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Tag: Wizz Air

Gdansk Trip – Wizz Air (Gdansk to Luton Airport)

Ready to go through the Schengen gates, I was pleased that the random seating Gods had given me an aisle seat. King Sigismund II Augustus, the former Grand Duke of Lithuania, would have no doubt been pleased for me.

Passengers piling up at Gate 31, the wait here often feels like a tragicomedy of sorts, a drama of human existence.

Ready to board and listening to the usual symphony of sighs and slightly impatient shuffles from other passengers. And once again, I gazed slightly bored at the floor and wondered how the tarmac that my friend Liam helped put down at Heathrow twenty years ago is getting on. Indeed, I bet I’ve thought more about this than he has.

Another airline nearby. I had to look up which airline this was, it’s Smartwings who are a Czech airline with 37 aircraft.

And off we go. The aircraft is 9H-WNE, an Airbus A321 which was only delivered to Wizz Air in March 2024 so it’s still nice and shiny. Once again, the flight itself was without any particular note, everything was efficient, I was comfortable in my aisle seat and the cabin crew were polite although seemed a bit stressed on the flight. It was likely their third or fourth flight of the day, so I imagine that I’d be a bit stressed as well if I was doing the same job. The flight was particularly notable for me as I needed to arrive on time, but more on that in the next riveting post.

October 1, 2024
Gdansk Trip – Wizz Air (Luton Airport to Gdansk)

This was smooth in terms of customer handling, I arrived at the gate and had a wait in the queue of only around five minutes before boarding. I almost felt as if I had purchased priority boarding with this level of efficiency.

Boarding underway.

Aircraft registration SH-WDO, I don’t think that I’ve been on this Airbus A321, but it’s only just over a year old so that’s not entirely surprising. Out of interest (to me anyway) I looked up how many aircraft that Wizz Air have had and they had 55 planes in 2015 and 120 just before Covid struck. It’s now 215 aircraft, so they’re nearly twice the size that they were four years ago. Ryanair have 605 aircraft though, so there’s some way for them to go. British Airways have 244 aircraft in their fleet, so it’s likely Wizz Air will soon catch them up.

The hopeful passenger next to me declared at this point that it looked like a quiet flight. I was privately sceptical, Wizz Air and Ryanair usually have very good occupancy and so it transpired when the second wave of passengers boarded, filling just about every seat. As with most flights, it was uneventful. The random seat Gods had given me an aisle seat and the flight was under two hours and there were no issues that I remember, so that’s just how a flight should be. It’s all very formulaic, they’ve got this really well sorted now in terms of their operation.

Safely in Gdansk. I had hoped for a smooth border control as the hotel that I was going to was so near the airport and it was late that I just wanted to get there. The not being in the EU is slowing things down somewhat, if I had been an EU citizen I would have likely left the airport within ten minutes of the flight landing. It took me 29 minutes, which is hardly a disaster, but it’s a little bit of a faff.

And finally leaving the airport. The flight cost £10, it’s hard to fault the value offered from Wizz Air. And, I have to say, it was great to be back in Poland.

September 24, 2024
Belgrade Trip – Wizz Air (Belgrade to Luton Airport)

The delights of check-in started with having to queue up to get a printed boarded pass, as this is one of the airports where I couldn’t check-in using the app. There was a 25 minute queue here, but it was worth it when the staff member at the desk noticed a queue dodger and sent them back to the end of the line. As a British citizen, I obviously rely on people in power to enforce the queueing system as it’s simultaneously important not to see society collapse into a heap, whilst also not being brave enough to mention anything to the individual directly who might be responsible for civilisation falling by not respecting the queue.

The flight was on time, always a delight. The airport is in two bits, the rickety old bit and the more shinier bit which they’ve constructed. They call it Terminal 2, but it’s all joined together, but the budget airlines go from the more rickety bit of Terminal 1.

And another queue to board. But, a golden opportunity to stare at my phone, something I always try and take advantage of. I’m not one for monitoring my screen time, other than to sometimes ponder that it isn’t enough. However, I digress.

If you boarded from the front half of the aircraft you could use the air bridge. If you were in the back half of the aircraft you were despatched outside to walk up the rear steps. I was randomly given a decent seat once again, this time an aisle seat near the front. I don’t pay for seat reservations, but if I did, then I’d go for an aisle arrangement. I boarded the aircraft and some old woman was in my seat in what appeared like a bid to sit next to her friend. I suspect they were about to ask me to swap seats, but since they didn’t speak English and I didn’t speak Serbian, I was sitting where my boarding pass told me to. Without sounding middle aged and grumpy, of which I’m only one as frankly I still identify as a millennial, if it’s important enough to sit next to someone then just pay the bloody seat reservation fee. The woman spent the entire journey with her head in her hands propped on the tray table. The guy by the window seat looked as confused as me as to how that appeared to be comfortable. However, each to their own. The fare was again around £10, ridiculous value for money and I had no complaints about any part of the service. Wizz Air don’t have a great reputation in some quarters, but as yet I’ve not experienced any problems. Although, give it time….

This was after landing at Luton Airport, it’s a bit blurry unfortunately but it’s important to show willing….. The aircraft was an Airbus A321, registration code G-WUKV, which had already been to Istanbul and back earlier on during the day. They certainly work these aircraft hard, but it’s not yet a year old as it was delivered to Wizz Air on 29 September 2023.

With that, I just had the expedition to get home and that didn’t allow much time for sleeping.

September 17, 2024
Belgrade Trip – Wizz Air (Luton Airport to Belgrade)

Finally, my ‘riveting’ series of posts about this trip starts to have some relevance to Belgrade….. I’ve never been to Serbia before, so this was a new experience for me. The boarding arrangement was smooth and well managed, I had a wait of only around five minutes in the boarding queue before going down the stairs to board the aircraft, I was suitably impressed. I am aware of the negativity that Wizz Air receives, but so far (and this might change at any time, I fully accept that) I’ve not had any problems with them.

There’s the aircraft, looking ready for action.

And boarding. I prefer not to board with an air bridge as it lets me get a photo of the aircraft and work out the registration number and not have to look it up later. Those with disabilities might have a different point of view on this though.

The aircraft is G-WUKO, which I don’t think I’ve been on, but I don’t always record them which limits how useful these sort of comments are. And I’m not sure if anyone is really too focused on whether I’ve been on a particular aircraft before if I’m being entirely honest to myself. The Wizz Air fleet is one of the newest and this aircraft is an Airbus A321 which was delivered to the airline in May 2021.

I didn’t pay for a seat reservation, so I went for a random one and was fortunate enough to get a window seat. There was no-one sitting next to me, so it was quite an agreeable flight. To put this into perspective as well, the flight cost me £10.49, so it would be hard to be too disappointed here. We arrived into Belgrade on time, the aircraft was clean and the cabin crew were professional and friendly. The aircraft was only around 75% full, so despite the low prices, this wasn’t the most popular of services. This is the sort of flight that I think the unlimited flights pass that Wizz Air are selling will be trying to fill up a bit.

Around 15% of customers bought something from the refreshments trolley, a couple seemed tempted by the perfumes that were being sold, it all made a bit of money for the airline. Unfortunately for Wizz Air, I didn’t much help their bottom line with this flight. I had a look at the air passenger duty that Wizz Air have to pay, and for the economy seat to Serbia, they have to pay £13 to the Government. Anyway, I was very pleased again with the airline, everything went smoothly and I received what I considered to be excellent value for money.

September 10, 2024
Wizz Air – All You Can Fly Subscription

This is certainly a brave and innovative model launched by Wizz Air today, it would be tempting if I was able to take a few more flights at the moment. For just under £450 a year, customers can get any flight for just £9 per sector. It sounds a rather good deal, some tickets routinely go for £150 or more, so it’s potentially a marvellous arrangement. However, there are quite a few caveats built into the model, not least hidden away that Wizz Air are reserving the right to restrict the number of tickets available to those who have the pass. This sounds like something more akin to the British Airways limits with Avios, just having a limited number of seats per flight that can be booked that way. Customers with the pass would need to be very flexible given the limitations offered.

If it transpires that the only limitation is a need to book less than three days out, then it looks like a tempting offer for digital nomads, travel junkies and anyone who commutes regularly. I rather suspect though that there might be some issues ahead here, but if there aren’t, I might well be getting a pass next year….. I know Wizz Air don’t have the best reputation at the moment, but I’ve never experienced any issues with all of the flights that I’ve taken with them.

Although, and in a more environmental friendly sense, it’s a shame that there isn’t a version that allows travel by train for just £9 per sector.

August 13, 2024
2023 Lisbon Trip (Day One – Wizz Air from Luton to Lisbon)

Before I start writing about my flight, I have to mention the enormous common sense shown by Steve. Using his initiative and experience in the car industry he had managed to acquire Bev a stick at Lisbon Airport. This seemed a good idea at the time, although we heard Bev stomping around with the stick clacking about for the entire weekend. We were very tolerant though of course.

That was my flight, the Wizz Air W4493 18:30 to Lisbon. I was slightly nervous here as it was 17:44 and it was saying that the gate would be shown at 17:40 and my experience from BA is that when the time is reached it means there’s some kind of problem. Fortunately, a few minutes later the gate was announced.

We were departing from Gate 26 and the airport has a lot of these gates downstairs to give them extra space. Some of the gates are a bit of a walk from the main terminal, this one was only around five minutes.

I managed to be third in the non-priority queue which gave me no benefits at all.

Well, other than I got a seat in the non-priority section after they had checked my passport.

The whole arrangement was efficient and well thought through, I liked the professionalism of Wizz Air here. It’s not glamorous, but I like knowing where I’m supposed to wait and they do make it clear. Wizz Air work their planes hard, this was the fifth of six sectors that the A320 was making that day. It’s aircraft G-WUKF which they’ve been operating since March 2018, their fleet is generally all modern and I feel they’re a very safe operator. Their customer service reputation is somewhat all over the place, but that is true for many budget airlines and I’ve never experienced any negative issues with them.

I didn’t get fortunate with the seat Gods insomuch as I got randomly allocated a middle seat, but all was well and there was sufficient space. The crew are much more ruthless in terms of timing than with BA, they want backpacks under the seats and larger cabin bags in the overheads as quickly as possible. I appreciated that efficiency, it meant that we landed in Lisbon on time with the flight taking just over two hours and thirty minutes.

The flight wasn’t too bad in terms of being sold stuff, as Ryanair traditionally go a little over the top. There were a couple of food and drink runs with the trolley and I think a call for duty free, but for much of the time they dimmed the lights perhaps in the hope of sedating the passengers. The aircraft was clean, the pilot making the announcements sounded competent and the crew were all friendly. Bearing in mind that this flight cost me £11, I can say that I received decent value for money.

One thing that I’ve never really understood about so many passengers is their rush to leave the aircraft. They’ll get up before the seatbelt lights are off, they’ll barge others and then push their way onto the coach that took us to the terminal in Lisbon. I don’t mean every passenger of course, but a good number and that’s been on every flight I’ve ever been on. I have no idea why some people seem so much in a rush at this point of their journey.

The reason I don’t understand it is that everyone then just meanders around so slowly to get to the border control desks. If you want to rush, my aviation top tip is just dither about on the aircraft and then walk quickly when in the terminal as you can just walk around everyone or use the stairs when others use the escalators. I know that not everyone can walk quickly, but for those that can it means getting to the border control desk ahead of everyone else and that’s what happened to me. I’ve digressed again though in my airport observations, but passengers so often seem stressed and hurried when disembarking. As an aside, after I navigated the extensive queueing system the border guard had a smile and it was good to be back in Portugal, my second time in the country and my first in Lisbon.

Here’s Lisbon airport terminal and all I had to do for the evening was walk thirty minutes to the hotel as I wasn’t going to pay €5 for the shuttle bus. I’m not made of money and I was conscious that the train from London had cost £2.90 (£1.45 after delay repay), the flight was £11 and so paying nearly £5 for a five minute shuttle was not good value.

Finally, all four of our little brigade were safely in Lisbon, but we were missing Gordon already who couldn’t come for reasons unknown, mostly ones we made up.

March 2, 2023
Wednesday : Poznan to Luton with Wizz Air

And all good things must come to an end, including my near one month stay in Poland (with a few days in the UK in the middle) which has been, as ever, a delight. My Schengen days are though nearly at their maximum, so I couldn’t have remained in the EU for much longer. The journey ended with the 159 bus from Poznan’s main railway station to the airport, a journey that takes around 30 minutes or so.

As an aside, one thing I did notice is how many Ukrainian women there were around the city, it’s noticeable as you can see on screens at ticket machines, ordering machines and the like when they’ve switched the language to Ukrainian. And they’ve been welcomed with such kindness by the Polish, who seem to have coped admirably with a 10% increase in their population. There are lots of places in Poznan where those fleeing their country can get help and support, such a lovely gesture from an entire nation. There’s no shortage of Ukrainian flags flying around the place either, all really rather lovely.

Back at Poznan airport, although I can’t say that I much wanted to leave Poland. They were going to name this airport after Ignacy Jan Paderewski, but then the Polish city of Bydgoszcz did that, so instead it’s named after Henryk Wieniawski, a Polish composer and violinist. British Airways did fly to Poznan in the summer of 2008, which is an idea I think that they should repeat as they don’t have enough Polish cities as destinations. The big three operators here though appear to be Wizz Air, Ryanair and LOT Polish Airlines. It took me precisely one minute to get through security, the Poles have their airports running with great efficiency.

I got to the non-Schengen gate early, but that worked as I got a power supply and a table, so I was sorted for the duration. I was interested to hear the announcement for the Lufthansa flight saying that all passengers must wear masks. This seems unusual as mask wearing in Poland is near zero and I didn’t see anyone in the airport wearing masks, so it felt odd to see an airline still compelling this.

I like having a lot of space to myself. It’s not a great use of resources having this non-Schengen bit of the terminal separated off with border control staff and separate food and drink facilities, but such is politics. I treated myself to a bottle of Fanta which at just over £2.50 was scandalous by Polish prices, but a bargain given the power, free wi-fi and table that were available. Who needs a lounge?

The boarding process humoured me, with a priority and non-priority line that were opened at the same time. As there were far more priority customers than not, I was able to get through and get a seat before most of the priority customers. It’s true they boarded the aircraft slightly earlier than me, but I’d rather have a little sit down than have to stand in a queue for what transpired to be 25 minutes. I had the advantage though of not needing to stow my bag in the overhead lockers, I could get away with dithering.

Firmly at the back of the line, but the random seat Gods had been good to me, I had been given an aisle seat, which is my favourite. All was well with the world. OK, all was well with my flight at least.

Because this is a reminder that all is not well with the world. I’m not sure what the national airline of Ukraine is doing with this aircraft, which had been sent to Spain in February for storage. It returned to Poznan recently and has just flown to Azerbaijan and back, aircraft registration UR-PSF.

The aircraft I was on, G-WUKC, which arrived 70 minutes late, apparently due to ATC difficulties in London. Wizz Air certainly get value for money from their aircraft, this did six sectors during the day, returns to Kaunas, Poznan and Wroclaw. Like much of their fleet, it’s quite a new aircraft, having been used by Wizz Air since it was new in 2018.

Back at Luton airport. There wasn’t much of excitement during the journey, although the aircraft wasn’t as busy as I had thought when boarding, so I switched across the aisle to the other seat so that I had no-one sitting next to me, which meant I had enough space to use my laptop. Ten minutes into the flight the “if there is a medical professional on-board please come to the rear cabin” with a lady getting up and rushing to the back, so I assume she was medically qualified, or just wanted to see what was happening I suppose. I didn’t hear anything more and we didn’t divert, so it couldn’t have been too dramatic. Or, at least, I hope it wasn’t.

The crew were friendly enough, mostly male which is a little unusual for budget airlines. One passenger seemed scared of the barking sound in the aircraft, which is the power transfer unit (I learned that long ago from British Airways) and called one of the crew over to express his concerns. The crew member said “oh, that’s usual, it’s probably the brakes” and wandered off which actually didn’t calm the passenger who didn’t seem to like the “probably” bit of the answer.

The disembarkation process was as chaotic as ever, people rushing to the aisle, trampling on each other and then standing there for ten minutes. A case fell on someone’s head, someone stood on someone’s foot and tensions were rising. The guy in the window seat on my row just kept reading his book, I sat and stared at my phone (I do that a lot) and didn’t move, it’s much less stressful. I find it all odd, as then the same people very often walk slowly to the terminal, so I can overtake them. It took probably eight minutes to get through border control, nothing too bad.

I then had a forty minute to the hotel that I was staying in at Luton, walking past this bastion of journalism. Well, something like that anyway….

It’s been delayed a couple of times, but they’re getting there with this, which is Luton DART. It’ll connect Luton Airport Parkway railway station with the airport, which will involve scrapping the shuttle bus arrangement that currently exists. I’ll probably just still walk between the two rather than pay for this, but it’s a more efficient solution for those who can’t or don’t want to walk the fifteen minutes between the two.

Luton Hoo Memorial Park, which was presented to the town in 1920 by Lady Ludlow, in honour of her son, Alex Piggott Werner, who had died during the First World War.

Bailey Hill Water Tower in the background.

And the park’s war memorial. It’s a really nice space, there’s a playground for children that was well used, with a few people walking dogs, all very calm and sedate.

The final destination was the Linton Hotel, which was cheaper than all of the other chain hotels that I had to walk by to get here. I went for the cheapest compact room, which was indeed compact, but it was clean and functional and everything worked as it should. I was exhausted when I got here as it’s too bloody hot in Luton, certainly compared to Poland at the moment, and I had to climb a hill which was higher than the little diddy ones that Dave Morgan is currently climbing in mainland Europe. I was very brave, but also quite tired at the end of that, but I don’t complain.

July 14, 2022
Wednesday : London Luton to Poznan with Wizz Air

After my quite scintillating story of getting from Norwich to London Luton Airport (that in itself is a bit aspirational, Luton is hardly in London but I won’t go off on that tangent) it starts again in the airport terminal. I had enjoyed a pre-departure nap at home, so was planning to be hugely productive overnight in getting things done, which I’m pleased to say did work out. I know Dave Morgan will be once again surprised and delighted at hearing about these exploits of my very slightly odd travel.

Two points. Firstly, I can’t relax before a flight, I have to keep checking the board. Secondly, note the only flight on the entire board that was showing as delayed.

So, what is there to do at London Luton overnight? Nearly nothing if I’m being honest. There is limited seating in the airport, although fortunately, I did find a space, not least as I got there so early. It’s a terminal which can’t really cope with the number of passengers it gets, and there were in the hundreds of people waiting at the terminal overnight for their morning flights, far more than when I was at Heathrow T3 a couple of weeks ago. I was pleased to note that the Pret landside opened early, so I moved there to enjoy a single can of Coke and three hours of charging my devices with their electricity. I’m not entirely sure they made much from my largesse. It wasn’t that busy though, I didn’t stop someone else from sitting down as it was never full.

Going through security was easy, other than my superglue was spotted in my liquids bag and they went off to test it. I’m not sure if there’s some odd drugs related use for it as that’s the machine they used, to swab it for drugs. The lady at security asked why I had superglue and I replied that it’s because I break a lot of things and want to fix them quickly. She seemed happy at that slightly odd answer. It’s actually because I was worried about my shoe breaking last year, which I’ve since replaced, but I’ve decided the superglue might be useful for all manner of reasons, so I’ve kept it.

After lots of faffing about, and nearly entirely catching up on this bloody blog, gate 30 was announced for the Wizz Air flight to Poznan. I have no sort of priority on this flight and certainly didn’t pay for that benefit, so I meandered slowly around the back of the queueing system, whereas the people in the above photo are rushing to go through the priority line. I got to the front of my queue for unimportant people and a staff member waved me forwards. I mention I’m not priority and she shrugged and said she didn’t mind either way, which ironically meant I ended up ahead of most of the people who had been rushing. This had the exciting benefit and advantage of my being able to stand further ahead on the stairs down to the aircraft.

Here’s the aircraft, which had been slightly delayed on its inbound journey, hence why we were operating around forty minutes late at this point. It’s an A320 aircraft, registration G-WUKD, which Wizz Air have operated since new in 2018.

The boarding process. I had let people get ahead because I kept faffing about taking photos of the aircraft. I think people thought I didn’t get out much, but I just wanted to ensure this blog had some photos that weren’t blurry. Selfless I tell you, absolutely selfless of me.

I could hardly deal with the excitement of being in a middle seat for two hours. But, I paid £8 for this flight, so there’s no way that I have anything to complain about. The aircraft wasn’t particularly comfortable, but it’s a short haul journey that isn’t much longer than some bus journeys, so it was perfectly sufficient. It was also just about full, although the lady in the row behind me was on the phone to someone in the terminal who had somehow missed the flight. She didn’t seem that concerned about the fact that her friend wasn’t going to get on the flight, I had hoped for a little more drama if I’m being honest.

I was quite embarrassed (although I’m not sure why, there’s a limited amount I can ever do about these things) at the British passenger who had a go at a Polish member of cabin crew, as he said he wanted to sit on the back row. The back row is often sealed on Wizz Air flights, sometimes for trim reasons of aircraft safety and sometimes because the crew sit there. Anyway, the helpful member of cabin crew politely told the man three times he couldn’t sit there. He replied “I’m sitting here, that’s the end of it”. It wasn’t the end of it, the crew member suddenly got bored of being polite and replied “Sir, you will need to leave the aircraft” and she clearly meant it. He argued, she stood there and asked him to make his decision. He grumpily moved back to his assigned middle seat further down the aircraft, but only after giving her some more abuse. It’s sad to see to be fair, but I’m pleased the crew member stood her ground, but I get the impression that she’s used to it, which is perhaps an even greater shame. The pilots sounded professional as well, we ended up arriving around thirty minutes later than expected, and they kept everyone updated.

The airport terminal in Poznan is visible in the background, but we needed a bus to take us to the non-Schengen gates at the airport. I just held back, I was in no rush, but once again, fortune favoured me and I joined a queue which for reasons unknown moved so quickly that I was at the border control desk way ahead of those in the other parallel lines who had started queueing up before me. Then I got delayed because the border control lady, who was perfectly amicable and friendly, decided she would count my time in the EU. It seems this can only be done manually, there’s currently no way of them doing this using technology, so she carefully worked through all my passport stamps and it took her a fair while. I didn’t want to undermine this process, she was doing her job carefully, but I knew I was within the limits as I carefully use a Schengen calculator to ensure I’m not spending too much time in the EU. She thanked me for my patience and I was on my way, pleased to be back in Poland.

They were then stopping every traveller and asking if they had food. I clearly didn’t, I rarely keep food in my bag long as I’m too excited to eat it rather than carry it about (my food I mean, not the bag), but another man had his egg taken off him. I have no idea why he had an egg, I assume it was hard-boiled though unless he had been very careful during the flight.

With all that excitement out of the way, I got a ticket for the bus. It’s possible to walk from Poznan airport to the city centre, but it’s a ninety minute walk and, frankly, I couldn’t be bothered, especially since the bus ticket is under £1. Dave Morgan would be horrified, I hope he doesn’t read this. I think he walks all distances of under 40 miles.

The bus went to the central railway station in Poznan, which is a city I’ve visited before I think on three occasions. I do perhaps need to start going to some new places, but I like the reassurance of these reliably excellent Polish cities.

Back in the Ibis Poznan Stare Miasto, which I had forgotten I’d stayed at a couple of years ago. All reliable as ever, friendly staff, a functional room, working air conditioning (although, fortunately, it’s not too hot in Poland, unlike in Krakow a couple of weeks ago) and a window that opens. Just lovely.

My welcome drink of a Żywiec Porter. It’s definitely good to be back.

There’s a Biedronka supermarket next to the hotel and I was sufficiently tired not to have to want to go finding food anywhere else, so this was a handy option. So this little selection, which looks like a kid who likes alcohol has bought it (there’s a reason for that), just had to do. I’ve posted this so I can comment on the price, this came to just over £5. Note the British cheddar cheese at the back, which would have likely cost about £3 on its own in the UK. I probably didn’t need all this, but I hadn’t eaten all day and I felt I deserved a little treat.

July 7, 2022
Wizz Air (Gdansk to Luton Airport)

And it was time to come back to the UK, departing from Lech Wałęsa airport in Gdansk. As an aside, it must feel odd for Lech Wałęsa when he uses this airport to know that the entire place is named after him. I’m always slightly saddened to leave Poland, but I’ll be back in a few weeks and so can look forwards to that.

Usually I’d just download my boarding pass on my phone and go straight through security, but Wizz Air don’t have any on-line processes in place to check the documents of travellers, so everyone is directed to the check-in desks first. It’s positive that they’re checking the UK’s Locator Form, although to be fair they’re legally obliged to, but a shame they don’t have a set-up similar to that BA have with VeriFLY.

I tried to get through a little earlier, but the friendly member of staff at check-in said they would only open the boarding desk for my flight two hours before the flight departed. She also helpfully mentioned that my mask wouldn’t be accepted by Wizz Air on any of their flights, although I did silently think it had been accepted on the Wizz Air flight out to Gdansk. But, I wasn’t sure on their policy and had a spare mask, so that was all fine. I was told to check the boarding screens around 150 minutes before the flight, which transpired to be useful advice, as that’s when the check-in desk for my flight opened. I was fortunate to be nearly at the front of the queue, as it snaked back to the entrance to the terminal within a few minutes. The member of check-in staff quickly checked that I had a passenger locator form confirmation and then my boarding pass was printed, which is a free service when customers can’t check-in on-line.

Safely through security (where I was praised by the security staff for my efficiency, which I lapped up willingly) and into the lounge (more on which in another post) it was time to trek to the corner of the airport and Gate 1, located in the non-Schengen zone. There was a queue, but there’s always a queue with Wizz Air…..

This process is the same with Wizz Air and Ryanair, they call passengers forwards to wait before the aircraft is ready for boarding. Which means a wait on the steps down to the tarmac, which is fine for me leaning against a wall reading a book on my phone, but less so for those who don’t feel quite as comfortable standing on steps for twenty minutes.

And it started to rain quite heavily, but it was only a short walk to the aircraft. Wizz Air rarely use airbridges, which has the advantage of meaning that I can take photos of the aircraft.

The aircraft was registration HA-LXS, an Airbus A321, which has been in the Wizz Air fleet since June 2017.

I boarded via the back of the aircraft and the flight was clearly busy, and I think just about full.

I had the middle seat, which is the first time I’ve had this in years, although the other passengers on each side were ideally behave which makes things easier. The leg room on Wizz Air really isn’t ideal, but the flight was only for two hours and so is bearable. The crew were friendly and helpful, although I couldn’t work out where they were from as their ability so speak so many different languages is really quite impressive. The pilot announcements were hard to hear, but we landed on time although the wind made the landing quite bumpy. Well, very bumpy actually, but it added to the excitement, although the babies on board decided at this moment that they really didn’t like what was happening.

It’s also fair to add here that this flight cost me £7.50, so it’s hard to fault Wizz Air for anything given that. The service ran as expected, the aircraft was clean, the flight was on time and everything was as comfortable as could be expected. The arriving into Luton Airport on time was fortunate as my friend Liam was there to pick me up, so he didn’t have to wait for endless amounts of time in an industrial park in Luton. Anyway, based on this flight I’d happily fly with Wizz Air again, they fly to a wide number of destinations that I want to visit and although I can’t claim the flight was luxurious, it’d be ridiculous to complain at the price that they charged.

February 7, 2022
Wizz Air (Luton to Gdansk)

This is the delights of Luton airport at 05:45 this morning, after the ten minute walk from the nearby Holiday Inn.

There’s the Wizz Air flight to Gdansk, with boarding information at 07:35. I didn’t fly with British Airways on this occasion as they have currently dropped the later flight to Warsaw and they’re dropped Krakow entirely. The Wizz Air flight cost a ridiculous £7.50 each way, which was another handy factor in this little arrangement.

The boarding information didn’t ultimately come until 07:50. Incidentally, the security process at the airport was efficient and I was airside within five minutes of entering the terminal building.

The boarding process was chaotic and ill-tempered, although I just let them get on with it. The boarding gate is on the lower level and so there is a flight of stairs between the corridor upstairs and the boarding gate, with customers waiting to join the queue. What is poor is that there are very few screens or boards to show customers that they’re in the right location as they’re going to their gate, this is in my view shoddy from Luton Airport, which feels a mismanaged set-up in general, as there were numerous confused customers about the place. I’m reminded just how well Heathrow T5 manage this.

The set-up here is that there’s a short priority queue and so the staff member called up to ask non-priority (people like me…..) customers to come down as there was a separate waiting area. A woman rushed down the steps, barged me out of the way and announced loudly “I’m priority, let me though” to the staff member. The staff member rolled her eyes and said “I called non-priority, I was very clear” which led to lots of muttering from the annoyed customer. There’s no real reason to need to rush to board, there’s plenty of space for bags and seats are already allocated.

There was an element of just bad planning here though, as we were in the holding area between the aircraft and the passports being checked for around thirty minutes. I found a seat and read a book on my phone, but there were no seats in the priority area, so those customers were all stuck standing up. It just felt muddled and there were three arguments between staff and customers over bags. I do like the drama to a degree, but some customers were getting quite het up. Oddly, the only customers getting het up seemed to be British, even though the vast majority of the customer on the aircraft seemed to be Polish.

We were finally allowed out to the aircraft, around twenty minutes later than scheduled. The aircraft is HA-LVI, a nearly new Airbus A321 Neo which has been used by Wizz Air since June 2020. The aircraft had a busy day, it came from Warsaw this morning, then went to Trondheim and back after it arrived in Gdansk. It’s off to Oslo tomorrow and I’m sure it’ll have a lovely time there.

The flight was absolutely fine. I hadn’t paid to reserve a seat and I was automatically given a window seat, but there was no-one in the middle seat as the aircraft was only about 60% occupied. The announcements from the pilots and cabin crew were polite, but broadly inaudible and the safety announcement was given way too fast to be of any use. However, the cabin crew were friendly and their service was efficient and unobtrusive, with the flight being perfectly relaxed and comfortable.

I had forgotten that it was winter in Poland, so this snow and ice everywhere was a slight surprise.

The disembarkation process was a little sluggish, with everyone taken to the main terminal by coach. I was in no rush and lingered about, which meant that I was one of the last people to get on the coach. So many people rush about and I can’t be doing with all that stress. By chance, it also meant that as I was the last to board, I was the first off the coach and I was the first person to leave the security area which was handy.

The member of security staff at border control was helpful, although he didn’t want to see my negative test I got yesterday, but he did check my Covid pass and my locator form. Although I could have got away without paying £32 yesterday for an LFT at Luton Airport, there are two reasons that I’m glad I got it. Firstly, I would have worried all day if I didn’t have it, and secondly, it’s just best to do things properly rather than risk being fined or deported.

And Gdansk airport terminal, safe and sound. I have to say that this was ridiculously good value for £7.50 and Wizz Air felt a safe and secure airline to travel with, with the cabin crew being friendly and the aircraft being clean. The boarding process was unnecessarily stressful for many customers, but I was quite happy with my window seat and bag near to me, all perfectly comfortable. I will no doubt travel with Wizz Air more this year, not least because of their range of destinations, but also because their flights are so often reasonably priced.

January 20, 2022