Rainbow- Re your post No. 16

Perhaps next time it might pay to use on line check-in.
Regards,
Jubilee

Regular locost user
 

I've flown allover the place with Ryanair, and found them to be "coldly efficient" in their delivery, and have never had or seen any problems.

Easyjet are a similar operation, but tend to be a little more expensive in my experience. They do seem to have developed a slightly softer image though, which MOL seems to have realised, as per the interview currently posted on the flight global website:

"But, when asked about his mistakes, O'Leary appears to regret his approach to customers. "I don't think I've done a very good job on the whole customer image, the customer proposition of Ryanair. Actually the service is phenomenal in terms of fares and our performance on punctuality, lost bags and cancellations. If you look at easyJet, they've done a better job on their image than I have with Ryanair. EasyJet charges much higher fares, it has a deplorable punctuality record, frequent cancellations and frequent lost bags. Yet in any customer sentiment survey easyJet always ranks higher than Ryanair despite the fact that Ryanair carries about 50% more passengers. So I think in terms of customer perception, we haven't done very well, whereas in the customer decision area - in terms of who's buying the tickets and flying with you - we beat them hands down." O'Leary thinks Ryanair would be a different kind of carrier if it had not taken this route: "I think our fares would be slightly higher now, so the good thing about my failure is that it resulted in much lower air fares for consumers."

I suspect that a change to a new softer image may be on the way perhaps after MOL chooses to move on?:D

Sure Ryanair overbook, I took advantage of it. Turned up at Bristol 1 hour before departure with no reservation due to sudden change of plans. Told flight to Dublin was showing full, but "always some no-shows". I asked if they wanted me to wait until the end of check-in time, but was told "can't do that because the Ryanair check-in automatically closes out at that time, here's a ticket, just go ....".

Probably about half a dozen empty seats in the end. Oh, and £150 one way for a 30 minute flight.

Well another vote for Easyjet from me! Have only ever flown twice with them, end of October 09 Manchester-Corfu and 5 days later Athens/Manchester. The flight out was great, only 47 people on the Airbus, left and arrived on time. The flight back was full and there must have been 40 odd people with speedy boarding (including us). The 1st 2 through the gate sprinted to get the extra legroom seats at the front, I strolled on and got 2 seats by the little windows which have a bit of extra leg room. Went to the loo half way through the flight and the 2 sprinters were sat there covered in goosesbumps ;) Paid £40 going and £55 coming back so not too shabby! :) Clean planes and the cc were nice.

Welcome aboard Ziggy22Those would be the over wing emergency exit rows, possibly? Did the CC give you the briefing?

Good leg room, but bring own blankets
 

You have learned the lesson the easy way...Those seats do have good leg room, but because of the doors, sealing and thus less insulation they are colder, and also get ambient air if doors open......by the way the seats next to the emergency exit windows can also be cold due to the method of installation, the insulation is not as good, as a real window.

glf

Yep they were the seats over the wing and the CC did run through the procedure of how to open the window in case :) Wish Easyjet would let you pick your seats like Jet2 do at the point of booking, would get rid of the sprint to the aircraft! :*

Must be a spoof
 

Email doing the rounds promoting easy as a serious business airline. Must be a spoof or at best a bad joke.

Why?

I am never sure why so many people have to knock easyJet. I've been using them for a long time for business and leisure trips and I find they are up to the standards that I require.

They are no less reliable than many of the full service carriers, although I accept if something does go wrong there is often no back up in terms of another aircraft, and no transfer to another carrier. Service on board on a short flight is no worse than FSC carriers and often a lot cheerier, and I don't mind paying for my lunch, or for that matter to check in hold baggage.

Their fare structure is flexible enough for most cases and is a lot more transparent than some of the gobbledygook of the FSCs, who then interpret it the way they want in many cases anyway.

I use them as much as possible because I feel they deserve my patronage, unlike the bloated complacent arrogant likes of BA, and given a choice, even if BA is slightly less, as sometimes happen, I often still use EZY.

We should also not overlook that the likes of easyJet broke the cartels and forced the FSC carriers to adopt a more flexible approach to pricing. Whether you feel that's right or wrong is another matter, but it is a fact.

Also EZY's website is one of the best, although it's become a bit cluttered since they've gone for 'dynamic packaging', but they are not the only ones to have done so.

Hi, Captonian, Your second paragraph really answers your question, no back up.,no concern ,not even basic good manners. The rise of LO CO has pulled down the standards of all the once good carriers. Remember the BA GLA-LHR shuttle,Yes ,cost 250gbp 20 years ago, but a proper price for a good service,+ back up A/C crewed & waiting . Just as you are happy with LO CO, I was equally happy with the cartel structure. Excellent service, aircraft & properly paid staff, 20 min check in & punctual departure. Missed or cancelled? The BA girls were on it in a flash, no problem sir we'll get you there pronto with a competitor if necessary. Meanwhile please accept a Drink/meal /hotac etc while we sort it out. It really saddens me, now retired, to see the depths to which things have sunk. GLA a gulag, PIK a filthy slum. The whole experience is simply horrible, start to finish. Try telling LO CO airways that you MUST get to Paris having been bumped or cancelled & see how far you get. Business airline, I think not. Happy new year & best wishes to all in the sunny Cape, wish I was there.

I presume you don't travel by the low-cost carriers on their trunk routes at 07.00 on a weekday morning. 50% of pax in business suits.

A lot of the business comes from routes where they provide different options to the old mainstream carriers. Anyone living east or north of London finds Stansted or Luton much quicker to get to than Heathrow. The same goes for many complete routes to places the majors never touched. It is just as practical to do business day returns with the low-costs as with BA. Low costs do indeed say Tough if you miss them. BA say Tough if you are on a domestic flight when there is any disorganisation at Heathrow and they cancel their whole domestic programme. Honours, or lack of them, in these respects about equal for both sides in my experience.

Worth remembering that U2 provide hotac, if necessary, in the event of wx disruption.

BA does not, even on a club ticket held by a silver card holder.

Hi Tigh Wire

no back up.,no concern ,not even basic good manners.
I can't agree. I've only had a major delay once on EZY,and that was due to snow, on a flight to BCN where I'd planned to spend the day before flying to MAD for a connection home. They rerouted me to MAD without any argument or extra charge. I accept I was lucky in that they had a flight going there, otherwise I'd have been shafted.

The rise of LO CO has pulled down the standards of all the once good carriers.
I would argue that standards have declined as a result of the tighter margins under which all carriers now operate. That this is partly due to competition from the LOCOs is unquestionable, but the LOCOs have brought much benefit to the consumer as well.

Just as you are happy with LO CO, I was equally happy with the cartel structure. Excellent service, aircraft & properly paid staff, 20 min check in & punctual departure.
So was I, but times have changed and the good days are over. There are far larger numbers of people travelling now (yes you can blame the LOCOs for that) and threats of terrorism which didn't exist 20 years ago, or even 15.

Missed or cancelled? The BA girls were on it in a flash, no problem sir we'll get you there pronto with a competitor if necessary. Meanwhile please accept a Drink/meal /hotac etc while we sort it out.
Depending on the fare you'd paid, but generally, yes, service was better. Sadly, times have changed.

It really saddens me, now retired, to see the depths to which things have sunk. GLA a gulag, PIK a filthy slum. The whole experience is simply horrible, start to finish.
I haven't been to PIK for many years, but my last memory of GLA is that it wasn't that bad. LTN and STN are gulags, staffed by knuckle dragging bullies, but is LHR much better?

Happy new year & best wishes to all in the sunny Cape, wish I was there.
Thank you for your wishes, reciprocated. I also wish I was there, I'm not there right now but have only just got back and will be heading south in a couple of weeks.

Easy & Ryan
 

I use EZY several times a year and find them okay for short haul. My experience is they have matured over the past several years, especially since absorbing GB.

Before leaving the ground (business or pleasure) my first concerns are that crews are properly trained and speak the same language in case of an emergency, and that the airline has a good engineering back up. I would rather pay more to fly with an airline I feel safe on, even if that means fewer overseas holidays.

My Ryanair experiences have, sadly, been unpleasant at best, worrying at worst. (Once we should have made a missed approach, but the pilot landed, then said "sorry for that landing, but it prevented a delay" - I hoped they had enough time for the brakes to cool on the turn-round. I cannot understand how they are allowed to get away with blatant rip offs, such as wildly inflated card charges. Would you pay that when using your card at Tesco? It also bothers me there are websites featuring Ryanair crew bitching about how they are treated and the corners that are cut. I have not come across similar sites about EZY, BA, CX, VS or KLM (all of which I use).

DIA74

I would rather pay more to fly with an airline I feel safe on, even if that means fewer overseas holidays.

Thank you for mentioning this important point. I feel safe on EZY, and their crews generally speak a very high standard of English, and this is important in the event of an emergency where instructions have to be clear and comprehensible. My one and only experience with Ryanair was miserable to say the least and the English from both the FA's and the cockpit was almost utterly incomprehensible. This is borne out by everything I have seen, read, and heard, about Ryanair and I would not feel safe flying with them, for many reasons.

Final 3 Greens
 

I have some friends who recently arrived long haul into LHR and the flight was delayed enough for them to miss the last shuttle of the day to Manchester. BA provided complementary overnight accommodation at a local hotel and seats on a flight of their choice the following day. By the way, they are not members of the exec club and were travelling economy (World Traveller).

Hi, WHBM, You're right. I don't need to travel at this hour. Much better lying in bed listening to the radio. Just a quick note, up here people in business suits are usually called defendants. Best wishes, Shiney side up etc.

Hi, Again Capetonian. I think that a basic error was BA etc trying to compete downmarket. You never see the Savoy competing with Travelodge ,or Jaguar taking on Hyundi . They should have stayed above the LO CO level & stuck to what they did best and at the proper price. Now we have no choice in the morass of mediocracy.The result is a declining market and worse the disgraceful treatment of staff,at one time the biggest asset. Flying is rapidly becoming a distress purchase rather than the pleasure it once was. As for the web sites,what a farrago of barrow boy money grubbing time wasting cheat fests these are. I agree that the golden age is over, just glad I was part of it.

TSR2

I was talking about a point to point flight (A-B), not a connection. This happened to me twice last year.

As easyJet does not offer A-B, B-C flights, the scenario you mention could not arise and I was therefore comparing a BA A-B flight, which is the valid comparison in the context of this thread.

Presumably the people you refer to arrived and departed on BA flights, that is quite a different scenario and the airline is obliged to assist.

In the case of an A-B flight cancelled due to weather, my experience is

1) easyJet provides hotac and meals
2) BA says 'we'll book you on to tomorrow's flight, where you stay etc. is not our problem, as it is weather related'

DIA74This subject has been turned over many times, the charges are certainly high but they are balanced by the certainly low seat-prices. Tesco charge you more for the basic product and then do a deal with the credit card company to pay the minimum fee.

The only point of decision is the bottom line. If you chose to shop at Tesco and agree with the price they are asking for the products - then it is a fair price. Likewise for FR. I expect that the small print of the agreements between the card company and the merchant and their agreement with you, allows for such charges to be made.