stuck somewhere.

For reference in response to above post, BA do not follow this model so do consider an outbound and a return on the same booking to be a return trip, and your 'home' point to be where you start the trip from.

For info There are a still options to get to Amman from Europe/Turkey but It’s usually far from straightforward.

I think Lufthansa are still operating at least occasionally from Frankfurt, and one or two of the LoCos out of Istanbul.

The only airlines that look to be running anything like a normal service are Royal Jordanian and some of the Gulf carriers..not sure if Wizz will pay up for that big a reroute.

Their email says you can rebook subject to availability. They have no routes in and out of Jordan and they are not AFAIK part of any code share deals with other airlines. Your only option is refund and rebook with carrier who does fly.

There's also been at least one instance of an Iranian missile landing in Jordan. I don't think more of that can be ruled out, as things stand, so can see why an airline wouldn't think Jordanian airspace safe.

There's also been at least one instance of an Iranian missile landing in Jordan. I don't think more of that can be ruled out, as things stand, so can see why an airline wouldn't think Jordanian airspace safe.

Jordanian airspace is still quite busy…a lot depends on how much faith airlines have in the threat assessments they get/how much warning they might expect to get from various sources of a major action “kicks off”…

Some regional carriers seem to still be happy to go in and out of Amman - I suspect they feel diplomacy and their links at a regional level means they’ll get a heads up.

Most of the western airlines don’t have the same level of confidence.

My husband flew that route last week with Wizz Air for a meeting in Amman. On the way back the flight was re-routed via Cyprus to refuel and change crew, it took hours longer and Wizz Air were having to do this each time they had a return flight from Amman.

Due to the war in the region the flights cannot run through their usual airspace so cover a greater distance there and back, exceeding fuel capacity and crew shift times.

I guess this messes up their plsne scheduling, theit crew scheduling and costs them a lot more. So I'm not surprised tbh. It didn't sound sustainable.

My husband usually flies BA but they are not going to Jordan and Royal Jordian was £££ so thought he'd use Wizzair as it was only a 2 day trip for one meeting.

Makes sense.

A colleague of mine went to visit her dying FIL. She is now stuck there as flights home are cancelled. Be sensible.

Scroll down slightly to see today’s departures…just be wary that some cancellations are hidden until you click on them (e.g. BA) and also of the codeshares making it look slightly busier in terms of aircraft movements than it actually is:https://www.flightstats.com/v2/flight-tracker/departures/AMM

My mum was in Amman visiting my brother a couple of weeks ago and had her return flight cancelled. She had to stay on a couple of days longer and fly on Royal Jordanian back. While there she was seeing missilies flying overhead on their way to Lebanon. The Jordanian Air Force had been intercepting them but they obviously weren’t getting them all. As much as I’d like to go and see Jordan and visit my brother is that an environment conducive to a good holiday? Regardless of the FCDO advice I just don’t think I’d risk it at the moment.

If you are talking about my post re BA then the whole trip ( outward and return) was rerouted. Done about 8 weeks before I flew the outbound