Max size of FREE hand luggage

Yesterday it was reported in the Daily Mail that No frills airline Wizz Air is to start charging passengers to bring hand luggage on board... I can just bet that Mr O´Leary is hyper ventilating with excitement at this prospect!

The Wizz Air trial is only being carried out on one route - Luton to Katowice in Poland, but if it is successful then it will be rolled out across the network.... let me be psychic now- it WILL be a success I can predict! Passengers will be charged 8GBP to carry any items that are larger than a handbag, rucksack or laptop. Acceptable items that will be free of charge must fit underneath the seat infront of them, so where exactly your feet are suppose to go is beyond me.  Wizz Air claim that the trial will improve on time performance and result in a better overal travel experience - sounds like someone is using the same manual as Ryanair with statements like that! Its ALL about revenue and how much they can extract from the passengers.

But just like sheep, where one leads the others will follow - so it is only a matter of time I believe before we hear an announcement from the other "budget carriers" that they too plan on conducting a trial similar to the Wizz Air one. Gone are the days when budget meant cheap ... now budget equals rip off. More and more people are turning away from them as they refuse to be blatantly taken for a ride with all the excessive additional charges on top of the bargain basement advertised price.

Monarch Airlines have slightly backtracked by offering "Monarch Airpacks"- two options of "all in" prices that include a piece of hold luggage and seat allocation. This is how we use to travel and what the customer wants - at least they seem to be listening to their customer feedback and I think that in the long run they will win this battle of the skies.

If charges are bought in for hand luggage on budget/low cost airlines then I think that those who have no other airline option to chose from will learn to fly wearing the majority of their clothes and carrying military style flap jackets with bulging pockets - others will turn to "normal carriers" where paying customers are treated with courtesy.

It is often the case that the so called low cost carriers are not so low cost once you have added on the "extras" such as hold luggage and seats - looks like they may just put themselves out of business yet. They give nothing away for free and that is obvious for many travelers heading to Spain following the the 6 euro increased departure tax on flights from Spain, which came into effect on 1st July. Budget carriers Ryanair and BMI Baby passed that charge onto customers who had already paid for their tickets by automatically debiting the card used to pay for the initial flight! Most other airlines absorbed the cost for those that had already purchased their tickets - but bear in mind that it will be that bit more expensive now when you book your flights because of this new tax.

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