Is Wizz Air's new baggage policy the most confusing in the sky?

If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery then Ryanair’s biggest admirer must be Wizz Air.

The Hungarian low-cost carrier has made a habit of copying its Irish counterpart, not least with its high checked luggage fees and route map packed with obscure Eastern European cities.

This week it further aligned itself with Europe’s budget behemoth, adopting an almost identical cabin bag policy that amounts to an unavoidable charge for all but the smallest items of hand luggage.

I thought Wizz Air already charged for hand luggage?

Well spotted. For several years it permitted passengers to travel with a small item of hand luggage (up to 42cm x 32cm x 25cm) but charged a €10 fee for larger carry-on bags (up to 55cm x 40cm x 20cm). However, it scrapped that fee in 2017, adopting the same policy as Ryanair. Passengers are currently (until November 1) allowed two items of hand luggage (one large, one small) if they pay between €5 and €12 for “Wizz Priority”. If they don’t, they can travel with just one bag – and if it doesn’t fit under the seat in front, it goes in the hold (free of charge).

So what’s happening on November 1?

Ryanair, whose slogan “Low Fares Made Simple” is looking increasingly ludicrous, recently overhauled its policy. From November 1, passengers who refuse to pay extra for “Priority” will only be permitted to travel with one small bag (35cm x 20cm x 20cm) free of charge. So passengers will be faced with a decision. Travel with just a very small bag; pay the Priority fee (which costs ￡6 per person per flight at the time of booking or ￡8 during online check-in); or pay ￡8 per person per flight to check in their 10kg bag.

Low and behold, Wizz this week announced it would be adopting very similar rules – and they will also come into force on November 1. Its passengers will be allowed one small bag on board free of charge (40cm x 30cm x 20cm, so a tad more generous than Ryanair), but only Wizz Priority customers will be permitted to travel with their standard carry-on case (up to 55cm x 40cm x 23cm). The options? Travel with a small bag, pay the Priority fee (between €5 and €12), or check your larger 10kg “carry-on” case into the hold at a cost of €7 per person per flight.

This all sounds very confusing

Quite. As I argued last month, Ryanair’s baggage and boarding policies have become increasingly baffling over the last year or two. Its passengers could once travel safe in the knowledge that, so long as their cabin bag was the right size and weight, they wouldn’t be stung by any extra fees. Now, unless you fancy a long weekend with just the tiniest amount of luggage, and don’t mind being split up from your travelling companions because you haven’t paid for allocated seating, its “optional” charges are unavoidable.

Lingering questions remain. How strict will Ryanair and Wizz be when it comes to enforcing the size limit for smaller items of luggage? I regularly fly with Ryanair carrying a backpack that exceeds these dimensions, but have always been allowed to take it on board despite never paying the Priority fee. I’ve not recently seen any measuring devices at the gate, and staff appear to allow a bit of wiggle room when it comes to rucksacks and small holdalls, focusing their efforts on wheelie bags, but will they become more attentive once the new rules come into effect? It’s certainly a risky business for travellers. If a bag is deemed too big at the gate, Ryanair passengers will be forced to pay a whopping fine of ￡25.

But Wizz Air thinks it’s a good idea?

Apparently so. And just like Ryanair, it says the new “clear and fair” policy is an attempt to cut down on baggage-related delays and enhance the passenger experience. “Passengers want unbundled products and that is at the heart of Wizz Air’s ultra-low-cost model,” said Johan Eidhagen, the airline’s chief marketing officer. “We want to offer our customers the lowest possible fares as well as a transparent view of ticket pricing.

“We are delighted to introduce our new, transparent and fair-for-all baggage policy which offers the widest selection of baggage choices for our customers, while allowing a free carry-on bag for every passenger.

“We are convinced that our versatile offer of more than 50 baggage combinations will address the needs of our customers in a personalised manner and our passengers will continue to pay only for those services they want to use.”

Fifty baggage options? Is that strictly necessary?

Apparently dazzling customers with choice is the new ethos of low-cost airlines. Quite how Wizz worked out that passengers now have 50 options we’re not certain, but on top of of the 40cm x 30cm x 20cm free carry-on, passengers can check a larger bag (55cm x 40cm x 23cm) and up to six big cases weighing a maximum of 20kg (or for an extra fee, up to 32kg). A mathematician must have totted up every conceivable option to deliver the final tally.

Is this the end of free hand luggage?

North America’s low-cost carriers have been charging for hand luggage for years. Florida-based Spirit Airlines, for example, which bills itself as an “ultra-low-cost” carrier, permits a small bag (handbag or laptop bag) on board at no extra cost. Larger hand luggage costs a remarkable $39 per person per flight (￡30) at the time of booking, or $59 (￡45) during online check-in, or $69 (￡53) at the airport. That’s as much are ￡424 on hand luggage for return flights for a family of four. Allegiant Air, Frontier Airlines and Canada’s Flair Airlines have similarly swingeing fees, while another Canadian carrier Swoop, which launched last year, charges more for hand luggage (from $36.75) than it does for checked luggage.

Even some traditional US carriers now have de facto carry-on bag fees, thanks to the widespread introduction of “basic economy” fares. United’s cheapest fares permit just a single small item of hand luggage (up to 23cm x 25cm x 43cm). Anyone who wants a larger allowance must pay extra. “Basic economy” on American Airlines comes with similar restrictions, and amounts to a charge for larger items hand luggage.

This tiered fare structure introduced by US carriers is certainly catching on around the world. British Airways, Delta, Alitalia, Aer Lingus, SAS, Swiss, TAP Portugal, Austrian, Brussels, KLM and Air France are among those to have adopted it, with the bottom tier variously described as “light”, “economy light” and “basic”. However, they all currently include hand luggage.

Is there any benefit to a charge for carry-on luggage?

Convincing travellers to abandon their love of the carry-on, and embrace checked luggage, could be positive. It reduces the clutter of bags in the cabin, which has a safety benefit, especially in the event of an emergency evacuation.

Furthermore, Devin Liddell, principal strategist at Teague, a design consultancy that specialises in aviation and counts Boeing among its clients, believes if all carry-on bags were banished to the hold the boarding process would be sped up by 80 per cent

“One provocative option is to ban all large carry-ons, and outfit the aircraft with far slimmer bins meant solely for small bags,” he told Telegraph Travel last year. “Limiting cabin bags to computer bags, purses, jackets and the like eliminates the chronic Tetris game we’re playing with larger roll-aboard bags. Another idea is to reward passengers who aren’t bringing those large bags aboard through faster screening, reduced fares, preferred seats or even free drinks.”