Easyjet is one of the more established budget airlines. The offer a no-frills (no ticket, no allocated seat, no free food, drinks or goodies) flight with all the same safety regulations that the regular carriers provide. For years my budget flights had pretty much been exclusively Ryanair, no doubt helped by my proximity to Stansted airport. For a recent trip to Budapest, Ryanair could not help, so we looked on the Easyjet website.

The website is very easy to use and simply laid out, and apart from the orange branding on everything is quite inoffensive in design. To book a flight or check prices you just choose your departure and arrival destinations and select your preferred date from either the drop down menu or the calendar. One little bugbear about the calendar is that the return calendar does not default to your departure month but to the current month. For example if you are in the month of September and searching for flights in December it will bring up the return calendar from the current date (i.e September) and you have to scroll through the months to get to the month you wish to fly back. As you are unlikely to fly back three months before you leave this is a little niggle that could make an efficient website better.

After you have chosen your flight you go through to a confirmation page which summarises your flight costs and taxes (I really wish they would include these in the listed price on the previous page, but there you go. Ryanair do the same thing, so it was not wholly unexpected). There is also the option to buy their travel insurance from Mondial. From the perspective of a long weekend break this seems to have a quite competitive price with reasonable cover, but it is always worth comparing such deals on the web, as it is so easy to do these days. There is also the option to book car hire with them, again I would check the web for other deals as I am not sure how competitive this is. They charge £4.95 for paying by credit card minimum (or 1.95% of the total, whichever is greater). Debit cards (except Visa Electron) incur a £1 fixed charge. Easyjet flights are non-refundable (although their website says this may be done on a discretionary basis in the event of bereavement) and there is a £17.95 fee to change a booking.

I paid £133 including taxes for a return flight to Budapest out of London Gatwick over the 2006/7 New Year period and booking in September 2006, which I think is quite expensive when you see some deals advertised.
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MY CHECK IN EXPERIENCE

We had all received e-mails from Easyjet advising us to arrive early as our period of travel was such a busy one for the airports, and this was certainly the case at Gatwick. We actually arrived before our check-in officially opened, but as some of the desks were generic ones for about six Easyjet flights we just joined one of the three queues, sadly the slowest, which took about 25 minutes. The check-in desk attendant was brisk and semi-efficient, although without a smile. All the usual security questions were asked but I was surprised he didn't remind us about the new policies regarding liquids, as this appeared to cause confusion amongst people in the security queues (although this is not Easyjet's problem or responsibility, if all airlines did this it would have made things easier) Our plane was 30 minutes late, this actually made little difference as it took us an hour and forty minutes to get through security (even though we had understood the restrictions), I doubt any plane left on time that day. Coming home, check-in was much swifter, although we may have just timed it well and the Easyjet staff in Ferihegy (Budapest) airport were much more smiley and friendly than their Gatwick colleagues.

BOARDING

As with all budget flight you have to pay for food and drinks on board, my friend bought a cup of tea, chicken sandwich/wrap and a Mars bar for £6.10, (as a comparison, my sarnie, crisps and juice in Marks & Spencer's in the Terminal cost me £2.45). They also sell alcoholic drinks. The Mars bar (a double but not full sized pack) alone cost £1 as did a mini tub of Pringles. One of my friends ordered the seasonal Turkey & Trimmings sandwiches. He complained to the stewardess that there was only a thin sliver of turkey in it. Her reply was "Well, I didn't make it". She did, however, give him another one free, although it had no more filling in it.

Unlike Ryanair, Easyjet do have that mesh basket on the back of the seat in front for you to store books and drinks. I like this, as Ryanair appear to have gone a cut back to far, as I seem to spend half the flight trying to hold my bottle of water between my feet. Easyjet also give you a 180 page magazine with some reasonable entertainment, travel and business articles in it. There is also info on their services and purchases. You can take it away with you if you are so inclined, and it kept me amused for 20 minutes or so. I was also quite impressed with the leg room, although I am quite petite; I think most average sized people should be able to sit comfortably for the duration of a short flight.

One thing I would advise before booking with any budget/no-frills airline is that you check for hidden charges and take into account the 'hassle factor' to see if you really are getting the best deal - points to consider:

It is always worth checking with the destination country's national carrier and other 'regular' airlines to make sure they are not offering a better deal or at least one competitive enough to eliminate the hassle factor of using budget airlines. Never assume that budget airlines offer the best deal, for European city breaks I have sometimes found British Airways to offer a surprisingly good deal.