Walking. Gossip. Travel.

Category: Airlines

Wizz Air (Budapest to Glasgow)

I thought that the tropical heat of Budapest was getting a bit much, so I decided to go somewhere rather more suited to my preferred temperature range, so I opted for Glasgow. The flight was just under £9 with the Wizz Air Multipass that I bought last December and I remain very pleased with.

Slightly blurred, well very blurred, but I was zooming in to check that I was at the correct gate. The flight was delayed by an hour, but I was in no rush at the other end so I appreciated the extra time in the airport lounge. The boarding process was efficient and the gate staff were polite and helpful, although a couple of customers being charged for oversized bags might not have agreed with that.

Boarding the aircraft 9H-WDR, an A321 which has been in the Wizz Air fleet since June 2023. The seat Gods had unfortunately given me a middle seat and I had decided to accept my fate with my usual heap of downloaded YouTube videos lined up. However, the delight of hearing “boarding complete” with no-one in the aisle seat meant that the seating Gods had looked at me favourably after all. And then I noticed that the woman opposite and forward one row had eyed up the seat and was wildly flapping for her husband (or male companion, I shouldn’t judge) to come back about six rows and sit there to be near her. Anyway, that plan was foiled as I had already moved when she was mid-flap.

And then another little situation occurred when numerous people applauded the pilots for landing the plane. I don’t know a huge number of pilots (well, two) but both of them I know hate this practice and I’m not sure if it’s from the Hungarians who know more about their national airline than I do (I accept that it might not be the official national airline, but it has far more aircraft than any other Hungarian airline).

Anyway, that was the first little situation, with the second being the lady in the window seat being determined to barge past me after the aircraft arrived at the gate to get to the aisle. Now, I’m a firm believer in the “where exactly do you think you’re going?” philosophy of post-landing etiquette. I’ve got nowhere to go or stand. Are we suddenly going to a surprise party on the air bridge? No, we’re not, so I wasn’t moving in the period between the aircraft being at the gate and the aircraft door opening. The whole mad dash is truly a marvel and it happens nearly every flight. You’ve got people practically dislocating shoulders trying to yank their bloody carry-ons down, then forming a chaotic queue in the aisle, all while desperately trying to outmanoeuvre each other for a coveted spot only to then shuffle along at the pace of a heavily sedated snail once they hit the terminal.

And safely back in Glasgow post rushoffplanegate, around forty minutes later than expected. I have a few hours at the airport but I’ll report back on this riveting exercise a little later on.

June 3, 2025
Wizz Air (London Luton to Budapest)

There’s not a lot for me to write about this flight as Wizz Air are so efficient that matters always seem to go as planned. But I’ll write about it for my own memory, this flight cost me £8.99 as it was booked with the Wizz Air Multipass and it’s the 19:25 flight to Budapest from London Luton Airport. As an aside and despite what the board noted, the gate was shown from 18:25 although at that point the incoming aircraft hadn’t even parked up.

The flight was departing from Gate 31 and, as usual, the signage was clear so that customers knew where to go whether they were priority (not me) or non-priority (me). British Airways never really managed this, they ended up with a mass of people (somewhat more commonly and rather unkindly called gate lice) standing in a random pattern near to the boarding gates and thus blocking everyone else.

There’s the aircraft arriving and before the customers had deplaned (I know some people hate that word, but I like it). It’s 9H-WNT, an Airbus A321 which only entered service in late January 2025. Given how new it is, I’m fairly sure that I haven’t been on it yet. Customers waited excitedly on the stairs and the gate staff were generally tolerant of some bags that were too large, but they did charge those who were evidently way over the limit. I’m always slightly surprised how many people push this, it’s quite an expensive exercise to be charged extra at the gate and I’m not sure it’s worth the risk.

Boarding the aircraft and the seat Gods had given me an aisle seat in what was a nearly full service. The flight was uneventful, we sat on the runway (not literally obviously, we were in a plane) for 20 minutes as they waited for a slot from air traffic control, but there were regular announcements and the crew were endlessly polite. The crew were efficient and helpful, with quite a number of passengers purchasing food and drink as the trolley went up and down the aisle. A group of younger customers, who looked like they were about 16, applauded after the aircraft landed and I did secretly hope that they would be barred for life, but then I thought that might be a little excessive.

And landing at Budapest airport pretty much on time. Wizz Air pad their schedules a bit, so the late departure was made up en route and so they could accurately state that there was no delay. In terms of timings, I was impressed as this photo was taken at 23:13 when I was leaving the aircraft and I was at the Ibis Styles hotel reception at 23:20. I think that seven minutes is perhaps the fastest that I’ve gone from the aircraft, through border control, through security and into the hotel.

June 2, 2025
Wizz Air (London Luton to Warsaw Chopin)

I usually don’t write anything about the flights I take, but a change is as good as a rest and all that. I’m not sure that Luton Airport has really mastered the art of returning flights efficiently, but the security process is now quite efficient. I have to confess to pure idiocy during security when I managed to leave my belt on during the security scan. I blame the confusion on their policy of leaving liquids and laptops in the bag which throws my system. The member of security staff was though not deterred and, thankfully, my brief masterclass in how not to do security seemed to escape wider notice, preserving my fragile dignity in aviation matters.

They announced the gate quite early, an hour before the flight, the delights of Gate 32 beckoned. Having endured the boarding methodologies back in my BA days, which often resembled a polite but ultimately confusing game of human Tetris, Wizz Air’s approach felt refreshingly straightforward. Every passenger knows, or should know, where to go from signage and they didn’t take long to board everyone. Admittedly, that leads to a lot of waiting on the stairs in the airport terminal to board, but at least it feels efficient although it’s less ideal for people who prefer to have a little sit down rather than balance themselves and their luggage on steps.

The aircraft was ready and for the sake of completion, the registration is 9H-wNE, the same aircraft I went from Gdansk to London Luton on a few months ago. It’s hard not to make that sound quite geekish, but as a reminder, for my two loyal blog readers who can’t remember, it’s an Airbus A321 which was delivered to Wizz Air in March 2024. Feel free to use that aviation nugget of information at your next dinner party, instant social success guaranteed…..

I’ve had a long series of good fortune from the seating Gods where I’ve been aisle or window seats, but that luck had run out for this flight when I was randomly given a middle seat. I always vaguely hope that one of the passengers doesn’t turn up, but they both did. Both were Polish, the one by the aisle fell asleep for most of the flight and the other managed to consume several Polish beers and then needed me to wake up the aisle guy from his hibernation for obvious reasons. I’m not sure that they entirely managed to follow my rule of letting the middle seat passenger have the arm rests, but since that’s a rule I’ve created it’s one that’s hard to enforce. Fortunately, this isn’t a long flight and two hours later we were landing into Warsaw.

The crew on the flight were well presented, engaging and efficient, although that’s the normality for Wizz Air flights I’ve found. Announcements from the pilots were in Polish with a shorter English version following soon after and the safety briefing was completely in a way that the CAA would be pleased by.

The delights of Warsaw always excite me, so I didn’t even mind that it was a bus that took us to border control. Most passengers on the flight were Polish or had EU passports, so the queue for my passport to be stamped was relatively short. The border agent was friendly and for this visit didn’t require a detailed explanation of my life before letting me into Poland. The flight is with my Multi Pass, which I’m still moderately obsessed with, so it cost just £8.99. Armrest battles aside, Wizz Air delivered the goods once again as far as I was concerned.

April 19, 2025
Wizz Air (Budapest to Athens)

Getting from my hotel in Budapest required a 45 minute walk from my hotel at 04:00 in the morning and then a 40 minute journey on a bus to the airport. Due to my cutting the walk down to under 30 minutes, the immediate presence of the airport bus at its stop and the aforementioned vehicle making up time en route, I arrived at the airport around three hours before my flight which was much better going that I had expected. Indeed I was so early that my flight to Athens wasn’t on the screen…. Given the efficient nature of security I was able to have two hours in the lounge, but more of that in another post.

There’s the 08:20 flight visible as I was going to Athens for a five day trip. Budapest is the home of Wizz Air and it’s been a few years since I went to the Hungarian capital. But that will have to come in another riveting episode of this blog as Richard is expecting a swift write-up of Athens and I can’t be dawdling writing about Budapest.

I really liked Budapest Ferenc Liszt Airport, or as much as you can realistically like an airport. There was plenty of seating, plenty of power points, plenty of space and clear signage. It’s a shame that the designers of Berlin Brandenburg hadn’t had a little day trip out here, although I won’t start going on about that again. Well, other than that mention.

The boarding started forty minutes before the flight and the division between priority and non-priority is clear.

Yet again, the boarding process was efficient. I joined the boarding queue a little earlier than normal as I was in a window seat and I didn’t want to make people move after they’d just sat down. There was a Wizz Air staff member checking a lot of customer bags for size, although mine wasn’t checked. There was then a bus transfer to the aircraft and the process did annoy a few customers as they kept packing more passengers on. The bored and worn out looking driver shouted “I know there’s space, this seats 100”, although I think they’ve done the sizing in the same way that they do in lifts. The amount of times I’ve seen a small lift and it says that the maximum number of people is 6, but they must be rather thin shall we say. Anyway, I digress, the aircraft is HA-LZI, an A321 which was brought into use in late 2021 and I don’t think I’ve been on it before.

And safely landing in Athens. I had been randomly assigned a window seat and there was also no-one next to me, so it felt as if there was plenty of room and the aircraft was likely only 70% full. The crew were friendly and polite throughout, with the entire flight feeling calm. I bought the ticket as part of the Wizz Air All You Can Fly subscription service, so it came in at just under £9. The flight arrived 11 minutes early and as this was a Schengen to Schengen flight I didn’t have much of a wait at the airport. That meant I was safely in Athens, with Richard arriving the following day on his executive aircraft. Once again, I was suitably impressed by Wizz Air, their pricing and general efficiency.

March 2, 2025
Wizz Air (From Luton Airport to Tallinn and Back Again)

I don’t have a great deal to say about these two flights, taken five days apart, but I have sufficient things to note to want to make a post about them. That’s just how this exciting blog works. Anyway, I enjoyed my visit to Big Smoke, Avalon and My Lounge at Luton Airport, then it was time to set off for the departure gate. There’s the 16:00 flight to Tallinn, a rather agreeable departure time if I may say so. There’s a two hour time difference which does mean that the aircraft arrives at what feels like quite a late time, but at least the airport in Tallinn is near to the city.

I cannot fault the efficiency of Wizz Air and the boarding was ready to start by the time I got to the gate. I wondered about whether the guy in front of me with two bags was going to get away with that and it transpired that he didn’t. The gate agent was friendly, but she wasn’t having such an obvious breach of the rules and so she charged him some exorbitant amount.

Here we are boarding and I was pleased to be randomly allocated an aisle seat. I was flying on the All You Can Fly scheme that Wizz Air operates, which I’m entirely pleased with so this made the return flight a total of just over £17. There is some debate today about how Wizz Air have been contacting those who have cancelled flights telling them that their pass might in turn be cancelled without recompense (there’s a limit of two no shows a year). That is in the rules and it’s why I’m reluctant to put two flights too close together. I’ve never had any problem with Wizz Air but their customer service is I think a little difficult to get through to, so I wouldn’t really want a debate about it.

Once again, the flight didn’t really have anything noteworthy to comment on. It was a smooth flight, the crew were friendly, the aircraft was clean, nothing fell off the aircraft and no-one annoyed me. That’s something of a result as far as I’m concerned. They operate this flight to Tallinn four times a week, which explains why I didn’t notice the return flight come up on All You Can Fly, I had thought that it was a daily service. Wizz Air pad their schedules and so early arrivals aren’t unusual, with this flight arriving 34 minutes early. It’s an Airbus A321, aircraft G-WUND which I don’t think I’ve been on before.

Safely in Tallinn and then I realised there was a little problem. I have an inability to walk on ice, rivalled only by three legged cows and really elderly people. And the walk to the hotel was icy. I debated getting a bus, but I couldn’t be faffing about with that and decided to walk. My bravery and slightly sluggish walking paid dividends and there were no falls and indeed no near incidents. I did walk past someone who had fallen over, but the ambulance was looking after him so I decided not to intervene. Fortunately, the ice and snow had mostly gone on the walk back and it had all entirely gone by the time I flew back.

And here we are (well, here I am) earlier tonight, ready to depart from Tallinn Airport and I made an effort to get the London post in the photo.

I learn something new every day, or at least, most days. RRR is apparently the ICAO reference for the RAF and they had a flight to Brize Norton. I know that the RAF operate commercial flights to the Falkland Islands, but I don’t normally see RAF flights on departure boards.

I popped to the airport lounge (which is functional, clean, large although a little limited in food options), but this is the main departures area which is clean, tidy and well managed. It reminds me of Helsinki Airport, which just feels calm.

The Wizz Air gate after border control and it did get busier, but there’s plenty of seating. There are no Berlin Brandenburg incidents here with seating running out.

The aircraft, once again an Airbus A321, is G-WUKR (which to my knowledge I also haven’t flown on although I don’t keep very assiduous records) and I was stuck in a middle seat this time. Nonetheless, it was a smooth flight and it arrived 51 minutes early which surprised and delighted me. What didn’t surprise and delight me is that my phone crashed when I turned flight mode off and took way too long to get going again. That’s another project for this week, fixing that. I felt sorry for those passengers who were pleased to arrive early as it made their travel plans easier as Luton Airport seemed surprised that a load of planes turned up and that put pressure on the border meaning it took the best part of an hour from deplaning (yes, I know it’s an American word, but I like it) to getting through the border. Fortunately, I am in absolutely no rush, I have an overnight train which will hopefully be sweeping me back to Norwich.

So that’s another very lovely adventure sorted. Next stop, after Norwich, will be Rotherham and does travel get more decadent than that?

February 10, 2025
Evening Meal in Warsaw, Breakfast in Rome and Lunch in Guildford (Wizz Air Multipass)

Firstly, I didn’t quite intend this odd way of getting back to the UK, but I had gone to Warsaw for a few days and needed to get back for something. I’ve been using my relatively new Wizz Air Multipass, which I’ll post an update about soon as I’m rather pleased with it, and the only way of getting back was via Rome.

So, I started yesterday evening from Warsaw’s central railway station.

There’s the flight at 20:40.

Always a delight to be in the Preludium lounge, which is the Schengen lounge so it’s one I’ve only been in a couple of times over the years (and I think one of those was because of Covid and they only opened a couple of the lounges). Thanks to Priority Pass for this.

Boarding.

I had been randomly given an aisle seat, but a cabin crew member came over to me and said they were looking for an English speaker to sit by the emergency exit door. It’s always odd this, a Hungarian airline flying from Poland to Italy, but I was an ideal choice I decided. I certainly had enough space and the flight was less than half full.

Safely into Rome and there was a little collection of artefacts to look at.

I was genuinely impressed at Rome Fiumicino airport, it’s been well designed, it’s spacious, modern and functional. I have been to Rome before, but this reminded me that I haven’t been in several years and I must go back.

I found a seating area and I thought it was interesting that the police checked the passports of most people in the seating area. The airport says that only those with tickets can stay overnight, so perhaps this is their way of checking someone isn’t there rather too frequently. The police were very polite and the time passed quickly.

I went through security at 03:00 and it remained quiet in the non-Schengen zone for some time after that.

A rhino.

There are a range of times for the Plaza Premium Lounge and most suggested that it opened at 05:00. I meandered nearby so I knew where to go, but it seemed open at 04:40 and I asked about the opening time and the friendly staff member said I could come in immediately. Thanks once again Priority Pass.

I didn’t have any of them, but the hot food options.

Just delightful. I’ll write a fuller report of this lounge, but this is very much the sort of breakfast I was hoping for.

And then pastries came out, and they were delicious.

And a double espresso to keep me awake. Rich and decadent. With several meringues (I kept getting more) to provide the sugar boost.

Second flight and I was fortunate to have an aisle seat again, with no-one in the middle seat.

Into Gatwick Airport.

A quick coffee stop in Redhill.

And then Wetherspoons in Guildford.

All really rather lovely, but longer reports to follow for my two loyal blog readers.

January 20, 2025
BA Switch to Revenue Spending Tier Points

I’m a bit of a Wizz Air boy (I use the word boy loosely, but it’s my blog and if I want to use it, then I am) now with my All You Can Fly, but I’m pleased that I didn’t try and renew BA status as it’s near impossible for me now given the changes announced today. Before I was able to use the system to have silver status for a few years, but that will now require a spend of £7,500 a year which is rather beyond what I’d spend. More details are at https://www.britishairways.com/content/executive-club/about-the-club and although I can see the financial reasoning for BA, especially given how busy their lounges have become, it’s beyond me. I’ll just have to get used to Wizz Air…..

December 30, 2024
Berlin Trip : Berlin Brandenburg to London Stansted (Ryanair)

I’ve already mentioned the limited gate size at Berlin Brandenburg, but the Ryanair side of matters was efficient and timely. There was a delay on the aircraft which worried me slightly as I wanted to catch my bus to the bustling rural hotspot of Braintree, with a wait of nearly two hours if I didn’t catch it. However, that 30 minute delay was clearly communicated and the boarding process was efficient.

The aircraft is EI-IJN, I don’t think I’ve been on it before, although it’s relatively new as it was only delivered to Ryanair in January 2024. The flight was, once again, not particularly worthy of note as everything went as it should and the flight caught up a few minutes en route. The random seating Gods had given me a middle seat, but it’s a relatively short journey.

I’ve never been so pleased to see a bus to Braintree. I caught this with just a few minutes to spare, I was fortunate that we weren’t delivered to a gate at a satellite terminal and that the border was relatively quiet.

The fare from Stansted Airport is just £2 thanks to the ticket cap, which is unfortunately rising to £3 in January as the new Government continues its attack on public transport. To be fair, for this journey, that’s still very good value and I mustn’t get political.

We were delayed just slightly as they were putting Christmas lights up, but it livened the journey up a bit.

I seem to have had a run of Travelodge giving me rooms with extra beds. Anyway, safely at Braintree Travelodge and that’s the end of the Berlin trip…… All really rather lovely and my little birthday treat to myself.

December 20, 2024
Berlin Trip : Manchester Airport to Berlin Brandenburg (Ryanair)

Although I had enjoyed the Escape Lounge, I was quite pleased to be leaving Manchester’s Terminal 3 as it was all a little cramped. The same was true waiting for the gate, there was minimal seating and the queue wrapped around the corridor trying not to get in the way of passengers walking by. The Ryanair staff were friendly and the whole boarding process was gloriously uneventful.

It was a wet and windy evening in Manchester.

That’s handy, I was able to note the registration number although I’m not entirely sure why I’m collecting these. Then again, I’m not sure why I do a lot of things, yet here we are. It’s EI-DWE and I don’t think it’s an aircraft that I’ve been on, although Ryanair have had it for 17 years. It’s a Boeing 737 from back in the day when they actually had a good reputation. I was fortunate to randomly be given an aisle seat and the whole flight was comfortable and without any issues. The cabin crew were professional, the aircraft was clean and it arrived on time, so for the £21 I paid for the flight (a little more than usual) I was entirely content.

I could claim that it’s blurry for artistic reasons. But it isn’t, so I won’t.

This was my first visit to Berlin Brandenburg and it’s already the laughing stock of airports across Europe, but I’ll save my moaning about this confused mess of a building in a later post. I miss Berlin Tegel.

There were long queues with poor signage leaving plenty of passengers in the wrong place.

Those who can use the left-hand queue are very fortunate and save a lot of time…. But, I won’t go on about that.

December 9, 2024
Berlin Trip : Manchester Airport

After a very lovely weekend of six of us celebrating my birthday early in Manchester (I’ll get to posting about that soon enough….), Liam kindly dropped me off at Manchester Airport. He didn’t offer to pay £5 to drop me off in front of the terminal (mind you, he wouldn’t pay £5 to drop himself off, hence the famous walking incident he took his wife on at Stansted many years, but I digress), so I had to make do with the free bus shuttle that runs every fifteen minutes.

Seventeen minutes after being dropped off the shuttle arrived and I was the only person on it. I was departing from Terminal 3 and although I wasn’t asked this, I proffered this information to the friendly driver anyway. We get to Terminal 1 and he calls down the bus that this is where I can get off. That was actually very helpful, I hadn’t realised Terminal 1 and 3 are next to each other so I might have been sitting on a shuttle bus going around and around before realising what was happening. Terminal 3 is a very odd mix, it’s effectively only used by Ryanair and British Airways.

And here we are at Manchester Airport Terminal 3, the first time I’ve flown from here.

I always try and be positive, but this is a bloody dreadful airport terminal. Looking at surveys, Manchester Airport regularly appears at the bottom of the lists and this terminal is the worst rated. There was no seating available before security so I tried to go through. My boarding pass was rejected at the automatic gate and a staff member came over to check and he suggested trying again later. That’s not overly helpful in terms of I didn’t know when “later” would be, although it transpired that you can only go through 3 hours and 40 minutes before the flight. That doesn’t feel like a time that anyone might actually guess, it might have been useful for them to mention this in signage as some airports do. Anyway, I’m then stuck waiting there for the 15 minutes (I was just under 4 hours early, as some things never change) trying not to get in the way of other passengers and unsure where to wait for the best.

I have huge amounts of sympathy for airport security staff, it’s a thankless task in very many ways. They were always polite here, but some of them looked worn down and there was no shortage of rude passengers. The queueing system was a bit illogical, crammed into too small a space and just uncomfortable, it made things feel a little too much like a cattle pen. The signage in the airport was muddled to say the least and the airport management hadn’t overly troubled themselves with having the airport terminal cleaned. I think much of this is that they simply don’t have enough space, there are too many passengers in the space that they have and there’s not enough seating. I don’t need to sit down (being young and strapping, or something like that….) but many people do, with the set-up here feeling sub-optimal. There is though a massive investment going in to improve the space, so matters might improve somewhat over the next couple of years.

Anyway, after 25 minutes getting through security, which seemed longer than it actually was, I thought I’d try and get into a lounge a little early to escape the chaos and limited facilities. More on which in the next post….

December 9, 2024