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Wizz Air Scam – Being Cheated By The World’s Worst Airline

I was charged $180 to check in.

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ATHENS, Greece- The airline waited until the very last moment to open check-in. At approximately 1 hour and 45 minutes prior to departure their service agents filed in behind the counters. I took a gamble on flying Wizz Air — a Hungarian budget airline that’s known for one thing: their unconventional and shockingly brazen ways to extort money out of passengers.

I watched as the girl in line in front of me was handed a little slip from the check-in agent and then pointed over to the row of airline ticket offices that lined the rear of the departures hall. I overheard her being told that she would need to pay an airport check-in fee.

I was called up to the adjacent counter.

“Do you have your boarding passes?” the thin blond woman asked.

“No. That is why I’m here at check-in.”

“That is a problem. I see that you are a Priority customer but that you also said that you would check-in online.”

I paid like twice the amount of money to fly “Priority” to limit the possibility of having some kind of “problem” that would inhibit me from getting on the plane. But it was clear that this preventative measure was about to backfire.

The check-in attendant then broke out the same little slip of paper that the girl in front of me had received and wrote my name on it.

“You need to go there and pay the check-in fee and then come back here to get your boarding passes.”

“How much is this going to cost?”

“It’s 35 euro each.”

I was rattled. 35 euro X 4 = 140 euro.

$180.

Whatever explanation that I was about to hear, $180 is far too much money for an airline to charge a family just to check in to the flight that they already purchased tickets for. $180 was over 50% of the total booking cost — even with the additional “Priority” fees added in.

This was especially true because even if I had printed out the “online check-in” confirmation I still would have needed to stand in line to, apparently, be checked-in a second time — as the printed boarding pass did not permit passengers to go straight to the gate, as it does with other airlines. So, basically, the only additional service that I would require for not checking in online would have been the physical printing of the boarding passes — which perhaps would have cost the airline somewhere in the ballpark of what? Ten to fifteen cents?

I began protesting the fee.

“Everybody else here knew that they had to check-in online except for you,” the woman behind the counter tried to reason.

“What about the girl in front of me? She was given the same slip of paper and told that she had to pay.”

“Everybody except you and her.”

I looked to the counter to my left. Another guy was being given the 35-euro check-in slip.

“What about him?”

The attendant didn’t respond.

I continued arguing my case.

A couple was next in line at the counter next to me. They too were given the slip.

“What about them!?!”

They were nailing everybody for the additional fee. If I was the only idiot here I would of had to suck it up and admit that I made some kind of error, but as passenger after passenger had apparently committed the same oversight there was clearly something not right about this. This was something systematic — either a massive error on the part of the airline or a trap that was intentionally set up to extract a little more money out of a relatively large number of passengers.

I’ve been traveling for 19 years and have taken hundreds of flights on budget airlines all over the world. I’m aware of how they operate — especially in Europe, where regulation on them appears to be non-existant. So with all of this experience how did I manage to get caught like this?

It’s simple, really. The airline provided no information or instructions on how to check-in online. There was no email informing me that online check-in was open, there was no directions on how to check in online in the fine print of my itinerary, there was not anything on the webpages when I purchased the tickets that told me how to actually perform an online check-in.

“Can you explain to me how I could have checked-in online?” I asked the girl behind the counter.

“You just use the Wizz Air app.”

“There was nothing that said I needed the Wizz Air app to check in to this flight when I bought the ticket.”

“Then there was something about it in your confirmation email.”

I handed over my phone with the confirmation email open and asked her to point out where the online check-in link was, as yet another passenger at the counter next to me got the slip.

“If all of these people weren’t able to check in online then there seems to be something wrong with how your airline is communicating this message.”

She scrolled the confirmation email up and down and admitted that she found nothing about checking in on it. I showed her all of the emails that I had received from Wizz Air. There wasn’t a single one that said anything about online check-in.

All of my emails from Wizz Air. Notice that none of them are about online check-in.

These are the instructions on the Wizz Air website for online check-in:

“You will receive an email with a link to online check-in. Click it and follow the instructions provided. You will be then asked to complete the personal details of all the passengers flying Wizz Air with you.”

This email with the check-in link was never sent. It seems as if it was really not possible to check in to this flight without the app.

“It’s the company policy. There is nothing that I can do about it.”

It was pointless to argue that most airlines now have kiosks where passengers can print out their boarding passes and baggage tags themselves for free … or that passengers can just walk up to the check-in counter and hand over their identification without needing anything else … or that paper print-outs are an archaic hold over from another area of air travel, as this type of modernity and convenience would more than likely have cut into Wizz’s profit margin.

In all, at least 17 passengers out of the 60 or so that were on my flight got nailed for the extra 35 euro fee. People were angry. The check-in counters were awash in arguments. The people in line behind this continuous battleground were either filled with rage because they had to wait for so long, filled with apprehension that they were going to miss their flight, or filled with trepidation because they knew that they would be next to receive the dreaded slip.

Is this the experience that Wizz Air wants its passengers to have?

Apparently.

Wizz Air is bad. Real bad. A simple review of their reputation online turns up pages entitled ScamAbusive, fraudulent airline, Wizz Air Baggage Check Scam, WizzAir, you don’t do business like that! :(, and even an entire website dedicated to sharing all the ways that Wizz Air sucks.

European budget airlines are an interesting breed. They act as if they are churn and burn businesses — they try to take as much money as they can for today as if they don’t expect to be around tomorrow. They don’t seem very interested in building a clientele, in keeping customers loyal, or providing an enjoyable flying experience. While the North American and Asian budget airlines can sometimes be slightly annoying to fly with, they don’t explicitly try to rip you off and are more often than not the best value.

Wizz Air doesn’t seem to get that air passengers have choices and that our final decisions are often based on experience: what happened the last time I flew with them? What have I heard other people say? Are they that airline I read that negative blog post about?

You have to kind of laugh at this scenario. You have these companies who presumably spend large amounts of money in advertising to get prospective passengers to feel good about their brand and what they offer and then these guys on the business end who completely sabotage these efforts by trying to scam a little extra money out of their customers. Now, when I see those billboards for Wizz showing happy, partying air passengers I’m not going to be able to hold back a scoff: those are the bastards who cheated me.

Each time Wizz scams a passenger they are essentially saying, “we never want you to fly our airline every again” and they often get what they apparently wish for.

We have to think for a moment about who really loses the most here. Sure, I’m out $180, but I’m a frequent flier who very regularly takes flights in Europe — where Wizz Air operates. Oftentimes, when I fly I’m buying full price fares for four passengers and I have three check-in bags. I’m a cash cow for airlines. If I wasn’t scammed out of that $180 I would probably happily fly with Wizz again and again and again. But now that’s simply not going to happen.

“The only thing that we can do is not fly their shitty airline ever again,” a fellow scammed passenger said as we waited in line together to pay the fee.

When I returned to the check-in counter I asked the lady working there if it was like this every night. She shyly looked away and nodded her head yes.

Angry passengers refusing to step away from the check-in counters.

Some of the passengers who were extorted 35 euro for not checking in online when it wasn’t possible without the app. Swissport airlines handled the transactions for a 5 euro per passenger fee because Wizz doesn’t have representation at this airport.

The pile of extortion slips.

Doing the deed. You actually had to pay Swissport airlines the fee because Wizz doesn’t have representation at this airport. They pocket a 5 euro per passenger.

140 euro to check in.

Filed under: Air Travel, Greece, Travel Diary

About the Author:

I am the founder and editor of Vagabond Journey. I’ve been traveling the world since 1999, through 91 countries. I am the author of the book, Ghost Cities of China and have written for The Guardian, Forbes, Bloomberg, The Diplomat, the South China Morning Post, and other publications. has written 3694 posts on Vagabond Journey. Contact the author.

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VBJ is currently in: New York City

34 comments… add one

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  • LUBOMIR TCHERVENKOV August 29, 2018, 10:06 pm

    We were nailed today 70 Euro in exactly the same scam. Nowhere, even in the small print does Wizzair inform their clients that they must check in online. We will try to contest this charge with the Australian fair trade commission. Too bad I read your article AFTER the incident. A girl in front of us in the queue had to pay triple that amount! It is simply outrageous!

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    • Wade Shepard August 30, 2018, 1:22 am

      It’s insane. They make a massive amount of their revenue from passenger penalties. Scamming is their business. More about it here: https://www.businessinsider.com/cheap-flights-not-cheap-with-fees-2018-8. Europeans seem incredibly weak about such things and they don’t have the laws to protect them. If that happened in the USA or China on my flight there would have been riots. If you need any help just let me know.

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      • Stefan Gospodinov September 11, 2018, 11:15 pm

        Hi Wade. So I have a very good review for you, fresh from this week. I am a seasoned wizzair flyer and I thought that I had gotten used to their hidden fees and tricks. I am fully aware that you need to check in online in advance, and print their boarding passes to avoid extortionate fees for example. Also you need to be really mindful of their 1 boarding bag policy and dimensions. I have flown with them about 20-25 times over the past 4-5 years and have never been overcharged and they do offer possibly the lowest fares on some routes. However, not even I expected what happened yesterday. I was booking a RT ticket from Sofia,Bulgaria to London Luton (think 50 miles north of London) for my father. I selected the flights, entered the passenger info (in the case Entcho Gospodinov), and even opted for priority boarding. I passed all of these stages, negating their additional offers, such as car rentals, travel insurance, seat selection etc. Prior to being routed to the payment page, the website asked for a login and registration (most airlines let you continue to your purchase as a guest, without going through the hassle of a registration). However, having used the airline often over the past 5 years (I no longer do as I have moved to Lima, Peru), I thought, how convenient that I have my old login. I will just use that. BIG MISTAKE. I logged in, and the site rerouted me to the payment page where I proceeded to paying the RT tickets using one of my fathers credit cards (as he was the passenger and I was just doing him a favor booking the ticket). The tickets were the same as I had selected, the price as well but low and behold I received a confirmation on your booking STEFAN GOSPODINOV. In other words, by prompting me to log in, the system automatically changed my father’s details that I had input earlier, but without warning me, directly routed me to the payment page with the same flights and same prices. Now here is the catch. I immediately saw this and called them. They politely said they understood, but that they can not do anything about this and that I would need to pay 45euros per flight for the name page. In other words 90 EUROS, when the entire RT flight price was roughly 240 Euros. All of this is INTENTIONAL. I am pretty used to European budget airline tricks but this goes beyond anything I have seen. I will pay the 90 euros as otherwise my father will lose his flights, however I have already started appeal with the European Aviation Commission board of appeals. My recommendation is that all customers who intend to use wizzair triple check their ticket details prior to processing the payment of their tickets, as if you ever happen to hit the back button, or use a login, all of your previously entered information will be amended and the website will not warn you. This is all done intentionally to mislead customers and ultimately make them pay additional fees whenever they can get away with it.

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        • Wade Shepard September 12, 2018, 2:54 am

          I agree with you that this is intentional. This is really how this airline makes their money. Maybe they are smart and know what they are doing??? Maybe they know that we are really so dumb that we will keep selecting them because their fares appear to be the cheapest like stupid little mice baited into the trap for the cheese. More seriously though, what they are doing should be illegal — and in other countries it would be. For some reason that I don’t understand, Europe seems to be lax on these airlines. It would seem to be that it should be the opposite, given all of the other consumer protections that the EU provides.

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  • Paul Eastabrook September 6, 2018, 12:00 am

    Why is this company still in existence? I was subjected to a similar scam by them in July 2009. There was no reference at the time of booking, not afterwards, of purchasing baggage to go into the hold. I scrutinised all paperwork before leaving, and decided to double check at Luton Airport immediately prior to departure, so that I could take last minute action if necessary. At the airport I was told that everything was in order and that I had guaranteed hold luggage and there was nothing further to pay. The return leg of the flight from Prague, however, was very different. EVERY SINGLE PERSON on the return flight with luggage (in excess of 200 passengers) had to pay additionally for hold luggage at the airport. The airport cashier did not accept credit nor bank cards, allegedly because of a machine fault and non-payment was not an option. I proved that nothing was payable from my paperwork as no option was available to buy hold luggage, but the airline staff just shrugged. I complained to the online booking company once I’d returned, but was merely referred to Wizz Air whose customer services merely responded that its terms and conditions stated (14.1.1) “We will charge a handling fee for each piece of Checked Baggage”, even though nobody that I spoke to had booked their flight through the airline itself, so had no sight of these terms and conditions. I suggested that the airline tells its own staff this, since those at Luton Airport certainly weren’t aware of them. Yet, here we are NINE YEARS LATER, and Wizz Air is still scamming its paying customers with impunity.

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    • Wade Shepard September 12, 2018, 2:57 am

      That’s very true. They’ve been scamming people for over a decade and they are still going strong. It’s scary to think that they may have figured something out …

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  • Velissaris October 21, 2018, 1:20 pm

    I couldn’t agree more!!!
    The most hateful experience. Ever. After travelling for well over 20 years.
    I protested the fee of 35 euros I was FORCED TO PAY if I wanted to fly. They told me I should have read the terms and conditions. I told them I did. On the emails and on the website. I kept protesting in loud voice. Then they called security. Then I payed – as if I had another option- and when I kept protesting while leaving for the gate, they went on to cancel my flight saying I’m a problematic passenger. So they rob me and I’m supposed to be happy. Bastards. Scammers. It makes me sick.

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    • Wade Shepard October 22, 2018, 9:31 am

      They are the worst. No, really, they are the worst. This isn’t subjective — you can look up how much of their revenue is made up by tricking, cheating, and scamming people. They formed a business model on this alone. No joke. Avoid them at all cost.

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  • jen November 14, 2018, 7:24 pm

    Yes, me too, flying from Vienna to Bari. I had actually tried several times to check in online, and via the app but a) online check in was open for about 48 hours and i was away on a retreat with no phone and b0 the app crashed and forgot my password… about 3 times i had to password reset. I feel like this is somehow against some law or trading standards or something. It seems ridiculous that this is allowed to happen over and over again. At least Ryan air has the decency to remind you by email and text to check in online to avoid fees. What can we do to stop this happening to others? any ideas?

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    • Wade Shepard November 15, 2018, 7:07 am

      If this was the USA I believe there would be consumer protection agencies that wouldn’t allow this to happen, but this is Europe and people seem more comfortable with being powerless and more willing to accept being scammed. It was interesting, some other passengers who were scammed along with me got upset with me for protesting it rather than at the airline. There seems to be a different mentality about these things. I say the only thing we can do is not fly them and to tell everyone we know to do the same … However, they know that with the lowest “price” in flight searches means an endless source of business … and passengers will keep flying them even though what they ultimately pay in unexpected illegitimate fees brings the price up to just as much, if not more, than a real airline.

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  • Valdas January 17, 2019, 4:59 pm

    I am going to join this group, following my 2x £35 fee for boarding passes, which were not available neither online nor via Wizzair App 10 hours prior to flight. (Flight from Lviv to London Luton [priority]). There were ~6 other people queuing with the same issue and we all had to pay. What I did, I took my phone, recorded everything, collected contact details of the people having the same issue, and filed the complain via Wizzair website. I received their response that they cannot do much, then I followed with a stronger email with words such as claim, final response, civil aviation authority, consumer rights, etc. Wizzair responded that they need to investigate the conversation I did via their helpline. Looking for their respond at the moment… If no progress is made, I will submit my conversations to aviation ADR, who manage Wizzair complains, and I am hoping they will be able to solve the problem.

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    • Wade Shepard January 19, 2019, 12:02 am

      Let me know how you make out with this. Wizz Air should be fined out of existence.

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      • Mark September 7, 2019, 11:10 am

        I got caught too they look 70.00 from me and my daughter as we hadn’t booked online our return tickets from Poland

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  • Chris January 18, 2019, 11:36 am

    Had the same today. Flying from Cyprus lanaca to UK Luton.. 35 euro each.. no email from wizz air about checking in.. 5 euro goes to the outsourced administration desk.. no representation from wizz air in the airport.. another passenger and his 2 kids scammed by this airline…

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    • Wade Shepard January 19, 2019, 12:01 am

      Unbelievable how they are able to keep doing this.

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  • Arek February 22, 2019, 10:12 pm

    Yes, Wizzair it is a scam. Actually, it is an eastern European airline (from Hungary which famous for scam companies) but it is beyond “normal” European control and law of. Due to many tricks they gained access to some of the Western European airports where they try the same scams as in Hungary. Beware of them. Some countries issued official warnings against ‘Hunagry scam’

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    • Wade Shepard February 23, 2019, 6:21 pm

      Thanks for the tip. Could you provide me with a link to some of these warnings against Hungary scams?

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  • Jonas Wassberg May 3, 2019, 5:37 pm

    Me and my family had bought a Wizzair-ticket, Skavsta-Budapest, with online check-in. When I tried to checked in I received the message that “Online Check-in is not possible for disrupted flights”. I clicked on the approve but still couldn’t check in. I tried to contact Wizzair by phone but failed. My only option was to check in at the airport, which caused me great costs. Since the possibility of checking in online was blocked, the check-in cost at the airport should be considered an unduly hidden fee. The same thing is repeated on the return journey and we had to pay you 50 Euro per person. In total, this cost us 340 Euro extra. Is there any chance of getting the money back? Wizzair responds only to its standard answers.

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    • Wade Shepard May 3, 2019, 6:53 pm

      That’s insane. That’s even taking it one step farther than what I experienced. I don’t believe there is any way to get your money back. The airline is a scam — this is their business model, not a mistake or temporary glitch. They got you, they got me. The only thing we can do is never fly them again.

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      • Aiya June 23, 2019, 11:52 pm

        I can’t believe I am reading this! I just got back from Budapest having had to go through the same stress. We had two flights with Wizz Air. The first one was Berlin-Budapest which we bought on their website and really worked fine. They sent us an email with the “Confirmation Code”. We used their website for online checkin, printed out the boarding passes and everything worked perfectly. The second one Budapest-Astana was quite the opposite!!! We never received their email with this “confirmation code”, so we were advised by the airport officer to check-in at the counter. We queued for 40 minutes to be told that since we had not registered online we had to pay for the airport registration! Nonsense! The Wizz air officer seemed very nervous and even ashamed but she gave us the slip and redirected us to their office where more than 10 people were already queuing! We had to wait for another 15 minutes! What we heard was “the travel agency you booked your ticket with is responsible for not providing you a valid confirmation code, so you should contact them and as for now you have to pay 45€ X2 to be let boarding”. To say that we were shocked is to say nothing! But other people were easily paying extra 45€ and not saying a word about it. So we did pay. The next “surprise’ that we got was the information that our tickets do not include luggage allowance so they made us pay 75€X2! Since we had only 45 minutes left before our flight to go through the security and passport control and boarding we paid it panically and ran to the gates. I was hoping that I could reclaim 240€ paid but reading your article and the comments I guess this is not possible. What I know is I will definitely never fly Wizz air again! And I will write about my experience everywhere! Thank you for sharing yours. It was really helpful.

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        • Trevor June 24, 2019, 5:42 pm

          Aiya

          that’s insane

          I wont fly with Wizz. I flew once with ryan air…. never again… who else has a FB page ‘I hate…’ , ? ‘I hate ryan air’ in this case. they made their carry on a few inches smaller than everyone else so everyone gets caught out…

          Easy jet have their shit together but i prefer to pay a bit more… get free snacks, dinner, coffee and zero shite by flying with a non budget airline.

          i never use skyscanner, kayak or what ever….. i just go first to Expedia.. cos there are never any surprises.. u pays ur money. finished..

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          • Wade Shepard June 25, 2019, 8:02 pm

            Very true. Is saving what amounts to a few bucks — if that — worth the trauma? There are some high-quality budget carriers, such as Norwegian, Jet Blue, or even Air Asia, but some of them are just downright scams. I’m actually going to put out the word and try to get some former Wizz Air employees to go on the record and talk about the experience from their end and what they had to endure being put in the middle of the scams or even being behind the scenes in their creation.

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            • Trevor Warman August 23, 2021, 7:26 pm

              Hope you got to talk with some people!

              I updated my opinion on using Expedia. Don’t!

              The payment for Mérida to CDMX didnt go through. I called my bank. No issue my end. Someone didnt want my money.
              No customer service, just a robot with no option to talk to a human and no option which could answer my query. So you’re just left there with no answers and no flight. Wankers.

              One would think trying to give my money to someone would be easy? Jaja

              I booked directly at a VIVA AEROBUS office! So easy and stress free and a few quid cheaper…

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              • VBJ September 8, 2021, 2:17 pm

                That’s funny. Whenever I needed to get a hold of someone at Expedia it’s always been pretty easy. Granted, you’re talking to some call center person in India, but I don’t remember it ever being a hassle. Maybe that’s changed???

                But anyway, under any circumstance Expedia and those sites are just for when you feel like being lazy. Much better to use the booking engines to find what airlines have the best prices and then just book direct through the airline.

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        • Wade Shepard June 25, 2019, 8:06 pm

          Yes, the airline is fascinating because of the absolute brashness of their scams. They act like they operate with impunity, that they can trick and rob people as much as they like. I may look into this a little deeper.

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  • Johannes Møgster July 23, 2019, 6:26 am

    Har prøvd i to dager å sjekke inn, men Wizzair gjør det umulig. En blir tvungen ekstra avgift på flyplassen. Flyforstyrrrelser, forandring i flyavganger osv.. gjør det ikke mulig.. Dem vil heller ha noen ekstra tusen lapper på flyplassen..svindel og lureri fra ende til annen..

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    • Wade Shepard July 23, 2019, 7:23 am

      That is true. I believe — but cannot confirm — that they run an algorithm that doesn’t allow a certain percentage of passengers to check in online. This airline is a scam from top to bottom.

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  • Toby Padgham August 8, 2019, 5:19 am

    I’ve just returned from Ohrid to Luton having been charged 36euro each for my family of 5 because I checked in at the airport. On the outbound journey from Luton I wasn’t charged when I checked in and nor was I informed of any charge. None of my family take a phone abroad (no electronics – unusual I know) and wouldn’t have been able to check in online even if we had been informed at Luton. Having spent £2400 on the flights for a 3 hr journey – getting hit for another 180euros – this adds to the generally poor Wizz Air experience – an absolute rip off. I fly 12 or 13 times a year for work to various countries and have never seen this. Wizz Air needs to be overt with key terms at the point of booking – this was not clear and is not in the flight details I was sent at the point of booking. Upon searching – it is in the terms and conditions link through to the website if you look under ‘checking in’ (whoever goes through reams of t&c’s in a contract to make sure there’s no hidden charges?). Scam. I won’t be flying wizz air again.

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  • JAYNE SIMPSON August 12, 2019, 4:43 am

    I can fully understand your anger with Wizzair, HOWEVER, I have traveled back & forth from Luton U.K. to Ohrid about 12 times in the last 3 years and have never had these problems you seem to have had. I am far from IT literate, aged 72 & have always printed out my boarding pass shortly before flying. I don’t have the app as some airports won’t acceept them, Ohrid being one of them. I have had four groups of visitors from the U.K. & they, too have not had any problems. In my experience, Wizzair are no better nor worse than other budget airlines e.g. Easyjet & Ryanair, both of which I have used several times in the last 10 years.

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  • Vincent December 4, 2019, 1:59 pm

    One more to add! I got a booking with cabin hand luggage. But when I got there I discovered that the default hand luggage is a tiny one (women hand bag size) and not a standard size cabin luggage. So I had to pay an extra 35 euros each hand luggage….

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    • Wade Shepard December 7, 2019, 5:51 pm

      They try to get you any way they can. The only thing to do is to stop flying them. In the end they don’t save you any money and usually leaves a bad taste in the mouth.

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  • traveler July 28, 2021, 4:28 am

    Confirm: Do not fly Wizzair!
    Why? Because they are masters of deceiving tricks and practices. Take a moment and read what I experienced, and then decide if you want to fly with this company. It all began when we found cheap tickets to Sicily and we decided to make a reservation for our holiday. My three kids, wife and me. Of course, they offer all possible extras such as travel insurance, risk trip cancellation, 4.99 eur per person for online check-in service, service package assistance for 32.80 eur, etc, it’s up to you. We had to fight through a complicated system of check-in two days before the departure, as they kept sending emails, inviting and pressing to do the reservation of seats. If we don’t do the check-in online for free, it would cost us 35 eur per passenger at the airport. When I tried to do the check-in, the system wouldn’t let me through, unless I choose the seats. But these had to be paid extra 60 eur per seat. Naturally I was searching for fora to find out if I really have to pay this extra or is it possible to do it at the airport for free. Nothing useful came out of this search, so this is another reason why I’m writing these lines. One day before the flight, the amount for check-in (for free) and choosing seats was reduced to a more reasonable sum, so I thought ok, maybe I will not have so many problems at the airport and children can sit together with us.
    On the day of departure, I received an email even before we started from our home, saying that there will be a delay. When we came to the airport, another email for further delay arrived – altogether almost two hours. Needless to say, that this was the only flight to show delay on the departures display…
    We arrived safely, sitting together and playing with the children. When asked for a cup of water for my son who had hiccups, the steward kindly said we can buy a bottle.
    When our holiday was nearing the end, I was expecting an email from the company, saying we can do the check-in, as it happened the first time repeatedly. Unfortunately, no email came, and in all the fuss about returning the rent-a-car and packing I forgot to do it a day earlier. It should be said, that online check-in at this company is possible until three hours before the flight. After that you have to do it at the ticket office and pay for it. It’s all clearly explained on their website. Our flight was scheduled at 14:50 next day, so I decided to do it early in the morning. When I was looking to figure out how to do it, I learned that I forgot the password for the company’s website. So, I pressed the password reset button and waited. And waited. We had to move on to the airport, went to the counter, but the lady said that we can check-in only two hours before the flight. Finally, the password reset email came, exactly at 12:00! I tried to do the check-in, but the system didn’t allow it any more, as it is possible to do it only until three hours before the flight. Flight which was already advertised to be delayed. I went to the counter, and very nice lady tried to do it for me, but then she realized it is impossible and sent me to the ticket office. There was nobody until 13:30 and finally another nice lady explained to me that I have to pay extra 215 eur for check-in and for issuing flying tickets. As the departure was nearing, I decided to surrender. And it wasn’t only me who had this problem, at least three other passengers I saw standing behind me at the ticket office – a young couple from USA and another lady. Of course, we got seats scattered all around the airplane, from row 6 till 32 – to punish us further? Later in the plane I noticed empty rows just in front of me, the system knew we are a family with kids…
    I didn’t say anything about the luggage yet. A very elaborated system, but you can choose whatever suits you best, so we took two checked-in bags, allowing us to have 2x20kg of stuff, paying extra 104 eur and two hand baggage. For children we decided to take the priority option, allowing them to have two cabin baggage, one of 8kg, and one hand baggage. As we already witnessed unpleasant situations at boarding, we were very careful to respect the allowed dimensions – 1/40x30x20 and 1/55x40x23. Waiting for delayed departure (again), we saw a man who evidently suffered some kind of accident and had immobilized left arm. His wife asked for a priority boarding and thy were allowed to it. But then a lady came, asking them about the luggage. As they didn’t pay for it, they were not allowed to bring it to the cabin, unless they pay extra. Another lady wanted to bring her baggage to the cabin, although she paid with her ticket for the checked-in luggage (but did not use this option). So, she has been invited to pay extra 45 eur before boarding.
    What is evident from this writing, is the fact that the company actively seeks how to deceive passengers to squeeze more money out of their pockets, which is nothing new for a low-cost company. But in the attempt to achieve this goal, they carry out a series of unfair practices. From the attractive price at the beginning (14,99 eur for us), it costed us almost 700 eur. This is an amount that allows you to fly with a normal airline, you don’t have to choose low-cost and to endure all this stress and fraudulent practices. But the most striking thing that triggered this writing is the planned delay in sending an electronic response to a password reset, and the fact that it’s a deliberate and intentional delay. Wait until it is too late to do the online check-in is really a dirty, rude, dishonest and unfair practice. And the trick that you cannot check-in if you don’t pay for seats? Why do you have to pay for seat allocation when checking online? Why there is no clear explanation how to avoid this payment? I invite any other passenger who had similar experiences to write a response to this notice, to explain people that this company is not worth their trust. Of course, I took all the envisaged steps to appeal to the company, but received only the standardized and impersonal answers, explaining the rules of the company’s website. I will no longer fly with this company, and I hope I saved someone’s money and nerves too, when they will choose some other airline. I know that all the rules are carefully explained on the company’s website, but they are so twisted and difficult to understand, you cannot realize you have a problem.
    Fly safely and enjoy your holidays!

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  • Matthew May 22, 2022, 3:46 am

    I also got scammed by wizz air . The day before getting scammed by wizz air i was scammed by a waiter in a higher end restaurant in budapest . I was also aware of the typical scam in budapest where 2 girls come up to you and say its one of the girls birthday and they want to invite you to drink .only to lure you into a scam bar that charges you 100s of euros for alcohol that wasnt ordered. Luckily i didnt fall for that scam because i read about ot online . It was crazy that within hours of being in budapest i had the 2 girls come up to me and my friend and try to get us into the scam bar for a girls birthday party.lol . I will never go to budapest again. Is scams in the culture of hungary ?

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    • VBJ May 23, 2022, 11:53 am

      Yes, Wizz is the worst. Don’t know much about scams in Budapest. I never had that experience when there but I guess that’s to be expected anywhere there’s a bunch of tourists.

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