Walking. Gossip. Travel.

Tag: Airlines

Wizz Air (Warsaw Chopin Airport to Madeira)

Back on the rail network from Warszawa Śródmieście station and every time I come here I wonder when they’re going to renovate this as it’s getting ever more rickety. The train signage here is a bit basic, but fortunately Google Maps informed me that my train was running eight minutes late.

I’ll just add here that a train ticket to the airport costs about 85p.

Now this was exciting as there was a ticket check, as the inspectors do monitor this line reasonably frequently. To my right were what I think were a Polish mother and daughter, the former was quite elderly. I, as I may have mentioned, cannot speak Polish of any merit, but I was able to understand enough of the conversation to hear what was going on.

It boiled down to this:

ELDERLY WOMAN : “The ticket machine was broken”

INSPECTOR : “So you have no ticket?”

ELDERLY WOMAN : “I’d like to buy a ticket now”

INSPECTOR : “Yes, you can, that will be 580zl [about £120] including the fine”

ELDERLY WOMAN : “But the machine was broken”

INSPECTOR : “You have no ticket”.

This went on until the train pulled into the airport and it was clear that the pair thought they were getting off and the inspector would forget it. No, the doors opened and he locked the one they were standing by.

I sat on those seats to watch the whole affair unfold, as I don’t get out much. And indeed, the two ladies weren’t getting out much, but their card did and they paid the penalty fares. This is why fare evasion on the Polish rail network seems to be so low, the inspectors will enforce those without tickets.

Very Christmassy. Airport security was interesting, the lady in front of me took a ridiculous amount of time to put her things in the bag. Fortunately, Polish airport security is friendly, calm, collected and told her to hurry up. She got annoyed and so she found herself being interrogated for the entire time I was at security. I like a bit of drama.

Anyway, I reached the lounge and got myself a Greek salad, chicken wrap, coffee and an early morning beer which was to fortify myself for the flight which would take over five hours to get to Madeira. This is another one of my favourite lounges, as there are power outlets, unlimited chocolates, unlimited olives and unlimited Feta cheese.

Mine was the 11:20 flight.

Boarding at the gate was uneventful as it was organised, fast flowing and there were plenty of seats around. Fortunately, Madeira is in Schengen, since it’s part of Portugal, so I didn’t have to faff about with any border control.

This is aircraft 9H-WNS, yet another one that I haven’t been on before. The flight lasted for five hours and thirty minutes, which is quite a strain on a budget airline if I’m being honest. I normally like having my bag under the seat in front of me, but after five hours I was getting annoyed that it was in the way of my legs that needed stretching.

The seating Gods gave me an aisle seat which was very fortunate for a flight of this length, so that did give a degree of comfort. The couple in the window and middle seat were very agreeable and didn’t barge into my seat space, with the crew merrily plodding up and down with the trolley a few times.

The flight cost me £8.99, so I can’t really complain and I find spending this amount of time without a phone signal to be quite relaxing in many ways. I have rather decided, that despite Wizz Air being a perfectly competent and comfortable airline, that flights of this length are perhaps just a bit much.

Safely in Madeira, which is my first time to the island. I understand that pilots require special training to land at this airport as there are strong winds and there’s not a huge amount of space to work with. The landing was sudden but seemed smooth, although I’ve never doubted the competence of Wizz Air pilots as they always seem professional and calm to me.

The view from the runway and the winds were certainly getting up at this stage. I had intended to walk to the hotel, but events meant that didn’t happen….. But more of that in the next ‘riveting’ post.

December 19, 2025
Wizz Air (London Luton to Warsaw Chopin Airport)

Another day, another trip by train to the airport. I went from Norwich via Cambridge due to work being completed on the Norwich to Ipswich line, with a change at King’s Cross railway station. Surprisingly, the first section of the journey wasn’t that busy, despite it being on a two carriage train that can be really quite packed.

I picked up my free Greggs sausage roll and then boarded the Thameslink train to Luton Airport Parkway.

At Big Smoke, the chicken tenders and freshly squeezed orange juice were a beautifully paired meal. Who needs anything more decadent than this? This is always a handy restaurant as it’s included with Priority Pass and they have plenty of power outlets to charge devices.

Mine was the 19:35 flight to Warsaw, all looking on time. It’s not a bad timed flight, it gets into Warsaw at around 22:30 their time, which is fine as long as I get out of there by the time the last train leaves at 23:45.

A pint of Menabrea and some olives at Nolito.

Some bloody awful non alcoholic Heineken alongside some odd chicken thing at My Lounge. Nice teas though, alongside the usual dirty cutlery. I’ve noticed they’ve had a few negative reviews about the cutlery, it feels odd that they haven’t made any effort to fix this.

Boarding was announced early and then they were swiftly dealing with passengers at the gate. As usual, it was clear where non-priority passengers such as myself needed to go, I like clarity.

Boarding and the seating Gods had given me a middle seat which is never ideal, but wasn’t too problematic on this flight. The aircraft was 9H-WDX, an aircraft that I have been on before when doing this journey the other way around.

The flight was very busy with nearly no free seats. I will write the same as ever about the flight, which is that the crew were friendly, the service was efficient and the pilots made clear and appropriate announcements.

There wasn’t much of a wait at border control at Warsaw airport, so I made good time and was able to get a train to the city centre. It was then just a ten minute walk to the Novotel hotel where I was spending the night, which is one of my favourite accommodation options in Europe.

I had only decided a couple of days before what I’d be doing this week and I ended up on a route that was perhaps not entirely well thought through, but there was adventure and so that’s sufficient to keep me functioning.

December 17, 2025
Wizz Air (Venice Marco Polo to London Luton)

After a comfortable enough lounge visit, I meandered to the gate to take me back to London Luton. I do this on a regular basis, but I have to credit Wizz Air with one of the most efficient boarding processes that I’ve seen, it’s always clear where to stand which is something that other airlines seem unable to deliver.

Just a little pause though as we were waiting for the bus to take us to our aircraft. This is the British Airways A319 aircraft G-EUPJ which is decorated in the old BEA (British European Airways) livery. It’s perhaps one of the most beautiful looking liveries I’ve seen, a marvellous idea of BA to use this piece of history.

I was on board the rather more modern Wizz Air branded aircraft, registration 9H-WDM. We arrived there on a bus to add a little extra tension to the whole arrangement.

The seating Gods had given me an aisle seat near the centre of the aircraft and I had pledged not to swap seats after the debacle of getting to Venice and missing out on a goodie bag…..

Views of Venice over the water are visible from the airport.

Anyway, I board and I’m immediately asked by a passenger if I’d swap my seat to let an elderly couple sit together. After checking there were no goodie bags in the seat back, I agreed, although I would prefer that people book a seat if they really want to sit next to each other to avoid all this faffing about.

Incidentally, this reminds me of a Wizz Air flight recently, and I’ve forgotten which one, where a couple asked a lady in the window seat if she’d move so the husband could sit with his wife and child. The husband said that he was in seat 15B which was “near the window”. That’s one of the more arrogant statements that I’ve heard, putting emotional pressure to get a lady to move from her window seat to a middle seat. For avoidance of any doubt, I would have absolutely refused.

Safely back at Luton Airport. The flight was peaceful, I didn’t miss out on any goodie bags and the service was efficient as ever.

And the ever exciting 20 minute walk to Luton Airport Parkway, a railway station which amuses me as perhaps the most unhappy with the new station manager that I’m aware of, the staff appear to be in permanent uproar there for reasons unknown. Anyway, the flight was £8.99 and another bargain from my perspective.

December 17, 2025
Wizz Air New Destinations from London Luton Announced

For reasons relating to London Luton being my ‘home’ airport with regards to Wizz Air flights, and my Multipass letting me travel for £8.99 to their destinations, I pay close attention to any new routes that they’re offering.

And Wizz Air have just announced that they’re increasing their flight options from Luton and from March 2026 they’re flying to:

Chania (Crete)

Mykonos (Greece)

Rhodes (Greece)

Zakynthos (Greece)

Bordeaux (France)

Dortmund (Germany)

Tirgu Mures (Romania)

Rhodes is the one there that I’ve really been wanting to visit, because of the Knights Hospitaller who had it as their main base from 1310 until 1552, before they were forcibly moved to Malta which they held until 1798.

Dortmund I went to earlier this year with Wizz Air, but I had to get there via Warsaw, so that’s a handy new option opened up. I’ve been to Bordeaux a long time ago, but all of the other locations would be new to me.

How exciting 🙂

December 14, 2025
Wizz Air (Bucharest Henri Coandăto to London Luton)

After a peaceful night at the Ibis Styles Bucharest Airport, I decided to walk to the airport which is about a fifteen minute walk. Not all of the pavement was like this shall we say, but it was an easy walk and for those without baggage it’s not worth using a shuttle. Although I might not be the best touchpoint on this as I think that anything involving under one hour of walking isn’t worth getting transport for.

The Gendarme Heroes Monument at the entrance to the airport.

I had some minor issues finding my way into the airport terminal, which is evidently not designed for people walking there, but here’s the main entrance. It transpired that this was the arrivals terminal, but there is a connection via an internal corridor to the departures terminal.

As I had departed too early for the hotel’s free breakfast, they had instead given me a drink, yoghurt, croissant and I saved the banana and yoghurt drink for the airport. There’s no lounge here, so this just had to suffice.

I’m sure that the airport will look lovely when the work is finished, but it feels a bit like a building site at the moment.

The departures terminal.

There’s my flight, the 07:10 to London Luton.

There wasn’t much of a check of my passport at the airport, but the security there were all friendly and I was able to find a quiet spot to wait for my flight. There isn’t a great deal of space here, but the gate staff did their best to ensure that passengers weren’t left waiting.

This photo is from the arrival at Luton Airport, as there was an air bridge so I couldn’t get an external photo. The seating Gods had put me in 34F, which is a window seat, so that worked nicely for me. The aircraft is 9H-WNP and for about the tenth flight in a row, I have to report that I haven’t been on this one before either.

I was asleep for most of the flight, but everything I saw was well managed, professional and efficient. I really don’t understand how people have issues with Wizz Air on such a regular basis, as I find their cabin crew and pilots to be as good as on any other airline.

And that was the end of this trip, which started on my first birthday weekend with Liam, Ross, Richard and I going to Cardiff. After travelling to Italy, Slovenia, Albania, Greece and Romania (albeit the last three quite quickly) I had a train back to Norwich and some happy memories of a very lovely trip, with thanks to Steve, Bev and Susanna joining me in Italy and Slovenia.

December 14, 2025
Wizz Air (Athens to Bucharest Băneasa)

Having safely arrived in Athens from Tirana, I had a wait of just over three hours for my next flight. As Albania isn’t in Schengen, that meant I’d have to reclear security in Athens ready for my flight at 14:10 to Bucharest.

Wizz Air flights depart from the Satellite Terminal, which feels around eight miles away and it’s a compact area which really struggles with the number of passengers using it. Fortunately, the lounge in this terminal is much quieter and was a peaceful place to wait for my next flight.

Their hot food selection might have gone entirely untouched as I didn’t see anyone have anything from there and it was swept away at lunchtime.

My more basic breakfast snack.I realised that I had gone for a beer at around 11:00 in the morning, but I think the rules of alcohol don’t apply at airports. Also, as I’d been up since around 03:00, it felt like lunchtime.

The lunchtime cold food came out and this was what I was hoping for, Greek salad, chicken wraps and dolmadakia.

Lovely.

There are some decent views of the runways and also the actual airport for those passengers flying with airlines who didn’t have to use the Satellite Terminal.

I had a very peaceful couple of hours here, before going back out into the rather more bustling gate area.

There was some strict enforcement of bag size at the gate which led to the normal complaints of “it’s ridiculous, it’s only just too big” from some passengers after they’d be charged £80 or something. Far be it for me to judge, but if the bag is too big, then it’s too big, but most people caught out tend to have bags which hardly fit through the aircraft door, let alone the bag sizer.

My aircraft awaits.

Unusually for Wizz Air, we boarded via an air bridge, which meant I had to make efforts to work out the aircraft’s registration which was HA-LXH, yet another aircraft that I haven’t been on. I should probably find a new hobby to be fair than working out which aircraft I’ve sat in.

The seating Gods had given me a window seat near to the rear, so I waited for about a month for passengers to work out where they were sitting and then faff about for three hours putting their bag in the overhead lockers. I very much like the Wizz Air crew, as they get passive aggressive annoyed at passengers faffing about, which reassures me as flights need a small amount of panic about an on-time departure.

And we’re off.

It was a peaceful flight, no-one annoyed me and the announcements were clear and appropriate from the pilots. The cabin crew were friendly and efficient, so this is yet another post of delight about Wizz Air. For £8.99, I was very pleased with this flight, but I’m conscious that I’m noting that quite a lot.

Safely in Bucharest Băneasa airport, which I’ll post about separately as I really enjoyed flying into this location for the first time, being more used to the larger Bucharest airport which is nearby.

December 14, 2025
Wizz Air (Tirana to Athens)

Tirana Airport at some early hour of the day, this was the first of my two flights of the day, this one to Athens and then one from there to Bucharest.

The airport wasn’t very busy yet, I had arrived at something like 04:30 for my flight 06:50 flight.

Very pretty, the view after I got through security, which was prompt and efficient. The queueing arrangement was a little erratic, but I’m too broad-shouldered for the woman trying to push past me in the queue to have any chance of success. This enabled the queueing system to work in the way that I expected it to.

My flight was the fifth of the day.

Into the airport lounge, which I had already visited a few months ago.

There were only a couple of people in the lounge.

Which meant that I had clear access to the food and drink…

Ajvar, tomatoes, olives, gherkins, this is what I call a breakfast…

And that’s burek on the left, this surprised and delighted me. They did have some other hot food elements for breakfast, but I didn’t engage with those.

After a few coffees, orange juices, breads, muffins and a heap of ajvar, it was time to leave the lounge, slightly unwillingly to be honest.

Ready to board, the aircraft is HA-LVP which isn’t an aircraft I’ve been on even though it’s usually used on Warsaw routes.

The big hills in the background…..

Wizz Air crew are routinely brilliant, but they couldn’t do anything about the passengers on board if I’m being honest. Some passengers decided that they didn’t like Wizz Air’s seating system, so they decided that they’d sit where they liked. The passengers were rearranged back to how Wizz Air liked it, so we were ready to take off.

At the end of the flight, the crew tried initially to stop several passengers standing up as the aircraft was landing, but after temporary success, several passengers ignored them and meandered around the aircraft whilst it was still taxiing. The aircraft then stopped quite abruptly and an elderly passenger promptly fell over and another passenger opened the overhead locker and a bag fell on his head.

Oh good, a bus to the terminal.

Nice views. Well, relatively, I’m standing on the tarmac of an airport.

I’ve only just got a new passport and all the other countries have carefully stamped it in order near the front. But, not Athens, they shoved their stamp on page 28 and it was so heavy in ink it promptly covered the opposite page. Sub-optimal.

Some of the new machines that will be brought into action soon. The queueing system at Athens Airport was chaotic and the staff weren’t really sure what to do, it felt a disorganised mess. Being British, I like a system where people queue in order, this system was widely rejected by other passengers on the flight. Fortunately, I didn’t care, I was in no rush as I was staying at the airport for another flight around three and a half hours later.

But, back to Wizz Air, this was a £9 flight and I was once again delighted at their operational efficiencies. Organised, efficient and their systems only became derailed because passengers did whatever they wanted and that included far too much applause on landing which I felt was far too raucous.

December 13, 2025
Wizz Air (Trieste to Tirana)

After leaving the airport lounge in Trieste, it was time to go through to passport control. This was very much a positioning journey to get me back to the UK, I spent some time in Tirana earlier in the year and I would only be there overnight.

After getting through into the gate area, it was apparent that the airport authorities had forgotten to put many seats in there. As this was a non-Schengen flight, it meant we had to be segregated, so annoyingly there were lots of seats the other side of that glass wall.

Walking outside to the aircraft, the whole process was ordered as usual.

The aircraft was HA-LTB, seemingly another aircraft that I haven’t been on before. I think I might need to get on more Wizz Air flights…. It’s quite rare for this to happen, but the seating Gods gave me a middle seat, but the flight didn’t take much longer than an hour, so this was all very tolerable.

This seems much more common on flights to and from Albania, but there was far too much excitement on landing with some passengers applauding and screeching with delight. I can’t be doing with this level of raucous and the crew members struggled to get control of the passengers who were bored of waiting and started standing up whilst the flight was still taxiing around.

I was walking to the hotel, which was just a ten minute walk, after I established how to get out of the aircraft as they’ve got fences everywhere. I did plan to pop into KFC, but the prices were completely out of any sensible level which did explain why it was nearly empty. The prices were around five times higher than their central Tirana location and I’m not going to engage with that nonsense.

Excuse the wire fence that I couldn’t poke my phone through, but here’s the exterior of the rather attractive looking airport. Although I think they’ve added this cladding type arrangement as the airport actually isn’t very attractive.

This flight cost me just under £9 and once again, the crew were friendly, personable and the aircraft was clean. There was a quick trolley run, but there weren’t many takers, but apart from the unnecessary applause it was another of those flights that nothing exciting took place and that’s just how I like it.

December 12, 2025
Wizz Air (London Luton to Leonardo da Vinci Rome Fiumicino Airport)

For those confused where we are in my riveting blog, I’m now going back a couple of weeks as I had to get from Cardiff to Ljubljana using whatever means possible, but I could only get flights costing £9 with Wizz Air Multi Pass. My first expedition was to get to Rome, then to work the rest out afterwards. There’s my flight, the 21:40.

A quick visit to Big Smoke and due to increasing prices of what is covered by Priority Pass, I’ve cut down to pineapple juice and chicken tenders. All very healthy.

Calamari and pineapple juice at Nolito and I’m never entirely surprised and delighted by their calamari so I’m going to shake things up and change this order up next time. I should probably get out more….

Oh great, it’s nearly Christmas.

The Rome flight was delayed by around 40 minutes, meaning that it was the last one out of Luton Airport in the evening. This means that everyone sitting here was going to Rome, unless they were perhaps muddled up.

It’s all happening now!

Here we are, the last flight out of Luton Airport.

Boarding and this is aircraft registration HA-LGV, seemingly another one (from my extensive records that aren’t anywhere near complete) that I haven’t been on before.

There were quite a lot of sleepy passengers on this flight, which was around 80% full. As ever with Wizz Air, the flight was well managed, the aircraft was clean, the crew were friendly and absolutely nothing went wrong. There’s a lot to be said for uneventful flights. The seating Gods gave me an aisle seat for this flight, so that was handy.

We all disembarked from the front of the aircraft as they wanted to use a jet bridge for this late arriving flight, but then there was no-one to unlock the door. So I stood here for a few minutes.

At this point it was decided that we’d be getting a bus to the terminal and this is always a slight faff. But, I was in no rush.

Safely in Rome and I got to use the semi-automated digital border control system for the first time, as Poland doesn’t seem to be using it fully yet. There was quite a queue for this, but it was all painless.

A helpful service…. I sat here for a while as the baggage reclaim, which I never have a need to use, had some power points and I wanted to be fully charged for my next little adventure. By fully charged I mean my devices, I was not fully charged as this was a sleepless overnight onwards expedition.

December 3, 2025
Wizz Air (London Luton to Venice Marco Polo Airport – Inaugural Flight and I’m Not Swapping Seats Again….)

Another day, another flight with my Multipass from Wizz Air. This was my 55th flight with it, although it comes to an end next week. I plan to renew it as my two loyal blog readers will note from my frequent Wizz Air postings on this blog that I’m quite an advocate of them now.

Anyway, I started at Big Smoke with some chicken tenders.

Then Nolito for some olives and beer.

Then boarding from Gate 22 which was as usual for Wizz Air ordered and well managed. It was immediately apparent though that there was something special going on.

That special event was that it was the inaugural flight from London Luton to Venice Marco Polo airport, so they were making something of a thing of it.

The boarding then began.

The aircraft was 9H-WDH, which I don’t think that I’ve been on before and it feels as though it’s becoming quite unusual for me to note that.

The flight was at near capacity and the seating Gods had unusually given me a middle seat. I boarded and the passenger in the aisle seat asked if I minded sitting there as he wanted to sit in the middle seat next to his partner. This, at the time, pleased me.

However, on board, there was an announcement that they had hidden goodie bags around the aircraft. To cut a long story short, it transpired that they’d hidden it on my original seat, so I didn’t get the goodie bag that the seating Gods had tried to give me….

One amusing side to this is that the passenger on the other side of the aisle had heard the announcement that it was a white envelope. He excitedly pulled out from the seat pocket what he thought was the white envelope and looked inside enthusiastically. He read the outside and then kept it. It was actually the sick bag that is in every seat….

Anyway, the crew were impeccable as usual, the aircraft was spotless and the journey was uneventful (other than for my missing goodie bag). It’s a wonderful route and I’m glad Wizz Air have started it, although it’s ironic after travelling around Europe for 15 years and finally getting to Venice last week that I’ve ended up here again….

And safely into Venice airport where the security process took just minutes as they’ve installed the new entry system and it’s working well. Straight to the bus and into the city. And in the future I’m not changing seats, well, not on inaugural flights anyway.

I did get one free memento though, a Venetian mask which will be going to Liam’s little girl, unless it scares her and then it can just go to Liam in that case.

December 1, 2025