I recently used the easyJet service for the first time, and I was so impressed and pleased with the majority of the experience, hence my need to inform you about them.
The easyJet company is part of the easy group of companies. You’ll recognise an easy company by its excessive use of the colour Orange. Perhaps the most well known is the budget airline that I’ll talk more about in a mo. The other areas of the easy group currently encompass easyEverything webcafes, easyValue web price comparison service, easyRentacar, easy.com (web based email) and easyMoney.com (coming soon – online financial services)
Anyway I digress, I’m sure you know the easy group, if you didn’t you do now!
I flew easyJet from Luton to Belfast International on the Wednesday afternoon and returned 24 hours later. This was a business trip, and my company will use budget airlines wherever possible. This makes perfect sense in the ever increasing tightening of the belts that occurs in the business world.
The return ticket was booked over the telephone at a cost of £65.00. This I thought was very reasonable. The company are trying to move away from telephone bookings and in fact reading the in-flight magazine I am told that easyJet sell more tickets online than any other in the world.
The company is a ticketless airline, which helps to drive costs down. From a telephone booking you receive a confirmation letter with your booking number and party itinerary. Now I am not sure but I assume if you book on the web then you simply get your flight details in an email and/or printable format.
To check in you simply quote your full name to the check in staff. Check-in desks open 2 hours before departure, and close 30 mins before take-off. Your details are accessed on screen and you’re checked in. Usual baggage allowances apply for easyJet, which is 25kg in the hold and 1 piece of cabin baggage, up to 5kg in weight. Excess baggage is billed at £1/kg.
There are no reserved seats available, however you are allocated a boarding card once checked in. The earlier you check-in the earlier your number is. To get a better seat on the plane you must check-in early. This is because to fill the plane they call you in blocks i.e. 1 – 40, 40 – 80, and then everyone else. Having said that at Luton it turned out to be a free for all, as you have to board a bus to take you to the plane! This system worked better at Belfast on the way back as the plane is right outside the departure lounge.
Both flying out and return journeys were about ¾ full I would estimate, so there was no problem with seating at all. Both flights left within 5 minutes of the listed time, so I can class this as ontime!
The plane I travelled on was 6 weeks old, so the pilot said. Having read the in-flight magazine, easyJet have just placed orders for more new planes; so I suspect their whole fleet will be relatively new soon. They currently have 21 Boeing 737’s and will have 44 by 2004.
The plane was immaculately clean on both outward and inward flights so no problems there. All cabin crew were friendly, did a lot of smiling and generally seemed to enjoy their jobs!
The only small gripe is the in-flight trolley service, and unsurprisingly they call it easyKiosk. The easyCrew push the great easyKiosk up the plane and back down in an attempt to flog a can of Pepsimax for £1.00 or a 330ml can of Red Stripe lager for £2.50. Phew, a bit extortionate, but I needed something so pricey Pepsi it was. A car journey was to be had on landing so the beer would wait!
No in-flight meals are served on any of the company’s flights, which helps to keep costs down, sandwiches are available on the longer flights, such as those from the UK to Barcelona. The UK to Northern Ireland flight simply has drinks and Pringles for sale. So it was only a small gripe and I am just finding fault I suppose!
Currently in the UK they operate from London Luton and Liverpool to a limited number of UK and European destinations. These include Belfast, Inverness, Geneva, Zurich and Nice. For full information, online booking and current timetables please head over to www.easyjet.co.uk. Again referring to the ever useful in flight magazine, they fly to popular destinations but those which are not so busy and where airport and landing fees are lower.
All in all a pleasant experience, very cheap and I will not hesitate in using them again!
More details
Class flown most frequently
Economy
How often do you travel with this airline
First time
Where did you book
Directly with this airline
Safety
Very safe
How well does it cater for disabled people
Well
Evaluate this review
How helpful would this review be to someone making a buying decision? Rating guidelines
very helpful
