WizzAir seat selection fees

[Mojo]

Wizzair, like Ryanair, deliberately splits up passengers travelling together on the same booking, so I prefer to pay extra for reserved seats. With Ryanair this isn't too much of an issue as you can get seats starting from £3 or £4 each.

A recent booking with Wizzair, on a return flight booking about 6 weeks in advance, I found they wanted to charge me over £80 to reserve two seats so didn't pay it. When I checked in and found we were inevitably placed at opposite ends of the plane I went in to change seats and was surprised to find they were offering me a reservation fee of something like £10 each on the outbound and £6 each on the return, which I paid for.

Thinking at the time I may have misread when booking and the £80 was in fact their "recommended" seats (even though I'm sure I went onto their seatmap and tried to select random seats), when I got home I tried to amend a booking for May next year, but the cheapest pair of seats I can find is £38. So presumably from this, WizzAir has initial high seat reservation fees and then reduces them closer to departure, before perhaps increasing them again upon check in? Does anyone know exactly when is the "sweet spot" to place a seat reservation with them?

 

[WizCastro197]

Wizzair, like Ryanair, deliberately splits up passengers travelling together on the same booking, so I prefer to pay extra for reserved seats. With Ryanair this isn't too much of an issue as you can get seats starting from £3 or £4 each.

A recent booking with Wizzair, on a return flight booking about 6 weeks in advance, I found they wanted to charge me over £80 to reserve two seats so didn't pay it. When I checked in and found we were inevitably placed at opposite ends of the plane I went in to change seats and was surprised to find they were offering me a reservation fee of something like £10 each on the outbound and £6 each on the return, which I paid for.

Thinking at the time I may have misread when booking and the £80 was in fact their "recommended" seats (even though I'm sure I went onto their seatmap and tried to select random seats), when I got home I tried to amend a booking for May next year, but the cheapest pair of seats I can find is £38. So presumably from this, WizzAir has initial high seat reservation fees and then reduces them closer to departure, before perhaps increasing them again upon check in? Does anyone know exactly when is the "sweet spot" to place a seat reservation with them?

I suppose that is how they get you, expensive in advance so you can seat with whoever you are travelling with but then cheaper closer to date so all seats by then are taken so can’t be reserved


Emirates also has high seat fees. I’m sure others do to.


Does wizzair split children from parents at all and charges you to sit with them?

 

[yorkie]

I booked seats with about a month to go, and the prices were very expensive.

Except where it is by far the best option for any given journey, I intend not to keep travel with WizzAir to an absolute minimum in future.

 

[WizCastro197]

I booked seats with about a month to go, and the prices were very expensive.

Except where it is by far the best option for any given journey, I intend not to keep travel with WizzAir to an absolute minimum in future.

Ah alright


I haven’t been able to use WizzAir yet but they do have a nice lot of destinations from Gatwick.


Just scrolling through WizzAir for flights to Lanarca in Cyprus in august and all ready down £2000 and can’t help but notice the immense amount of add ons which without adding them out makes travelling seem quite hard. It’s rather confusing

 

[Mojo]

I suppose that is how they get you, expensive in advance so you can seat with whoever you are travelling with but then cheaper closer to date so all seats by then are taken so can’t be reserved

It is very unlikely that all seats will be taken when it becomes cheap to select the seats.

 

[WizCastro197]

It is very unlikely that all seats will be taken when it becomes cheap to select the seats.

Ah alright

I would’ve thought that people would’ve had the mentality to think that all seats will be taken closer to departure without realising they will get cheaper so quickly book up the seats at the most expensive time. If that makes sense

I guess I was wrong.


But I am still curious

Do they split children from adults or are they not allowed to do that? I mean under 12s as BA doesn’t allow under 12s to be seated without an adult.

It is very unlikely that all seats will be taken when it becomes cheap to select the seats.

I didn’t mean all completely. I must’ve worded it wrong! I meant if you are travelling in a family and so there will be seats, but there won’t be a row or so, which prevents them from sitting together if that makes sense.

 

[Mojo]

Emirates also has high seat fees. I’m sure others do to.

There is however a key difference with Emirates, BA, and most other airlines that charge for seat selection, and that is that WizzAir and Ryanair deliberately split up passengers travelling together on the same booking, whereas BA, Emirates and similar will try and seat people together wherever possible, and for instance a couple or group of three it is fairly unlikely you’ll be split up (unless for example you're travelling in a small cabin such as BA Club Europe where it's also more likely for customers to have status and thus would have selected before you). Such airlines also tend to allow you also free pick of most remaining seats.

Easyjet, Jet2.com, and BA's basic fares are sort of a half way house where they try to allocate adjacent seats upon checkin but dont allow free changes.

 

[Tetchytyke]

Do they split children from adults or are they not allowed to do that? I mean under 12s as BA doesn’t allow under 12s to be seated without an adult.

Children have to be seated close to a responsible adult- either the seat next to them, or the seat immediately in front. Ryanair force you to choose a seat when travelling with children for this reason.

I've never flown WizzAir and, judging by reviews here and elsewhere, I have no intention of ever doing so.

 

[Bletchleyite]

Children have to be seated close to a responsible adult- either the seat next to them, or the seat immediately in front. Ryanair force you to choose a seat when travelling with children for this reason.

I've never flown WizzAir and, judging by reviews here and elsewhere, I have no intention of ever doing so.

A very wise choice. Think Ryanair but purply pink and worse.

 

[island]

Children have to be seated close to a responsible adult- either the seat next to them, or the seat immediately in front. Ryanair force you to choose a seat when travelling with children for this reason.

This is a common misconception. There is no legal requirement for this to happen, only a woolly-worded "should" statement in a CAA guideline. Airlines who offer seating close to another member of the same booking for children do so as a matter of their policy.

 

[cactustwirly]

When I was looking at flights to Vienna, on the face of it Wizz were the cheapest by far.
But once you add in the extras, like baggage it was £10 more than BA.

Wizz were £56 return with the basic fare, but priority boarding for the bigger cabin bag was £30 each way. Hold luggage was the same price. So the total was £116

I paid £70 out and £40 back on BA from Heathrow to Vienna, giving a total of £110.
BA is a lot nicer than Wizz, and Heathrow is cheaper to get to than Gatwick for me.

I'd actually pay slightly more to fly BA from Heathrow actually.

My flight with BA was actually cancelled, but I told over 2 hours before departure and I was automatically rebooked onto a later flight, still arriving on the same day. I don't imagine Ryanair or Wizz would do that so easily.

 

[rg177]

Wizz are fine if you're travelling light and don't particularly care where you sit - I've managed Gatwick to Bari for a fiver before. But I've found their crews to be rather brusque and on a flight I took from Rīga with them, they'd overbooked and were looking people to fly...over 24 hours later.

Vueling I'd say are my favourite low-cost carrier. A very nice product indeed.

 

[cactustwirly]

Wizz are fine if you're travelling light and don't particularly care where you sit - I've managed Gatwick to Bari for a fiver before. But I've found their crews to be rather brusque and on a flight I took from Rīga with them, they'd overbooked and were looking people to fly...over 24 hours later.

Vueling I'd say are my favourite low-cost carrier. A very nice product indeed.

Will have to try Vueling

 

[Mojo]

Will have to try Vueling

One to avoid for the foreseeable as they still require face masks.

 

[rg177]

One to avoid for the foreseeable as they still require face masks.

Ouch - though I suppose a lot of their flights are to/from Spain (or both).

I haven't used them since masks were essentially required on all planes - I didn't realise they were still at it.

 

[Tetchytyke]

There is no legal requirement for this to happen, only a woolly-worded "should" statement in a CAA guideline.

"Should" is an interesting word. In a regulatory context it means "we can't legally force you to do this, but if anything happens you're going to have a lot of questions to answer".

Whilst it may be guidance, if an airline didn't follow it and a child died as a result there would be hell to pay.

 

[WestCoast]

A very wise choice. Think Ryanair but purply pink and worse.

Ryanair has been considerably more reliable in terms of actually running flights as scheduled this summer than Wizz (and actually easyJet and BA too) so they have gone up a notch for me. Wizz was a mess if you took any given day from Gatwick and they closed their Doncaster base at short notice too (before the closure was announced).

Vueling I'd say are my favourite low-cost carrier. A very nice product indeed.

Jet2 for me as always found them to be excellent especially their ground staff where some of them actually work for them unlike other airlines. Their fares tend to be a little higher and the route network is mainly typical holiday destinations but they do let you take a full size carry on like BA. I have booked an easyJet flight back from Málaga where the full size carry on cost £40! Due to this, I would have happily paid a £50 premium over easyjet to fly Jet2 if they’d have had a suitable departure.

 

[Bletchleyite]

"Should" is an interesting word. In a regulatory context it means "we can't legally force you to do this, but if anything happens you're going to have a lot of questions to answer".

Whilst it may be guidance, if an airline didn't follow it and a child died as a result there would be hell to pay.

The reason is bigger than that - it is also so an evacuation isn't hampered by people going back into the aircraft to rescue people they are travelling with. Thus splitting up people travelling together is dangerous.

 

[TT-ONR-NRN]

One to avoid for the foreseeable as they still require face masks.

How laughably ridiculous and embarrassing for them in blooming October 2022.

BA is a lot nicer than Wizz, and Heathrow is cheaper to get to than Gatwick for me.

I'd actually pay slightly more to fly BA from Heathrow actually.

So would I.

A very wise choice. Think Ryanair but purply pink and worse.

With a heavy emphasis on the "worse" if you ask me. Ryanair give you what you pay for, and although they have lots of additional charges, they're fairly straightforward. I've never had a problem using them and would always choose them over Wizz.

 

[cactustwirly]

Ryanair has been considerably more reliable in terms of actually running flights as scheduled this summer than Wizz (and actually easyJet and BA too) so they have gone up a notch for me. Wizz was a mess if you took any given day from Gatwick and they closed their Doncaster base at short notice too (before the closure was announced).



Jet2 for me as always found them to be excellent especially their ground staff where some of them actually work for them unlike other airlines. Their fares tend to be a little higher and the route network is mainly typical holiday destinations but they do let you take a full size carry on like BA. I have booked an easyJet flight back from Málaga where the full size carry on cost £40! Due to this, I would have happily paid a £50 premium over easyjet to fly Jet2 if they’d have had a suitable departure.

I have found BA to be the best airline from my experience, like Jet2 they have their own ground handling agents. The older A320s are excellent with at seat power and very comfortable seats. The NEOs are decent and much better than the nasty 737s flown by Ryanair. The cabin crew are good too.

Fares on BA start from £40 each way which is only slightly more than easyJet and cheaper than Jet2?

Other than that, easyJet are decent I would fly with them if there's a significant price difference between them and easyJet

 

[WestCoast]

I have found BA to be the best airline from my experience, like Jet2 they have their own ground handling agents. The older A320s are excellent with at seat power and very comfortable seats. The NEOs are decent and much better than the nasty 737s flown by Ryanair. The cabin crew are good too.

Fares on BA start from £40 each way which is only slightly more than easyJet and cheaper than Jet2?

Other than that, easyJet are decent I would fly with them if there's a significant price difference between them and easyJet

I am BA Silver so I tend to get an excellent experience with lounge access, free seat selection etc on their flights and I agree with you that their older A320s are excellent. However, their reliability on short haul this year has been poor and two trips were cancelled outright at relatively short notice (although just outside the period where compensation was due!). For leisure trips I prefer to just fly direct from my local airports on a budget carrier as I find that much more reliable.

 

[yorkie]

Does anyone have an insight as to when WizzAir seat selection becomes cheaper?

Is it consistent or variable and are we talking hours, days, a week...?

Also do they deliberately put people in middle seats and that sort of thing?

And finally, can you change your seat after check in (which you can do on Ryanair but can't in EastJet)?

Yes I know it's better to avoid WizzAir but sometimes it's the only realistic choice for a particular journey

 

[JohnMcL7]

My Mum just flew with them from London to Portugal and on the week before flying, the seat costs were around £15 to £40 although when she got onto the plane, she found it was half empty so the costs may have been higher if the plane was more booked up.

 

[Mojo]

And finally, can you change your seat after check in (which you can do on Ryanair but can't in EastJet)?

WizzAir allow you to pay to change your seat after checking in when you inevitably find that they have split you up from your travelling companion(s).

I don’t know if it was just bad luck on my part or deliberate however, but both me and the person I was travelling with had the adjacent seats either blocked or occupied meaning that I had to pay two lots of seat selection fees.

As it so happens I didn’t actually make the journey that prompted this thread, as several months before travel the airline that I was doing a self transfer onto changed the flight time meaning that I no longer felt comfortable with the itinerary offered by Wizz (and I couldn’t even reclaim the APD as the fare was something like less than £25 for both of us!)

 

[yorkie]

I'm booked on the 1920 Budapest to Liverpool on Sunday and the price for front row seats is 14350HUF for one of us (let's say passenger "1") and 17100HUF (passenger 2)

The next few rows are 11850 (window/aisle) and 12200 (middle) for passenger 1 and 15650 (window/aisle) and 15300 (middle) for passenger 2.

Emergency exit 14350 (window/aisle) and 14700 (middle) for passenger one for the other it is 15500 (any) for passenger 2.

The cheapest rows are priced at 9300 (window/aisle) or 9700 (middle) for passenger 1 and 7050 (window/aisle) and 6650 (middle) for passenger 2.

A third passenger in our group has the same prices as passenger '1' and all three booked separately.

The prices have not changed since we first booked so we are holding out to see if they reduce.

It's very odd that the prices are so different for different passengers, and also unusual in that in some cases middle seats are charged at a premium, but I guess this is because they know anyone booking that now will be wanting to sit next to someone.

 

[cactustwirly]

Front rows and exit rows are always priced at a premium, seats towards the back are more reasonable

 

[yorkie]

Front rows and exit rows are always priced at a premium, seats towards the back are more reasonable

Yes I am aware but what surprised me was that the prices for passenger one are higher than passenger two in most cases, but for the cheaper seats it's the other way round!

Also although I've heard the prices will go down nearer the time of travel, it hasn't happened yet (but there is still time!)

Well they never reduced the price and we all checked in with just 25 to 30 minutes to spare and we were all individually allocated in the very last row (40). Flight almost full but there are only four in the last row, so two people have panel (no window on this row) seats, two aisle seats and the middle seats are free.

Before we checked in, we did look at seats and the availability kept changing, e.g. at one point I could only select an emergency exit seat while someone else could select a completely different row, but no other rows, so I think they were up to all sorts of tricks.

Even Ryanair aren't this bad but in the end we had the last laugh as we only paid £30 and have a middle seat free, so we played them at their own game and won

 

[cactustwirly]

Yes I am aware but what surprised me was that the prices for passenger one are higher than passenger two in most cases, but for the cheaper seats it's the other way round!

Also although I've heard the prices will go down nearer the time of travel, it hasn't happened yet (but there is still time!)

Well they never reduced the price and we all checked in with just 25 to 30 minutes to spare and we were all individually allocated in the very last row (40). Flight almost full but there are only four in the last row, so two people have panel (no window on this row) seats, two aisle seats and the middle seats are free.

Before we checked in, we did look at seats and the availability kept changing, e.g. at one point I could only select an emergency exit seat while someone else could select a completely different row, but no other rows, so I think they were up to all sorts of tricks.

Even Ryanair aren't this bad but in the end we had the last laugh as we only paid £30 and have a middle seat free, so we played them at their own game and won

Guessing this is an A321 with the space flex cabin.
The last 2 rows are rough, with less seat pitch and narrower seats due the the fuselage tapering in.
All airlines have this, including easyJet and BA (except the ex Wizz planes at Gatwick) The only way to avoid it it is to be lucky at check in or pay to select your seat.

 

[Cloud Strife]

Also do they deliberately put people in middle seats and that sort of thing?

Generally speaking, no, they don't. If you check in just as check in opens, you'll be seated together with the other passengers that you're travelling with.

It's very odd that the prices are so different for different passengers, and also unusual in that in some cases middle seats are charged at a premium, but I guess this is because they know anyone booking that now will be wanting to sit next to someone.

Don't try and make sense out of Wizz's business practices!

Before we checked in, we did look at seats and the availability kept changing, e.g. at one point I could only select an emergency exit seat while someone else could select a completely different row, but no other rows, so I think they were up to all sorts of tricks.

Yes, they really are up to all sorts of tricks. They've got serious problems financially, and the UK operation in particular is absolutely horrific. The sad thing is that their A321s are much, much nicer than Ryanair's Max-8s!

 

[Kumquat]

WizzAir is the worst airline I've ever used. Their website doesn't actually allow you to book seats etc online: you have to download their app, but you only find this out by searching the internet for help. The site just hangs and times out and gives errors, and has been that way for a couple years.

They say there's an option to book assistance in the check-in process, but never found it. A request for assistance by email got an automated response but was never passed on to anyone, resulting in gate staff refusing to assist because assistance hadn't been booked. The gate was chaos, with two staff taking forever to check people, one shouting that families needed to show all their boarding cards individually, which is a problem when there's an app designed so one person has all the boarding cards on their phone.

The worst bit was being told 3 days before our flight that it was going to be 45 minutes earlier. So we had to drive to Gatwick instead of train, then the check-in wasn't even open to drop bags off, even the family/disabled security took well over an hour so there was no time for having a coffee, as the boarding passes said if we weren't at the gate 30 min pre-flight we wouldn't be able to fly. But in the event, because the boarding took so long, the plane actually left at the original departure time.

Apparently they do that a lot, 'moving' flights forward to save on gate staff.