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THE ALVIATOR'S VERDICT
Eurowings tends to price high for the competition and doesn't have comfortable seats, though there's WiFi and a better-than-expected buy-on-board food selection |
3.5
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In June 2025, I flew Eurowings’ A319 economy class from Stuttgart to London Heathrow. This was my first time flying Eurowings, one of Europe’s major low-cost carriers, and a full subsidiary of the Lufthansa group. I’m keen to find the best low-cost carrier flying within Europe, so was glad to see that Eurowings flew between Stuttgart and London – I’ve reviewed Ryanair, easyJet, Norwegian, Wizz Air, TUI, Vueling, Jet2 and Smartwings, so wanted to see how Eurowings compared.
My flight on Eurowings was unremarkable, and some elements were quite good, such as the buy-on-board selection and inflight WiFi. However, the airline tends to price themselves higher than the competition (pricing is definitely more in line with British Airways economy class than it is with Ryanair/easyJet), so I can’t justify flying them in a majority of cases.
Booking Eurowings Economy Class
I booked my Eurowings flight through the airline’s website. In my case, the base fare for this flight was €199.99 (£174/HK$1,831). This isn’t cheap by any means – typically, the cheapest flights between London and Germany (Hamburg/Stuttgart etc.) sit between €70-100 (£61-87/HK$641-915), as is the case for the screenshot below.
There are three packages – “Basic” is the most rudimentary bundle with just a small underseat bag, “Smart” gives you free seat selection, a large cabin bag and a checked bag, and “BIZclass” gives you two large cabin bags, two checked bags, a-la-carte dining, priority boarding, and an empty middle seat. As much as BIZclass is meant to compete with intra-European business class, it doesn’t feature lounge access or other perks you’d typically get.
I picked the “Basic” bundle, and the next screen was seat selection, where I had the option of selecting a free middle seat for €35 (£30.4/HK$321), or a regular seat for €8 (£6.95/HK$73) or an extra-legroom seat for €15 (£13/HK$137).
Afterwards I was asked whether I wanted to add a large cabin bag for €29 (£25.2/HK$266), which I did. There were also various options to add on checked baggage, as you can see below (I’m not sure who in their right mind would pay for a 12 kg checked bag when a 23 kg checked bag costs €1 more).
I was then given the option to check-in at the airport for an extra €5 (£4.34/HK$46). For better or for worse, I get this for free anyway, since I need to get my visa checked whenever flying a one-way itinerary back into the UK. Don’t get fooled by the priority services – this only gives you access to the priority check-in counter for €19 (£16.5/HK$173), though doesn’t give you access to priority boarding.
The final add-ons page lets you bring on sports equipment, rail vouchers, and travel insurance.
The “Basic” fare for my flight was a hefty €199.99, and I also added on a carry-on bag, priority check-in (not realising that this didn’t get me priority boarding), and a seat reservation. My total fare came to €255.99 (£222.4/HK$2,345), which is the most expensive low-cost airline flight I’ve probably ever paid for. That being said, do note that prices can be lower than this, as you can see in the screenshots above.
For the record, Eurowings doesn’t partner with all Star Alliance carriers (I typically earn KrisFlyer miles, though Eurowings didn’t let me credit there). I was able to credit to Air Canada’s Aeroplan frequent flyer system, though, so did that. I earned 468 miles for this segment, though it counted as one status qualifying segment (only 49 off Star Alliance lounge access!).
Eurowings Ground Experience at Stuttgart Airport
My Eurowings experience started at Stuttgart’s Terminal 3. For what isn’t a particularly large airport, the architecture is quite impressive, and I like the food court located at the upper floor of the terminal.
Stuttgart Airport Terminal 3 Check-In Hall
Unfortunately I wasn’t able to get myself online checked in, so I went to the Eurowings check-in counter, located at counters 301-310. Since I’d purchased the €17 priority check-in benefit, I was able to save myself the approx. 5-minute wait at the check-in desk.
Eurowings Check-In Counter at Stuttgart Airport
While immigration was chaotic and didn’t move particularly quickly, everyone was friendly, and it didn’t take much longer than 15 minutes. Stuttgart’s Terminal 3 has some non-Schengen bus gates, which are hemmed into the bottom floor – this waiting area has bathrooms, though there’s not much to eat here. I’d try and spend as little time as possible here typically, though was feeling quite tired on the day. As a result, I decided to just settle down here and get some work done.
Stuttgart Airport Terminal 3 Non-Schengen Gate Area
This area filled up after a while, and at one point all of those who had checked in online were required to go to the counter in order to do an eTA check (which was most of the plane). This was done at around 12:15 PM, 50 minutes before departure. Our inbound aircraft was arriving quite late from Kavala, so at 12:40 PM a 15-minute delay was posted (around 5 minutes after our scheduled boarding time).
Boarding began at around 12:45 PM, starting with those in Group 1 (mainly BIZclass passengers). When Group 2 was called up, those with very large bags were pulled aside so they could have their bag weight checked. Once our boarding passes were scanned, we were all herded into one quite crowded bus, which didn’t leave until most of Group 3 (those without carry-on bags) were boarded.
I’m always quite annoyed when those with priority boarding are herded onto the same bus that those without priority boarding are on – I remember an especially memorable moment earlier in the year where the Non-Priority bus for a Ryanair flight actually left before the Priority bus. However, I understand that logistics for this are quite difficult, and operationally it just doesn’t make sense to dedicate a full bus for those with priority boarding/carry on baggage for every flight operated by a low-cost airline.
Anyway, the chock full bus ended up departing at 12:55 PM. While I stood on the wrong side of the bus in order to get “clean” plane photos (i.e. the door on the other side opened first), I was stood quite near an exit close to the plane door, so managed to be one of the first onboard the rear stairs.
Eurowings A319 at Stuttgart Airport
My carry-on and I made it up the stairs, and we were welcomed onto the plane.
Eurowings Flight EW2462
Sunday, June 8, 2025
Origin: Stuttgart (STR) T: 3 Gate: 124 Dep: 13:05 (13:05)
Destination: London Heathrow (LHR) T: 2 Gate: A20 Arr: 13:50 (13:55)
Duration: 1 hr 45 min (1 hr 50 min)
Aircraft: Airbus A319 Reg: D-AGWK
Seat: 21F (Economy Class)
Eurowings A319 Economy Class Cabin and Seat
This version of Eurowings’ A319 featured 150 seats across 26 rows in a 3-3 configuration (row 13 doesn’t exist). These are the same Recaro BL3520 seats that Lufthansa and Swiss has on their older aircraft (Norwegian has the same seats too), and they’re sure slimline, and not particularly comfortable (though I didn’t find them to be particularly hard, as I did with Vueling last year).
Eurowings A319 Cabin and Seat
Typically my preference in such configurations is the last row, though in this case I knew coming in that it wouldn’t have a window. You do get a massive Eurowings font and logo right above your head, though.
Eurowings A319 Cabin and Seat
I’d assigned myself seat 21F, six rows from the back of the cabin. This set me back €8, as I chose it at the time of booking. While the seats do recline, the below picture is as far back as it goes.
Eurowings A319 Seat Recline
Due to the way the seats are contoured, legroom isn’t too bad, and you do get a seat pocket – however, it’s quite small, and can’t reliably store heavy items such as a laptop.
Eurowings A319 Legroom
The tray table is large and on the sturdy side (unlike tray tables you’ll find on easyJet, Aer Lingus, and some British Airways planes).
Eurowings A319 Seat Tray Table
There was zero in-seat power, unfortunately. These planes do feature WiFi (which I’ll talk about later), so it’s sad that they didn’t invest in in-seat power as well.
This is exactly the same hard product as you’ll get on Lufthansa or Austrian, minus the seat finishes, and the only difference between this and Swiss is the seat upholstery. The cabin isn’t terrible, however.
Eurowings A319 Lavatory
Eurowings’ A319s feature two lavatories – one at the front of the plane, and one at the back. That’s a 75:1 passenger to lavatory ratio, which is on the dense side.
At some point during the flight I used one of the lavatories located at the back of the plane, which is a bog-standard, decently sized A319 lavatory.
Eurowings A319 Lavatory
Taking Off from Stuttgart Airport
The plane was boarded rather efficiently, and most seats on the plane were filled, including the two next to me. Boarding wrapped up at 1:05 PM, at our scheduled boarding time. The captain came onto the PA and announced our flight time of 1h 20m to our “westerly destination”, and mentioned that “his colleagues would update us on weather closer to arrival”. I noted that most of the clientele onboard this flight was German, and especially consisted of families heading to London.
A manual safety demonstration was done on 1:10 PM. At around 1:15 PM we got going, and headed towards runway 25, where we’d be taking off.
View from Remote Stand at Stuttgart Airport
We were wheels-up at 1:25 PM, 20 minutes after our scheduled departure time. I loved the views of the airport from the right hand side of the aircraft during our initial climbout. Given that there’s quite a big business travel market in Stuttgart, I can see the airport growing quite substantially over the next few years.
Taking off from Stuttgart Airport
Eurowings A319 WiFi
Eurowings features WiFi onboard their planes (the activation of WiFi was signalled with an automated announcement with background music, inviting us to use “Wings Connect”). “Wings Connect” is priced as follows:
- “Chat” is for messaging apps, and cost €2.90 on my flight (€3.90 on flights >2h)
- Connect 30 is for 30 minutes of unlimited WiFi, and costs €3.90
- Connect 60 is for 60 minutes of unlimited WiFi, and costs €6.90
- Full-flight WiFi is branded “Connect Premium”, and cost €7.90 on my flight (€9.90 on flights >2h)
I got a “Connect Premium” package, and speeds ran an acceptable 1.25 Mbps down and 0.3 Mbps up.
Eurowings A319 Streaming Entertainment
While I’m only realising this while writing the post, the Connect Premium flight came with streaming entertainment. In my opinion, it’s quite cheap not to offer streaming entertainment for free, as I can’t see why those who purchase inflight WiFi would use streaming entertainment otherwise.
Eurowings A319 Economy Class Buy-On-Board Menu
Eurowings operates a buy-on-board service onboard their aircraft, which kickstarted around 20 minutes after takeoff. Eurowings’ “Wings Bistro” menu can be found here, or can be found below as follows:
Eurowings Buy-On-Board Menu
I thought the menu was more varied than I was expecting, and was surprised to see French fries available on the menu. In fact, I tried to order the currywurst with fries, though unfortunately they weren’t serving fries on this flight, so I only had currywurst.
The currywurst came in nice packaging and came with a drink, and I selected coke.
Eurowings Buy-On-Board Menu – Currywurst
The currywurst was fine – probably not worth the €7.99 (£6.93/HK$73) that I paid, especially since I’d just come from Germany, though I’d consider purchasing it if I was just transiting through Germany and wanted to have a taste.
Eurowings Buy-On-Board Menu – Currywurst
I’d say that the snacks on this buy-on-board menu ran especially expensive – a chocolate cookie and (presumably instant) coffee cost a whopping €7 (£6.07/HK$64).
I’d say purchasing a meal on a low-cost airline is rarely ever worth it (the only European exception I can think of is on Norwegian, though I’ve had good experiences buying food onboard many Asian low-cost carriers), and this was no exception, though probably on the “less bad” end of the scale.
Landing into Heathrow Airport
Soon it was time to land into Heathrow Airport, and we began our final descent at around 1:35 PM.
Landing into Heathrow Airport is always a treat, at least when sitting on the right side. I got to enjoy the view myself, though also took pleasure in seeing many families with young children stare outside the window in awe as we landed, some perhaps for the first time!
I’d say that we got an especially good view this time round as we lined up with the runway quite early (normally planes line up at around the Greenwich to Deptford area, though we were lined up as far east as Plumstead), which meant that we had stunning views over Canary Wharf, South Bank and the London Eye, and west London (including the Wembley Arch). Stunning!
Landing into Heathrow Airport
We were wheels-down at around 1:45 PM, and made our 10-minute taxi to Terminal 2.
Taxiing at Heathrow Airport
Gate A20 wasn’t far from immigration, and I got one last look at the A319 that had taken us over from Germany. Immigration took around 10 minutes to clear, and I was on my way home quite soon.
Eurowings A319 at Heathrow Airport
Conclusion: Eurowings A319 Economy Class
Eurowings’ A319 provided a perfectly fine low-cost airline experience, and I enjoyed being able to purchase WiFi. The buy-on-board selection was interesting, and I appreciated the ability to credit my (small amount of) miles to Aeroplan.
I’d say that the biggest issue I have with Eurowings is that it’s not actually any cheaper than many full-service carriers flying within Europe, and the experience certainly isn’t full-service (e.g. the base fare doesn’t include a carry-on bag, there’s no complimentary snack service or water whatsoever, etc.). So while my Eurowings flight was pleasant, I can’t see myself flying them again, unless they bring their rates down significantly or were the only option that fit my schedule.
Do you have a favourite European low-cost airline?
