easyJet is a fine low cost carrier with an exemplary safety record. They fly an ultra-modern fleet comprised entirely of 737's. Painted bright orange. Sounds like Southwest? Well, in many ways it is a carbon copy.

If you don't mind flying Southwest on your domestic short-haul flights, then you will have no problem with easyJet on your European travel. Sure you might have to put up with less popular and more removed airports -- Luton instead of Heathrow in London, for example -- but with the excellent ground transportation options in Europe this is rarely more than a minor inconvenience.

Sometimes I think that easyJet gets unfairly criticized by a spoiled European audience (and I don't mean that in a negative way, mind you) for its lack of complimentary meal service. Many European flights offer some sort of meal service on even the shortest of flights. If you are used to this perk, then easyJet may leave a bad taste in your mouth, pun intended.

On the other hand, for we Americans who are all too familiar with getting absolutely nothing to eat even on three hour flights spanning reasonable meal times, the pay if you want a snack system will be a non-factor. And when you consider the exceptional prices offered by easyJet and its low cost cousins, I think forgoing a meal is a small price to pay (pun intended again).

Just remember to book early -- the sooner the booking, the less expensive the flight. Sometimes easyJet's flights are ridiculously inexpensive even with all the taxes that may wind up being three or four times the actual airfare. The only other piece of advice I'd give is to allow yourself plenty of time for a connection, especially with an airport transfer, because easyJet is draconian when it comes to reaccommodating misconnecting travelers. But I wouldn't think twice about flying easyJet while in Europe.

Recent experiance on Easyjet from last week. MAD-LUT 1 hour late departing MAD..same day LUT-AMS 1 hour 30 min late out of LUT. Plan your connections to allow plenty of time. The flights and service were just fine..coffee 1.5 Euro. Water is free. Yes.. book well in advance as the fares do increase closer to dep.
I would definatly do it again..you really can't beat the price. Safety dosn't seem to be an issue. Also no assigned gates at LUT..you pass thru customs and wait in the food court until the flight board says proceed to xyz gate. There is a nice waiting area right upstairs in the bar which seemed quite empty to me and it too was quite comfortable. Enjoy your trip!

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MRKEY

I've never flown EasyJet but I did try renting a car from Easycar when I was in AMS. We made online reservations and showed up at the rental location (not the airport one, one outside of town - figured it'd be easier to take the train out of the city and pick up the car there than try to navigate in AMS). They didn't have ANY cars left and said we could come back the next day or go to the airport location and pick one up. We decided against getting the car as we were only going to do a day trip out in the country side. It took us about 3 hours and several long distance calls to England to get our money refunded. I DO NOT RECOMMEND EASY CAR!! It was the biggest hassle ever. Wasted an entire day with that!

Back to the original topic.

I'm sorry to disappoint the scaremongers, but EVERY British airline has absolutely A-1 safety procedures, equipment and personnel, throughly checked and constantly monitored by the UK Civil Aviation Authority. Any deviation from this standard and it's goodbye Air Operators Certificate, and the end of your business on the spot.

We're not some third-world country over here, you know.

Easyjet is the same as any low cost/charter carrier in the US. Cattle call boarding, pay for drinks, tight seats...etc..
Probably bearable for a short haul within Europe.

Furthermore, be prepared to fly at some very odd times and book months in advance if you want to utilise the super discount fares. Despite all their advertising they are a lot of conditions to be met to actually enjoy those super cheap fares you see advertised.

Not necessarily. Both Easyjet and Ryanair run frequent seat sales, and you can often get very good deals at fairly short notice. It's a bit of a lottery, really... book too early and you may be missing out on a seat sale nearer the time of departure; wait for a seat sale and you may find they're not going to have one for the dates on which you want to travel.

Hey Aviatrix,

are you going to email FT again as I said something bad about easyjet ?

Why, who knows, they could get sued !

Nothing wrong with what you said about Easyjet - it was a factual description. There is no law against putting critical undertones into a factual description. My previous concern was about the use of words like "fraudster" and "scam artist" which - if it were to come to that - a UK judge might rule to be libellous.

For those who don't know what this is all about...:

http://www.flyertalk.com/travel/fttr...ML/010725.html

My husband and I just came back from two weeks in Scotland and France. We flew to London on Virgin, taking us to LHR, and then connecting Luton to Inverness and Edinburgh to LGW on EasyJet, Stansted to Clermont-Ferrand in France on Ryanair, back to Stansted and bus to LHR. A nightmare to plan, including cancellations of flights, etc, and 8 different airports. However, it gave me lots of experience for this topic.

Bus service goes from all four London airports to all the others. BUT, allow more time than you can imagine. We planned on 1.5 hours from Stansted to LHR, and it came to 2.5 as the M25 was bumper to bumper almost the whole way. We barely made our flight.

EasyJet was no problem at all and it was our third time using them. Great prices, but be aware, as with Ryanair, that the price they quote does not include all taxes so that when you actually book, it is much higher.

Our Ryanair flight was 1.5 hours late leaving, but returning was fine. I had read on FT about their baggage surcharge, so we packed as lightly as we could. Going from STN to CFE, we were fine. Coming back, for some reason, they changed the weight requirements, and we had to pay an additional $62 for overweight luggage. And, they would only take a credit card. We had been having problems with our AA Mastercard since they didn't like us using the card for foreign travel and decided it was fraud, so they put a hold on it and Ryanair couldn't get it to work. Another story for another post. The point is, the excess charge and they would not take cash.

We actually had one of the best trips of our lives, even with all the juggling. Hope this helps.

I have flown Easyjet many times (mostly Liverpool - Barcelona - Liverpool) and always found them excellent.

Bear in mind they're a budget airline, so don't expect any frills. But I would recommend them.

Aaron

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You could also try BasiqAir STN-AMS. They offer (IMO) a better service than EZY, and a far better seat pitch (I'm 6"1' and have had problems on ex-GO EZY flights...)

EasyJet is fine but often BA matches their price, and you get their nice food/booze service. You might want to travel via rail. Checkout www.raileurope.com as it is usually cheaper, often faster and less hassles.

MisterNice

Also, if you prefer to fly from LHR, BMI offers discount one-ways for pretty cheap (as low as �19).