You can also fly BMI from LHR-VCE, and often the fares are competitive with the low-cost carriers. http://www.flybmi.com

However, having recently flown BMI on LHR-CDG in business class, and having also recently flown two EasyJet flights, I don't think BMI is worth a penny more, other than if you can save on total costs.

I took EasyJet this summer from Gatwick to Barcelona. Carry On is limited to 5kg. I don't recall offhand what the checked luggage limit was, I think 11kg, but you should be able to find the specifics on the easyjet website.

I checked in early so was one of the first to board, was able to grab a front row bulkhead seat which was fine for a 2 hour flight.

Don't plan on taking cruise type luggage on a Europe LCC. We really messed up last year. Booked EasyJet to get us back to London after a cruise. WELLLL, only one of our bags (out of 7 bags for 4 people) met the requirements. It was something like 40 pds. pp. We ended up throwing away the plane tickets and we all got on the train. The over weight charges were more than the clothes, including some expensive evening gowns. IE Ridiculous. Don't know whether you can buy another seat. I don't think any of us asked.

In the past few weeks, both EasyJet and Ryanair have changed their policies. Read their web sites to see what it is.

EasyJet said on the web site that weight didn't matter so long as the item was within particular size limits. In my experience a couple weeks ago they seemed to be weighing carry-ons and limiting to 10 kg. Fortunately my carry-on was 10.0 kg and I didn't need to check any luggage.

well...

http://easyjet.custhelp.com/cgi-bin/...gage+allowance

Thanks for posting that. That was what I meant about no weight restriction - I was referring to the carry-ons. Nevertheless, EasyJet did weigh the carry-ons and seemed to be looking at the 10 kg limit. They did not measure them, and I was a bit concerned about being 1 cm over, but that didn't matter ultimately.

40 pds? You mean 20 kgs? Baggage allowance on most EU carriers is 20-23 kgs, so EZ wasn't much of an exception to this rule.

I'm looking at flying Easyjet for the first time. How early should I be checking in? (I'm looking at the BCN/MAD - ORY flight)

EasyJet closes down check-in 30 minutes before flight time. I'd recommend at least an hour before flight time.

I try to check in 2 hours before flight time for low-cost carrier flights, and that gives me a low number so I can board earlier than most of the passengers.

I'd say two hours? anyone else?

If you get there two hours before you spend an hour in the queue.

If you get there 90 minutes before you still join the end of the same queue but you only spend half an hour queuing.

If you get there an hour before then, with a bit of luck, there will be no queue at all.

Having said that, I tend to aim for 90 minutes to give myself a bit of leeway.

Check-in:
My experience with EasyJet was that they had a limited number of queues available, and the one for my flight (STN -> CPH) didn't open until about 90 minutes prior to the flight--until then, it had been for a different flight altogether. I was surprised at how not-terribly busy the EasyJet counters were at STN; although there did become quite a line for my flight once they opened the check-in counters, it was extremely calm. I usually can't stand being in lines at airports, but this one seemed tolerable.

Baggage allowances:
Having first flown Ryanair, who's extremely diligent about charging for baggage overages on their flights, we were expecting to pay through the nose for our overweight bags again. However, EasyJet allows more than Ryanair (20kg on EasyJet vs. 15kg on Ryanair, I believe), and even though our bags were all slightly overweight at check-in (about 22-23 kgs each), there was no mention of the surcharges by the desk agent; she just put the "Heavy" tag on the bags and handed us our boarding passes.

Despite getting in line two hours before, I've never spent an hour in the queue for a low-cost carrier. The most has been ten or fifteen minutes. Airports I have used low-cost carriers with: Stansted, Torp, Orly, Schoenefelde

Then you've been extremely lucky. I've queued an hour for Ryanair flights, both at STN (which I use a fair bit as I live nearby), and on a recent flight home from SZG.

Thanks for the responses!