Easyjet "Free Transfer On Earlier Flight"

[virginblue]

If I book two consecutive Easyjet flights will they allow me to make use of the "free transfer on earlier flight" policy ? The small print states that you can only use it on the return trip to your original destination, for example on a trip BFS-LTN-BFS for the LTN-BFS leg. If I book BFS-LTN-AMS, would they allow me to take an earlier flight on LTN-AMS? Telling from the small print, it is not covered, but on the other hand, is the "return leg" rule strictly enforced? I am asking because Easyjet does not sell return trips in a strict sense and sometimes it will be difficult to assess for a CSA whether a leg is indeed the return trip.

How is this handled in real life by the customer service agents, regardless of what the T&C says ?

[lorddee]

I have

worked for over 8 years on an airline ticketing counters and i always take the comon sense approach and move you to the earlier flight .But if you fly a full service airline then meals can be a problem .

[Hartington]

You cannot book A-B-C on easyJet as a single transaction. You have to book 2 one way tickets A-B and B-C (or 2 returns A-B-A and C-B-C). So your second flight is not/cannot be a second flight in terms of being put on an earlier flight. All you can do is present yourself, ask nicely and hope. If you start quoting those rules at them I suspect they'll dig their heels in.

[virginblue]

Hmm, that's not entirely true. I can book A-B-C in one booking on Easyjet. I was surprised to find that out a while ago when I booked CGN-LGW-INV. The two flights are on one booking and the fares are simply added. I only get one-printout and one transaction on my credit card. Different than on all other low cost airlines that indeed force you to book step by step.

[fyrefli]

Originally Posted by virginblue

Hmm, that's not entirely true. I can book A-B-C in one booking on Easyjet. I was surprised to find that out a while ago when I booked CGN-LGW-INV. The two flights are on one booking and the fares are simply added. I only get one-printout and one transaction on my credit card. Different than on all other low cost airlines that indeed force you to book step by step.

Yes, the EZY booking process is effectively a standard web shopping basket approach - you can put as many flights in your basket as you like - that happens to have an obvious enhancement that offers you the default option to book out and return flights in pairs. As you say, there's no discount applied, all your items are simply added together.
The best thing EZY did last year was remove the tying of currencies to departure airports, which used to mean I'd book my flights with a kind of reverse logic - I spend far longer here in NL than in the UK but I'd book flights as BRS - AMS - BRS round trips so that I could use my Switch card! This also used to mean there was a hidden advantage in booking flights singly on EZY's system as it could end up with you paying lower amendment costs. You may have just discovered another one, although if the Ts&Cs say precisely what you say they do they don't reflect the reality of the booking system.

[172driver]

virginblue I had a similar situation not long ago (AGP-MXP-LGW in one day), booked in one go. I queried the CC on the AGP-MXP sector and they hadn't even heard of the policy. Their advice was 'check with ground staff and try your luck'. In the event, my meeting overran anyway , so it was a non-issue. However, the small print says what you say, so strictly speaking would be for an out-in trip only. Gotta try it one day....

[virginblue]

Well, I am planning to connect through LPL to BFS, so there is hoping that they have heard of their policy at least at their UK bases.

Easyjet has seven flights a day between LPL and BFS, so it would come handy if I could book the, say, 4pm departureto BFS, arrive at 11pm at LPL on my first flight and could then ask to be put on the 1pm departure to BFS if my inbound flight is on time.

[alangirvan]

So why doesn't Easyjet do connections after 12 years of operating? They say that Southwest Airlines are the model, but Southwest have done connections and through flights for years and years.

Does Easyjet not want to carry passengers from outside London to ports like Athens? Tell them to go fly BA?

It would mean that Easy would back themselves to transfer passengers and bags at airports like Luton. There will be times when it will go wrong for reasons out of Easy's control, and sometimes it will happen where it was a company error, but surely by now Easy is big enough to cope with days when there are problems.

[172driver]

Originally Posted by alangirvan

So why doesn't Easyjet do connections after 12 years of operating?

I guess it just adds cost plus a layer of complexity they don't want to deal with. Mind you, the flights myself and at least one of the other posters are referring to were not connecting flights. Rather, they were flights that took in more than one city in one day, in my case to accomodate multiple meetings.

AFAIK the only lo-co allowing through conections in Europe is AirBerlin, but they are hardly really low cost.

[virginblue]

Yes, just to avoid confusion: I did not mean a conncetion sold as such by Easyjet, but a connection created b myself by simply booking two consecutive flights (A-B-C) for the same day (and not a return flight A-B-A). Easyjet is the only low cost carrier that allows you to book consecutive flights in one booking, but actually making the connection by transfering from one flight to the other is completely up to you - if you travel with luggage, you have to collect your stuff, check-in again etc. etc.

[Skylion]

It is likely that Easyjet and other low cost carriers here will avoid the nightmare of providing a transfer baggage product like the plague. It is hugely expensive in terms of manpower, time and computer systems, made more difficult by the need to reconcile every transfer bag with the boarded passenger, and then if the bag misconnects there is the additional cost ( around £100 a go) of getting the bag reunited with its owner.