I recently wrote to Wizz Air regarding their policy on mandatory masks.
It seems that they are determined not to budge on their policy.
Below is the email I sent them:
Good evening
I am writing with regard to your current policy on the compulsory wearing of face masks on your flights.
Whilst I realise that this a legal requirement, there are those of us with a valid exemption which your policy excludes.
Below is the text taken from your website:
Wearing a face mask is compulsory from now on all our flights for all passengers (including children above 6 years old), only exemptions are passengers with visible sign of disabilities - they should approach the crew for assistance. In any other cases neither medical certificate, nor ID or any other document can be accepted and used to be exempt from wearing a face mask. Make sure to have your own mask and wear it properly throughout your travel. If you have a flight over 4 hours, we recommend you bring multiple face masks. Wizz Air reserves the right to refuse carriage to anyone who fails to comply with this requirement!
Myself and my partner both have valid exemptions, which is neither obvious or visible, and due to their personal nature is not something we would want to openly discuss.
They can however be validated with certified medical letters from our own doctors.
These letters have been accepted on numerous airlines, including Wizz Air up until recently without any issues.
Because of the covid restrictions, we have had many Wizz Air flights cancelled, and instead of taking cash refunds, we took Wizz credit in the good faith that we would be able to use it at a future date.
Now it seems that due to your face mask policy and valid exemptions not being accepted, we have effectively been banned from taking Wizz Air flights.
Please could you tell us your position on our own particular cases.
We await your reply
Regards
And their reply:
Dear Customer, Thank you for contacting Wizz Air Customer Service Department. As a company, our main objective is to provide our Clients the best travel experience and we are constantly in the process of improving the quality of our services, and is striving with diligence to meet the highest extent possible our Clients' expectations and requirements. We guarantee that Wizz Air constantly tries to put the comfort of our passengers first and wants to deliver the highest quality services, regardless of their nature. We would like to confirm that wearing a mask while on board throughout our flights is indeed compulsory for both Passengers and crew. The safety measure requirement is clearly stated on our official website and on each Passenger's boarding pass. Please remember that there are a lot of other Passengers on the board too and safety measures are stated for everyone and important, especially, during such dangerous worldwide situation. Our Passenger's health and safety are first priority and no exception will be make. Kind regards,
VLADISLAVA KRYVOSHEIA CUSTOMER SERVICE DEPARTMENT | Wizz Air Hungary Ltd. (member of Wizz Air Group) wizzair.com
The reason that we are both exempt is both complicated, and very personal, which as you can see I tried to explain in the email.
If they would have asked for more details, we would have given them, albeit reluctantly, but that was sadly not even an option.
It seems that compassion is irrelevant when it comes to enforcing the "muzzles"
You should let them know that both Easyjet and JetAir had to do a u turn on this policy after they had serious incidents on their planes. We flew Easyjet at the end of the summer with our lanyards with no problem. In fact the governments own conditions state that exemptions apply in British airports ad aerospace.
This is such discrimination that you should consider legal action... Even saying that only visible disabilities will be are exempt is open to massive interpretation - is severe autism a visible disability? pregnancy? COPD?