Budget airline surprise...
My love affair with budget airlines began and ended in a single day in 2009 when I travelled to Cyprus with Easyjet. My 7am flight was overbooked and me and 20 other people were told to wait for the 5pm flight, losing a day of our holidays and no compensation offered. Gatwick airport is not the nicest airport at the best of times but on a normal day you would rarely spend more than 2 hours there, I had to spend 12 hours there. The Easyjet desk forgot EU rules on delays and tried to shrug it off as as computer error and expected 20 people, including kids, to fend for themselves for 12 hours, little did they know that armed with my LLM in International Law and my law book I had informed my fellow passengers about the rules so eventually we were all given £15 to spend on food and drink and after 2 complaint emails to Easyjet I was offered a free change of flight if I wanted to extend my stay in Cyprus, I didn't, Paphos is a dump. So it has been 4 years since I've used a budget airline. I know Easyjet is not as bad as Ryanair, it has that in its favour but E3 for a cup of instant coffee is over the top?
Easyjet is the only option for me to fly direct from Barcelona to Newcastle so I went ahead and booked. BA would have been £300 to fly via Heathrow so £200 seemed ok for a flight in August with only 1 weeks notice. I booked. The airport was the worst part of the experience. When I arrived at Barcelona T2 there were 4 flights worth of people waiting and some very drunk man with very few teeth offered to look after my bag for me while I waited? Well I had no intention of ending up as some drug mule for some sketchy toothless cockney in a Manchester United t shirt. I got the end of the queue and got bored so went for a walk but fortunately as I was wandering around they opened an extra desk for the Newcastle flight so I went from back of the queue to the front in a very confused moment for everyone else. In my hurry to get checked in I left a packet of papers on the check-in desk and didn't realize until I received a very nice email from the manager of T2 telling me I had left my papers and they would be waiting for me in the lost property office when I returned, and they were.
The flight boarded via one of those buses that drive you the 20 metres from the terminal to the plane and this bus had a little roped-off section for the people who had paid E10 extra for speedy boarding. It seemed a little funny, a little like Titanic and its class system. Speedy boarding isn't an upgrade, the seats are the same and paying 10 euros for an extra inch seems like false economy.
The flight was quick, 30 minutes ahead of schedule and un-eventful. I sat next to a young couple and a baby who was well behaved and didn't cry once, unlike the toddler in the seat in front who screamed every few minutes and wouldn't sit down etc, but I put that down to the mother who visited the loo a few times to touch up her make-up rather than attend to her kid.
So my overall opinion of the Easyjet experience was a good one, the prices were comparable to BA and though I didn't get my free drink or meal etc the crew were friendly and helpful despite the flight being full in both directions. And as I have no other choice between Barcelona and Newcastle, I have to grit my teeth and bare it anyway but maybe I was letting one very bad experience cloud my judgement? Story of my life.
August 14, 2013
Today is 29th anniversary of my Nana's death. She died a painful death at the age of 64. This and all my travels are dedicated to her as without her, I would not be the person I am today, warts and all!
Easyjet is the only option for me to fly direct from Barcelona to Newcastle so I went ahead and booked. BA would have been £300 to fly via Heathrow so £200 seemed ok for a flight in August with only 1 weeks notice. I booked. The airport was the worst part of the experience. When I arrived at Barcelona T2 there were 4 flights worth of people waiting and some very drunk man with very few teeth offered to look after my bag for me while I waited? Well I had no intention of ending up as some drug mule for some sketchy toothless cockney in a Manchester United t shirt. I got the end of the queue and got bored so went for a walk but fortunately as I was wandering around they opened an extra desk for the Newcastle flight so I went from back of the queue to the front in a very confused moment for everyone else. In my hurry to get checked in I left a packet of papers on the check-in desk and didn't realize until I received a very nice email from the manager of T2 telling me I had left my papers and they would be waiting for me in the lost property office when I returned, and they were.
The flight boarded via one of those buses that drive you the 20 metres from the terminal to the plane and this bus had a little roped-off section for the people who had paid E10 extra for speedy boarding. It seemed a little funny, a little like Titanic and its class system. Speedy boarding isn't an upgrade, the seats are the same and paying 10 euros for an extra inch seems like false economy.
The flight was quick, 30 minutes ahead of schedule and un-eventful. I sat next to a young couple and a baby who was well behaved and didn't cry once, unlike the toddler in the seat in front who screamed every few minutes and wouldn't sit down etc, but I put that down to the mother who visited the loo a few times to touch up her make-up rather than attend to her kid.
So my overall opinion of the Easyjet experience was a good one, the prices were comparable to BA and though I didn't get my free drink or meal etc the crew were friendly and helpful despite the flight being full in both directions. And as I have no other choice between Barcelona and Newcastle, I have to grit my teeth and bare it anyway but maybe I was letting one very bad experience cloud my judgement? Story of my life.
August 14, 2013
Today is 29th anniversary of my Nana's death. She died a painful death at the age of 64. This and all my travels are dedicated to her as without her, I would not be the person I am today, warts and all!
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