Wizz Air and Ryanair from Vilnius and Warsaw: who's lying about "ten euros"

A €9.99 ticket exists. You just won't be flying on it the way you imagine — because that fare doesn't even cover your jacket if you decide to bring it aboard in a bag. That's where the real arithmetic begins.

Let's be straight about this. Both Wizz Air and Ryanair include exactly one small bag under the seat in front of you in their base fare. For Ryanair that's 40×20×25 cm; for Wizz Air it's 40×30×20 cm. A small backpack or a handbag. That's it. A carry-on bag in the overhead bin costs extra — and that's where things get interesting.

With Wizz Air, a standard carry-on (55×40×23 cm, up to 10 kg) runs anywhere from €5 to roughly €40 per segment — the price swings depending on the route, the day, and how early you add it. With Ryanair, the equivalent Priority bag (55×40×20 cm) will cost you roughly €6–30. The key word is "roughly," because both carriers adjust these fees dynamically, and on a busy summer flight from Vilnius to Alicante the baggage surcharge can easily exceed the ticket price itself.

Where the second trap is hiding

Seat selection. If you don't pay to choose your seat, the system will scatter a group of three across opposite ends of the cabin — that's not paranoia, it's a business model. At Ryanair, seat selection starts at around €4–5 for the cheapest spots at the back and climbs past €15–20 for exit-row seats. Wizz Air plays by the same rules: a basic seat costs a few euros, extra-legroom seats cost more.

Now let's add it all up. Take a route that's typical for a Belarusian traveller: Vilnius–Barcelona, return, with one carry-on bag for the overhead bin and a seat next to your travel companion.

• Ryanair: base fare + Priority (bag + priority boarding) both ways + seat selection. Priority works in your favour here because it bundles the bag and boarding in a single package.
• Wizz Air: the bag and the seat are more often priced separately, and if you add everything à la carte the total can come out higher — though Wizz does offer the Wizz MultiPass subscription and the WIZZ Plus fare, which can change the equation for frequent flyers.

Based on my own experience and a close reading of both carriers' fare structures, the picture looks like this. If all you need is a small bag under the seat, Ryanair is almost always cheaper from Vilnius and Warsaw — its network is denser and its base prices are more aggressive. The moment you add a full carry-on bag plus seat selection, Ryanair's Priority package often turns out to be more predictable and cheaper overall than Wizz Air, where the surcharges stack up one by one.

But here's a number that should give you pause. Baggage fees and ancillary services account for up to 30% of low-cost carriers' total revenue — this isn't a sideline, it's half the business. You're not buying a ticket; you're entering an upsell funnel.

The practical takeaway is simple. Don't compare the numbers on the search results page — they're meaningless. Open both websites, work your way through to the "select services" screen, and calculate the full amount: bag, seat, online check-in (people forget that one too). Out of Warsaw, Ryanair tends to dominate routes to western Europe; Wizz Air covers the Balkans and the Middle East more heavily. So the "winner" isn't determined by brand — it depends on exactly where you're flying and how much stuff you're hauling with you.

And yes — check in online in advance. The airport check-in fee charged by both carriers is steep enough to wipe out every last cent of your savings in a single trip to the desk.