HOME | LAST 100 POSTS | CONTACT ME

Tag: Wizz Air

Wizz Air (Poznan to Luton Airport)

Back to Poznan Airport and this is a sculpture by Henryk Gida Bakalarczyk, it makes quite an impact in the departures area just before security.

There’s my flight to Luton Airport, using the Wizz Air all you can fly pass that I decided to get to try it out, so that means it’s £8.99 for the flight.

After visiting the lounge and going through border control, the non-Schengen area of the airport is quite sizeable with plenty of seating.

They were boarding the aircraft early and, as ever, it was all efficient and organised.

And boarding.

I take these photos in the hope of capturing the registration of the aircraft, otherwise I have to look it up. And it isn’t visible, so I did have to go and look it up, it’s G-WUNA, I don’t think it’s an aircraft I’ve been on before. By chance, it was the first anniversary of Wizz Air bringing this aircraft into service, but they didn’t provide us with cake or anything to mark that milestone.

And safely back into Luton Airport. It wasn’t the most comfortable journeys as I was in the middle seat and felt a little cramped on this journey, but it’s a relatively short flight and I amused myself watching stuff on my phone. There were some winds from Storm Darragh which added some extra excitement in terms of the landing, although it was otherwise uneventful. There was absolutely no delay at all with getting through border control as there was no queue, so plenty of staffing once again at Luton Airport.

It was very lovely, thank you Wizz Air. I still like this all you can fly pass, it wasn’t the longest stay in Poznan, but there seemed to be a suitable choice of destinations that I could go to. I’m already occupied with other things this week, but hopefully I’ll get to use the pass again in December and perhaps quite a lot in the new year.

December 8, 2024
Wizz Air (Luton Airport to Poznan)

The sun was shining and Luton Airport glistened once again with its raw beauty and charm. I find this one of the better airports to fly through, it’s not necessarily the most decadent in many ways, but it does tend to have sufficient staff. It took just four minutes to get through security, although as ever I’d allowed for it to take an hour. The flight was the first one that I had booked with the All You Can Fly pass.

A quick visit to Big Smoke using my Priority Pass card, it’s a handy place to charge devices and sit in relative comfort and peace. The card really is a useful little thing and I like that they’re generous with how it can be used at a number of restaurants at some airports. The staff at Big Smoke are helpful, although they don’t like card holders sitting in the bar area which is where I’d naturally default to, just because it’s QR code only ordering there. Card holders get £18 to spend there, which covers these chicken tenders and this time I went for the Medicine Man IPA, which is hoppy, juicy and with a taste of pineapple. It was better than I remember it being a few weeks ago, but maybe I was just in a good mood. This location is very fast paced, but the staff never give the appearance of being panicked, even when they have some customers who seem to be quite challenging.

When the server came along, I mentioned that I would wait ten minutes for the lunch menu to start, but the server mentioned he’d take the order immediately and send it through to the kitchen and the chicken tenders arrived promptly. They taste decent and along with some craft beer, it’s a comfortable place to wait.

Then off to Avalon to use the Priority Pass card again. I could have also gone to the lounge and the Italian Nolito, but I felt this was more than enough. They stack the amount up to the full £18, but it was handy to have a sandwich for later on. Always friendly staff at Avalon and the coffee tastes good. Incidentally, I always thought that Cawston Press had some sort of presence in Norfolk, but reading the can (I don’t get out much) its Head Office and centre of operations is Kettering. Now, I know Kettering (permanently linked with James Acaster now) is perfectly acceptable as being the home of a drinks company, but it’s just not quite what I expected. If not Cawston, I’m sure they could have opened a little place in Aylsham.

Mine was the 12:25 to Poznan, so I meandered off to the gate content that I’d had a coffee, beer and chicken tenders. This seems to me to be the very basis of a balanced diet.

A view of the area in front of the airport that I’ve never much noticed when walking to the gate. I can’t say that this is exactly riveting, but it amused me for about three seconds.

And safely at the gate. Even though I did work for British Airways for a long time and so have a natural bias, they never really sorted out the efficiency of their check-in process, it varied enormously even within the same airport. Wizz Air are very precise, timely and it works for me to stay seated until the queue has nearly gone through and I join the back. No stress, no faffing about in groups and just easy boarding.

The aircraft sitting there ready. It’s G-WUKO, the same aircraft that took me to Belgrade a few weeks ago.

Boarding, again all efficient and most passengers worked out which door they had to board through.

I’m a little cheap and so I refuse to pay for seat selection, but the airline Gods smiled upon me and I ended up with a window seat anyway which was handy.

Safely in Poznan and it was raining, which made my decision for me, I wasn’t going to walk to the hotel. I rarely have much to write about these flights, partly because I fall asleep and partly because they’re so standard because they’ve got the processes sorted. The crew are welcoming, they do their swoop down the aircraft selling food and drink, then they have a go at selling other things and then we land. They’re very alert to safety issues and manage the take-off and landing processes well, they never really give me any cause for concern or annoyance.

December 8, 2024
Wizz Air : All You Can Fly Pass

I wrote about this pass before when I thought about getting it a couple of months ago and then didn’t as there were a few unknowns about it. I’ve followed numerous Facebook and on-line groups about the pass and it’s a useful programme provided you can be quite flexible. Fortunately, I can be, so I’ve taken the gamble on Wizz Air not going bust and have bought the pass. I suspect that quite a lot of things will likely now go wrong with it such as encountering payment issues when buying tickets, but I think it’s an interesting thing to see how it works out and whether it might save some money or lead to some unexpected adventures.

The pass came to just under £500 and allows users to book flights for £9 each, but they must be departing in the next three days. Effectively, they’re just trying to get rid of excess inventory. I’ve seen a lot of people unhappy with the pass, but I think they were mainly hoping for better availability from some smaller airports or more guarantee of return flights. Since I live my life in a state of slight chaos, this situation doesn’t overly concern me. With travel, I have a generally Zen like calm that my friend Liam has to life generally.

Anyway, using the pass I’ve started with a return flight to Poznan departing tomorrow and returning the day after (I kind of need to be back, although it’s not essential if I can’t be), just when Storm Darragh might well prove to be problematic. Well, what could possibly go wrong….. I suspect I’ll be posting what’s gone wrong quite quickly, but I’m always one for a travel adventure and I wanted to be part of this.

December 5, 2024
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