Another good flight with easyJet
 

I took a flight from ORY to PSA yesterday.

The airbus was in very clean and tidy condition, with a pleasant Francophone crew, who gave good service and we left and arrived on time.

I can't remember when I last had a bad experience with easyJet, who have matured into a great short haul airline. :ok:

F3G,
I have never flown Easyjet but I have never heard any bad comments about them, except the seating issue, but that would be a personal view anyway.
For me, the seating issue is why I wouldn't choose them unless I had to, but that is only my view.
As an aside, a friend of mine, who is very tall said that their seat pitch is very good, I don't know how true that is.
Season's greetings from a fairly chilly GB.
:ok:

Hi Malone

Merry Xmas to you, too, from a windy and mild Malta.

I don't like free seating either, but over the years I've got used to it and accept it as part of the deal.

As a personal opinion (and this is only my view) the experience of flying with easyJet is a lot nicer than with Ryanair, which is strange as both companies offer a similar service.

Although I have nothing against Ryanair crew, who work hard for their money, the easyJet CC seem a little more polished and friendly (although I did take a Ryanair flight yesterday, as well and the Pisa based crew were nice - well above average.)

It is interesting to contrast these flights (driven by scheduling constraints) with my normal type of business flights.

Orly was a bit of a bunfight, as a lot of the pax were arguing over luggage allowance (not a usual experience), but Pisa was a delight to use, a breath of fresh air after the big hubs I usually fly to.

I fly 8-10 sectors a month with EZY on average when I'm in Europe, most recently yesterday, and have been doing so for over 10 years. I've only ever had 2 problems, both minor, and one beyond the control of the airline and well handled by them.

Most flights are good, clean new aircraft with tidy cabins and competent friendly crew. The whole experience from booking on their website, through managing bookings, to the flight itself, is exactly as it should be. I often find they arrive ahead of schedule, exceeding expectations.

I also dislike the seating scrum, and have tried Easyboarding or whatever they call it, and find it's a waste of money and effort. As F3G says I don't like free seating either, but over the years I've got used to it and accept it as part of the deal, there's more upside than downside to the airline.

I've only flown Ryanair once, never ever again, and my only other direct comparison with EZY in and out of LGW is Aer Lingus, who are better than EZY, but don't offer the same frequency or variety of routes throughout the year.

Yes they do try but at times are very in flexable about the most arbitory things

Easy are a decent airline to fly.

As to the seating - simple - just board last, hang back have a beer, coffee whatever take it easy. Then get on, spot the empty middle seat in about row 3 usually, go to take it and find out that persons occupying window and aisle are actually flying together and tried to blag extra space. Invariably one moves and you get the aisle near the front. If not - accept middle seat happily and continue reading book.

Manintheback, hi.
A friend of mine uses this ploy and says it almost always works!
On the comparison with Ryanair, I have never flown with them and, having seen the people waiting to board the Sunday midday flight to Stansted from Riga earlier this year, it is unlikely I ever would, no matter what the price is!!!
When I was in the industry I remember a passenger commenting to me that she had to try their 1 Euro flight but would never do it again as it was "like Easyjet without the service!". This was at the time when Easyjet were going through a bad patch. Again, nothing against the crews, I am sure that they are doing their very best.
Well, off to the Pub for lunch.
:)

Since a comparison with Ryanair has already been made, I'd like to speak up in favour of the latter.

I am a very frequent traveller on two routes on which the two airlines compete and prefer to travel with Ryanair if at all possible. This would be true even if all other factors such as schedules and fares were equally appealing.

There used to be four main reasons for this, although my more recent experience with easyJet might mean that I need to reconsider the first:

1. Punctuality.

2. The "boarding experience". I am always in group A and find it unpleasant to have to fight my way through those in group B who seem intent on blocking my way and making it as difficult and unpleasant for me to board as possible. (Andy, are you listening?) Being polite, I find myself repeatedly asking people "Are you in group A?" in two languages because it isn't clear if they have been called forward or are simply morons milling around and blocking others' access to the gate. Not only is the experience typically awful but the anticipation of it is stressful. Compare this with Ryanair's Priority/Non-Priority, especially at airports like Stansted with two orderly queues clearly signposted and with dividing tape.

3. I prefer Ryanair cabin crew.

4. Price. For my pattern of flying/purchasing decisions, easyJet is rarely as good value as Ryanair.

Now that easyJet has abandoned its "miles" credit card scheme, there's even less reason for me to use them.

On the other hand, I do realise that if Ryanair managed to drive easyJet off these two routes I could expect Ryanair's fares to increase. That's in the nature of markets.

Please let's not knock Ryanair.

I prefer easy, but a lot of people wouldn't be able to travel were it not for the very low fares that FR provide.

Definitely a matter of choice for all of us.

Positive for Ryanair
 

Mrs Mac and I just back from LPA using FR from / to PIK. 4 hour forty flight versus the 90 mins to 3 hour flights we're used to with FR on shorter routes. Crew were excellent, including very sensitive handling of a powderkeg situation on the outbound where one pax in a group of five chose not to travel after checking in, with luggage stored in the hold. Other four boarded without advising cc of fifth member's decision not to travel. When cc and despatcher discovered that bags and boarding cards did not tally, group leader made himself known, Crew member tried her best to offer a solution of retrieving the bag so that some items could be removed for a child in the group before offloading it.
Group decided in the end not to travel, but they had the choice. Can you believe that they did not advise that a rogue bag was in the hold and that a passenger had chosen not to travel? Yeah, sadly, so can I.
Flights were on time, trumpets were blown in celebration as usual. Crew seemed very relaxed and on top of things. Perhaps the longer flight allowed them to blossom as it were.
Fare £60 each. Seat pitch adequate. On time out and back. No boarding hassles that I witnessed. No frills expected, no frills received. You pays your money etc....
Solid performance all round. Well done Ryanair!

Hey! That's my ploy! Stop blabbing or everyone will start doing it.

(When travelling alone, I actually prefer the free seating for precisely this reason - on how many other airlines can you be consistently sure of getting something like 2C or 1D without paying for business class or being a platinum frequent flyer?)

A319 with reclining seats can be tight when you're over 6FT, the non reclining ones are just about OK for a short flight.

Priority boarding a waste of money!

Re Group A and B etc on EZY - I think they have [or are about to] abandon the concept of letting those who check in on line board ahead of those who don't.
I went to Nice Sunday and returned today and my on line booking said Boarding group 2.The young lady checking us through said that all non Speedy Boarders and those without children are now 'equal' as it were.
Why can't they just allocate seats, and if passengers insist on sitting somewhere specific - charge them for it ?

I use Air Asia from time to time for s/h trips around South East Asia. They used to have free seating (the European scramble for seats is tame compared to what I've experienced over there!). They have recently moved over to assigned seating. Basically, you either pay to choose a seat (they charge extra for the premium seats- front, emergency exit etc..) or you get randomly assigned one at check in. Clever little money earner (Easy and Ryanair take note!).

The only problem is that it boarding takes longer than it used to. People no longer feel the need to queue at the gate an hour before departure then run as fast as they can to the plane. Thats a big problem for a loco doing quick turnarounds- more chance of delays, less chance to make up for delays etc...

Ultimately I think its a chouice between the lesser of two evils. Do you want the comfort of assigned seating or an increased chance that your flight will be delayed?

EZY is a good airline to fly with when you are out for leisure.
My perception is better than RYR but again, this is a perception. Both airlines offer the same service.
I have flown them twice this year and I did not find any difference.

Ulxima

Well EJ bumped me off a Tenerife on a full fare commercial ticket early on a Sunday morning. I was travelling out for duty out of Tenerife next day on another airline. When I asked when they could get me there, they offered 'Tuesday evening Sir, we have a flight then we could get you on!'. Great- bump you off and put you to the back of the queue! Really helped for piloting a flight out of Tenerife Monday lunchtime- thanks guys! Funny thing is when I presented myself back to our ops office at Gatwick, I asked if we would at least get the fare refunded. They told me 'no- they will say you didn't turn up on time and will keep the fare.' Despite the fact I was early in the queue and I checked my PNR code with the 'Service' desk after being told I was bumped. Their 'service desk' is a place for customers to shout and get frustration off their chests.

'Never heard a bad word'? Listen-up! Don't ever trust them. Horrid airline- I would rather fly FR anyday.

I have been told, and I don't believe it, that EZY and FR don't overbook, ever. Does anyone know if this is true?

It's clear that the fare is paid and non-refundable, so if a pax shows up late, or not at all, the seat is paid for so the airline doesn't care if the seat flies empty. Logically though one can assume that they would have at least 3% no-shows across all flights, and you would therefore think that they would not be able to resist the opportunity to make a little extra revenue by overbooking just a tad.

If they don't overbook, then why was Rainboe bumped (unless they knew how much he hates them!:))

and

Oi! Hands off! :)
Whenever I travel LoCo by myself (on average several times a month) that's my ploy too. It's rare that I ever end up below row five and since most LoCos started getting stricter with hand baggage size and number per pax it's even rarer that my laptop bag ends up between my feet as well.

XV

If I'd seen this post before my debacle of the past week, I'd have joined the easy fan club. It now seems that my perception probably existed because I'd never tried to stretch the elastic in the machine only to find that there is none.

Admittedly the majority of the easy staff at EMA are about to be made redundant but that some of them acted as they did by failing to turn up to crew the EMA-PRG-EMA service time after time is unforgiveable (they have a contract of employment as much as I had a contract to fly) as is the way that easy then "managed" the situation. A complete farce.

Add that even allowing for pax volumes easy appear to have been by far the worst affected airline with respect to the recent bad weather and it is clear that here's another example where shareholder value (a pared to the bone operation) has been put before customer value with scant regard that the former won't exist at all if the latter is pushed too far.

Easy are quite good, having flown with them on three ocasions with 2/3 being very good.
The Last time I was with them was BCN-LGW we boarded to plane with no greeting, one Cabin member was slouched over a row of seats by the Emergency Exit and couldnt follow the Safety breifing in the correct way and she came across a abit rude.

Its also a Shame that the TV program Airline degrades them abit with the amount of complaints they recieve (mainly late passengers)

I have also had to optunity to fly with Ryanair, Their cabin crew are quite shy and magically disapear during the flight but none the less just as good in my eyes.:cool: