The best budget airline out there but still needs a few tweaks (easyJet)

Member Name: emmajt81

Product:	easyJet
Date:	02/10/09 (186 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Cheap and cheerful, comfortable seats

Disadvantages: Not having a specified seat - I hate the scrum at the gate

I have to say I fly budget airlines all the time but I would much rather fly with someone where I am guaranteed to get a seat or where I don't have to pay for everything on board. However I also like to go on holiday a lot - sometimes 4-5 times a year to Europe and the only way I can afford this is flying with someone like Easyjet.

Easyjet have their good points and bad points - like most airlines really. I have only been flying with them for about 3 years - before then I was actually using BA a lot for short European flights - not now though since it's cheaper to get a return BA flight to New York than it is to Spain or Portugal. Ridiculous really.

I have flown to Portugal, Spain and the Canary Islands with Easyjet and aside from a half an hour delay here and there the flights have always been reasonably on time. Monarch on the other hand are usually always delayed especially when taking off from Portugal for some reason. Booking your Easyjet flights is easy on their website - it's all pretty self explanatory and all the fares that come up actually include tax already - so you just have to add bags and/or insurance onto this.

One thing that annoys me about this though, is that once you've chosen your flights and proceed to book them, travel insurance is already added so you have to physically take it off the booking before going any further - good little trick they've got going on there since their insurance for Europe is about 5 times as much as anyone else. They also do NOT add your suitcases on - you have to do that manually. Its cheaper to do this online than at the airport too - another good ploy they have going on. If you were new to online flight booking, you'd never think travel insurance was added on already, but no bags. So you'd end up paying a tenner per person (I think) for insurance you didn't want, then get to the airport and end up paying more for your suitcase there than you would on the website. Very cheeky and a good reason to always make sure you triple proof read every page before proceeding.

Apart from those few cons their website is pretty simple and reliable (have never had it crash on me whilst booking for example). You get email confirmations sent to you straight away and it's easy to login and change things around if needs be.

Once you get to the airport you can check in - you can only check in online if you have hand baggage only- which is a bit silly and I am sure Easyjet will end up reverting to Ryan Airs policy soon - where if you don't check in online you'll be charged at the airport. At Gatwick there are usually tons of Easyjet desks open and one long queue for them no matter what your destination. They move quite fast though and check in is usually quick. This is never usually the case when coming back from your destination as the foreign airports only usually have two check in desks open meaning unless you're there super early you might be in the queue for an hour with no time to look around duty free. I haven't been delayed for very long on an Easyjet flight but I have been at the airport on a different carrier when Easyjet have been delayed for 4 hours and saw that they were efficient in giving their customers meal and drink vouchers etc - so it would seem they are fairly good at customer service in that area.

Easyjet are however very stern on hand baggage and hold baggage weight. They never used to be - I think they have recently clamped down on it. You are allowed 20kgs of hold baggage and ONE hand baggage bag - which can be any weight but must be of certain dimensions and fit in the metal box at the airport check in desk. I take a small suitcase with me as hand luggage all the time and I am ALWAYS asked what hand baggage I have, they get up, look at it, ask me to fit it in their sizing box. And if it doesn't they make you check it in. Very annoying actually. I've never had this at foreign airports except when I flew back from Portugal last week. They noted my bag, sized it, I hid my actual hand bag from them as I wanted to take that too, but once I got to the actual gate for the aircraft they told me I needed to fit my hand bag in my suitcase or it would have to be checked in as hold luggage. Never had that happen before. I wasn't impressed to say the least!!! Other airlines let you take a bag AND a handbag for women/briefcase for men.

One piece of warning - Speedy Boarding in my opinion is a waste of money. If you are a family and have children you will be given priority boarding anyway. If you get yourself to the check in desk early enough you'll be in Boarding Group A - which boards straight after the Speedy Boarding people and families with children. And to be honest if you end up in the airport having to get a bus from the gate to the aircraft, all Speedy Boarding will mean is that you end up being the first on the bus. Then the kids and Group A, followed by Group B get on the bus. It's still a scrum and free for all once the bus doors open at the aircraft. If you have a covered walkway from your hanger then I suppose Speedy Boarding works but I would rather get to the airport half an hour earlier and save myself the money to be honest. Usually in foreign countries 75% of the time you end up getting a bus from the gate to the aircraft anyway so it's usually always wasted on your way back.

Why on earth Easyjet don't give you a proper seat number when you check in is beyond me. I don't get it. Sure it makes you go to the gate quicker because you want to sit with your friends or family but really, how much more effort would it be to stick a few seat numbers on the seats and allocate them out during check in? Or even give you the option to pay a fiver per person to give you seat numbers and put that scheme in place of Speedy Boarding? It would stop have huge scrum at the gate when you suddenly hear 'we are now boarding Group A' and everyone just dashes forward, pushing you out of the way and all sorts! Sometimes it's not that bad but if you're on a flight with lots of young people or stag parties it can get a bit hairy!

The flight itself is pretty standard. Easyjet use a few different airbuses some with a few TV screens in the cabin scattered about which they play a couple of TV shows on, and some without. I have only been on the airbus with TV screens a couple of times I have to say. Depends where you fly to I guess. If you end up sitting on an exit row in the middle of the plane you will be asked if you think you are capable of opening the exits in an emergency, if not you'll be asked to move (and when people don't want to it can hold up the plane!). These emergency exit rows have a couple of inches extra legroom actually - you're not allowed any bags under the chair in front of you for the entire flight though which can be a bit annoying if you fancy reading a book, then putting it away and getting something else from your bag to do as you're up and down all the time. For a short flight though it's worth it for the extra legroom. The safety briefing is usually done manually although sometimes it's via video if they have the screens. Easyjet flights also make all their announcements in the local language of the country you are visiting as well as in English which I actually find quite good.

Easyjet have a good range of food including now a Starbucks coffee range which should keep regular business travellers happy. They have hot food as well which changes depending on the country you are visiting - they have local French food, Italian, Spanish and German I believe. And English of course! Although they have a good choice of hot and cold food and snacks, generally if you come back on a later flight a lot of the food will be sold out from earlier flights. It seems Easyjet never restock in the country they are visiting, only in England - something which should be changed as some customers will end up having nothing they like left to eat! The prices are rather cheap and competitive and as I said as well as good choice the food is pretty good to. Alcohol is sold as well of course, at not bad prices - but with the bad Euro rate you are much better off buying everything in pounds at the moment (Oct 09).

The seats on the flight are comfortable - I've also flown on Jet 2 and other VERY budget airlines and Easyjet are among the best seats I would say. The staff are usually fairly nice - have across a few rude non plussed stewards but generally they have all been nice. The actual standard of flying I would say is very average. It's definitely not the same as having a BA or Virgin Atlantic pilot! I have had a few very suspect take offs where the pilot couldn't gain altitude (or so it would seem) - on a clear day as well so nothing to do with the weather - and have literally gone up and down for a good 15 minutes with houses still being fairly large below us and the turbulence being quite bad. I've also had a few very bumpy landings with Easyjet. I'm not saying their pilots are rubbish but from those I have seen most are very young in their twenties and I do prefer flying with a pilot who's had a bit more experience than that. I've had a pilot about 24 years old on our bus back to the terminal at Stansted before chatting with the stewards about going out and getting drunk afterwards - not quite what you want to hear from the guy flying you thousands of feet up in the air for 3 hours is it?!

All in all - I fly Easyjet because it's cheap. If I went on one European holiday a year I would choose to fly with someone else for sure. But because I like to get away as much as I can I opt for the cheaper option - which is Easyjet. They are cheaper than the likes of Ryan Air and probably give a better service than they do anyway. The planes are clean and simple, the seats are comfortable and the range of services on board they offer for the money you pay is good. They do however rant on for a while about buying duty free or scratch cards - I am sure they all work on commission but it's annoying when you just want to get from A to B. Some of them go on and on and on!

I would recommend Easyjet - its not the best airline out there and I would much prefer this airline if they would just allocate you a seat number at check in to stop the scrum at the gate, but I would say its probably the best budget airline out there at the moment - and the cheapest.

Summary: The best budget airline out there but still needs a few tweaks