“Don’t fly Wizness class” – Canadian musician releases song about Wizz Air incident involving Uzbek student

Canadian musician Dave Carroll has released a new song dedicated to Suhrob Ubaydullaev, an Uzbek student who was denied boarding by Wizz Air in 2023. The song, titled Don’t fly Wizness class, is accompanied by a music video. Carroll’s previous song once forced major airlines to rethink their approach to customer service. Earlier, Suhrob told Kun.uz how the incident had left him stranded abroad.

Dave Carroll, a Canadian singer and songwriter, first made global headlines 16 years ago with his viral song United Breaks Guitars, which criticized United Airlines. Years later, he returned with Don’t fly Wizness class – a song telling the story of how Uzbekistan citizen Suhrob Ubaydullaev was prevented from boarding a Wizz Air flight in 2023.

Carroll’s earlier experience dates back to 16 years ago, when United Airlines broke his $3,500 guitar and refused to compensate him. In response, he wrote a song about it and uploaded it to YouTube, publicly embarrassing the airline and reportedly causing an estimated $180 million loss to the company. The song eventually led to a complete shift in how the global aviation industry approaches customer relations.

Suhrob Ubaydullaev had earlier told Kun.uz: “They didn’t let me board because of my Uzbek passport.” The incident occurred in August 2023. The student was participating in the Work and Travel program in Europe. For his return journey, he was scheduled to fly from Rome to Abu Dhabi and then from Abu Dhabi to Samarkand with Wizz Air. After the Rome incident, his connecting ticket was automatically canceled.

“I had bought my return ticket via Italy. The airline staff discriminated against me. When I was leaving Italy, my passport already had a stamp showing that I had left the country. However, the airline employee saw my passport at the gate and asked me to step aside, saying, ‘You are a citizen of Uzbekistan.’ Right there, they canceled my ticket and told me the plane would leave without me. They didn’t check my visa, tickets, or documents issued by Germany; they just saw the ‘Uzbekistan’ label in my passport and stopped me,” said Suhrob Ubaydullaev.

Suhrob flew from Rome to Istanbul, then from Istanbul to Kazan, and from Kazan to Osh. From Osh, he had to travel by car to Namangan. According to him, a single airline employee’s discriminatory actions caused the young student to be stranded in foreign countries.