WOW air are very good at the marketing game. An offer of scandalously low fares into the market gets the newspapers chirping and the people talking. Currently it is €99 fares one way from Dublin to the USA and Canada for dates in November through to early December.
Unfortunately, it is a bit of a con job. Yes, you can get tickets for €99.00 which is a fantastic deal. However you will want to be travelling without luggage for your trip and getting back may be an issue. Why? Let’s have a look.
WOW, these are some charges!
Feel like taking a standard carry on bag? That will be €31.99 please. That’s right, your standard carry on bag attracts quite a hefty charge to bring it on board.
How about a checked bag? That’s €47.99 for 20kg please. It is definitely not cheap. How many people fly to the USA without a carry on bag or a checked bag? I’d like to see the numbers on that.
How about some more?
Other charges compare more with other airlines. Priority boarding is a flat fee of €8.99 which is fine for four flights. Standard seats are €6.99 or €7.99. Those that want extra room will pay extra at €16.99 or €25.99.
While the seating costs are reasonable, a flight from Dublin to the USA or Canada is four flights which will each attract four different seat charges. These add up quickly.
How about bundling?
Let us have a look at Dublin to New York Newark. The web site shows the cheapest fare is 3 November and the prices on offer are listed below.
€99.00 – WOW Basic – Flight ticket, and one personal item.
€172.70 – WOW Plus – The above plus a carry on bag, checked bag, and standard seat.
€266.32 – WOW Biz – The above plus an inflight meal, XXL legroom, priority boarding and cancellation protection.
If you select WOW Basic and then choose to add say a cabin bag and a checked bag, the price will be more than the WOW Plus fare which also gives you seat selection. You need to be very careful with the add ons versus the bundles.
WOW, one more issue!
Let’s say you decided to depart on 3 November on your €99.00 fare. You know, pick up a few cheap bits and pieces in the States and not worry about luggage, making it a real bargain trip. How are you going to get back?
The cheapest WOW Basic return fare is 10 days later on 13 November for a princely €259.99. Coming home earlier costs even more so a short trip is out. Okay, maybe you don’t mind when you come back, so you go for the cheapest.
You’d better be prepared to stay almost a month then as the cheapest is €129.99 on 29 November. God help you if you picked up a few things to bring back and need to add a bag!
Overall Thoughts
Low cost long haul travel is here to stay and I have no issue with the headline rates. Yes, you can buy a ticket for that price and they will take you there. It opens up the opportunity for people to travel inexpensively.
That being said, it smells of a cheap publicity stunt as there are not that many seats at the low price and you will be gouged with the return pricing. I checked several cities and all the return flights were far above the €99 outbound flight. Any loss on the ticket price is more than made up for in the free publicity these fares garner.
People need to take care when booking these cheap fares as you can end up paying more. Always check other airline options before jumping in. Thank you for reading and if you have any comments or questions, please leave them below.
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Featured image by Oliver Holzbauer and other image by Bill Abbott via Wikimedia Commons.
A formation of Low Cost Carrier is believable and understandable given the basic tenets of Financial control and Going concern concept. Doing business would imply in such a case , operating small while keeping costs level and under the lid for similar size investment (capitalisation) . So avoiding gearing to remove risk to daily operations. This would require an appropriate initial seed money( being an airline it is no small change). But air ticket sales thereafter on the normal market are made to compensate for the carriage. The planes must take off with ( a good load factor) people who… Read more »
Yes, that is pretty much correct and would be something correct for any business. Air transport is very unusual when it comes to both the regulatory environment as well as capital outlay. You have to keep a very close watch on costs and only take opportunities that appear to be workable, otherwise you will be in a deep hole very quickly. There is a joke about how to make a million in the aviation business, something along the lines of start with ten million and it will soon be one million. Anyway, thank you for the comment!
Flew with them two week ago. Never flying discount carrier again. I called their call centre to fix a 249 euro miss charge for updating my name on there app to only end up with 22.00 euro call centre charge.
You’re kidding me, right? That is seriously unbelievable to still charge you for calling them about an incorrect charge. Wow!
Yep, Check out my tweet about it https://twitter.com/skyteamflyer/status/915634324661313536
“It is definitely not cheap. How many people fly to the USA without a carry on bag or a checked bag? ” Most fly without a checked bag. A carry on is all you need. “€99.00 – WOW Basic – Flight ticket, and one personal item. €172.70 – WOW Plus – The above plus a carry on bag, checked bag, and standard seat. ” No checked bag needed. Basic+carry on+standard seat(~E138) is a more meaningful bundle. “The cheapest WOW Basic return fare is 10 days later on 13 November for a princely €259.99” Then fly back on a different airline.… Read more »
So you’re saying most people who fly to the USA fly without a checked bag? I beg to differ… most people who fly all the other airlines, most definitely take a checked bag.
You are correct in saying that WOW is cheaper on the deep sale fares, especially with no bag. They are definitely pricing well in the market. The point of the article was to make people take some care when jumping on the cheap fares. Not everyone is as smart as you. Thanks for the comment!
Go to the baggage claim on a transatlantic when only your flight is shown on the baggage marquee. Most of the passengers are not there.
Interesting!
Wow Air is a great airlines I have used but there the prices are very high. I generally try finding some coupons for it but never get. So I have now switched to British Airways, Thai Airways, Singapore Airlines. The coupons for the same are easily available so that I get some discounts on my bookings. This time I took the offers from a site named MyCouponpromotion. The site is really good and the codes working really well.
Yes, that makes sense. Thanks for reading and for your comment!
Europe-US flights tend to be more expensive due to hefty taxes charged by European departure points. The base fare tends to be the same both ways; it’s the taxes that kill you. This is not unique to Wow Air, and I actually quite like that flights are priced as one-ways so you can mix and match. It’s also honestly not as bad as it seems. I managed to bring only the personal item just fine, even in the winter; you just need to be clever about what you bring on board. (So paid them ZERO in extra fees.) Re: seat… Read more »
Yes, the taxes are quite high, especially out of the UK where they slap you with Air Passenger Duty which can add quite a lot more to the price of the ticket. I completely agree that it is doable with just the personal item, otherwise no-one would ever fly with them. Norwegian seems to be the popular long haul low cost out of Europe at the moment, as Jetstar is in Australia. It will be interesting to see how the market develops. I probably should give both of them a go sometime in the future to really compare the products… Read more »
honestly, it’s not as bad as it seems. just flew them back in Feb 2017 … managed to skirt all bag and seat-assignment fees (in a free-n-clear fashion, not whining to the ground staff).
are the fees ridiculously high ? absolutely. are they unavoidable ? based on my experience, not really.
and i’m speaking as someone who has NEVER previously flown any other ULCC like Spirit, Frontier, Ryanair, Wizz, AirAsia etc.
I guess you managed not to take any baggage with you, then? I certainly know that is entirely possible. I can take a messenger bag over my shoulder for a two day trip quite easily and I could stretch that to three. The thing is, going long haul to the USA usually requires some baggage and some time.
Good to hear your feedback though. I have friends who have flown with WOW as well and they say it’s definitely low cost, but that you get what you pay for so it was not unexpected. Appreciate the comment!
That’s good to know. Now I know I won’t be flying them. I’ve never heard of a flight from the USA that charges you to bring your own carry on luggage with you. And if you have 2 or more people and you want to choose special seating that’s a lot of money on each leg of the flight.
Yes, it’s a bit on the nose to charge for carry on luggage. That being said, it might make people just check a hold bag and not bother with a carry on, which potentially could educate people to not bring so much in the cabin. Either way it’s an interesting one for longer haul sectors. Agreed, with two people the seating charges rack up fast! Thanks for the comment!
They all charge you, Marshall. There isn’t a baggage fairy godmother who pays it for you. The question is just whether you pay for my heavy bag while you just carry a wallet, or whether I do. I understand that you plan to continue paying for my heavy bag and I want to let you know how much I appreciate that.