I am trying to figure our Wow Air, after 3.5 flights including both long and short flights, I still can’t quite wrap may head around them. I have no real complaint about the airline, I just can’t figure them out.
The first thing that confuses me is just what you get by paying to be a Premium passenger. I know that you get to choose your seat and on the longer flights there are Big Seats (First Class from 25 years ago) and there are XXL which is a standard Coach seat with more legroom.
You also get to pick a meal, generally a salad, sandwich or some sort of noodle dish. Another perk is Priority Boarding which is nice because so many people are trying not to pay for checked luggage that if you don’t have that early boarding, the small overhead bins are filled very quickly. Speaking of luggage, you do get 1 checked bag (20kg max) and one carry-on bag.
So, I know these things but, many of them are never delivered. On 3 of the 4 flights, the seats that I booked are not the seats that showed up on our boarding passes. They were in the right section except for our flight from Berlin to Reykjavik. Instead of XXL seats on the bulkhead, we got row 3 with XL seats. When you ask the flight attendants, you’re told those are the seats available.
I thought it was only us until, people on every flight were asking about their seats, sometimes because they were separated and other times because they were in middle row (3 seats) instead of on the outside (2 seats). How can this happen with regularity?
Another issue is the food that you select while purchasing your Premium ticket. I chose things that Susan could eat on every flight. When I got my check in email, it said that one of us had selected a meal and the other had not. I know this is wrong because I selected meals for both of us and would not have not selected a meal.
On board, it really didn’t matter as they didn’t have the selected meals from Dallas (never pointed this out, found it in the small print on their website) for some reason. The meals were also hit of miss on all of our flights.
Generally, it seemed quite hap hazard and there was a regular air of confusion. Quite honestly, the flight attendants may be as confused as the passengers are regarding these situations. They’re always very polite but really confused.
My final question has to do with drinks. Are drinks included in the Premium service? DFW to KEF, yes. BER to KEF, no. Still waiting to find out on KEF to DFW as the drink cart has disappeared.
Wow Air otherwise seems to be a good option when flying to Iceland or on to Europe. While they have some new planes, the A330s were acquired from some other airline(s), these are their long-haul planes for markets that the 320s can’t fly due to the distances. Be aware that the overheads on the A330’s are much smaller than most travelers are used to on international flights.
The planes were clean and cleaned inflight by the flight attendants. I’ve seen this on other international airlines, but I can’t imagine an American Airlines flight attendant even considering cleaning a lavatory inflight.
We’ve had no experience yet with baggage handling as we’ve carried on until our return flight to DFW so, we’ll see how that goes when we arrive in Dallas. I’m hoping that our luggage did not sit in the rain in KEF while we endured our 3.5-hour delay.
All in all, I’d give Wow Air a 6.5. They get you where you’re going it seems, they offer some confused comfort and the employees seem to be very polite. On top of this, they offer some very competitive fares. I’d fly them again, especially now that I know what I know.
Back in Dallas now and I have some final thoughts on Wow Air based on my complete experience.
I commented earlier that they announced that cabin service was about to begin. We were seated on the left side of the plane and one cart went down the right aisle…never to be seen again! No other cart came down the left side, ever!
Food was distributed to some in the front, presuming that these were other Premium passengers, as were we. Even though we’d preselected a meal, none was offered and certainly none was delivered. We did get a bottle of water though.
About an hour before landing in Dallas, I asked one of the flight attendants if I could get a cup of coffee, she of course answered yes. She came back to me with a credit card machine and told me it would be 3€ to which I asked if Premium passengers had to pay for coffee, she responded with “your Premium?”. To which I said, Yes. She apologized profusely, the attendant that I presume was the #1 looked at my seat number but said nothing to me. So, two things, they had no idea that we’d paid for Premium and, I did finally get my coffee. If you fly Wow Air, I would make it known from the beginning that you are Premium.
There is obviously a huge disconnect between reservations and the information that ends up on the plane, this was clear from our first flight. I don’t know if I would pay for Premium now as it seems they have no idea that you are Premium or, what’s included as a Premium passenger…I certainly don’t. There are other less expensive ala carte options that I would consider.
In the end, Wow Air got us to and from on our vacation. Can they and should they improve their cabin service, YES. I will be speaking with their customer service later today to see if they have any insights.
Would I fly Wow Air again, probably! Would I pay for Premium, probably not.
ONE FINAL COMMENT AND THIS IS A COMPLAINT!
Our scheduled flight from KEF to DFW was delayed for almost 4 hours, this was on top of the 3 hour 25 minute layover. During that time, you’re spending lots of money (not hard to do in an airport or Iceland). Wow Air announced that they would be passing our food vouchers, which they did. The total of our 2 vouchers was 12 euro or 1500 Krona’s. In the Keflavik airport, I went and got 2 wines, a sandwich and a cookie. This totaled 4000 Krona’s, about $40 of which Wow covered about $15. A mini-can of Pringles cost 560 Krona’s. On top of this, we were talking to other passengers that were not Premium, they got 1/2 the amount we got. Basically, there was no “meal” that you were going to get for what they offered. Even better, the card was called “Travelwelfare“, it felt like it. We’re gonna give you some money but, not enough to feed you. Sort of like food stamps.