Wizz Air and "London" Luton Airport. A story of stupid.

We queued for our flight to Prague from "London" Luton on Saturday 3rd December. It was a late one and people looked tired. We’ve flown 500 times in the last 5 years, mostly low-cost airlines. We get the rules, small bag for free, large bag goes under the plane. But Wizz Air changed those rules, now our normal bag was a deviant “large cabin bag” and cost another ￡40.

We were upset and surprised, so were a number of other passengers. “Empty money,” said one “thieves,” said another. The ground staff was unrepentant “we don’t work for Wizz Air; we just apply their rules”. “They were only following orders” I mused. The tension was palpable but we’d just come back from a funeral and were deciding to not get more upset. However, to wind us up further they corralled us like cattle outside, in freezing weather, “push up”, “move over” as they tried to squeeze the queue before boarding. Eventually, we were allowed to go on. 

We sat in our seats like good girls and boys. As the final passengers came on there was a disturbance at the back. A blond woman was being told she’d have to leave the plane because she’s been aggressive to the ground crew. Another man who supported her said they were only defending a third passenger who was being forced to pay the extra fees because the wheels on her suitcase were slightly over the allowed height. 

More drama followed, “you absolutely have to leave,” said ground crew, “no you don’t,” said Wizz Air staff, who now realised the Luton ground crew were over reacting. Then the captain was called. He listened and agreed that the passenger should stay. She was clearly calm and her story was backed up by witnesses. It was his plane after all to decide, he said the ground crew was over-reaching their powers. 

You’d think that would be the end of it. But the police had been called and the blond woman and the man (the witness) were called to the front of the plane. The upshot was that ground crew had final say, and the police came on to back them up. She left the plane and we took off (after another security check) nearly one hour late. 

I later spoke with the witness. He said the ground staff had definitely over reacted and were on a “power trip”. They had only been defending the person who was being fined for no reason. They were forced to apologise just to get to the plane. It seemed clear that the performance of the ground crew was very questionable, and likely mean-spirited, even pushing past passengers on the stairs and finally not allowing the flight to leave. And all this because Wizz Air has bad rules for cabin bags. That’s the rub. If they were flexible and not gouging passengers we’d have all left on time. 

In conclusion shame on you “London” Luton Airport. And Wizz Air have a little look -see what Ryanair and EasyJet are doing on their flights with baggage allowances, it’s not rocket science. Your approach now will gain you a bunch of revenue in baggage charges but lose you twice as much in future passenger revenue and when oil prices go up, customer satisfaction will actually matter and you’ll really suffer in my view. And finally, it made me happy that some people will stand up to bullies, even if the results are an extreme inconvenience for them. I hope Wizz Air find her and make sure she is treated well from now on. 

cc Johan Eidhagen, Daniel de Carvalho, Owain Jones, József Váradi

cc Nick Barton, Ollie Jaycock, Neil Thompson