Ryanair vs Wizz Air: bag fees on a return from Sofia

The same thing, which surprises people who expect one to be meaner than the other. Both Ryanair and Wizz Air carry one free bag of 40 x 30 x 20 cm under the seat in front, on every fare including the cheapest, and both sit above the 40 x 30 x 15 cm industry minimum. The difference is in how they police it. Wizz Air caps the bag at 10 kg and states in its conditions of carriage that the dimensions include side pockets, with only 5 cm allowed for wheels. Ryanair publishes no weight limit for this bag at all and does not weigh it, so the only test is the sizer, which is a rigid frame the bag is expected to drop into unaided. For a two or three night trip that fits, the two carriers cost exactly the same in baggage, which is nothing.

Neither airline sells the overhead trolley on its own. Ryanair sells it inside Priority and 2 Cabin Bags at €12.49 to €36 per person per one-way flight at booking, so a return is roughly €25 to €72. Wizz Air sells it inside WIZZ Priority at €10 to €60 online, a return of €20 to €120. Both bundle boarding order into the same product, and Wizz Air adds priority check-in while stating plainly that there is no priority at security control. The bands are wide because both airlines price dynamically, and the advertised floor is not a planning number: in a sample of more than 1,500 cabin bag prices, Ryanair's advertised price was available on 0.3% of flights and Wizz Air's on 0.6%. One practical difference: Ryanair's version is capped per flight and sells out, so it is a booking decision rather than a later one.

Ryanair sells 10, 20 and 23 kg tiers; Wizz Air sells 10, 20, 26 and 32 kg. On the tier most people buy, Ryanair's 20 kg bag is €21.49 to €59.99 per person per one-way flight at booking, about €43 to €120 for a return. Wizz Air's 20 kg bag runs €20 to €112.50 in low season and €25 to €122 in high season, so a return spans €40 to €244. Ryanair starts marginally higher at the floor and ends much lower at the ceiling, which matters more than it sounds: the ceiling is where a busy summer route ends up. Wizz Air publishes its expensive windows rather than leaving them to be discovered, covering Easter, the summer from Jun 12 to Sep 30, 2026, and Christmas. Wizz Air also offers a 32 kg tier, which is useful for one heavy family case where Ryanair's ladder stops at 23 kg.

This is the one place where the two airlines differ in kind rather than in degree. Ryanair publishes two price columns, one for the time of booking and one for everything after, so the cost of waiting is a published number: the 20 kg bag moves from €21.49 to €59.99 up to €39.99 to €75 a leg, and Priority moves from €12.49 to €36 up to €19.99 to €45.50. At the floor of each band, waiting costs between 60% and 129% more. Wizz Air publishes no later tier at all. Its schedule splits by purchase location and by season, so on Wizz Air the cost of waiting is dynamic drift you cannot size in advance rather than a fixed surcharge. The practical advice is the same on both carriers, buy with the fare, but only on Ryanair can you see exactly what hesitating costs.

Both charge more than the fare on many of the routes here. Ryanair charges €70 to €75 to put an oversize cabin bag in the hold at the gate, and €46 to €75 for a checked bag carried to the gate rather than dropped at the desk. Wizz Air charges €55 to €65 for a cabin bag at the airport or gate and €70 to €80 for a checked bag bought there, against a published online floor of €20 to €25. Wizz Air's conditions of carriage add that an oversize cabin bag may be carried as checked baggage anyway, so the fee is a penalty rather than an upgrade. One published exception runs the other way on Ryanair: its airport bag-drop desk charges a flat €35.99 for the 10 kg checked bag, which can beat the post-booking online band. That is the desk before security, never the gate.

Only on Wizz Air. WIZZ Discount Club costs €39.99 to €59.99 a year for standard membership and discounts both fares and bags: €10 off each fare segment on fares from €29.99, and €5 off each 20, 26 or 32 kg checked bag bought online. Two people on one return trip with a bag each is four fare segments and four bag segments, roughly €60 back on a single trip, which covers the membership. It is worth less to anyone who only flies the cheapest promotional fares, since the fare discount does not apply below €29.99, and worth nothing to a cabin-only traveller. Ryanair has no equivalent. Prime closed to new members in November 2025, about eight months after launch, existing members keep their benefits until October 2026, and it never covered baggage in the first place.