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Wow Air

Posted by (Florida, USA) on

I booked my flight to Paris for September on Wow Air (Baltimore to Paris, round trip through Keflavik). It's a few hours longer than a direct flight but not really longer than any other flight with a connection (10+ hours there, 11+ hours back). The booking price is great, $500. Cheaper than any other option.

Like most low-cost airlines, however, you have to make sure the other costs work for you. My other costs so far: a seat reservation for the flight leg into Paris for $9. I like to hit the ground running so I paid for a seat on this leg. On the others, I'm still deciding whether I care enough to purchase a seat reservation.

The downer cost right now is for a carry-on bag. You get a whopping 5kg carry on for free. To bump the carry on up to 12 k costs 16 euro, but that's for each leg. So a normal carry-on bag costs a little under $50 each way (two legs). For a 20 kg checked bag (plus your 5kg carry-on) the cost is $68 each way (two legs). I'm sure I'll carry-on over to Europe. It helps me get out of the airport and on my way quickly. Assuming I do a carry-on for my whole trip, the cost (with one seat reservation) is just over $600. If I check on the way home, add another $19.

The next best flight prices I found are around $680 (then up quickly from there). With those I'd probably get free carry-on but likely also pay for a seat reservation on the lowest cost options.

Ultimately, I'll save some money with Wow Air but not as much as one might think on first blush. Am I disappointed? Not at all, but I might be depending on how the flight goes. Most airlines are like cattle cars now anyway, so if they get me there and back on time and in one piece, I'll be happy.

I'll report back when I get back in October.

Posted by
11315 posts

The "menu pricing" certainly adds up, but if you are able to go with the flow and travel light, you can save some money. I recently booked on Condor Air and certainly saved over say Delta/KLM or United, but each checked bag was pricey (and going to the U.S. we have to check a bag), as were upgraded seats for comfort, early boarding, etc. So my $519 ticket became a bit over $600 (one way) in no time.

Look forward to your trip report! I've been thinking about WOW for some future trips.

Posted by
19092 posts

"To bump the carry on up to 12 k costs 16 euro, but that's for each leg"

Am I looking at the wrong place. According to this WOW page, an extra 7 kg (still one item) costs $38.99 (almost $160 for RT with 1 connections ea way). WOW!

If you select Germany as your country, they only charge 16€ (a little over $18) for the extra 7 kg. WOW!

Now I see why they call it WOW airline.

Posted by
873 posts

This sounds very similar to Norwegian, which we are using to fly to Berlin in September. The base price tickets were $400 per person for an RT flight from Boston to Berlin, but seat reservations, checked luggage, meals, headphones, etc. are all extra and can add up if that's the sort of thing you really care about having on a flight.

As to luggage: we are allowed a 10kg carry-on, but unless you're buying a more expensive "Flex" ticket, additional baggage can get very expensive very quickly when multiple legs are involved. I decided to play it safe and pay for a checked bag on the way home, which was an additional ~$90. Overall, $900 for two people was still a pretty awesome deal, so I don't have any complaints so far.

Posted by
12172 posts

Lee,

That sounds right for the price for a 20 kg bag. The site has a drop down menu where you can choose options, it defaults to one 20 kg bag. The additional weight for the carry on works out to in the neighborhood of $80-90 for the whole trip (4 legs). I checked the price of doing checked on the way home and it was roughly $20 more.

I don't normally bring home souvenirs but there's no advantage to opting early so I'll probably wait until I'm checking in for the flight home to choose.

I do think their price of $9 for seat selection is a pretty good deal. Many airlines are charging more than that to choose your seat nowadays. You get some choices there too. Depending on the plane they charge more for xtra legroom (XL) seats and still more for what they call XXL seats. The difference can be as high as $39 for each leg but there were plenty of seats available in decent locations at the lower price. Even the $39 is a good deal compared to booking an "economy plus" seat through other airlines.

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