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Tag: Wizz Air

Wizz Air (Luton Airport to Warsaw)

After an uneventful rail journey to Luton Airport, I popped in Big Smoke where I get £18 to spend with my Priority Pass card. There has been another price rise, which is the fourth of the year to my knowledge, which makes menu ordering slightly more difficult each time.

I opted for the dirty fries with beef brisket, the latter of which is just about hidden in the photo but there was a big lump of it at the bottom. It was entirely adequate, with the service being friendly and helpful.

And a quick visit to My Lounge to see their collection of dirty crockery and to try their Heineken 0%. They’re really nailed the flavour of it, it tastes just as bad as Heineken so that’s a win for the brewery. The Mexican chicken and spicy rice is actually decent, the food standards do seem to have improved here over the last few months. Or my standards have dropped, either is possible.

I was moderately amused as the customer in front of me asked for two Birra Moretti beers. They’re quite tight here, so every customer gets 2/3rds of a bottle, unless you have the 0% Heineken where they just give you the whole thing as I don’t think many people want that. This whole thing just makes matters more faffy and the bar server ended up with one glass of Birra Moretti full and the other 90% full. The customer complained he wanted 100% in each and the barman actually just tutted in response. The customer looked annoyed and the glass was topped up begrudgingly. Lounge entry here is nearly £40 (unless you have a lounge card or similar) so this tightness does them no favours. But, since I get free entry with Priority Pass, I won’t complain about anything else in here…..

They started boarding twenty minutes earlier than advertised, but Wizz Air are efficient and everything here was under control during the boarding process. One customer got charged £70 for having a large bag, he had got confused which bag sizer he was meant to use and I thought he was very gracious about it all. We were on the aircraft at the time that the gate was meant to have closed, something that British Airways always struggles to manage as customers faff about with their bags.

Boarding the aircraft which was HA-LGO which I don’t think I’ve been on before. The seating Gods gave me a window seat and it also transpired that there was no-one in the middle seat despite the flight being around 90% full.

The flight was, yet again, peaceful and uneventful. The crew were efficient and polite, sweeping down the aisle selling things without waking everyone up. The aircraft was clean, I had plenty of space and I was rather pleased with my £8.99 flight cost.

We were put on a bus to get the 75 metres to the airport terminal and they really struggled to get everyone on two buses, I think they’d usually use three. It felt slightly sub-optimal, but it was hardly a long bus journey so I was only briefly annoyed.

My shiny new passport, which doesn’t have around 120 stamps in the bloody thing, is allowing me to sweep through border control so I was able to get one of the last trains of the evening into Warsaw. I don’t have much leeway here, although there are plenty of night buses which serve the airport if required.

It’s always good to be back on public transport in Warsaw, peaceful and efficient.

Arriving into Warszawa Zachodnia (Warsaw West) railway station, which is currently being upgraded. However, it feels at times that Warsaw is constantly being upgraded, such as the fast rate of change here.

And there’s the Ibis Budget, hidden behind road works. This was only a ten minute walk from the railway site, and I’ve stayed at the adjoining Ibis several times, and fortunately I found a gap in the road works to actually gain access to the hotel.

All in all, I was once again pleased and content with the whole airport and flight experience.

November 3, 2025
Wizz Air (Wrocław to Gatwick Airport)

And another Wizz Air flight, this time from Wrocław to Gatwick Airport once again. It’s a handy flight time this as it’s in the early afternoon, making it much easier to get back to Norwich without having to rush for trains.

There’s my flight, the 14:45 to Gatwick Airport South. This is a spacious and well organised airport, with the security process only taking a few minutes.

A quick visit to the lounge. They have a decent choice of craft beer, a rather good Greek salad and lots of meat products.

I didn’t experience any issues with my new passport, so that’s one less burden to have to deal with when arriving or departing from a Polish airport. They haven’t introduced the new entry and exit system yet, but I don’t think it’s long away from introduction and the kiosks are already set-up and just roped off.

The boarding process was efficient and easy, another smooth Wizz Air operation here, although we had a wait of around fifteen minutes on the air bridge.

We then had a nice wait in the rain. The aircraft was G-WUKV, it’s the third time that I’ve flown on this plane in case anyone wanted to know that.

The seating Gods had allocated me a window seat, so that was a positive for the journey, giving me a lovely view of the now rainy Wrocław. The flight was only around 75% full which meant that passengers could move themselves around a bit, so I probably wouldn’t have been stuck on a middle seat.

Some clouds. This was taken near Gatwick Airport, but we were caught on yet another series of loops as we waited for our landing slot. The flight was quiet and the crew members were efficient and polite, the whole arrangement as once again well managed. There was no queue at the border control at Gatwick Airport, so I was able to get straight through the kiosks there.

The flight cost £8.99 which is quite clearly excellent value, with the aircraft landing on time and there were no eventful moments during the flight. I had a quick nap during the two hour flight and I’ve again been surprised and delighted by Wizz Air.

October 22, 2025
Wizz Air (Memmingen to Budapest)

This flight was from just over a month ago (I’m catching up slowly with posts), at the end of the trip that Richard and I had around Switzerland, Germany, Austria and Liechtenstein. Richard was departing on his business class flight back to London Heathrow, whilst I was taking a more circuitous journey (because of my £9 Wizz Air flights) back to the UK. The first stage of that was flying to Budapest.

For anyone with either the time or inclination to zoom in, my 15:55 flight to Budapest is visible on the screens. This is very much a provincial airport, it felt quite organised but it’s limited on the amount of space that they have.

The airport was first constructed as a military airfield in the mid-1930s, being destroyed by air raids in March 1944. After the end of the war the site was used as a refugee camp and it was used by the US military until 1959 when it was handed over to the Germans, who were here until 2003.

In 2004, the airport started commercial flights and they’ve been adding bits to the building ever since. There’s a large new terminal expansion currently underway with a focus on budget airlines as Wizz Air and Ryanair use the airport extensively.

Joy of joys, it was a bus gate.

We were on board the bus for quite a while, but safe in the knowledge that it was unlikely the aircraft would go without me.

Boarding the aircraft and it was registration HA-LGQ, which I don’t think that I’ve been on before. The aircraft was pretty much full and the boarding process was all efficient. It was made slightly less efficient that there was someone in my seat and she was adamant that it was hers, until she thought she’d better check my claim with another passenger who told her she was in the wrong place. I find it quite easy to locate my seat as there’s a bloody sticker above the seat with the number on it, but there we go.

The seating Gods had given me an aisle seat and the flight was, yet again, organised and efficient. The crew members were engaging, the flight arrived on time and I’m always delighted when it’s uneventful as that means nothing has gone wrong.

As this was with my Wizz Air multipass, the flight was £8.99, another bargain arrangement. The flight only took ninety minutes and it’s a handy time to arrive into Budapest requiring neither a very early start, nor a nighttime arrival. I rather liked Memmingen as a place and it’s the gateway to southern Germany and indeed Munich, so I’m hoping that I’ll be back here again at some point.

September 28, 2025
Wizz Air (Wrocław to Gatwick Airport)

Wrocław is the city of these little gnomes and this is the one welcoming passengers to the airport.

I didn’t love it a few days ago, but I feel we’re friends again now.

My 14:55 flight looked like that it would be on time. The security process was fast and efficient, with the airport feeling clean and organised. But, it’s Poland, I can’t remember it not being like that.

A quick visit to the airport lounge. I was very pleased with the Greek salad arrangement, the range of beers and the peaceful nature of the place.

Safely at the gate.

The queue took longer than I had anticipated, which wasn’t great as the sun was bounding into the airport from the windows, so I was too hot. But, I didn’t complain other than to about 18 friends on WhatsApp.

A little unusually for Wizz Air, they were boarding via the airbridge only. The seating Gods had been favourable yet again, giving me a window seat. The aircraft was G-XLRB and I don’t think I’ve been on that aircraft before, although it’s only a few weeks old and so that isn’t a surprise.

It’s not very visible, but that’s London in the background. The crew were friendly and everything, yet again, went as expected. There were frequent announcements from the pilot about the delay and the whole arrangement felt relaxed.

We’d been delayed before taking off because of a limited number of slots at Gatwick Airport and there was also some faffing about in a holding cycle before landing.

And back into Gatwick airport. We were around one hour late, but I had a big gap before my train home, so all was well. This is the last flight for a few weeks, I coped admirably I thought….

September 14, 2025
Wizz Air (Luton Airport to Wrocław)

It was a very enjoyable weekend in Oxford with the LDWA, but it was time to get a National Express coach from this historic city to the charms of Luton Airport.

Parked up in Milton Keynes Coachway and I wonder whether travel can get any more exciting than this. I was pleased that I got the emergency exit row seat on this coach as it has more legroom, although it wasn’t particularly busy on board. The one excitement about sitting in this seat is that it seems to require the occupant to assist anyone who can’t work out that the coach toilet door slides rather than opens inwards or outwards.

I accept I didn’t try too hard to get an outstanding quality photo here, but safely at Luton Airport on time.

I cut this incredibly fine by arriving at the airport just three hours before my flight. Mine was the third last scheduled departure from Luton Airport that day.

Using my Priority Pass card to get some chicken tenders and a pint in Big Smoke.

And a Limoncello Spritzer in Nolito with the same card. I felt really quite decadent.

The screens indicated for a while that the flight would be 20 minutes late, but all ended up operating on time.

The boarding process was yet again efficient and free from drama, despite it being a relatively full flight. The aircraft is 9H-WBU which I don’t think I’ve been on before.

Here’s a nice blurry photo of London. I had a window seat assigned by the seating Gods, although astute readers will have guessed that because of the photos taken out of the window. The crew was efficient and they seemed to have very few sales when they walked up and down the aisle, but perhaps passengers were just tired.

I don’t know if the Blood Moon impacted this, but the water had a strange sort of glow.

We landed safely on time and I was ready to catch my bus to the airport.

I didn’t catch the intended bus to the airport as I then had an exciting hour-long wait in the airport whilst there was a detailed check of the stamps in my passport. The end conclusion was that I had lots more days left in the EU as they thought some countries hadn’t stamped their stamps very clearly, but the wait was sub-optimal when I wanted to be in my hotel.

And finally on the bus to the hotel, where I arrived at just before 03:00. Marvellous….

September 9, 2025
Wizz Air (Luton Airport to Wrocław)

Another day, another train from Norwich to Luton Airport. I went via Cambridge and St. Pancras, but everything ran like clockwork so no delay repay today….

Lunch at Big Smoke.

A snack at Nolito.

And the evening meal at My Lounge.

At the boarding gate.

The boarding process was efficient and well managed. The aircraft hadn’t even arrived when they started checking boarding passes, but the aircraft seemed to be turned around quickly. The aircraft is HA-LGW and I haven’t been on this one before, although that’s not entirely surprising as it’s only been in service for just under eight weeks.

Happy passengers during the flight. The announcements during the flight were helpful and informative, the crew were friendly and everything was beautifully uneventful. The seating Gods had given me an aisle seat near to the front, which was handy for border control as well as being decadent as it wasn’t a middle seat.

And safely in Wrocław on time. There wasn’t much of a wait at border control as most of the passengers had EU passports, although there was quite a lot of checking and counting my passport stamps. As I used Multipass, the flight was just £8.99, a whole arrangement that I thought was marvellous value for money. As we arrived on time and the border control checks were efficient, it meant that I was able to catch the 00:06 bus and had a 40 minute journey to the city centre, a trip which costs under £1.

August 19, 2025
Flights – Wizz Air (Cologne to Luxembourg)

[I originally posted this in July 2018, but have reposted it to fix the broken image links]

Needing to get from Gdansk to Luxembourg in just over a day didn’t give me many affordable options. I tried to get a Ryanair flight, but there were no direct flights anywhere near, but there was the option of getting a Wizzair flight from Gdansk to Cologne and then a Flixbus from Cologne to Luxembourg. So it was a first experience of both Wizzair and Flixbus for me….

The booking process was easy to manage and surprisingly efficient, which is always reassuring. So reassuring was the process that I decided to join the Wizz Air Discount Club, which for an annual fee gives extra reductions off the price of every flight.

Quite understandably, there are strict rules about not taking photos of cabin crew on most airlines, and I noticed Wizz Air point that out in their literature. Hence why this photo is side-on of the nearby seats, rather than of the entire cabin. The seat design doesn’t feel very modern, but the cabin was clean and tidy, with the seats being sufficiently comfortable.

The boarding arrangement is very much like Ryanair, so it’s efficient, via steps and involves standing on the steps down to the tarmac for ages. But, the efficiency pleased me, everyone knew where they should be and when.

The food and drink was all reasonably priced, and approximately 25% of customers ordered at least something. The price of noodles is the same as coffee, and I thought that this would be more filling. It’s what I like getting on Amtrak in the US, and they were perfectly acceptable at €3 (around £2.60).

The selling frenzy from the cabin crew wasn’t quite as bad as Ryanair, with fewer passes down the cabin and that made it feel slightly more relaxing. However, there were still numerous different items for sale, so it wasn’t entirely peaceful.

Overall, I felt that the entire operation seemed efficient and the staff were all polite and helpful. The flight was pretty much punctual and although the surroundings weren’t exactly luxurious, they did represent excellent value for money on this occasion. I’m sure that I’ll fly with Wizz Air again soon based on this experience.

July 30, 2025
Wizz Air (Tirana to Leipzig)

To avoid any card based dramas on the bus journey back to the airport, I prepaid for my ticket online and I was transported smoothly to the rather decadent frontage of the building.

I did have a relaxing lounge visit at this point, but to surprise and delight my two loyal blog readers, I’ll post about that separately as it’s sensible to ration excitement.

It’s a large, clean and organised terminal. The security process took under three minutes and the border control was once again automated, as I didn’t need stamps, so I was through to airside within five minutes. All very efficient.

There were a lot of size checks on bags at the airport and some people got caught out. I’m afraid I’m on the side of Wizz Air here, they’re not stopping marginal bags, but they are stopping bags which are nowhere near the size limit. They must have taken around £250 or so in extra charges which is no doubt annoying for the passenger, but they probably need to try and at least be near to the official limit to have some sort of chance of getting away with it.

The aircraft registration was HA-LXB, not one that I’ve been on before. There were three buses to the aircraft and the doors of all three opened immediately, creating something of a huddle from those who felt the need to rush aboard. I just stay out of it and let the chaos play out.

Goodbye to the hills of Albania…. The journey was uneventful, the crew were once again friendly and efficient, although I couldn’t hear the announcements from the pilot. The seating Gods had given me a middle seat, but it was a relatively short flight and I kept myself amused watching YouTube videos.

And safely in Leipzig, fully ready for me to complain about Deutsche Bahn.

July 26, 2025
Wizz Air (London Luton to Tirana)

The train from St. Pancras to Luton Airport was just £4, which I consider a bargain. That damaged chair has been like that for months, not that it’s something I have spent a great deal of time contemplating and it has become something of a familiar friend now.

The usual Thameslink train, no tables or power outlets, but they just about always have lots of seats available and the services are usually reliable.

My usual order at Big Smoke at Luton Airport, this time they didn’t accidentally overcharge me. The beer is the Electric Eye from Big Smoke themselves, a punchy citrus beer.

A pint of Menabrea and a Limoncello at Nolito. The lager was generic, clean and dull, the Limoncello not the most decadent. But the environment was comfortable and thanks to Priority Pass for funding this visit.

And then ready to board and they had a helpful staff member checking the larger bags for size, but he was letting quite a lot off that were just a little too big in an attempt to be helpful. One lady had a suitcase that would fit a hippo in and he said it was ridiculously large, but the lady said that she was Albanian and wouldn’t be paying. After some discussions and translations from other passengers, it was agreed that she had a bag within her bag, so she just had to leave the larger bag at the gate.

We all then get the boarding passes scanned and go to a different part of the room, which is barriered off from the previous part, but it’s possible to pass things over. And, back to our lady with the bag, she started to get another passenger who still hadn’t checked-in to have a look through her now discarded bag to see if there was anything she had missed. The team member was now annoyed, it gave the impression that she thought she could get the bag back over the gated area when he wasn’t looking. He went to hide the bag.

It’s the aircraft on the right, which is G-WUKV, an Airbus A321 which took me back from Kaunas a couple of weeks ago.

The boarding starts.

The seating Gods had given me a middle seat which felt sub-optimal, but I’d had a good run of being given aisle or window seats. So, I was surprised and delighted to discover that the seat they had given me was actually an emergency exit row seat.

The crew member quickly discovered that the woman in the window seat couldn’t speak English, so I was swapped with her as I obviously look good in an emergency. And I speak English, so she could explain my responsibilities. The rest of the flight was bloody awful. I’ve never experienced such noise from kids on an aircraft, I was fortunate my headphones meant I could ignore most of that. I had a kid behind kicking the seat, but his father gave me some Pringles, so I tolerated that as I’m easy to bribe. The crew struggled to keep passengers from standing up the second we landed and there was no shortage of eye rolling from the crew about the situation. The crew were impeccable, they had a lot to deal with on this flight and I was thinking about writing to the Pope to see if a couple could be made saints.

I was only mildly traumatised by the time we landed in Tirana. Border control couldn’t have been any faster, it involved going through an e-gate without seeing any border agents and my passport didn’t need stamping.

It wasn’t the most quiet and relaxed airport terminal I’d been through. The flight cost £8.99 which is impressive, but this was not the most relaxing of experiences to say the least.

July 23, 2025
Wizz Air (London Gatwick South to Faro)

Arriving at Gatwick Airport on the early morning bus…. Instead of the cinematic sweep up the driveway to an impressive departures hall, you’re unceremoniously dumped at the back of the building, which looks more like the loading dock of an industrial estate than the gateway to international travel, but as it was 05:00 it was too early to care much about this. There was no queue at security, so I was left pondering slightly why I had left my hotel so early, but better to be early than late.

I haven’t flown from Gatwick Airport for some time and I wasn’t sure if there would be space in one of the lounges using my Priority Card, but it’s fair to say that My Lounge was not packed.

Lounge food and drink which was typical fare for British airport lounges, some dry and uninteresting food alongside a dreadful lager. The sausage, bacon and hash brown were OK, I poured myself just a small amount of Cruzcampo since it was still early morning, took one mouthful and realised just how dreadful it is. The orange juice was out of cheap cartons, but in fairness to the whole arrangement, the coffee, food and orange juice was all filling enough.

Mine was the 08:00 Wizz Air flight to Faro and as usual for the airline, everything was efficient, clearly signed and without delay. There were more bag checks than usual which always adds to the drama, but once again, this didn’t impact me.

It was raining when I walked to the aircraft, it always feels a shame leaving the UK when there’s weather that I like. The aircraft registration was G-WUND, the same one that took me to an icy Tallinn a few months ago. The seating Gods had allocated me a window seat, so that was a rather handy arrangement.

Nearly at Faro and the aircraft toured up and down the coast a bit before landing. We had experienced a delay on departure, the reason for which was never mentioned, but as Wizz Air pad their schedules so much, we still seemed to manage to arrive on time. The pilots were generally decent on the number of announcements, the crew members were all personable and I fell asleep for most of the flight so don’t really know much of what happened.

It was very quickly evident that it was too hot.

The border control process felt a little chaotic, but these new machines for UK passports seemed interesting, but I wasn’t called to try them. The whole queueing arrangement was a little chaotic in places and it felt like a long wait, but it was 31 minutes in the end, which isn’t entirely unreasonable given this is a busy time of year for the airport. It does feel though that the airport in general is creaking in places with passenger numbers, so yet another extension to the building seems likely for future years.

Anyway, this was another very satisfactory experience given that the flight cost £8.99, the flight was comfortable, the boarding process was efficient and the crew were friendly. I am though getting the creeping sense that most airports in Europe are about five million passengers beyond what they were built for.

July 20, 2025