easyJet increasing cabin baggage allowance
 

I posted this in the HBO thread but it has probably got lost in the multitude of comments.

http://mediacentre.easyjet.com/stories/9002

Very savvy move by EasyJet. Exactly the right time to announce this change. Well played by them, sure they'll be able to lure a fair few BA frequent fliers.

It was actually announced on 18th February so either they had a heads-up on the BA announcement or it was pure coincidence.

It makes the BA announcement even more of an own goal.

Now we just need EasyJet to offer a free plus card to GCH...

I'm sure it'd be a good move - if people don't use it, it costs them nothing.

It's £149. Just buy one and be done.

May not turn out to be as good as it first looks. Isn't the generous carry on allowance causing problems on BA? Will EZY not encounter the same issues?

I think EasyJet have some advantages over BA in that respect.

• They are used to managing baggage within their stated limits
• Their passengers are more likely to expect to have to stay within the limits
• I suspect relatively few passengers would be eligible to take the second bag anyway
• They probably don't have too many DYKWIA folk with 3 or 4 bags with a misplaced sense of entitlement

EZY gate agents seem to be a lot more proactive with telling passengers that their bag is too big and gate checking it there and then.

They also do not guarantee that they bags over a certain size but still within the allowance will even be allowed into the cabin. So if it's a busy flight and people are all taking bags on, passengers towards the end of the boarding process just get told their bag is going in the hold even if it is within the limits.

So it sounds like BA have the wrong type of customers then.

On flights with EasyJet, RyanAir and Jet2, I've found passengers are very respectful of the cabin baggage policy. Have Easyjet specified dimensions for the additional bag? RyanAir allow an extra bag, but the 35cm limit is just a little tight for the corporate Dell From Hell in the smallest (PC World Essentials) case I could find for it.

U2 are apparently piloting a new "traditional" frequent flyer programme. I am not well informed about the details but this was mentioned to me by people who have been approached to be part of that pilot. Apparently, it will be a relatively simple programme but one which will allow passengers using U2 with some level of regularity to enjoy some loyalty benefits for free.

In recent years, U2 has aggressively tried to target business customers. Their service for companies is actually often excellent. I do not fly them very regularly, but when I have, they would readily send invoices and even call me to check everything had been received. I also suspect them of highlighting known "business customers" (even without an Easyjet plus card) and typically giving them good seats (on the occasions when I did not pay to book a seat, which is most, I never got a middle seat and am typically sat in rows 4-9, which is effectively better than ET!)

Personally, I have no doubt that they are watching BA's careful attempts to lose business travellers and will make further moves to steal significant numbers of business customers from them.

If you're only trying easyjet on 3 or 4 flights it's a lot to pay on the assumption you'll like it enough to make it worthwhile.

A 1 month "taster card" might be a good move though.

Biggest things against Easyjet and Jet2 (and perhaps even ryanair) is not being available on ITA. If I want to fly to Rome tomorrow morning, I type in "From MAN,LPL, to FCO,CIA", and see how to get there. It doesn't show up the Jet2 or Ryanair flights though, I have to go off to those specific websites to see if they fly there, and if they fly there on a given day, and what times they fly there.

My current thoughts are TK east/south, VS west, and KL in europe, however I'm having more thoughts about getting out of the travel game entirely.

paul: try skyscanner? works reasonably well, allows countries/regions as inputs and includes LCCs

As a fellow GGL, I bought an Easyjet Plus card yesterday. Times are changing, with avios deval, onbusiness deval and HBO deval in a month - BA are trying to tell us something. Only the deaf don't hear.

At £149 Easyjet Plus isn't going to be worth it until I move 10-20% of my shorthaul flights over to them which I'm not quite ready to yet. I'm definitely going to try a couple of times with extra legroom seats though - it's primarily the lack of a second carry-on bag which has led me to prefer BA recently.

I think I might celebrate BA's HBO announcement by booking Easyjet on Sunday if there's a good flight available and check them out.