Easy Peasy Orange Squeezy (easyJet)

Member Name: stoffy

Product:	easyJet
Date:	16/10/03 (1011 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: cheap flights if you book early, very little fuss, majority of planes on time

Disadvantages: no peanuts

There has never been a better time to use short-haul air-travel. The whole host of budget airlines that have launched over the past 6 or 7 years has driven the price of flights down so much that it can often be cheaper to get a return flight to central or southern Europe than it is for a taxi ride home after a night out.

Perhaps the most renowned budget airline is Easyjet, in no small part due to the top-rated ITV show ‘Airline’ which has tracked its operations at Luton airport almost since its inception. Founded the entrepreneur Stelios Haji-Iannou, it was (until he sold it last year) the cornerstone of the Easy empire and was conceived on the principle of giving value for money rather than the offering rigidly priced tickets inflated by unnecessary extras.

Instantly recognisable thanks to it’s bright orange livery, Easyjet have their main base at London Luton airport, although are strongly represented in Liverpool and Stanstead as well. In addition, they fly from Bristol, Newcastle and Gatwick in England, Inverness, Edinburgh, Aberdeen and Glasgow in Scotland and Belfast in Northern Ireland.

111 routes are currently in operation, from Athens to Amsterdam. Unlike arch rivals Ryanair, the majority of the airports served on the continent are the larger international ones, rather than strips of tarmac with a shack for a terminal building... There is a mixture of holiday type destinations for both summer (Malaga, Alicante, Faro) and winter (Zurich, Geneva), as well as all-year round city favourites for business and holiday like Rome and Paris. However, many destinations only fly from one or two domestic airport, so if you want to use a regional airport, you may be a bit more limited in your choice of final destination.

The price policy at Easyjet needs a little bit of explaining. Working on the principle of supply and demand, flights can be booked up to 6 or 7 months in advance, and are cheapest at the beg
inning of the period when they go on sale. As more seats are booked, the price gradually increases. Therefore, if you are looking to book the day before the flight, and there is only one seat left, you may be looking at a far from budget price… It is also advised to fly midweeks or very early in the morning if possible as these are usually more undersubscribed, and therefore less pricy. There are various promotions throughout the year, but at present, but return flights to Amsterdam from Luton for example start from about £40 and a two-way flight from Liverpool to Paris can be from as little as £39 (both including tax and charges!).

Tickets are best booked on the internet. This is fast, secure and straightforward for even the most techno-phobic of people. You can also book by phone, but this is being increasingly discouraged by the company and is also subject to a price supplement. However, telephone customer service is available, and is in my experience excellent.

Being a budget airline, there is no onboard entertainment on the flight – no free meal (although you can pay for snacks and drinks on board) and no television or radio. However, bearing in mind that all flights are short-haul, and that the British comedy ‘classics’ shown on the TVs of many charter flights aren’t everyone’s cup of tea, this isn’t too traumatic.

In addition, checking-in is done via your e-mail confirmation number rather than tickets through the post, which eliminates the will-they-or-won’t-they arrive concern. Seats aren’t allocated upon booking, which means that you can sit anywhere upon boarding the plane, much like a bus. However, those with children are allowed to get on first to avoid the crush.

Seat-pitch is another issue that is important on an airline. Some budget airlines have been criticised about cramming people into the planes so tightly than any non-midget would struggle to si
t comfortably. At 6”4, I was able to sit on a normal non-bulkhead seat on an Easyjet plane with room to spare, unlike pretty much every bus and train I’ve been on. Width-wise however, there isn’t room to swing a mouse if you’re built like a prop-forward than a ballerina. It is worth mentioning that Easyjet also own and fly the fleet of planes that belonged to Go, which are much smaller than the standard orange planes. The advice to the tall on one of these is to just make sure that you don’t sit behind a fan of the reclining seat...

Baggage allowance on all flights is 20kg hold luggage and 5kg hand luggage in a bag no bigger than the normal rucksack (although the weight of the latter is not actually checked as it is on other airlines, and the allowance excludes airport shop-bought items that you might purchase pre-flight). Special rules apply to excess baggage and sports equipment, but the limits are no worse than the majority of non-budget and charter airline specialists, and better than Ryanair’s 15kg of hold luggage.

I have flown a total of 4 times with Easyjet. On all occasions, the staff at all stages were polite and particularly keen on reassuring the more nervous fliers, whilst there wasn’t a delay on any of the legs. According to their website, 81% of flights arrived on time in the last month, and only 4% more than one hour after the scheduled time, which is pretty impressive.

Ultimately for most people, the main requirements of a flight is to get them from A-B at the time that they want with as little fuss, hassle and cost as possible. I’d rather have an extra £50 to spend at a bar in Nice or Barcelona than paying over the odds for a couple of salted peanuts and an Alistair McGowan compilation when up in the skies.

It may be cheap, but the service is as good as on other airlines in my experience, and for a thrifty traveller, it is certainly still an attractive option
to fly with Easyjet.

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