For some it is the dream: a Flight pass around Europe and the Mediterranean.
For others, of course, it is an ecological nightmare.
Wizz Air’s new “All You Can Fly” pass allows passholders unlimited flights for a year for 599 euros (989 US dollars) starting September 25.
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If the price sounds too good to be true, that’s because for many people it is. But for some, it’s just right – literally.
Flights can only be booked within 72 hours of travel, so this option is best suited to frequent flyers who can change their bookings at short notice. They are also only available as one-way fares – meaning most people will have to book a one-way flight without knowing exactly when a return flight will be available.
It’s also not really possible to book one flight segment and cancel it if the other doesn’t show up – if you cancel three times, your entire pass will be cancelled.
The pass also renews automatically, so you’ll need to cancel it after one year if you don’t want to continue using it.
So what do you get? Unlimited flights – up to three per day – for the whole year. For each flight, you pay a flat fee of 9.99 euros ($16.50) each way.
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This is the basic ticket. If you want to add luggage, seat reservations or priority boarding (which allows you to take one piece of rolling luggage) you will have to pay extra. Bags usually cost around 50 euros ($82) per section.
The pass is valid for the entire Wizz Air network, which covers much of Europe, the Mediterranean and even the Middle East. Only domestic flights within Italy are not covered.
Members must specify a preferred departure airport from which most of their flights are likely to depart. Most of these airports are already sold out, with only flights remaining from Central and Eastern Europe and Norway. Not all flights have to depart from these airports, but the airline reserves the right to cancel the tickets of anyone it has reason to believe has registered as being from a particular area but is actually from another area.
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The airline also does not guarantee a flight on an aircraft where a seat is available. Its terms and conditions are rather opaque when it comes to availability, stating that “the provision of airline tickets is dependent on a number of internal and external factors”, including seat capacity, the number of passengers on the flight and the total number of registered All You Can Fly members – currently set at a maximum of 10,000.
The airline could not explain at what capacity the seats are allowed or prohibited. CNN.
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So is it worth it? Possibly, if you’re willing to fly at short notice and are flexible on a return flight. Also if you travel light. Most importantly, if you’re travelling alone – even if you buy passes as a couple, there’s no guarantee that you’ll both get a seat on the flight.
However, you also have to be a frequent flyer to make it worthwhile. One Wizz frequent flyer who regularly flies between the UK and Italy said he usually pays around €50 for a one-way ticket that he books a few weeks in advance.
In June, Wizz was named the worst airline for flight delays in the UK. third year in a row.
And although the fleet of new Airbuses makes them among the youngest and the most fuel efficient fleetsThe rapid expansion of low-cost airlines is one of the main reasons for the dismal environmental record of air transport, according to the lobby group Transport & Environment.
