Well so much for the low price and convenience of Easyjet. I paid £83 for a return flight from Edinburgh to Amsterdam. Not that cheap, although I was reasonably happy because it was booked quite late (about 3 or 4 weeks before going). The price seemed to rise about a tenner a week leading up to the flight date, you also get a fiver off for booking online, which is actually easy. Two of my friends paid about the same price to fly from London. The outgoing trip was fine, although our group could not get seats together, but the return.
First of all they changed the time of the flight to an earlier time, from 10.30pm to 9.15pm. We would not have known this unless my paranoid friend had insisted on checking, Easyjet themselves made no attempt to contact us about the changed time and they would have tried to charge us for a full ticket if we were late. Apparently it is their policy to do this and legally it is up to you to check, one of those smallprint things.
When we did turn up, a full two hours before the flight, we had to queue for ages to get checked in. We then wandered down to the terminal and found that both flights were delayed. The flight to Edinburgh had no time for departure and the one for London had been delayed from 9pm to 1am. There was no way to get any useful information out of the staff as they were surrounded by a bunch of angry, tired tourists and had given up being friendly or even professional. Eventually the plane boarded, well after the original time the flight was supposed to go, so we needn't have turned up early.
Easyjet are a ticketless airline so you basically just show your passport to get the ticket. They try to get planes boarded faster by not allocating seats so if you want good seats you have to get there and check in early. We had done this and yet instead of calling the passengers in order they just took everyone and a mad scramble to get on ensued. I thought the delay had been extremely badly dealt with.
Finally on the plane there was yet another delay as they had to find three bags which shouldn't have been there and two passengers who should. By the time this stupid, selfish couple boarded the plane I was beginning to feel my usual pacifism melt away. I completely advocate a policy of flying without these type of idiots who show up late and keep the whole plane waiting. What the hell were they doing anyway? I know my plane is due to take off in half an hour I think I'll just wander off and ignore the calls. Too irritating to be allowed to fly.
We did eventually get home, a good few hours before my London dwelling mates. However I noticed when we landed a group of people waiting asked if it was the Amsterdam flight, I told them yes and they looked relieved explaining they had been waiting since around 3pm (it was now 11.30pm). We talked for a bit and it transpired that they were waiting on an Easyjet flight from earlier in the day which was STILL DELAYED. I counted myself lucky.
Alot of my irritation when flying is caused by the daft procedures they use, why do you have to turn up so early? Why are they allowed to change the flight times without telling you? Why are they allowed to delay flights for hours and not even offer so much as a drink as compensation? I think as consumers we are royally screwed by airlines in general and the low standards would not be accepted in other services where you are paying a large fee.
On board the plane they provide no food or drinks unless you pay extortionate prices for them. I thought that was fair enough if the ticket was cheap and the flight short. However I imagine that on longer flights that would just force you to buy their food and add significantly to your overall travel price, it may be a fake saving.
The plus points about Easyjet were few but here goes. Firstly, I thought the ticketless system was a good idea, the plane is boarded faster and with less hassle. Secondly, I was impressed with the cabin staff, they were helpful and the guy at the end of the flight cracked a few jokes which seemed to relax everyone. Apart from that I would not recommend it. Air travel is stressful enough without Easyjet making it worse.
More details
Class flown most frequently
Economy
How often do you travel with this airline
Rarely
Where did you book
Directly with this airline
Safety
Satisfactory
How well does it cater for disabled people
It is not one of their priorities
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