You get what you pay for.
In other words, if something is cheap, there is probably a reason.
Yesterday I flew Easyjet from Madrid to Paris on an evening flight after a long day of meetings. The boarding lounge seems crowded, but nothing alarming quite yet. Pretty quickly a huge line was formed at the gate. I had bought seat 1D and had speedy boarding, and didn't think I should be overly concerned.
Well, I was in for a surprise. Speedy boarding is over within a minute, and you wouldn't know it unless if you are lining up at the gate like everybody else. Contrary to regular airlines where if you have a priority you can board "at your convenience", with Easyjet, if you miss that 1 minute window, you have lost your benefit. Not knowing all of this, I am standing back to board last. I didn't need to rush since I had 1D.
There were so many people boarding that I thought they must have a different aircraft. In reality, they had stuffed all these people in the same old Airbus A200. Of course there was no room for luggage and they were forcing us to check-in our hand luggage.
I was carrying 2 computers in a computer bag, with a ton of confidential and sensitive information, and I was not going to let them put my computer bag in the luggage compartment which (as they cut every penny wherever they can) most likely does not have climate control and temperature at 35,000 ft can reach -70C.
I argued that I cannot check-in my computer bag, for reasons that a 4 year old could understand. But the flight attendant directs me to a fine print in the ticket purchase agreement that they do not guaranty space for hand luggage. Here we are in a surrealist Soviet Union era scenario where I am failing to communicate that I cannot put my computers in the luggage compartment. In a move of customer service genius, they threaten to unboard me and a flight attendant bars my access to my seat.
Flight attendant decides to "do me a favor " and heavily insisted that it was a favor to keep my computer on board, but that I had to check-in the bag. The captain comes out and with a mischievous smile says "Yes, she is doing you a favor!" Then the Captain jokes that [with my expectations], I should fly private.
So between that option and the perspective of missing the last return flight to Paris and having to spend the night in Madrid and miss my meetings for the day after, I decided to fold and agreed to that. She must be happy. She won a battle.
But in the long run, what if this happens again and the next crew doesn't want to do me a favor and really force me to check-in my computer bag?
With this and other some limited exposure to Easyjet, I have concluded that this company is not for me, or for business travelers in general.
Furthermore, I do not approve of their questionable business ethics to rely on fine prints to extract money from you, or not to deliver what is the minimum level of service a traveler requires. In a 2 hour flight, they don't even offer you a glass of water. read more