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  • Wizz Air (Skopje to London Luton)

    Wizz Air (Skopje to London Luton)

    One of the slight annoyances about Skopje Airport is that I couldn’t complete online check-in in advance, I had to go and see a staff member at the Wizz Air check-in desk to check documents. Despite checking, the staff member at the check-in desks for earlier flights couldn’t check my documents, but he did tell me what desk would be opening and when so that I wouldn’t have to wait in a queue when my flight did open.

    It wasn’t the busiest of airports.

    The helpful check-in agent told me to wait at precisely this spot at a particular time. I looked like a very experienced traveller at this point and a number of people started to queue behind me.

    It worked, it meant I was at the front of the queue and was the first one through the security area and that meant I could have more time in the Primeclass lounge. I accept that there’s more to life than a free coffee and beer in an airport lounge, but there’s no point lingering about when that’s available.

    The signage, as ever for Wizz Air, was clear and there wasn’t long to wait despite the aircraft having been delayed.

    The aircraft was G-WUKY and this is the same aircraft that I was on two days before that got me here.

    This will interest no-one other than me, although that’s true for this blog in general, but not only was it the same aircraft but it was also the same row. This photo from my previous flight shows the window seat I had this time, so that’s handy planning in blog imagery terms. Some people arrange their lives around career development, relationships or spiritual growth. I appear to have reached the stage where I am pleased by the efficient reuse of an aircraft seating photograph.

    Wizz Air are very good at keeping the cabin relatively dark on late evening flights, they do their usual run of food and drink, but they did it quietly and try to avoid disturbing passengers. I was happy with my randomly allocated window seat as I fell asleep for half the flight.

    And safely back into London Luton airport and it was pretty much on-time as the padded schedule had enabled them to catch up. Unusually, there were very long queues for non-UK passport holders, I was through the border in under five minutes but it would have been a longer wait for those without UK or EU passports.

    Anyway, this was another £8.99 flight with Wizz Air where I was suitably delighted with the whole arrangement. The aircraft was clean, the crew were friendly, everything was just about on time and it was a stress free experience.

  • Wizz Air (London Luton to Skopje)

    Wizz Air (London Luton to Skopje)

    Another journey from Luton Airport, so another little snack at Big Smoke, this time the hot honey chicken tenders and a 0% Guinness. All very agreeable and a suitably balanced pre-flight meal.

    And that’s the end of Avalon, the little coffee shop, which apparently had closed just a few hours before. It was always a slightly quirky arrangement with some odd food and drink options, limited seating but always friendly staff. There appears to be a new Costa coming, which I can’t say delights me, but if that’s what the passengers of Luton Airport want, then so be it.

    My Lounge and the exciting beer option of 0% Heineken, although you’re only allowed half a bottle at a time. I thought half a bottle was perfectly sufficient.

    For about the first time I can remember, the cutlery was clean here. It wasn’t overly busy, this is a perfectly acceptable arrangement although for those not on Priority Pass or similar scheme, it’s expensive to enter for what is offered.

    “Plane on the way” means that it hasn’t arrived yet, but they’ll start the boarding process. Efficiency is important and all that, although they called the gate ten minutes early which felt aspirational.

    And here it is, sweeping in majestically, which is perhaps overstating the romance of a Wizz Air aircraft at Luton, but one must take glamour where one can find it.

    I have a temporary bag which isn’t very rufty tufty so isn’t going to be used for long on these expeditions, I’ll be repurposing it for LDWA challenge events at some point, where it can enjoy a quieter life being shoved into village halls and checkpoint corners rather than exposed to the brutal glamour of low-cost aviation.

    The aircraft was G-WUKY which is yet another one that I haven’t been on.

    The seating Gods not only gave me an aisle seat, but the other two seats in the row weren’t occupied during the flight.

    The prices are slowly creeping up, but they don’t feel unreasonable.

    And the sandwich prices. These are very much for the more wealthy people, it’s something that my friend Richard would order if on board, as he has the quiet confidence of a man who knows society needs people willing to keep the premium sandwich sector alive. And actually the premium sector everything…..

    Bearing in mind that I had a row to myself, the flight itself was relatively busy. As usual, this was another nicely operated flight with a friendly cabin crew, a clean aircraft and clear announcements from the pilots. No-one applauded when the aircraft landed and there were no issues of note during the flight, so I was once again impressed. Bearing in mind that I had only paid £8.99 for the flight, I felt particularly delighted and the fifteen minute late departure was caught up and we landed five minutes early. That’s the joy of padded schedules…..

    There were no more photos as the whole airport arrangement was far more efficient than I had anticipated. Border control took two minutes as there was no stamping of passports just a vague look inside and the airport was clearly laid out. Unusually for me, as I usually get a cheap bus, I had a shuttle from the hotel and that turned up just as I arrived outside. That means I was in a car within fifteen minutes of landing, so I didn’t have a chance to take photos. This efficiency does, admittedly, leave the blog slightly short of content, which is awkward given that the blog is rarely overburdened with plot at the best of times.

  • Wizz Air (Dortmund to London Luton Part II)

    Wizz Air (Dortmund to London Luton Part II)

    Carrying on from my previous post, I had settled into the gate area that was past border control and I had gone through the EES (European entry/exit system) and had my passport stamped. My flight was late and then there was an announcement that the flight was now on time and it would be departing from Gate 3. This was fine, until I realised that this gate was in the Schengen area of the airport and I no longer was. This presented me with a problem. I was now on the wrong side of border control, which is not generally where I want to be when an aircraft is quietly preparing to leave without me.

    So, I decided to go back to the border guard staff and mention the situation. They were helpful and told me that this was something of a mess, but they allocated me a police officer who walked me to my gate and around the newly opened border control area for the new gate.

    This was the scene until around shortly before boarding, as many other passengers hadn’t realised that they were now at the wrong gate. And, soon after this, there was something of a deluge of stressed looking passengers and numerous police officers who I assume had pro-actively rounded everyone up they had realised were in the wrong place. I think that everyone boarded the flight, but the queue for border control was thirty deep when boarding commenced.

    With that, it was time for me to board at least. It’s aircraft 9H-WNV, which is yet another Wizz Air aircraft that I hadn’t been on.

    Passengers were trickling on rather than the usual rush. The seating Gods had given me a window seat for the 80 minute flight and this was unusually for Wizz Air an aircraft that hadn’t really been cleaned from the last passengers. I think that this was more to do with Wizz Air trying to cut the delay so that we departed on time even thought the aircraft was late in, so more about efficiency than anything else.

    And there’s the aircraft I just disembarked from and I knew that this was my last flight for around a month, something I felt friends gave me insufficient sympathy for. Anyway, this was another £8.99 flight from Wizz Air with Multipass and it was smooth, efficient and the cabin crew were friendly as usual. The boarding process was a little sub-optimal, but I take into account the fare that I’ve paid and I can cope without jazz bands, champagne, silk cushions and whatever else decadent passengers might want. I also had some good news that my train from London King’s Cross to Ely was cancelled which meant I arrived into Norwich 75 minutes late and so got the entire £22 rail fare back.

  • Wizz Air (Dortmund to London Luton Part I)

    Wizz Air (Dortmund to London Luton Part I)

    My journey back home from Dortmund started at Dortmund Stadthaus metro station and all was going well at this point. Until I tried to buy a ticket and the card machine elements of the ticket machines were all down and not working. This I considered sub-optimal as I don’t carry cash partly as this is the 21st century and partly because I have a reckless optimism that ticket machines will work. However, in Lübeck I found 5 euros on the floor by the river and I suspected that, in a similar way to how computer adventure games work, that it would come in useful. And that was very much the case here, I used cash to buy my ticket and that saved me a thirty minute meander to the city’s central railway station.

    There’s the ticket validation machine and so I was good to go.

    I needed Aplerbeck and there was only a short wait for the U47 to turn up.

    A wait of five minutes to be precise.

    And here it comes, all as expected.

    I’ve posted about this journey before, but the metro stops at Aplerbeck and then passengers get a bus to the airport.

    And in what I think is the premium seat for a passenger to look out of the window. Well, in the absence of being the bus driver of course. There aren’t many limits to my ambitions, but becoming a bus driver is one of them.

    There’s no lounge at the airport, but there is a McDonald’s just a five minute walk away and I had a free coffee on my app, so I didn’t want to miss the opportunity. They also have power points and, as usual, I wanted to be fully charged given that’s one of my travel priorities.

    I had a relaxing ninety minutes at McDonald’s, bringing this blog up-to-date with about 65 ‘riveting’ posts about Lübeck. I use the word riveting advisedly, as some readers may not have known they needed detailed commentary on churches, airports, museums, railway stations and toilet pricing.

    Safely at the airport, which is really too small for the number of passengers that it gets.

    An interesting place to put a hopscotch game for kids in the middle of the queueing aisle. Nothing says efficient passenger flow quite like inviting small children to begin a structured jumping activity where everyone is already trying to stand.

    This is the downstairs area at Dortmund Airport which is short of seating space, poorly signed and only designed for non-Schengen flights in some sort of bid to test passenger resilience. However, I found a seat and prepared myself for the two hour wait for the flight, which at this point was delayed by half an hour. Anyway, my planned comfortable arrangement changed and I needed to find a police officer, but more in part two (who says I can’t build tension on this blog?).

  • Ryanair (London Stansted to Lübeck)

    Ryanair (London Stansted to Lübeck)

    The entrance to the security area at Stansted looked a little more glamorous than when I was last here. It was also a quick process with staff members that looked buoyant and not entirely worn down by life. The security process here means that liquids and laptops don’t need to be removed from bags, so it’s a bit quicker.

    There’s currently no lounge available at Stansted Airport, other than for certain flights, as Escape has closed (and I don’t know what is opening in its place). However, my Priority Pass card gives me £18 to spend at Camden Bar & Kitchen, so I popped there.

    I’ve never been upstairs in here before and it was much busier than I had expected, although that’s true for the entire airport. The team members here were particularly friendly and engaging, despite how busy they all seemed to be.

    This cost just under the £18 that I had, which seemed slightly expensive, but the quality was high. The toast was soft, the tomatoes and avocado had a richness of taste and the eggs were runny when I cut into them. The latte had some flavour and it was an enjoyable breakfast all round.

    Back in the busy main terminal and there was a shortage of seating. I think they must be adding more as the overflow seating area downstairs is currently closed, so I’m hoping that they have a plan.

    Rather handily all of the screens had this error message on the left hand side, a little sub-optimal for those wanting to see what gate to head to.

    Michael O’Leary, the boss of Ryanair, said this week that passengers shouldn’t be allowed to drink alcohol in the morning at airports. I have some sympathy for him on this, there were more drunken passengers than I’ve noted before, some being quite raucous before boarding. Unfortunately, much of this seemed to be facilitated by JD Wetherspoon and they lost a set of Stella glasses from one group who just took their beers to the gate.

    Anyway, there was some certainly some vibrant behaviour from a couple of groups which continued all the way to the gate. It was about a ten minute walk and I wondered why they had so many drunken passengers wanting to get to Lübeck. All became clear here though, the left hand gate lane is for Ibiza, the right hand gate lane is for Lübeck. None of the raucous passengers were going to Lübeck and this felt like something of a relief.

    I was the first one to the gate, which was more because the flight was quiet than because I had managed to become quite athletic.

    There was then just a short walk to the aircraft.

    It’s aircraft 9H-QDD which I don’t think that I’ve been on before, but it’s been part of the Ryanair fleet since 2016. The seating Gods had given me a middle seat, but this was ridiculous as the flight was relatively empty so I had all three seats to myself. I assume Ryanair did that in the hope that I paid extra in advance to move to the window or aisle seat. The crew were friendly and the boarding process was efficient and it felt mostly clean, despite the number of empty cans and bits of paper left from the previous flight. With the quick turnaround, there’s only so much that can be done though.

    Just after taking off and Liam and I walked the Stansted Stagger a few months ago which went around the airport, so we must have walked somewhere there.

    We flew over Groningen.

    And safely into Lübeck with the sun still shining so it was still too hot. The flight was only just over an hour and we landed 25 minutes ahead of schedule, although Ryanair do pad their schedules.

    The border control process with the new EES was time consuming and took just under 30 minutes and I was towards the front of the queue. The EU passport queue was dealt with quickly, so for those of us without an EU passport it is all a bit sub-optimal.

    The flight was £14.99, so more than my usual £8.99 that I pay with Wizz Air, but it’s cheaper for me to get to Stansted than Luton Airport, so it worked out pretty similar. The flight was efficient, the crew were friendly, the pilots were calm, so I thought that I received a bargain flight.

  • Wizz Air (Katowice to London Luton)

    Wizz Air (Katowice to London Luton)

    [Apologies I published this early if anyone saw a half finished post!]

    I was connecting at Katowice Airport to fly to London Luton, although there was no airside connection available. I also discovered that the security area at Terminal A wasn’t open for thirty more minutes, so the process was hardly rushed.

    Mine was the 19:45 flight and I had the advantage of popping to the airport lounge, but I wrote about that separately.

    The boarding process was all efficient, but there was a particular focus on checking bag sizes on this flight. The lady was walking down the queue and she spoke to me briefly before telling me that my bag was fine, but a fair few were being stopped and charged extra money. One guy was charged four times for his family, so around £320, so it was a profitable exercise for Wizz Air. Although, the rules are very clear, so the customers took a risk.

    This lady was charged £80, she might have been a little unlucky. It’s fair to say that she wasn’t very pleased and she asked a couple of us whether we’d been charged as well.

    The aircraft is 9H-WAD, yet another one that I haven’t been on before and this has been part of the Wizz Air fleet since 2022.

    Everything was smooth and well managed yet again, although the seating Gods had given me a middle seat which wasn’t ideal. However, the flight was only two hours so it’s hardly traumatic. The flight cost the usual £8.99 with my Multipass and the aircraft was clean, the crew were friendly and everything worked as it should.

    We landed into London Luton on time and I had a hotel just a short walk away from the airport, which is always something that I look forward to. This marked the end of my one week stay in Poland, Romania and Germany, another successful trip that was made a lot easier with my cheap Wizz Air flights.

  • Wizz Air (Dortmund to Katowice)

    Wizz Air (Dortmund to Katowice)

    Dortmund is one of the older airports which is simply too small to deal with the number of passengers it currently has to handle. There are over three million passengers using the airport every year now and they have been creative about using the space that they have.

    Mine was the 13:25 flight and I took this photo just after I went through security, showing how perilously close I was. Well, by my standards. The security process was slightly problematic as some drunk, mostly older, Polish football fans barged by a few of us in the security line. I decided to take the opposite security line to them and managed to get through quite a bit quicker, and certainly had a quieter time.

    And the aircraft arrives, albeit a little late. The seating arrangement at the airport wasn’t dreadful, but they do need more seats for passengers as quite a few just opted for the floor. There were no power points and the general facilities at the airport were quite limited, but everything seemed to work efficiently.

    I was slightly nervous of a delay as I had a flight from Katowice four hours after this one arrived, but fortunately, there was no impact of note.

    This is aircraft HA-LVD, yet another one that I haven’t been on before, with this one in operation since 2019. The seating Gods had given me a window seat near the back, which suited my needs entirely for a flight of a little over one hour.

    Somewhere over Dortmund.

    What looks like a pretty town, this is Soest in Germany.

    And safely into Katowice and we we hardly late at all, giving me more than enough time at the airport to sit in the lounge for hours….

    The flight cost £9 with my Multipass and was another competently managed operation, with the aircraft being clean, the crew being friendly and the pilots sounding professional. It’s becoming a bit samey I know with Wizz Air, but routinely good isn’t a bad thing…

  • Wizz Air (Bucharest Henri Coandă to Cologne Bonn Airport)

    Wizz Air (Bucharest Henri Coandă to Cologne Bonn Airport)

    I had taken the train earlier on in the day to get to the centre of Bucharest, but I decided to get the 100 bus back again to the airport. It costs around 60p and it’s easy to pay as it’s contactless. There’s my bag, looking nearly new.

    I think what this sign was saying was:

    “100 years since the presentation on 16 October 1910 at the Aeronautical Salon held at the Grand Palais in Paris of the Coandă-1910, the world’s first jet aircraft, without a propeller, powered by reactive propulsion, invented and built by the Romanian engineer Henri Coandă (1886–1972).”

    Rather splendidly, the snack sign has managed to obscure the key bit, which is perhaps not quite what memorial plaques dream of when they imagine posterity.

    I waited landside for a little while and there was minimal seating available, but they had a restaurant area that was not proving popular judging by the lack of customers. I’m not entirely sure they’re made clear what the offering is here, other than some generic beer.

    It was time to head to security and I was through in a few minutes. The passenger in front of me had a two litre bottle of water in the side of their bag, I’m pleased to say that this was noticed and removed from them.

    Mine was the 20:25 flight. There are no Priority Pass lounges in Bucharest, but I found a quiet spot to sit and treated myself to a £1.60 bottle of Fanta from the vending machine. Well, once I had worked it out, I find vending machines often quite complex and I rarely use them.

    A view out of the window of the terminal. I had some time to do this whilst meandering around.

    Safely at the gate. I decided to break my usual norm of boarding early to board towards the end, not least as I was sitting by a power socket and wanted my phone fully charged. Boarding towards the end feels a little more exciting, there was some tension from angry customers who couldn’t get their bags to fit in the sizer. One customer pushed his bag in so hard that he couldn’t get it out, but the friendly gate agent helped him, although the wheel from his bag went flying.

    The seating Gods had given me a middle seat and I thought that I was lucky as no-one sat in the window seat by the time that the aircraft doors were shut. Then someone comes and takes the seat, but he asks me if I would move back ten rows and swap with his brother who had the window seat.

    I said that it was a bit late, as we were about to start taxiing down the runway, but I would move after take-off. As the man in the aisle seat was annoying me by stretching his elbows and I have limited patience, I suggested moving immediately after the seatbelt lights were turned off. The guy in the window seat seemed pleased and he went with me to where his brother was sitting.

    I sort of got the impression that this was like me moving my friend Liam from his window seat to sit with me in the middle seat. The brother didn’t look thrilled to move from a window to a middle seat, he left his water and he looked confused. Whether or not the two brothers were happy, I don’t know, but I didn’t care, I had a nice window seat. And that’s Budapest in the photo.

    The aircraft was HA-LXW and we didn’t just fly over Budapest, we also flew over Bratislava. This is yet another aircraft that I haven’t been on before, although it has been in service since 2017.

    We flew over Cologne before landing so I got to see the city from the air and it’s the first time that I’ve been here.

    And safely into Cologne. We were on time and I was once again pleased with the flight, which had cost me £9. The crew were personable, the service was efficient and the aircraft was clean. The consistency really does impress me with Wizz Air and it won’t surprise anyone (not that anyone is likely to much care) that I intend to fly with them again.

  • Wizz Air – Menu Price Increases

    Wizz Air – Menu Price Increases

    Much as I really quite like Wizz Air and their operations, that’s a sizeable increase in the price of their noodles in the new menu. As a frequent buyer of them, well, twice in a year, that’s pushed it past what I’m willing to pay. I’m not made of money…..

  • Wizz Air (Warsaw Chopin to Bucharest Băneasa)

    Wizz Air (Warsaw Chopin to Bucharest Băneasa)

    Safely back at Warsaw Chopin airport and ready for my next flight to Bucharest. As usual, there was a minimal wait for the security process and it took under five minutes from scanning my boarding pass to being airside.

    That meant a quick stop in the lounge.

    It was all clean, comfortable and spacious as usual, with plenty of power points available.

    Very healthy.

    The spring rolls didn’t look entirely appetising as they were quite broken up, but it transpired that they were really quite agreeable.

    The boarding process was efficient and I was flying within the Schengen zone, I didn’t have to wait for an hour for the EES system like last week.

    Oh good, a bus gate.

    And ready to board. It’s aircraft 9H-WDS, which entered Wizz Air’s fleet in late 2023 and appears to be yet another aircraft that I haven’t been on.

    Unusually, I was first to board the aircraft. The excitement of it all….

    So here’s a photo of an empty cabin, I don’t get to post these very often.

    The seating Gods had given me a window seat and also no-one sitting next to me, which was all very handy. Wizz Air seems to pad their schedules to cover a small delay so the estimated one hour fifty minutes flight time was actually only eighty minutes. The crew were friendly, the aircraft were clean and, once again, there were no negatives for me to mention.

    Safely in Bucharest on time and able to walk to the terminal.

    I’ve written about Bucharest Băneasa airport before and it’s beautiful, although rather small.

    The central dome of the airport.

    The bus stop is a short walk away on the main road although not overly well signed. Anyway, with that I was on the bus to the hotel.

    The flight cost £9 because of my Multipass, again representing excellent value for money.