Review: Wizz Air Bucharest to Oslo Sandefjord Torp (Airbus A321)

In this review, we will take a Wizz Air flight in economy class from Bucharest to Oslo Sandefjord Torp on the Airbus A321-200.

Wizz Air

To commence my great winter adventure to Siberia and Azerbaijan, I first had to make my way to Norway as my amazing flight ticket deal happened to start from Stavanger Airport.

Salvation came with a 10 EUR ticket on Central and Eastern Europe’s favourite low-cost airline, Wizz Air. Yes, the airline is absolutely no-frills, but then again, it brings you to your destination for Ryanair-like prices.

Compared to Ryanair, Wizz Air has in my opinion a much better service, greater reliability and employees who actually seem to like working for the airline, which is not something that can be said about many employees working for O’Leary.

The schedule of the Wizz Air flight was great as well – it would get me into Norway early on Friday morning, leaving a full day of sightseeing in Oslo before the departure of my onward night train to Stavanger in the evening.

Departing Bucharest

The 6.15am departure time was quite brutal and required me to take an Uber to the airport at 4am. Wizz Air had previously sent out a message warning all passengers to arrive three hours prior to the flight if checking baggage due to big queues at Bucharest’s Otopeni airport.

From my previous experiences at my home airport, the morning rush hour can indeed be sheer madness as four airlines (Wizz Air, TAROM, Ryanair and Blue Air) use Otopeni as a hub, while several other airlines such as KLM, Air France and Lufthansa have their aeroplanes parked overnight in Bucharest to allow an early morning departure to their hubs for connecting passengers.

While between 4am and 8am the crowds can be overwhelming as it has outgrown its original capacity and is in dire need of expansion, it is much more calm during later hours.

After queuing for some 25 minutes at the security check, I headed towards my favourite airport bar for a much-needed coffee. If departing from a select few airports (among which Bucharest) you can buy lounge access as an add-on when booking your Wizz Air ticket.

Given the dire state of the two Bucharest airport lounges and the paltry food and drinks options inside, I however don’t think this is great value as you are better of spending the money in one of the airport bars or restaurants.

Seat assignment

Even though I paid only 10 EUR for the flight, I did decide to add priority boarding and seat reservation for 18.5 EUR extra. If you do not buy a seat in advance, Wizz Air will automatically assign you a seat at online check-in so that always poses the risk of getting the dreaded middle seat.

From my experience with Wizz Air (at least 10 flights a year with the airline) the risks are minimal when travelling as a single passenger as on 90 percent of all flights I got automatically assigned a window seat.

That said, with such an early departure I generally have little sleep. Even though in almost all cases I prefer a window seat above an aisle seat, it is even much more important when having an early morning flight as I can rest my head against the aircraft fuselage and try to sleep a bit more.

As I didn’t want to risk getting the middle seat, I just decided this time to pay for advance seat reservation for the assurance of a good seat.

Priority boarding and hand luggage

Priority boarding with Wizz Air was also a must-add for me. As most Wizz Air flights departing from Bucharest are boarded by bus it is not really about being one of the first on board.

It has much more to do with Wizz Air allowing you to bring a trolley and a small rucksack on board if you have bought priority boarding, while without this you are stuck to a small rucksack only as hand luggage allowance.

Bucharest Otopeni (OTP) to Oslo Sandefjord Torp (TRF) on Wizz Air
Flight W6 3215 – Airbus A321-200 – Economy class, seat 10F
Departure: 6.15am – Arrival: 8.35am
Flight time: 3h20m – Distance: 1,210 miles

Wizz Air seating

Even though Wizz Air’s A320 aeroplanes (which compromised the bulk of the Wizz fleet) are fairly comfortable for low-cost airline standards, I absolutely detest Wizzair’s Airbus A321 which would operate this flight.

There is much less leg room, the padding of the seats is rock-hard and the fact that a few dozen more passengers are scrammed onto the plane makes boarding and arrival a pain in the ass. It makes quite a difference if there are just 160 passengers out of an A320 queuing up for passport control on arrival or 230 passengers out of an A321.

Unfortunately, for budget airlines the hard rule is often that how newer the plane is, the more uncomfortable and cramped the seats are. Although to be fair, that also counts for economy class with legacy carriers such as Lufthansa and is not something unique to low-cost airlines.

Slow boarding

Even though we started boarding well on time, the entire process was super slow once on board of the aeroplane. As always when travelling on a low-cost airline, there is a curious mix of passengers.

There were Norwegian and Romanian businessmen, Romanian migrants going to Norway to work as well as tourists heading in both directions.

This flight seemed to have a lot of unseasoned travellers as well who clearly had no idea where to find their seats and where to put their luggage.

One large family in particular seemed to carry their entire household as hand luggage and it took forever until all bags were stored somewhere in the plane.

In the end the doors of the plane were only closed some 20 minutes after our scheduled departure time as we slowly started to roll to our assigned runway.

Departure

Despite the slight delay during boarding and taxiing to the runway, the captain announced we would probably make up the delay once in the air. Take-off was smooth and surprisingly enough, I could not manage to fall asleep at all once we reached cruising altitude. This was perhaps a good thing as the views from the window were breathtaking.

Trust me on this, the picture below do not do the sunrise justice at all as the dirty and scratched window made for some horrible pictures. It was in my opinion one of the most beautiful sunrises I have ever seen in a plane and a good reminder why I always prefer a window seat.