For the first time in a couple of years, I flew British Airways (BA) on my trip with Richard to Gothenburg. I had some Avios to use up, which meant that the flight cost £40 return and it gave me a chance to use Richard’s guesting rights to experience the lounges at Heathrow T3 once again. As a disclosure, I used to do work for BA and so I still feel quite an affinity to them.
And then there’s Wizz Air, who I’ve flown with extensively over the last year because of their All You Can Fly pass which I very much like. They’re a budget airline who have a dreadful reputation, although, as a disclosure, I’ve flown them a lot and have now got something of an affinity to them as well.
So, as I don’t get out much, I thought I’d compare the two using a series of artificial headings that I’ve created. I’m not including lounge experiences and I can’t take into consideration IRROPs (when things go wrong) which BA might be better at dealing with.
All are out of five and I’m making this up as I go along, so at this point, I don’t know who will win this riveting competition. And so….
BOARDING CARD ACQUISITION
WIZZ AIR : Acquiring the boarding card on the Wizz Air app is an easy process, although it’s limited to just 24 hours before the flight (unless you pay extra, which I obviously don’t). There are quite a few screens to go through, but the process is easy and the boarding card stays saved in the app for months. Seating is random, although only on around 20% of occasions am I put in a middle seat. 4/5
BRITISH AIRWAYS : This was a slightly disappointing experience, the app didn’t work (I got it working, sort of, for the return although it was very slow) and so I was forced to check-in on a laptop. This was the case for the outbound and inbound flights, wasting a fair chunk of time getting it resolved. There was the advantage of being freely able to select seats in the 24 hours before the flight, which was a benefit so it wasn’t entirely random. BA’s IT is, by their own admission in the past, sub-optimal and I’ve found them erratic before, but they have the advantage that you can print the boarding pass out at the airport for free which Wizz Air don’t offer. 3/5
PRE-BOARDING
WIZZ AIR : Wizz Air are impeccable about this and I note this on just about every flight, it’s clear where to stand and they work through the priority and non-priority queues quickly and effectively. It’s customer focused, it’s efficient and it’s quick. 5/5
BRITISH AIRWAYS : This felt just slightly muddled, there was no defined queueing area which led to customers milling about in the way of others. There was no obvious time that the boarding desk would open, so customers couldn’t relax or at least wait in the appropriate queue. The process didn’t feel customer focused. One bonus to BA, I did like that I wasn’t concerned about whether my bag fit the bag sizers, which is always a slight concern when flying with Wizz Air. 3/5
BOARDING
WIZZ AIR : Impeccable, on my last 60 or so sectors there have been no delays or issues with boarding. 5/5
BRITISH AIRWAYS : Particularly on the outbound flight, the crew were stressed (I know this as I was on the last row and the crew were talking to each other about the potential need to get bags moved to the hold), some passengers were stressed and it was just a little chaotic. Passengers were faced with searching up and down the cabin for space for their bags. The passenger in the middle seat next to me was one of those, so I ended up standing in the aisle for a few minutes whilst she found space. I don’t mind that, but she was unnecessarily stressed and could only find space some considerable distance away. I like my bag under the seat in front of me, which is what both BA and Wizz Air require me to do (if I had a big bag with BA I could put it above for free, which doesn’t feel entirely fair for those with small bags). 2/5
SAFETY ANNOUNCEMENTS
WIZZ AIR : The safety announcements are often ignored, but I always watch them out of politeness. All very professional. 5/5
BRITISH AIRWAYS : I have no issues with the safety processes of BA, but I was disappointed that the flight safety demonstration was so far away from me down the cabin that I could hardly see it. As an aside, BA crew should probably check that lockers are shut (although they were trying to manage bag reshuffling for a long period of time) as an overhead locker went flying open during the take-off. 4/5
CREW
WIZZ AIR : The crews are always helpful, personable and polite. 5/5
BRITISH AIRWAYS : And no difference with British Airways. 5/5
FOOD ON BOARD
WIZZ AIR : There is nothing free, but I like their noodle pot things which are reasonably priced. 2/5
BRITISH AIRWAYS : I’m going to be overly fair here to BA as the food and drink prices were overly expensive, but economy passengers do get a free biscuit and bottle of water. This allows for more crew engagement, which I think is very positive. 4/5
FLIGHT COMFORT
WIZZ AIR : I find Wizz Air flights as comfortable as I’m going to get on a budget airline. The seat pitch is fine for me, although only for flights of under four hours I’ve discovered. 4/5
BRITISH AIRWAYS : BA declares their seat pitch to be nearly the same as Wizz Air, although I struggled more with leg room for reasons I don’t understand. I’m giving them the same score as the seat pitch is similar and I was comfortable enough. 4/5
FLIGHT CLEANLINESS
WIZZ AIR : Given their very fast turnaround time, the cabin is generally always very clean. I’ve never had a dirty tray table, although there’s sometimes a little litter in hard to reach places on the floor. 4/5
BRITISH AIRWAYS : This was disappointing, my tray table was dirty on the return flight so it hadn’t been cleaned at all. There’s no excuse not to do at least some basic cleaning for passenger comfort. 2/5
PILOTS
WIZZ AIR : The pilots have always been impeccable. 5/5
BRITISH AIRWAYS : Again, professional pilots. 5/5
ENTERTAINMENT
WIZZ AIR : There is a magazine in the seat pocket which has a map of their destinations I like to look at, as well as some articles to read and also their list of on-board purchases. I have enough things to read on my phone, but I like paper magazines for some variety. That’s the limit of the entertainment though. 2/5
BRITISH AIRWAYS : There is no provision for printed material. 1/5
INTERNET
WIZZ AIR : There is no on-line provision, even a paid for one. 1/5
BRITISH AIRWAYS : This was a strong advantage for British Airways, their free wifi for all passengers is limited to WhatsApp and email, but it worked well and was very useful. I was impressed at how well this worked. Very pleased. 5/5
DISEMBARKING
WIZZ AIR : There are too many bus transfers, although this isn’t something limited to Wizz Air by any means. Disembarking from front and back is efficient and passenger focused. 4/5
BRITISH AIRWAYS : On the outbound flight I was first off, but on the inbound the disembarking took too long. Jet bridge only disembarkation when passengers are trying to scuttle around the cabin heading in the opposite direction to find their bags is just a little frustrating. I do have a comment relating to accessibility below though. 3/5
TOTALS
This gives Wizz Air a total score of 46 and British Airways a score of 41. This feels just a little unfairly skewered to Wizz Air and not entirely fair to British Airways, although the more I reflect on it, the more I realise just how poor some elements of these British Airways flights were. I did find the wifi to be useful, so that probably deserves a bigger uplift here, so the results should perhaps be a little narrower.
One important element I haven’t considered in the above headings is accessibility. As BA often uses jet bridges, this makes it much easier for those with accessibility requirements. It’s right to give credit to BA for that.
PRICING
I now need to make an adjustment based on the average price charged for a flight. I had expected when I planned this post a few weeks ago that BA would be better, so I was going to mention the more expensive prices.
Anyway, I’m going to use the headline fare for the flights we took to Gothenburg as these were the cheapest flights we could find for BA when we book, so that makes them £50 for a single.
It’s unfair to note that my Wizz Air flights are £9 each as I pay extra for the all you can fly pass, so taking that into account, all of my single fares are around £20. This means that BA are usually significantly more expensive.
CONCLUSION
This is easier than I expected. I would still fly British Airways, but only if their flights were cheaper than Wizz Air.
RESULT
Wizz Air have got their processes to be efficient and they are in line with what I need from an airline, so my results are inevitably biased in that way. I like a budget airline for cheap prices and Wizz Air is very good at that, it’s all that they do. BA has to have a broader appeal across a much larger operation and they also fly from airports with higher costs, although for my own travel, I’m happy with London Luton airport.
For those with bags, more complex needs, a requirement to fly from larger hubs or those with status, there is much to be said for BA. For those who want budget travel without stress, I certainly think Wizz Air is worth considering here. I’d add that I think both BA and Wizz Air are better than Ryanair for anyone interested in that perspective, I don’t tend to fly with Ryanair.
But, taking everything into account, for short haul flights, it’s Wizz Air who I prefer over British Airways, which I’m not sure I expected to write when I started this.