Review | WOWair Flight from San Francisco to London
I traveled for two weeks with my boyfriend in Europe this past summer.
This was my very first time traveling to this continent and I was beyond excited!
Most of my friends and family have traveled to some part of the great continent at some point.
So definitely feeling left out I am glad I got to experience it for myself.
My boyfriend and I booked our flights about 7 months in advance through WOWair.
I used Kayak's price alerts to let me know about flight deals.
We each spent $348 dollars for our flights to London.
This price included 1 cabin luggage and 1 hold luggage.
This was my second time flying for a long distance but this experience was very different from my last experience flying to the Cook Islands.
What Was NOT Included
They do not provide any complimentary meals or drinks on their flights, instead they sell food and beverages on board that you can purchase.
Blankets and pillows are also available for purchase.
There were no TVs or monitors for you to watch movies on during the flight.
They do have iPads that you can rent from them that have pre-loaded movies on them.
What Was Included
They had these universal outlets on the plane that you could plug your devices in to charge which was nice.
We also did get free Wi-Fi which was nice.
How we prepared for this flight experience
As you can see from the list above there were not a lot of amenities included with this flight.
That is expected when flying a budget airline.
My boyfriend and I decided we would do a couple things to prepare for our flight to make the experience more enjoyable.
We downloaded Netflix TV shows and movies onto his iPad for us to watch on the plane.
We also went to the Lounge at SFO and ate dinner there before our flight for free.
My boyfriend and I were those people and brought plastic bags to put extra food in for us to take on our flight.
We were also considering bringing our own food to the airport but we just decided we would take the lounge food.
We filled up our water bottles as well in the lounge because WOWair does not provide free water.
In-Flight Experience
I slept majority of the flight which was great because it helped me to start adjusting my sleep schedule.
My boyfriend on the other hand had a harder time sleeping.
The flight attendants do dim the lights and make announcements when they will be coming around with food or other amenities for you to purchase as well.
I was a little warm on my flight I did have a lot of layers on but even after removing them I was still pretty warm.
I found this strange because normally I’m colder on flights.
Reykjavik Airport Experience
We had a five hour layover in Iceland which was kind of lame because it was not enough time to go to the main city and come back to make our flight (without feeling super rushed) so we ended up just hanging out in the airport the whole time.
This was kind of a waste of time to me but at least my boyfriend got to sleep.
Also when we landed we got an email that said our flight to London was overbooked.
We went to the customer service area for WOWair and the employee there told us what we could do if we chose to give up our seats on our flight to London.
They were offering free stay at a hotel nearby and transportation to and from the airport.
I can’t remember what else they were offering but it was more than that, but we decided to just try and get on our flight.
If we didn’t have pre-paid tickets or reservations for the next day in London we probably would have stayed.
Since they sent that email saying the flight was overbooked people started lining up at the gate as soon as they showed which gate the flight was leaving from.
This we later found out was not necessary because there were enough seats on the flight.
Also employees that we spoke to made it seem like this happens a lot so I guess if your flight is overbooked it may not actually be.
Overall
This was my first time flying on a budget airline for a long flight and I think I would fly WOWair again if:
I got a really good deal
Planned on traveling carry-on only
If I don’t get a good price or not planning on using a carry-on I probably would just spend the extra money to fly on a different airline for a better in-flight experience.
I would rather pay the extra money for convenience and comfort.
Having a direct flight is nice because then you get to your destination sooner and you don’t feel as exhausted from the travel.
I was not a fan of the layover and confusion of the overbooked flight, so probably won’t fly WOWair unless its extremely cheap.
Let me know if you’ve ever flown WOWair or another budget airline and your experience! I would love to hear about it.
Thanks for reading!