easyJet goes further downmarket

[dontdoit]

Basically, sandwiches are now off the menu and fastest one to the aircraft gets a window seat. Whatever next...bring your own seatbelt?

http://www.easyjet.co.uk/EN/news/20030127_01.html

[Bouncy Landing]

In answer to "whatever next" - maybe "self drive(fly)" ? Just think of all the crew salaries that could be saved....:D

[IMY]

Friend, easyJet have always had a free seating policy; it's quite common around the world with many domestic airlines and smaller aircraft, and for good reason. Replacing sandwiches with soup and a roll can hardly be called 'downmarket'.

Thanks for the posting, but I think you're pruning the weeds with this one.

[johnwalton]

I guess the mark-up on "Soup with bread roll" is higher than sandwiches. How difficult is it to stock sandwiches? Surely soup is more difficult to stock/heat/serve? Seems ludicrous to me....

[Tiger]

Naw! It will be cup-a- soup.

1.Open packet
2. tip in to cup
3. add boiling (hot) water
4. stir
5 Hand to paxs with dried out roll

Whether or not the easy crew can manage that will be another thing

[bounty]

Surely soup is more difficult to stock/heat/serve?

Gazpacho.... you heard it here first. :D

[Celloistic]

I think everyone is aware of how EZY work regarding seating - what this post proves is that unfortunately EZY have decided not to use the more pleasant seating policy of Go.

The soup reference maybe not downmarket - but at least customers/Cabin Crew never got scalded by sandwiches! And sandwiches don't stain the carpet, seats or suits either.

Save costs, EZY? Hmmm.

Fair enough keep costs down, Mr David Magliano (EZY Marketing), but don't patronise your customers by saying that the undignified and downright unpleasant rush to get on the plane is a benefit.

[brabazon]

Soup is one of the last things I want on a flight. The possibility of spilling it over yourself, your kids or other passengers is just too high.

Sorry easyjet, but this has to be one of your daftest ideas. Sandwiches are far better all round. However, if they are too difficult to load on board, why not set up little booths near the departure gates so us passengers can buy before we fly?

Just a thought.

[FlapsOne]

Soup and a roll............that's going to be a real treat out of Southern Spain in August!

[Amazon man]

Airborne soup kitchens whatever next.

[Elmer the Monk]

Flaps One -

Nah, it'll be Spanish soup, surely - served cold!

Doesn't sound like this is 'easyJet going further downmarket', more like 'easyJet serves up more lunacy!'

[AOG-YYZ]

Hey Elmer

If it is lunacy why are easyJet so succesful?

[unwiseowl]

Soup 'n' CAT......NASTY

[stormin norman]

aog-yyz
Its like a new cheap pub,hi novelty value with good pubicity.After a while everyones been there,the foods crap,
the service is awful,the staff dont want to know,and at the end of it theres always a long expensive cab fare home.

[AOG-YYZ]

Stormin

I probably am stupid but I can't seem to grasp this concept; easyJet add new routes and bases, seemingly monthly, and they keep attracting pax by the millions and you can't convince me all these pax are "new" customers. So if, as you say, passengers will try them once never to repeat and they only attract "one time" trippers, my question is this; just where do they get these customers from? I have another question; if they (easyJet) are not succesful at what they do, then what airline is?:confused:

[mjenkinsblackdog]

Why not go the whole hog!
Soup with a free copy of the BIG ISSUE!:cool:

The issue can be read and also used to mop up!

[UFGBOY]

Wonder if the local Asda in Hunts x will do discount for cabin crew bulk buys of fresh baked rolls and 10-packs of cuppa soup ?

[Elmer the Monk]

Stormin

No idea which airline you're describing, it certainly isn't easyJet. There may be some crazy ideas coming out of easyLand from time to time - like most companies - but we get fewer complaints from passengers than many other airlines. This is why we attract customers back time and time again. Low airfares, a high standard of operation and a reliable service.

All the problems we experience as crew, and these have been comprehensively documented on this website, remain the problems of the crew; the passengers continue to enjoy a service which is courteous and professional.

As for soup in lieu of sandwiches, well I don't think it's a good idea, but I don't believe it's 'going further downmarket'. There's always a cost factor involved in these decisions; we'll have to see if it is worth it.

[RAT 5]

All this talk of saving pennies. Just a thought, but how much did the HUDS cost and what revenue increase have they achieved?

Ah, that's another topic. Sorry.

[payingpax]

I am not really going to miss the EasyJet sandwiches they were never that appetising. If the soup is going to be of the same quality, than thanks but no thanks.

It’s a shame that elements of the GO service are going to disappear, their in-flight food was good . But no-one decides to go on a journey just because airline X does a nice sandwich.

As for free-seating. I preferred GO's practice of allocated seats. The Easy plastic boarding voucher sort of works in the UK and at some overseas airports. At other airports either the gate staff don't get what they are supposed to be doing, or the departure areas are not physically designed to allow this sort of loading - so it all becomes a scrum a-la Ryan.

But again, allocated seating is not the point of low cost. Low cost is the point of no- frills carriers - and here I do have a bit of a problem with EasyJet. Unless you want to travel very early in the morning, or very late at night then they not really that low cost any more.

I haven't travelled with Easy for sometime. On routes where they used to compete with GO, GO were more keenly priced. More recently, I've found that a few searches on OPODO or Expedia can often produce ticket prices that are nearly as good or better than the EasyJet web site.

[Unwell_Raptor]

I am an old fart now; so old. in fact, that I can recall the grumbles when self-service grocery shops came in. "people don't want to get their own goods" "people will always pay the right price for good service" and so on.

A dozen years later it was all over.

The full service airline (for the short haul punters who buy their own tickets) is dead. And as businesses trim their sails, the market will provide high cost high service high price capacity for those who do not have to worry about shareholders. The rest will buy on price, just like they do in almost any commodity goods sector you can name.

[Mister Geezer]

Even more downmarket... that is a tough mission! So does that mean that staff will now give passengers abuse instead of just being unhelpful??? :rolleyes:

I propose the idea of self-baggage handling. No baggage staff and no baggage carts needed! Expect to queue for long periods of time in the rain!

[ThomasTank]

Am i missing something here???

All this over soup?

If it helps bring down fares for me...
and helps EZY save money, expand their network and provide value for money for even more pax.... then....
Bring on the soup......

having used EZY many times... and never paid more than GBP35
for a rtn trip.... they have got it spot on.... I hope BA crumble into dust.... just like their ATP's

[BIG E]

You're all missing the point,you now have a choice.You can eat your soup on its own with a bun or and this is the cunning bit,if you fancy a sandwich simply open up your bun and pour your soup into it and close.Voila a soup sandwich!

[RAT 5]

And as one wag said about a new LCA in Ireland/Belgium/Poland. (depends which country is generally the butt of your non-racist jokes)

"As long as it is not soup in the basket!"

[DeepC]

I think people within the industry see EasyJet differently from those outside who regularly use it. I have used it well over 50 times return LTN-AMS. The punters who regularly use it do not see it as an airline in the traditional sense. Obvious really, but that changes my expectation of the service. Cheap (seems to be getting cheaper again at the moment) and cheerful. Once you have learnt the rules of the game and realised that Easy ground staff are quite often unhelpful but that the cabin crew in the aeroplane are usually efficient and cheerful it becomes routine.

I and I know others I have spoken to view Easy as a bus service. 45 Minutes to AMS. Convenient no frills. Delivers you to an airport which is one of the best and easy travelling distance from both Amsterdam and Den Haag. Plane often takes off 'late' but normally lands within ten minutes of schedule. No major complaints in 3.5 years. Some bad experiences but the vast majority good.

Keep up the good work and please could the ground staff smile a bit more.

Sorry for the bullet point style sentences but I am writing this one sentence every few minutes as I do my work.

DeepC

[corsaman]

The soup was served earlier in EZY's life, and was very popular.
The sandwiches varied in quality, didn't sell on domestics and couldn't be kept chilled all day.
A wider range of much better quality products can be bought at the airport, e.g. O'Briens sandwiches.
In-flight picnics are a common sight in the summer. Re. free seating, I thought it'd be a nightmare after 10 years
of allocated seating. Truth is, after a year at EZY, scarcely any (possibly 2 or 3) complaints about seating - and those only because the specials/families weren't pre-boarded. Otherwise, quick on, quick off and no problems at all - the travelling public always offer to help with re-seating, because they don't feel they own a particular seat!

[Elmer the Monk]

DeepC

That sounds like the right approach to take. The cabin crew are genrally more courteous than the ground crew, but they don't take any nonsense from unruly passengers, and are more likely to bite back than say other image conscious airlines - perhaps.

The ground crew are usually handling agents, and whilst they often do a good job, there's something to be said for having your own ground crew, that's for sure. That said, they are the ones who have to face the public when easyJet have switched aircraft, delayed flights or done something else which inconveniences the passengers. That's an unenviable position to be in when in it's not your company.

[Colonel Klink]

While I hate to defend any thing easyJet does at this time, the bars are only going to be restocked once a day, so the sandwiches are out because they cannot be kept fresh. Apparently not having Alpha around the aircraft many times a day saves loads of money, keeeps the ticket prices down, etc etc...... With regards to the seating, I think allocated seats saves time, despite having seen unallocated seating for nearly six years. Passengers prefere to know where they are seating, and getting all the families grouped together at checkin, all the elderly, invalids and others sorted out BEFORE everyone has to be rearranged onboard may actually save time to gain a quicker turnaround. Not to mention the pursers patience!!:(

[payingpax]

Can I be the first to say that from April 04. the in-flight catering on Buzz will be a bit more down market than it used to be