By Dawn Gilbertson
LONDON -- The hotel employee snickered when I told him I was flying Wizz Air to Budapest.
"I don't use Wizz," he said. "Their charges for luggage are a scam."
Turns out travelers on both sides of the pond like to bad-mouth budget airlines. Wizz, Ryanair, easyJet and others offer cheap fares and a pile of add-on fees like their U.S. counterparts Frontier, Spirit and Allegiant.
Yet they shuttle millions of passengers between countries on the cheap every year, many of them tourists trying to cram in several European hot spots. Ryanair hit 200 million passengers last fiscal year for the first time, making it one of the world's largest airlines by that metric. (American Airlines carried 226 million.)
To size up budget airlines during a recent European journey, I booked one-way flights on Wizz, Ryanair and easyJet. I paid around $475 for three flights, including one checked bag per flight, with reservations made a few weeks before departure. Better deals are available with advance booking.
The airlines are all no-frills. Baggage rules and penalties are superstrict. There's no Wi-Fi, seat-back screens or in-seat power. The seats are stiff and don't recline. Food and drinks are extra.
But I got to see three countries in a week, and I'd fly each airline again at the right price. Just as I would Frontier, Spirit or Allegiant.
Route: London Luton to Budapest
Price: $193
Nickel-and-diming alert: a $46 fee to check in at the airport instead of online if you buy its basic ticket. (You can pay $3.30 for automatic check-in.)
Lesson No. 1 when booking flights on foreign airlines you don't know: Carefully check the departing airport. Many of these discounters fly from secondary airports. That isn't a deal breaker, but you need to factor in travel time and the cost of getting there.
Wizz offers flights to Budapest from London Gatwick and London Luton, not Heathrow, which is connected to the city's tube network. My Saturday afternoon flight left from Luton, which is more than 30 miles northwest of central London. Taxis and ride-shares ran well over $100.
I took a taxi to the St. Pancras station and hopped a train to Luton. It was a slog, taking more than an hour-and-a-half door to door. Partly that was my fault; I paid for the Luton Express but ended up on a regular train with several stops. The total trip cost: $55.
At Luton, I was anxious about my checked bag being overweight and my personal item being forced into a bag sizer.
My ticket bundle included a checked bag weighing up to 20 kilograms, or 44 pounds. Mine came in at 20.6. (Don't judge; this was a long trip.) The agent sent it through without saying a word. Serious overpackers should pay up for more weight.
At the gate, I didn't see any policing of carry-on bags, a major knock against discounters. No one made me measure my backpack. That doesn't mean checks don't occur on other Wizz flights.
We flew to Budapest on an A321neo with 239 seats. Delta, in contrast, has 194 seats on the same plane. I didn't feel particularly uncomfortable on the 2 1/2 -hour flight, but my knees did touch the seat back when crossing my legs. (I'm 5 feet 6 inches.)
Ryanair
Route: Budapest to Rome Ciampino
Price: $137
Nickel-and-diming alert: a $4 fee to have the airline text you your flight details.
I have loved Ryanair from afar for its humorous, sometimes biting, social-media posts. It regularly makes fun of passengers who wear jeans or too little clothing. The pioneer of a la carte pricing owns its thrifty ways, too. One recent post: The biggest relationship red flag is when your travel companion won't pay a seat fee to sit next to you.
My ticket to Rome included seat selection and, as with Wizz, a 20-kilogram checked bag and a personal item. The airline's website notes that if you bring a bigger carry-on or your personal item doesn't fit underneath the seat, you will be charged up to 75 euros (the equivalent of about $87) at the gate. And you are told this again during online check-in. So you can't say you weren't warned.
I was fine with my checked bag (clocked in at 19.8 kilograms this time) and backpack. I didn't witness any bag policing at the express bag drop or at the gate in Budapest.
My first thought on boarding the Boeing 737-800: It felt like a no-frills charter for the University of Michigan with its sea of yellow and blue seats. (There are 189 seats, compared with 175 on Southwest's 737-800s.)
The seats were the least padded of the three airlines, but nothing I couldn't live with for a 90-minute flight. (Wish I could say the same about the middle-seat passenger's knuckle cracking.)
The airline's app encourages you to place food and drink orders in advance so you can beat the flight attendant's trolley. It worked. My chocolate croissant, sparkling rosé and one of Ryanair's signature scratch cards were delivered to my seat soon after takeoff. Total bill: $15. I didn't win anything on the lotterylike scratch card.
Flying into Rome's secondary airport was a breeze, though the hard landing wasn't pleasant. My bag was delivered quickly, and I hopped into a taxi for a 30-minute ride to my hotel in central Rome.
EasyJet
Route: Rome Fiumicino to Nice, France
Price: $146
Nickel-and-diming alert: a $128 rescue fee to rebook if you miss your flight but arrive at the airport within two hours of initial departure.
Rome's major airport was the busiest one I encountered on this trip, but check-in was a breeze. There was no bag anxiety because my bag could weigh up to 23 kilograms instead of 20 kilograms on the two other airlines. No one asked me to put my backpack in a sizer.
I do wish I had sprung for speedy boarding on this full flight so I didn't have to wait in line as long at the gate. (The service is only available with certain bundles.) But I did get a close-up view of the airline's bag policing.
One traveler took the metal frame out of his backpack to make it fit in the sizer under the watchful eye of a gate agent. He made it without being charged $65 extra -- but was covered in sweat.
The Airbus A319 with 156 seats was probably the most comfortable ride of the trip, though that was partly because the flight lasted less than an hour. Bag delivery was speedy, and I was staring at the Mediterranean 45 minutes after landing.
Was any of this luxurious? No. But it got me where I needed to be, on time and at the right price.
Write to Dawn Gilbertson at dawn.gilbertson@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
August 27, 2025 21:00 ET (01:00 GMT)
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