[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.
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…
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.
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…..
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.
After the train journey from Norwich, I had managed to arrive five hours early for my flight. So, that’s just right, no point in rushing these things. The security process was well managed and only took me a few minutes. I was slightly amused as a woman pushed in front of me, which didn’t concern me as I had five hours spare, but I was directed to another security line which had just opened so I went through much quicker. Karma and all that.
There’s a new menu at Big Smoke, this is the sort of exciting drama that keeps me inspired during travel…..
And very nice, the chicken tenders with hot honey sauce, alongside a non alcohol Stella. Definitely a menu upgrade.
Coffee acquired….
The food selection in My Lounge, which does seem to be getting better. They had the usual dirty cutlery there though, I’m never entirely convinced about their food hygiene standards, although I’d note that they hold a five star rating.
That’ll do as a snack, with a tea and a non alcohol Heineken which tastes of ditch water. A completely pointless beer, but I won’t go down that rabbit hole at the moment.
The lounge was pleasant enough, it was quite quiet, but all of the power points worked and there was food and drink.
That’s my flight at 19:45.
And safely at the gate where everything was clearly signed as usual.
The boarding process was smooth and efficient, with a friendly welcome from the cabin crew. As usual for Wizz Air aircraft, it was all clean and looked in a decent state of repair. The seating Gods gave me an aisle seat, but they also gave me an elderly lady in the seat next to me who fidgeted far too much and spent the flight tearing up bits of the in flight magazine so that she could keep the articles. It would have been easier to take the in flight magazine rather than leave the mutilated copy that she did.
One person clapped as the flight landed, but I was pleased to note that other passengers just looked annoyed at him and so hopefully he won’t do that again. The flight was otherwise as usual for Wizz Air, no drama and no delays, with the crew being friendly and efficient as they completed their service.
The aircraft was HA-LGI, yet another one that I haven’t been on before. This is an Airbus A321 which Wizz Air has had since early 2024. I could have done without the bus gate as I had just 32 minutes from landing to get the last train. This took longer than I would have liked if I’m being honest.
The border was relatively quiet, although there was a problem with the passenger in front of me and his European Entry System arrangement. Fortunately another desk was opened up and I was asked if I was aware I could only spend 90 days out of the last 180 days in the EU. I’m very aware of that and it annoys me, but it’s nice that the border control staff remind people. I did think for a while that the delay would mean that I missed the train, but I was fortunate on this occasion.
With that, I scuttled off to buy a 24 hour day ticket for the public transport in the city and meandered quickly to the railway station at the airport.
With around five minutes to spare, I made it, the last train into Warsaw city centre. This saved me faffing about with night buses…. And for £8.99 for the flight, I was once again pleased with the whole Wizz Air experience.
I’ve already mentioned that there was a bit of a delay getting to the Etiuda lounge, but it was peaceful and calm when I got here.
The food selection which was all looking nicely presented and appetising.
Delicious.
With all my devices charged and having had enough food and drink, I departed for the gate. The bad news is that it was a bus gate.
The good news was that I was nearly the first to board the second bus to the aircraft, which meant I had some space to stand in the corner. Little victories and all that.
There was a group of quite loud British people who were excitedly telling each other what marvellous drugs they’d taken in Poland and they were going to get drunk on the plane. More of that soon.
Anyway, the aircraft was 9H-WNY and I haven’t been on it before, but it’s yet another new aircraft having only been delivered to Wizz Air in 2025. Their fleet is certainly mostly new and shiny….
The flight was smooth and, yet again, free of any issues. The seating Gods gave me a middle seat, but the people either side were both quiet and didn’t fidget about, so it was a smooth flight.
Back to the lads who claimed that they were going to get drunk on board…. They didn’t expect the Polish crew to reject their demands. Impeccably handled by the crew, the whole arrangement felt safe, well managed and professional.
And back at Luton Airport….. Wooo. We were actually slightly early and there were minimal delays at the border, which meant that I was rather early for my train.
The flight cost £8.99 and Wizz Air didn’t let me down here. A clean aircraft, efficient boarding, a friendly crew and everything felt well managed.
Safely at Luton Airport nice and early, as usual. The security process was smooth and efficient, taking less than five minutes from when I scanned my boarding card.
I popped into Big Smoke with my Priority Pass card and had the usual delicious chicken tenders and a slightly less delicious alcohol free Stella. The service is always friendly and efficient here, with plenty of power points to ensure I didn’t have to stress about that.
And then into Nolito for a healthy snack with pineapple juice. It’s quite pricey and I’m not sure that the quality here quite justified the price, but as it was free, I decided that I’d cope.
By then, it was getting nearer the time when boarding started, with my flight being the penultimate out of the airport that day. I rather like days such as this with an evening flight, I get a chance to get on top of everything work wise and nothing feels rushed.
The boarding process was smooth, well managed and everything was clear. The staff here were friendly and personable, it was all efficient and organised.
And then the boarding, I was towards the back of the aircraft and boarded via the rear doors.
The aircraft was HA-LGM, which is yet another one that I haven’t been on before. It was newly delivered to the airline in July 2024 and inside everything was clean and in a decent state of repair.
I have little to report about the flight, as once again, it was operated by Wizz Air with professionalism and efficiency. The seating Gods had given me an aisle seat with no-one next to me, the announcements were clear, the crew were friendly and it was all peaceful and organised. We landed on time and the pilots kept us informed of what was going on.
The one negative, which wasn’t the fault of the airline, is that they had expected steps to be brought to the back of the aircraft in Wrocław, but they instead used a jet bridge. That meant it took a bit longer for me to disembark with a wait of nearly fifteen minutes on board. This isn’t a problem, but there’s one bus an hour that departs the airport at night and I didn’t really want to miss it as it was already late enough.
I’ve mentioned this before, but one of the advantages of flying on Wizz Air as a passenger with a British passport is that there aren’t generally many of us (and that is obviously a generalisation). Indeed, despite disembarking almost last, there were only two people ahead of me in the queue at border control. This meant that I was able to get through the border quicker than most holders of EU passports, a rare treat, although I’d still quite like an EU passport once again…
Anyway, the efficiency here meant that I was outside the airport with fifteen minutes to spare before the night bus turned up. Another rather lovely flight and a bargain for just £8.99. And it’s lovely to be back in Poland.
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.
I think I’ve posted this before, but these are some of the new routes from Wizz Air and this surprised and delighted me, some new cities for me to explore there (well, Debrecen, Cluj and Targu Mures).
Which? have released their annual airline survey with a relatively small number of responses far too low to make any reasonable useful statistical analysis, but from this they claim that Ryanair and Wizz Air are the lowest rated in their survey. Even by their figures, Wizz Air has one of the best punctuality figures.
They like to point out that when all costs are added together then Wizz Air are no cheaper. This seems to be forget that something around just over half the passengers boarding Wizz Air flights are going with one free cabin bag and evidently don’t want to pay the costs that airlines like British Airways force upon them. I don’t want a headline price that includes a bag as I, and seemingly around half of every flight, don’t want a bag.
Which? seem outraged that Wizz Air and Ryanair dismissed their report, although that’s probably because it’s ridiculous and nearly everyone will dismiss their report until they actually make it statistically useful. EasyJet rejected it too, but in an attempt to show their relevance Which? said:
“We’ve repeatedly found that airlines that include baggage and seat allocation in their fares can actually work out cheaper overall. Fly with anyone else, if you can.”
Same old tired claptrap, at least Ryanair and Wizz Air are transparent and give customers the chance to actually pay for what they want. I don’t want baggage and seat reservations, so why have I got to pay more? So even though BA would be over four times the price and offer me nothing more, they want me to fly with them?
It’s not clear to me why Which? don’t just suggest that if you want reserved seats, a three course meal, champagne, baggage, lounge access and a VIP tour of the cockpit from the pilot then go with a full service airline and fly a lot to get the benefits of the loyalty schemes. If you want to get to Poland for £10 then fly with Ryanair and Wizz Air which is what tens of millions merrily choose to do every single month. Choice, it’s quite powerful….
