Yes, you read that right. Wizz Air is copying that wonderful customer service lead airline “Spirit Airlines” and going to conduct a trial on the London Luton to Katowice route.
If you’re carrying a “small” carry on (sized to 42x32x25cm), you’ll get it aboard for nothing. Those with larger carry on items will be paying €10 for bags up to 55x40x20cm. Both carry on sizes will have a maximum weight of 10kg, but those choosing the larger paid-for allowance will be guaranteed space in the overhead compartments.
Wizz Air calls this “incentivising” so you bring a smaller bag. I call it fleecing the customer and scraping the barrel for more money.
Wizz Air states the trial is to
“responds to a growing problem for the short-haul industry that the limited space on board aircraft reduces convenience and comfort during boarding when too many carry-on bags are brought into the cabin”.
They also say that bags are routinely off-loaded by airline crews due to lack of space and often causes delays
The trial will run during August (surprising they should do it during a peak season – funny that), with Wizz Air stating two nasty things:
- If the trial is non conclusive, they’ll run the trial for longer.
- If the trial is successful, they’ll roll out the new luggage policy through the entire Wizz Air network.
Wizz Air in a lot of cases can be mentioned in the same breath as Ryanair in terms of running to secondary airports and monetising everything and the kitchen sink.
And frankly, Wizz Air are taking the Wizz with this trial. Running a trial like this until getting the results you want is a bit unscientific – Predicting the result before the experiment takes place.
As usual with Low Cost Carriers, it pays to count every penny they charge you, the cost to get to the airports, the cost of their fees and add-ons – and compare it to a full service carrier/legacy carrier.
You may be surprised how much difference there is when you add all the numbers together.