Wizz Air paid father £4,500 for canceling his family holiday after bailiffs were sent to Luton Airport

A father revealed how he got Wizz Air to pay him £4,500 to cancel his family holiday to Portugal after months of pursuing a refund by sending bailiffs to Luton Airport.

Russell Quirk, a property expert from Brentwood in Essex, said he was forced to buy new flights for the following day following the cancellations.

He said: “My message is where big companies block you, if you persevere you can get what’s owed to you.”

After waiting months for Wizz Air to refund the money, Mr Quirk went to court before sending bailiffs to the airport.

Wizz Air apologized for the cancellation and paid Mr Quirk his money, saying the airline “failed to live up to our own aspirations and the expectations of our customers”.

Russell Quirk, a property expert from Brentwood in Essex, said he was forced to buy new flights for the following day after the cancellations

Wizz Air apologized for the cancellation and paid Mr Quirk his money, saying the airline had “failed to live up to our own aspirations and the expectations of our customers”.

Mr Quirk originally booked the flights from Luton Airport to Faro in January last year for a family holiday in May with his three daughters and wife.

On the morning of their flight, he received a message from Wizz Air that the flight had been cancelled.

“There was no explanation, no alternative offered and no apology,” he told the BBC.

“I had to wake up my three daughters and tell them we weren’t going on vacation – they were very upset.”

With the hotel, transfers and airport lounge already paid for, Mr Quirk had to book another flight for the following day which, combined with the lost money on other expenses, left him £4,500 out of his pocket.

After returning to the UK from his holiday, Mr Quirk said he was trying to get compensation from Wizz Air.

However, it took nearly two months to be reimbursed for the cost of his original flights, along with other legal compensation.

He said Wizz Air had repeatedly ignored his claims for the extra £4,500 he spent as “consequential losses”.

The low-cost airline then “ignored” the judgment against it after Mr Quirk took the case to District Court, and so bailiffs were dispatched to Wizz Air’s counter at Luton Airport.

The airline could hand over either the money or the equivalent in the form of goods such as chairs, tables or computers. Wizz Air eventually paid Mr Quirk the money.

After returning to the UK from his holiday, Mr Quirk said he was trying to get compensation from Wizz Air

The low-cost airline then “ignored” the judgment against it after Mr Quirk took the case to District Court, and so bailiffs were dispatched to Wizz Air’s counter at Luton Airport

The property expert said it cost around £180 to take his case to court and £60 to send in the bailiffs.

He added: “Increasingly, companies think they can treat customers like dirt and I’m committed to doing away with that.”

A Wizz Air spokesman said amid unprecedented disruption across Europe and the UK in the summer of 2022: “We have not met our own targets”.

They added: “When something went wrong, we did not respond quickly enough to handle the high volume of customer claims that resulted from this disruption.

‘We’re sorry and we’re working to improve our customers’ experience with Wizz this year.’

The airline said it had paid all district court judgments against the company since December and is continuing to settle claims.