ZURICH-COLOGNE-ZURICH

Configuation : 168 seats > 3 fare categories: Best, Smart and Basic

Eurowings is the low cost subsidairy airline of the Lufthansa group. Eurowings operates flights within Germany, intra-Europe and a few long haul flights out of Cologne (long haul flights will be transferred to Düsseldorf airport from Summer 2018).

The Cologne flights are mostly operated by “Germanwings”. Germanwings is now fully integrated into Eurowings and will soon fly in Eurowings colours only.

Eurowings sells 3 ticket categories. “Best” which are seats in the first 3 rows of each aircraft and gives you free drinks and a little snack which you can choose for the buy-on-board menu. “Smart” gives you more flexibility in your ticket and offers you a free drink and a pre-packed snack. “Basic” offers you very low fares, no flexibility and no inflight meal or refreshment service. (not even a glass of water)

My outbound flight was delayed by 2 hours due to weather so the crew offered free drinks and snacks to all passengers. They worked efficiently on this 50 minute flight and it was an ok experience.

On the inbound flight there was a another delay, this time no proper announcement was made and a rather grumpy crew with an unmotivated attitude were on duty. Since Eurowings flights are operated as Star Alliance codeshare flights, with Lufthansa and SWISS, it is difficult for some passengers to understand why different levels of service are offered to various passengers onboard. For example, some passengers were getting served with snacks and drinks whilst others were left out or had to pay for a simple glass of water. (You don’t even get a small bottle or a can for yourself if you buy a drink).

I am not a fan of no-frills airlines and I did not particularly enjoy my experience on Eurowings. (Especially when the flight is sold under full service airlines code-shares). Little information was given about flight delays (except SMS) and passengers were treated more like cattle than human beings. Despite the fact that Cologne Airport has many jet-bridge gates, most Eurowings flights are operated via bus-gates which makes a time consuming and uncomfortable travel experience.

https://www.eurowings.com/en.html