Get all your news in one place.
100’s of premium titles.
One app.
Start reading
Daily Mirror
Daily Mirror
National
Milo Boyd

Disabled gran nearly misses family wedding after Wizz Air takes her to WRONG country

An 89-year-old woman in a wheelchair only discovered she'd been flown to the wrong country when she tried to get through passport control.

Joan Winter checked in at Luton Airport on April 9, excited to fly out to Ljubljana for the wedding of grandson Aaron in Lake Bled.

As Joan and and her daughter Hayley Vickery, 58, were led to the Wizz Air plane they chatted with a member of staff about the Slovenian capital, before showing an air steward their boarding passes once they'd settled in.

It was only once they had touched down and made their way to passport control that a bemused boarder force guard told them that they were in Poznań, Poland - 680 miles away from Ljubljana.

The other half of their party, who were on the right plane, learned mid-flight that Joan and Hayley weren't sitting in the designated disability access zone.

They were led on board a Wizz Air flight to Poland (PA)

With no phone charger or medication for her mum, Hayley spent a frantic 24 hours and hundreds of pounds working out how to get to Slovenia in time for her son's wedding two days later.

"It was all stress," Hayley told the Mirror once back at home in Swansea.

"We were away for a week in total and Wizz Air still haven't been in touch.

"My mother was terrible. She didn't have her medication and was without it from the Saturday to the Tuesday.

"Everybody was besides themselves."

Joan and Hayley's journey began on April 8, when they travelled to Luton to stay in a hotel.

After arriving at the airport mum and daughter were separated from their group and taken to gate 20, in anticipation of them sitting in an accessible part of the plane.

All went smoothly until they touched down.

"We showed our passports at the gate and they asked if we had been to Poland before," Hayley explained.

The family were off to Lake Bled for Aaron's wedding (Getty Images/iStockphoto)

"I said 'yes why?' It was because we were in Poznań."

When the rest of the party discovered Joan and Hayley were missing, they were told it would be impossible to send a message to them and that no one could be sent to meet them at the other end - as it was unclear where they were.

For three and a half hours the despairing duo sat in the airport trying to work out what to do, with no offers of help or refreshment coming from members of staff.

Eventually, after many attempts to ring Wizz Air's premium rate phone number, they were told to either book a hotel in Poland or fly back to Luton - the latter option meaning they'd likely miss Aaron's wedding.

Instead they decided to stay the night in Poznań before jumping in a £270 taxi to Warsaw, where they boarded a flight to Ljubljana which had cost them close to £700.

There they were reunited with their luggage including wedding outfits, which had been taken off the Wizz Air flight in Luton.

Hayley said: "We have had no contact with Wizz Air at all.

"In a really volatile Europe we were boarded onto a plane to Poland and no one knew where we were. We were close to the border with Ukraine.

"I would like Wizz Air to apologise and explain what happened, and a full refund."

A spokeswoman for Wizz Air told the Mirror: "We are so very sorry for the disruption caused to these passengers who should have arrived in Ljubljana as booked, and we did all we possibly could at the time to ensure they did – in the end – make it to the wedding. Along with London Luton Airport and our ground handlers, we are urgently investigating the sequence of events that led to this incident to ensure it never happens again.

"When the passengers concerned arrived in Poznan, Wizz Air made every effort to help by offering hotel accommodation and alternative transport options, however the passengers decided to make their own arrangements to Ljubljana. We can confirm that their luggage was urgently processed and arrived on the next flight to Ljubljana the following day. Wizz Air will reimburse all of the expenses these passengers incurred, and have offered some Wizz Air credit, as part of our genuine apology for the inconvenience and disruption caused."

Sign up to read this article
Read news from 100’s of titles, curated specifically for you.
Already a member? Sign in here
Related Stories
Top stories on inkl right now
One subscription that gives you access to news from hundreds of sites
Already a member? Sign in here
Our Picks
Fourteen days free
Download the app
One app. One membership.
100+ trusted global sources.