Wizz Air's Luggage Policy Comes with Problems
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Luggage Policy of Wizz Air
Wizz Air was one of our favourite low-cost airlines as we have rated them in our previous review. However, our latest flight with them changed our opinion after we faced the new Wizz Air luggage policy. Wizz Air had once again changed their free luggage rules and this time it comes with huge problems. The flexibility has gone and travelling on Wizz Air is causing stressful situations.
Cabin Bags Are Not Allowed into the Cabin
Wizz Air's ticket includes 1 hand luggage free of charge but in the reality, the Wizz Air's cabin luggage will be put into the airline's hold even though Wizz Air is calling it cabin luggage.
In July 2018, we were flying from Turku to Vienna via Gdansk with Wizz Air. We had examined carefully Wizz Air's luggage policy and we knew they allow only 1 piece of hand luggage free of charge so each of us had packed all our things into single hand luggage. So far the policy seemed to be just okay. Since Wizz Air does not allow extra personal items in the cabin, both of us had just 1 hand luggage and nothing more.
A surprise occurred at Turku Airport where Wizz Air's representative asked both of us to give our hand luggage to the hold. It meant that we had to give all that we had to the hold. A representative told that Wizz Air had just introduced a new policy which states that free hand luggage will always be put the hold of the aircraft. The hand luggage won't be hand luggage anymore and we understood that no exceptions are being made.
We told Wizz Air's representative that we can't check the hand luggage into the hold because they contain electronic devices with batteries, medicines, keys and other items that are not allowed in the aircraft's hold. Wizz Air was not willing to help at all. They told: You only get the hand luggage into the cabin by buying priority boarding. We didn't buy this extra service, because priority boarding is more like a priority queuing service where you can be among the first ones to queue for the plane. Without paying them for this unnecessary service, the hand luggage can not be carried with you to the cabin regardless of what it contains.
Luckily or hilariously Wizz Air had a solution. We may take all our important items to the cabin for example, by putting them in a plastic bag which the airport offered free of charge. A black trash bag was not a practical solution, so we had to put our things into pockets and keep some things in our hands. Before landing, a flight attendant asked us to put our laptop below the seat in front of us but during the take-off, it seemed to be acceptable to keep it on the lap as the crew did not disallow it. Their rules sounded inconsistent and actually, it is not so nice to keep a laptop on the floor.
How Is Flight Safety Affected?
It is possible that Wizz Air's new luggage policy decreases the flight safety. People are expecting that their hand luggage travel with them in the cabin and people are packing all burnable items like batteries inside the hand luggage. At the airport, the luggage will be taken to hold and those dangerous items will most probably stay inside the luggage when people get confused at the airport. Finally, the aeroplane's hold is full of backup batteries and similar things, that are considered hazardous affecting flight safety.
The most misleading part is that Wizz Air is still calling luggage hand luggage even though it will be put on the hold.
Maximizing Profit - Minimizing Quality
People may be wondering what is the point of putting all hand luggage into the hold. It is easy to understand that handling the luggage at the airport costs a lot of money for the airline and putting hand luggage on hold increases the airline's costs. So the arrangement seems to be ironic. Normally, airlines are putting cabin luggage on hold only when the cabin gets full and airline crews are usually asking for volunteers who are willing to have their luggage in the hold.
Most probably the idea of Wizz Air's new rule is to make passengers travelling more complicated and somehow "force" them to buy Priority Boarding service. Priority boarding is quite a useless service but it guarantees the hand luggage into the cabin. Wizz Air is probably calculating that the increased priority boarding income will probably be more than the increased cargo handling costs. Many people are willing to pay for priority boarding to avoid problems at the airport and to avoid waiting for the hand luggage from the hold at the destination airport. But this is not the case for all low-cost airlines.
How Strict is Wizz Air about Luggage?
The answer is simple: they are really strict. However, they do not always measure dimensions and count bags but it may happen now and then. And if you are not following Wizz Air's luggage policy, they will surely charge you extras. So it is advisable to follow the policy strictly.
Final Words
Wizz Air's new luggage policy is not customer-friendly. The airline used to be one of our favourite low-cost airlines but now Wizz Air falls to the same rating scale as Ryanair. In addition, while allocating seats, Wizz Air has started to separate people travelling in the same booking without any logical reason and asking for more money if travellers wanted to sit adjacent to each other.
Wizz Air may still be a good airline to fly some routes but we recommend using Wizz Air only when they are much cheaper than their competitors. There are now many better low-cost airlines like Transavia or Norwegian Air Shuttle. People should fly with airlines that are solving problems leading to customers' increased satisfaction, rather than making passengers' flights more unpleasant.
Have you had bad experiences with Wizz Air or has everything gone smoothly? Comment below. Before flying, check Wizz Air's up-to-date luggage policy from their web page because the information may have changed.
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Comments (4)
Terrible low cost sh....! I have a pretty standard cabin luggage, which I have used it with almost all the airlines, including low costs such as rayan air, easy jet etc. I had a two way flight with them, and they allowed me to carry on my bag, but then in the return, they did check after ppl left the gate, just infront of the plane, and fined me 50 euros because the wheels were outside of the allowed size! I could just get all these stuff outside of the luggage, and put them in a black plastic bag If I were in airport, because the luggage costed less then 50 euro! And of course I never ever fly with them. There are way much better alternatives: 1) Eurowings (one of the best low cost airlines), 2) Airbaltic (new planes and very punctual).
Sounds bad customer service. We have also noted that other airlines are much more flexible and customer oriented when it comes to baggage size.
terriable they handle with luggage
What about a purse ? Will they demand that be checked?
It depends much on the airport. They may be really strict with the 1 item policy.
But if you have forbidden items to be checked in, they will let you to take the purse in to the cabin and the cabin baggage will be put to the cargo.
Thanks for the post! I was really confused when I read their rules about hand luggage etc. Now I at least know that I can take my laptop and batteries with me and they will not charge me for that.