A grieving couple were forced to wait nearly three months for a refund from Wizz Air when they cancelled a flight after their son died unexpectedly. Emma Whale and husband James were planning on celebrating their 25th wedding anniversary in Italy in September. But tragedy struck when their son Marcus, 21, died suddenly from a brain haemorrhage while on holiday in France on August 31.
The heartbroken couple were forced to cancel their holiday so that they could grieve with eldest son Rowan, 24. They also had to arrange repatriating Marcus back to the UK and organising his funeral which took place in October. The pair had booked their flights home from Rome to London with Wizz Air through an online agency.
Solicitor Emma, 53, contacted the company to request a refund and sent them a copy of Marcus’s death certificate. But they only got the refund of £235 (€282.98) for the one-way flight back yesterday after nearly three months on after weeks of toing and froing. “It’s morally reprehensible,” Emma, from Basingstoke, Hampshire, said.
“What could be worse than losing a child and having to jump through hoops to get a refund. It’s the most clear-cut situation.” She said: “We explained what we were going through.”
Healthy Marcus had an undiagnosed condition that had gone unnoticed throughout his life. The barman, who was about to become a wine connoisseur, had woken up feeling unwell while on an eight-day holiday in Bordeaux and collapsed. Emma received a phone call while she was at work from a French doctor who broke the news that Marcus wasn’t going to make it.
The family got on the next flight to France. Emma said: “Marcus has always been strong and healthy. He was in the prime of his life, a normal, beautiful young man and he was having a lovely time on holiday. I got a phone call from a French doctor who said he’d had a brain haemorrhage and it was the gravest outcome.
“He just went out like a light. I asked if he would wait until we got there and they said they would try their best. We flew out to France and were by his bedside that night. They did tests and he was brain dead. It’s a nightmare. He donated his organs and saved several lives so we have that comfort.
“We’re a hardworking, good family and we’ve had a pretty charmed life. I don’t know anyone in my circle who has been unfortunate enough to lose a child. It’s terrible but it’s what fate has dealt to us. He didn’t suffer, he just went. Bad things happen to good people and it’s absolutely awful but there’s always someone worse off and you have to try and find a silver lining.”
Emma and James, 55, had planned to celebrate their silver wedding anniversary in Tuscany where they had their honeymoon. After their sudden loss, they “couldn’t imagine” leaving Rowan at home to go on holiday. Emma said: “Aside from grieving, we had so many formalities to deal with like bringing Marcus home from Bordeaux and arranging his funeral.
“We absolutely could not even countenance going on holiday. We have another son and we desperately needed to be together.”
She said: “It might not be a lot of money but it’s the principle. It’s a shocking way to behave. They need to improve their system so that other families don’t have to go through this.”
The delay was down to the couple booking through an online travel agent and not through the airline directly.
A Wizz Air spokesperson said: “We were sorry to hear of the heartbreaking circumstances that led to the cancellation of the customer’s trip. When presented with the appropriate documentation, we refunded the bookings original payment method in full, which in this case was to the online travel agent the customer booked through. We always advise to book direct to avoid any complications.”