Panic in Milan: Hungarians were denied to board Wizz Air’s flight

People were baffled when they were denied boarding Wizz Air’s late-night flight to Budapest at the airport of Milan a couple of days ago even though they had a valid ticket. A Hungarian woman was in a panic, crying and repeating “I have run out of heart medicine, I must make it home.” Everybody wanted to know when they could depart the earliest. Fruzsina Fridel, a famous Hungarian celebrity, shared the dramatic details with a popular Hungarian tabloid. Below you can read what happened to them.

Have you heard about overbooking?

Labour shortage hit flight airlines hard globally. Therefore, flight delays and cancellations became usual at many European airports, including Budapest’s Liszt Ferenc International Airport. We wrote about that issue in THIS article. Fruzsina Fridel, an anchorwoman of the commercial Hungarian TV2 channel, arrived home later than expected because of that. She flew to Milan for a concert last Friday, but she did not face any problems then. However, their return flight was a disaster.

“I have never heard before about overbooking. But that is what happened to us” – Ms Fridel told Bors. She learned that some airlines sell more tickets than seats because some passengers regularly do not show up. As a result, the airlines can keep the seats occupied, raise their flight utilisation rate and increase their profit. However, staff faces insoluble problems provided everybody arrives.

Compensation and apologies

“We did the check-in and queued in line when an airline employee started to call the names of the passengers who could not board”

– Ms Fridel said. Everybody was baffled and tried to get information on what to do.

“There was a mother-daughter duo where the woman was crying because she ran out of her heart medicines” – she added. There was an Italian family, the kids could board but the parents were denied. “They had to fight to take their children off the plane. Finally, a bus transferred us to a four-star hotel in Legnano, where we could stay the next day and received food and drinks. We finally made it home one day later.

The company apologised and gave EUR 250 compensation.

Ms Fridel and her friend were in Milan for the Guns’n’Roses gig, which she described as the concert of her life. “I have been a fan since I was 13. We rocked together with 70,000 people, and it was totally worth it despite the one-day delay” – she concluded.

 

Source: MTI

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