Flying Wizz Air.

I have flown Wizz Air 4 times this year. This is my 5 cents about the airline.

What is Wizz Air?

Wizz Air is a fairly new airline. It was founded in 2003 in Hungary and is now by far the biggest airline in Hungary. They have almost 100 planes flying to more than 150 destinations these days. It is a low cost airline with no thrills, but often with very cheap prices.

What are the planes like with Wizz Air?

The planes I have flown have been quite new Airbus planes that seemed well kept. The space is not very great when you are sitting. You feel here that this is a budget airline. I think that is ok for up to 2-3 hours. But I would not want this for a long haul flight.

The cabin crew on Wizz Air is great.

The cabin crew onboard Wizz Air has so far been a very positive surprise for me. Very cheerful and helpful all the time. Not like some other budget airlines, where you feel that the staff is tired and overworked.

They have had time to talk to the passengers. Not just walking endlessly up and down the aisle screaming “scratchcards Scratchcards” like they always do on dreadful Ryanair.

Luggage rules are very strict on Wizz Air.

Luggage fees on Wizz Air.

Now this is where Wizz Air get’s a little tricky and annoying. The only hand luggage that is free on Wizz Air is a tiny bag.

If you want to bring what most people consider a regular carry-on bag to the cabin, then you have to pay for it. If this is not done in advance, then you have to pay a fairly steep fee for it.

This creates some very very long lines when the passengers board the plane, because there are always quite a few passengers who try to argue their way out of paying extra for their carry-on bag. You will not succeed in arguing though, as this is how they make their money.

So be prepared when it comes to luggage and read the small print carefully, or your cheap ticket could end up costing quite a bit more.

Onboard service on Wizz Air.

This is a budget airline. So you won’t even get a glass of water for free. Everything has to be paid extra for. Good news here though, is that it’s quite cheap to buy food and drink onboard Wizz Air, compared to most other airlines.

On one flight I bought some wine which was fairly ok priced and it was Hungarian which I liked. I hate when all you can get is the usual cheap french wine that everyone else serves. Nice to see that they use Hungarian wine, which is better than many people will think.

Hungarian wine on Wizz Air.

Foam party on the plane.

One odd experience I had was when I was flying between Porto and Budapest in may 2017.

They had just cleaned the ventilation system on the plane. But they had not managed to get all the soap out of the ventilation system. This resulted in soap foam coming out of the wall on the plane.

The staff tried to stop the foam coming out, but put paper towels into the ventilation system. Some passengers were very uneasy about this. But the crew had clearly been told to just fly anyway.

I’m pretty sure that many airlines would have stayed an extra half hour on the ground, to make sure that they did not have the passengers covered in foam. But the money thing clearly played in here. I personally just took it from the humorous side and told them to stop sticking paper towels into the wall and to put on some dance music instead.

My suggestion about a foam party on the plane was taken with a nervous smile from the cabin crew. They were clearly worried that some passengers would might if foam kept coming off the wall.

How to fix broken ventilation on a plane.

My overall judgement about Wizz Air.

After having flown the airline a few times my conclusion is: I will happily fly them again on shorter stretches, as they deliver a fairly ok budget product.

Forget about overseas flights with this airline though.

I’m not sitting jammed into the seat with no free food and drink for 5-10 hours. Overseas, I will stick to the full service airlines, even if I have to pay extra. I am very happy that Wizz Air serves many smaller destinations in Eastern Europe, where I love to travel.That alone will mean that I will be back on more Wizz Air flights in the future. 

I have more aviation related blog posts that you might want to check out. You can find them on this link.

Getting ready to fly again.