Last-minute cancellation threatening your holiday? Here’s exactly how to deal with cancelled flights, get refunded fast and turn your travel disaster into a new adventure.
When my flight to Dubai was cancelled last minute, my whole trip fell apart. This is how I got refunded for other flights and hotel stays:
The original plan:
For context, I was supposed to fly to Bucharest. Then get a WizzAir flight to Dubai. I was planning to stay in Ramada by Wyndham for the first night and PremierInn Barsha Heights for the rest of my holiday. I was supposed to travel back with the national airline of Saudi Arabia with a flight to Heathrow through Jeddah.
I had to apply for a Saudi Visa for the 2 hours and 50 minutes I was going to spend in Jeddah’s airport. I initially applied for it via the official KSA website. I never heard back. I sent them multiple emails and got somewhat meaningless responses. In the end, I applied for a Saudi visa via the Saudia mobile application and received the visa immediately. Bottom line is – I pai for a Saudi visa twice and this is money I will never get back.
The issue started when the night before my flight to Romania, WizzAir cancelled the flight to Dubai. I don’t remember any official reason being stated, but I believed it to be the tensions between Israel and Iran.
Important note I need to make here is that WizzAir kept operating in the region during this time with flights to Dubai and Abu Dhabi on the day before and the day after my cancelled flight. Also, the airspace over the Emirates was open and other airlines were completing flights on the day in question.
WizzAir – plane ticket
And here we go! You can’t get a refund from WizzAir’s app – you can only book another flight. However, the timings of the other flights just didn’t work for me.
If you want a refund, you need to call WizzAir. I called the WizzAir English language at around 23:00 UK time. I was “Caller 38” and “the approximate wait time” was 110 minutes. As you can see, this is unreasonable.
And here is one of the most valuable pieces of advice I could give you when it comes to dealing with a cancelled flight with WizzAir – use your languages. In the morning, I called the Bulgarian line. I spoke with a real person in about 3 minutes. She was kind and helpful. My ticket refund was processed in less than 8 minutes.
You can find the numbers or WizzAir offices around the world on their contact page online.
WizzAir – compensation
WizzAir will never tell you they owe you compensation. Even when they do. ChatGPT accidentally told me this when I was asking it for ideas of what to do at 2am after my flight was cancelled. Actually, ChatGPT can be very useful to draft you a letter you need to use to apply for compensation. It’s EC261 claim and I think covers you if you are flying within or from the EU.
But WizzAir doesn’t advertise an email you can use. I tried submitting a compensation claim, but their system wouldn’t process it. Basically, this airline blocks you from requesting a refund which is your right.
This is when I used my language skills again and called the Bulgarian office. The customer support agent told me to use a trick – submit the claim as a general enquiry on their website forms. This way the form went through immediately. I also used the email address ChatGPT found for me as an additional paper trail that I requested compensation within 14 days of the flight being cancelled.
WizzAir rejected my claim stating that “war” is classed for them as “unforeseen circumstance”. However, they refused to comment on why they were still operating flights in the area at the same time they cancelled my flight.
I approached AirHelp and they took on my case. WizzAir declined their request as well, so now AirHelp is taking them to court. There is minor hold-up as I need to print and “wet-sign” the AirHelp authorisation (and my printer is more temperamental than a cat on Valerian root), but I will post an update when there is some movement.
Trip.com – Saudia flight
I booked my Saudia flight via Trip.com. I used them a lot and so far I have been happy, but I will be brutally honest with you and tell you that if you need to deal with their customer support agents, you must ask them to repeat to you what you are asking them to do. There is a massive language barrier and their agents would often do things based on what they think you said instead of what you were asking them to do. I spoke with them multiple times and, unfortunately, some of their agents were not speaking English. I tried asking for any other of the languages I was speaking, but they still couldn’t understand me.
After a lot of conversation, they raised a full-refund cancellation request, which Saudi declined as they “still operate in the Middle East area with no issues”. This meant that I received back about £39 refund after I paid about £135 for the tickets.
Trip.com cancellation fees:
£70 – cancellation fee
£10.10 – Trip.com fee
£13.60 – ticket agency fee
Another thing you need to be mindful of is that Trip.com agents work based on a script. Sometimes, if your question falls outside what they have on the screen in front of them, they might ignore what you are saying and keep reading, which is not helpful at all.
Saudi Arabia Airlines
Another thing Trip.com will tell you to do is to contact the airline yourself and deal with them directly. Yes, even considering they charge you a fee for booking your tickets. This is wrong. I actually spoke with Saudia (after digging up a working number for the airline in the UK) and they told me that this is a responsibility of the booking agent as they are the ones purchasing the tickets from the airline. Now you know.
Booking.com – Ramada by Wyndham
Booking.com is another platform I use almost every time I travel and need to book a place to stay. However, they are very tricky when you have to speak with a real human. They have a virtual agent, who will do even the impossible to prevent you from speaking with a human agent. You will need your booking number and your PIN. However, the “AI” agent was never able to “understand” one of the booking numbers I had – specifically the one for my stay in Ramada by Wyndham Dubai Deira. The worst part – if the “AI” agent refuses to understand your number they will refuse to connect you to a real human and will hang up on you.
To go around this, I used the confirmation number and PIN code for my other booking with PremierInn. Therefore, if you experience a similar issue, try using a confirmation number and PIN from a previous booking you’ve made.
The “AI” agent will keep telling you they can “help” even if they don’t. They will refuse to connect you to an agent in most circumstances. This is my advice: Tell them the property told you to speak with a human agent and it’s for refund. This was the case with me – and this was the easiest way I found I could speak with a human.
Some of the Booking.com agents are brilliant – others not so much. In the case with Ramada, the agent quickly raised a refund request based on the evidence I provided for my cancelled flight. Ramada approved it and I got my full refund the next day.
Pro Traveller Tip: The property may decline your initial refund application just because they want further evidence of the reason why you need to cancel, so make sure you know what the basis of the refusal is.
Booking.com – PremierInn
This was not the case with PremierInn. It took me over a month of calls, texts and emails to both Booking.com and directly to the hotel’s management. Every time I would approach Booking.com, they would tell me to speak with the hotel. Every time I approached PremierInn Barsha Height, they told me to speak with Booking.com.
The hotel asked me to provide evidence of the cancelled flight, which I had already done by providing screenshots to Booking.com. I quickly provided them again, directly to the hotel. After I did this, the management of the hotel started ignoring me.
I left them an honest review on Booking.com, which they rejected. Only after the review, they came back claiming that they had approved the refund. I called Booking.com, who kept referring me to the hotel, saying that refund was never authorised. They told me that the hotel was ignoring all their calls and emails regarding the matter.
I ended up requesting to speak with a manager in Booking.com – she was very understanding and helpful. She said she will chase it up with PremierInn. I even got a confirmation email that the hotel has authorised the refund. But the money never came.
I called Booking.com again. They told me that the refund was not actually authorised… I don’t know how I managed to go through all this without losing my mind.
Bottom line here is – I left an honest review about the poor service I received from the hotel on Google – a place where they can’t reject reviews. I received my full refund the next day without making any further calls.
I still don’t understand why they had to be so difficult. Even if they have rejected my refund claim – I would have accepted this. No – they ignored me, they ignored Booking.com, they lied to me, they tried every trick in the book. I think it says a lot when the only way you can effectively communicate with a business is through public reviews expressing dissatisfaction with their service.
Totals:
I lost just under £100 pounds and far too many hours dealing with customer service agents. All I can say is that now I have a mild PTSD when I hear the “waiting” melody Booking.com uses because of PremierInn Barsha Height’s refusal to deal with their customers in a timely and respectful manner.
I hope this article helps you. And, hey, don’t stay at home – even if your flight was cancelled, book another! This is what I did and this was one of the best things I have done so far!
Screenshot the key points and contacts:
Below you can read all about my Unexpected Journey:
