Why isn’t WizzAir as popular as other low cost airlines?

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ding-dongo@reddit

I've booked 5 flights and had all 5 cancelled by Wizz approx 31 days before travel. I then had to pay about 3x the price to book alterntive. Never using them again.

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RecentTwo544@reddit

I bet it was nothing to do with WizzAir. Happy to be proven wrong on that.

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Normally "cancelled flights" are something out of the airline's control, normally airport or ATC issues, weather, civil unrest, a volcano, etc etc. Or the person hasn't booked the flight correctly or tried to do something they explicitly cannot do, like change to a different flight for free. These make up the vast majority of "my flight was cancelled by Wizz/Ryanair/Easyjet!" complaints. The fact I suggested it, no one replied, and people tried to hide my point, 100% stacks up that it wasn't Wizzair's fault.

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ding-dongo@reddit

"no one replied" - No I just have other things to do. Call it what you want - to the consumer that's a shit service either way you look at it. Haven't had this many flight cancellations across every other airline combined over about 20 years.

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RecentTwo544@reddit

The question "why were they cancelled" still hasn't been answered though...

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Feeling_Phrase1340@reddit

Yes, when I once cancelled with them, they had a pay-for call line to cancel! Once airborne, they're not a bad airline to fly, but only if you can get the tickets for a song.

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Chimpville@reddit

Similar experience. Booked a flight for six, 10 months in advance and they cancelled it and I had to rebook 3 times on the lead up, increasing in cost each time. They cancelled fuck themselves. That was a horrible amount of stress.

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Wide-Lime5236@reddit

It’s an awful airline, even by the standards of low-cost. I flew with them 3 times - once they cancelled for “mechanical issues” and I ended up just booking with another airline, and the other they literally harassed me at the boarding gate over my backpack not fitting - it fit but the absolute nastiest of reps said it was “overflowing” so I had to pay. I ended up disputing the charge with my credit card, so did not pay in the end, but not a fun experience. Wizzair is awful, I will pay a few more bucks to fly somebody else.

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diego_degz@reddit

Worst airline, i was required to pay for the boarding pass 50 eur each traveler, they have this policy that you can only get your boarding pass from free until 3hs before the scheduled flight, they delayed 3hs+ the flight and I still had to pay, I have flown in bad airlines but this airline is a scam, do not fly with them if you don’t have to.

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Teralek77@reddit

I mean they are competing with Ryanair to be the worst airline in Europe. Maybe that's why. I am flying for the first time with them tomorrow and their seat prices are worse that Ryanair. They have the same shitty policy of randomly allocating the seats for free 24h before the flight. They really do randomly do it even if they have free sequential seats for your party. They do not care. As far as I know only Ryanair and WizzAir does randomly allocate seats to force you to pay. But WizzAir has more expensive seats than Ryanair, so yeah they want to be worse. Comparing with Easyjet is is a level above and beyond. If you do not pay the seat with Easyjet you get allocated randomly on the plane but the algorithm tries to seat your party together. Plus the standard weight for the cargo hold is 23Kg, whilst Ryanair and Wizz is 20kg. If I can avoid I will avoid Wizz in the future. First and last time.

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dbxp@reddit

Wizz is mostly based in Eastern Europe, they only fly from Birmingham in the UK which is a tiny airport. Ryanair operates a lot of flights out of Manchester & Stansted and generally has more western Europe presence, Easyjet is much the same but with Gatwick instead of Stansted.

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Competitive-Food-799@reddit

A large number of flights from Luton are operated by Wizz, as well. I've taken them most often to Hungary, but also Austria, Slovenia, Czechia, Slovakia and Croatia. Tbh, they're not bad. Their new slogan doesn't work so well in English...

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kriscardiac@reddit

Let's Wizz! Makes perfect sense.

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Competitive-Food-799@reddit

Careful, they may start charging you for the luxury to wizz!

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the_merkin@reddit

Let’s Wizz!

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DameKumquat@reddit

Wizz have flights from Gatwick, too.

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McGubbins@reddit

Wizz Air operates from Aberdeen, Birmingham, Glasgow, Leeds/Bradford, Liverpool, Luton and Gatwick.

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QueefInMyKisser@reddit

I haven’t noticed any significant difference between Ryanair/EasyJet and Wizz Air. I’ve only been on three return flights on Wizz though I think. Was delayed outbound to Sarajevo but there was fog at the destination so we set off about an hour late to give it a chance to have cleared by the time we got there, then circled for another hour as it still hadn’t cleared, then eventually landed, because the fog had eventually cleared. So not their fault, just how it goes. But I’ve been on more Ryanair and EasyJet flights, because they serve more destinations.

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mupps-l@reddit

I’ve flown WizzAir twice to Lithuania and twice to Bulgaria and not had any issues. They’re a budget airline, people’s experience of it going wrong sounds awfully similar to my experience with Ryanair the one time it went wrong.

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decentlyfair@reddit

Used them once going to krakow. There was snow so we expected a delay and there was but there was no communication at all for how long the delay might be. In the end I think it was a couple of hours so no biggie but the sheer lack of any information would make me think twice about using them.

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Nuthetes@reddit

I used Whizz once and jesus fucking christ it was the loudest flight I have ever been on. Nobody on board would shut the fuck up. It was just 100 or so east europeans all trying to talk as loud as possible and outload the couple in the next row. I have never experienced a flight like it, where everyone is just talking at full volume. Most flights I have been on are quiet, with people either reading or popping their headphones in or at most having a quiet chat.

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bloompertoo@reddit (OP)

lol that’s the proper Eastern European experience. I remember this one flight I was on when they started playing music and a group of like 10 gopniks gathered in the extra leg room area with beers talking shit the whole flight

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ThreatLevelDadRock@reddit

Used Wizz twice to Prague and Budapest. Excellent both times.

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Temporary-Zebra97@reddit

The cabin crew I encountered on Wizz were comically awful. Wouldn't put me off using them again for the money it was great tbh the worst part of the trip was Luton airport.

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Another_Random_Chap@reddit

Because a lot of their flights are to and from Eastern Bloc countries, and traditionally that's not somewhere a lot of Brits go. When I worked at Luton airport, a very significant proportion of their passengers were people from those countries who lived & worked in the UK, way more than airlines like easyJet or Ryanair.

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LPodmore@reddit

You mean there are actually flights other than Easyjet out of Luton? When i was there a few years ago every single flight all day was Easyjet. None of the destinations i'm interested in ever seem to be serviced by Wizzair so i've never considered them.

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Beartato4772@reddit

Next time you're there consider if the very large blue TUI branded hanger is a clue to if someone else might fly out of there.

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williamshatnersbeast@reddit

I flew to Salzburg with them to avoid the high cost of flights to Munich for Oktoberfest last year. They really are budget but they did the job for me and as I only needed an overnight bag the extra costs they normally stung you with didn’t factor in. Lufthansa was a £350 return. Wizz was £49 and the train from Salzburg was about £30. Think I was one of the lucky ones though, flight was on time and not cancelled.

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EUskeptik@reddit

“Where I’m from Wizz is the ‘default’ airline for most travel.” You’ve just answered your own question. Wizz Air has a distinctly different destination list from Ryanair’s or EasyJet’s. I used WizzAir only once, a return trip to Belgrade. It was half the price of the flag carriers, but it was a truly horrible experience, made worse by having to fly from/to Luton. I enjoyed my week in Serbia but not the journey there and back. -@@-

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Obvious-Water569@reddit

I've only used them once (Stanstead to Brno) and they were fine. Nothing special, but the flight was about £19 return.

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Alone_Storage_1897@reddit

Wizzair is great for making money when they cancel and delay flights, you could make a living out of targeting their late flights - seriously. When they run though on time I like them

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littlejack100@reddit

I know 8 people that have booked cheap flights with WizzAir. Those same 8 people have never flown with WizzAir because they’ve cancelled the flights every time.

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DameKumquat@reddit

Their website hasn't worked properly for years - you need the app but they don't mention that. They keep telling you you will have options for free seat choices etc later, but they never materialize. They failed to pass on passenger assistance requirements to the airport and then were snotty about helping. They changed the time of the flight to 45 min earlier (ditto checkin), making it before the first trains arrived at Gatwick, so we had to drive and pay to park. Turned out, the flight was actually at the same time, just they wanted to halve the gate staff to save money. I have never known it to take over an hour to board about 200 people, but they did. Ryanair at least screw you honestly.

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trek123@reddit

Wizz Air is originally a Hungarian airline and the bulk of its network is to/from/around Eastern Europe. Eastern Europe is generally not as popular a place for the typical native Brit going on holiday as the places EasyJet, Ryanair or even Jet2 fly to. Whereas Easyjet was originally a British airline, Ryanair is originally based in our neighbour Ireland (and its first ever flight was from there to the UK), and Jet2 is very much a UK airline still. Whilst they have a sizeable presence in the UK, including a UK subsiduary, Wizz simply don't fly to/from as many places. A lot of the flights Wizz do run to/from the UK are used by those with links to the destinations in question, not holiday-makers.

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el_diablo420@reddit

I travelled Wizz Air once and would never, ever do it again

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McGubbins@reddit

From Leeds Bradford, I could fly to either Poland or Romania on Wizz Air. On Easyjet the destinations include Spain, Northern Ireland, Switzerland or France - twice as many as Wizz Air. On Ryanair there's Croatia, France, Greece, Ireland, Latvia, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia and Spain.

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Professional-Art1204@reddit

Awful airline. Will never use them again. There were delays with the flight. Shit happens.... but 6 hours of no communication isn't on (I was getting info listening to thier radios!). When they finally got the go ahead they basically told us not to worry about the safety stuff on the plan, and were a general mess; the crew clearly had no idea what was going on. This led to someone (understandably) having a panic attack which meant we missed the last slot. They abandoned us at 1230am in Luton - told us "walk through this door, we have representatives who will help you out with a hotel and deal with queries". Door led to the empty baggage hall with literallly no staff there. We had to get a cab home to London after waiting around for an hour. So pleased we only had carry on - there were no bags coming out of the carousel when we left. It took us 9 months to get a refund for the flight. In the end we had to let the cab fare go; they wouldn't refund and the back and forth was costing us more in time than it was worth in money. Scam airline. Avoid.

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RecentTwo544@reddit

As others have said, it's lack of routes. But having flown them plenty in Europe, they're fine. Same as Ryanair, Easyjet, Jet2, BA (short haul), etc. Any airline flight around Europe is much of a muchness these days.

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Dankbudz69@reddit

Used them twice both times the flight was delayed, by 3 and 7 hours respectively

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Harrry-Otter@reddit

They only operate about 3 routes from any of the airports in even vaguely near me. I think they fly a lot more out of Luton, so presumably it is much more used by people who live anywhere near Luton.

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andrew0256@reddit

They do fly a lot from Luton to eastern Europe. Friday afternoon is like being behind the Iron curtain in terms of languages.

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NoFewSatan@reddit

Ryanair have the Ireland & the UK market essentially in their hands. WizzAir, as you said, is more popular around mainland Europe, since they don't have a wide range of service from Ireland and the UK.

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Aggravating-Web-3050@reddit

I can’t think of Wizz air without thinking about Flylo

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Complex_Adagio7058@reddit

I don’t wanna have to use the restraints…

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That_Northern_bloke@reddit

Because nothing beats a Jet2 holiday

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LeadingSmoke6330@reddit

Can vouch they are the best for tourists!

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Remote-Pool7787@reddit

Because very few British people have traveled on WizzAir. It doesn’t serve many destinations from the UK where as easyJet and Ryanair fly to hundreds of destinations from all over the UK

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Few_Reward_7593@reddit

They don't have the network share that RyanAir do. Its not just about who can fly the cheapest but who get the contract.

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cgknight1@reddit

> but rarely do I hear them talk about WizzAir. How come? More limited services and a rep worse than any of the others.

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