I've been watching the Airline this TV program for a while now, after seen all the bad customer service, decline for late check in, flight delay and high fee charge. Now I am really scared to fly easyjet now as I have booked my flight with them fly from Berlin to Rome. So I'm thinking to book a flight with a REAL Airline, any ideas?

Cheers

William

EasyJet is a great airline, especially if you book in advance.

Most of the upset customers you see on the telly are once a year flyers who turn up at the last minute and miss check in.

Seasoned travellers such as yourself will be wise to this and will ensure you turn up on time. And do not forget your passport.

They also invariably focus on the worst, as that is what makes it entertaining. Most flights pass without incident.

I usually fly BA intra Europe, and my one experience on Easyjet was superb; OK the seats aren't huge, but at the price and for a short hop it is great.

There can be snarl ups if an aircraft goes tech or the weather is bad, but again as a seasoned traveller you will have travel insurance and know to get youself booked on the next flight out ASAP a delay is announced, and will undertsand that there may be a fee involved for doing this.

Don't be dissuaded by the TV coverage.

My only caveat is that it is best not to fly EasyJet on a Friday night in the middle of winter to a snow bound destination if you turn up to the check in late, for the last flight out that Bank Holiday weekend without a passport and have sold your budgy on eBay to afford the �2.99 fare to get you to you wedding, which happens at 0800 the next morning. Otherwise you should be fine.

When somethings goes wrong, there will be no one to help you. If a flight is cancelled they won't put you on another airline. If they are late, they may apologise but basically they don't care. However, saying that, if you know what to expect then you have no right to complain when things do go wrong.

LOL! That's hilarious.


To the OP: I would take that program with a serious pinch of salt, and follow apudme's advice.

i just booked my third ever easyjet flight. never had a problem with the other two. in fact, it was relativley hassle free. just follow theyre check in rules. thats all they ask.

pj

I have four flights coming up with them, three in Dec and am not too worried - you just have to bear in mind to have a relatively flexible schedule and know your options in advance (i.e. onward travel flight plans etc.

I wouldn't be too scared of Easyjet- actually have found them to be (relatively) pleasant- you do get some unitiated flyers on board, but it is fine. Rome to Berlin should be an easyflight (no pun intended)- don't worry about it. Oh, and unlike Alitalia they are NOT:
-Constantly on strike
-Consistently late
-Committed to crummy service

They saved me from taking the Polish railways from Krakow to Berlin. A lifesaver if there ever was one!

Pretty bird... Pretty Bird...

Unless you plan on traversing the Continent ala Lloyd and Harry, you should be fine traveling on Easyjet following their rules. As other posters have mentioned, don't be late and follow their guidelines and you shouldn't have any problems. As for the delayed/cancelled flights, I've been fortunate not having to experience that.

I've flown them almost every time I'm on holiday in Europe and have had good experiences; they even allowed me to fly to Warsaw instead of Krakow when I missed my flight due to a Tube outage without extra charge/fee.

Flown in excess of 200 flights without incident and had great staff get me on the flight when I have been late so all you do is follow the rules and enjoy. They are far better than the real airlines !!!! such as KLM, LH, BMI, Iberia to name a few of so called real airlines

For a REAL scary experience try getting back the 'government taxes ' if you cancel your flight with Ryanair. They advertise max taxes of �12.99/flight ex-UK. What they forget to tell you about is their �20 admin charge!

O'Leary 1-0 Passenger - again.

Easyjet's customer service is mellow compared to Ryanair's which consists of "feck off, if you don't want to fly with us fly with someone else" which generally means higher costs

I've flown EasyJet before and the only concern I have is that they don't seem too keen on keeping their passengers informed regarding delays.

Had a flight from Belfast to London-Gatwick that was delayed and 20 minutes after the flight was supposed to leave, no announcement, no information on the screens, nothing. Got a little nervous so I had to track down an EasyJet employee (who are scarce outside of check-in) to get the skinny.

Other than that, no problem.

The only problems I've ever had with EZ is their customer service. I've had several cases where I have had to write them (e-mail). Sometimes they take about two months to answer.

They have never agreed w my position. Not once. Ever. No matter what the issue. My pet peeve with them: having to pay 4 pounds extra to use a US debit card.

Their system doesn't recognize US VISA debit cards. Shazaaam 4 pounds extra ($7.13 USD) just for the privilege of paying. I think this is a rip-off for US customers. At least on my debit card, the charge won't go thru if you check debit, but it will go thru if you 'accept' the addded on 4 pounds. (You are forced to click on 'credit' in you want to buy the ticket).

Anyway, I've asked them to look into it. They write back with some lame excuse. Furthermore, they wont refund the 4 pounds if you complain. Nor will they update their website with an adequate explanation as to why foreign debit cards get the fee.


Dear tvl4free:

Thank you e-mail dated the *** June 2005, about confirmation number E******. I would like to apologise for the delay in replying and can assure you this is not of our usual standards.

In response to your request for us to refund the �4.00 credit card fee paid on
the above booking, it is with regret that I have to inform you that this will not be possible, you have entered your card as a Visa and this is not a debit card, this is why the credit card fee has been charged.***

Just for your information the amount charged is not that much in relation to
other low cost airlines who charge a fee of 10% of the cost of the booking, if
this would have been the case on your booking you would have been charged �5.20 so as you can see a set fee of �4.00 does work out cheaper for easyJet passengers.

I have updated our customer service database about this correspondence and hope that this issue has been resolved to your satisfaction.

For your information, we now offer a quick answer section on the home page of our web site. To use this function you simply go to contact us on the right
hand side and then on the next page simply type in a relevant words for the
question you have for example, "golf clubs", this will then give you the option
of a few answers, if the relevant one is there you click on the option to get an answer to your question. If not you can then type in a full question, for
example "do you take golf clubs?" and select the search button, you should then get your question answered for you.

If this does not work you still have the option of contact us via the contact us e-mail page.

Thank you for taking the time to contact us. If you require any further assistance, please do not hesitate to contact us again, either by phone on 71 244 2366 (calls cost 10p per minute; calls from mobiles and other networks may cost more) or via the contact us section of the easyJet web site.

We look forward to welcoming you on board in the future.

Yours sincerely



Julie Coyte
easyJet Customer Services Team


*** my card is definately a debit card


This was followed up with:


Dear tvl4free:

Thank you for your further e-mail regarding your Debit card.

As explained to you in our previous e-mail, easyJet Airline plc is not obliged to compensate you in these circumstances, as only UK Debit cards are not charged for the usage.

Your feedback surrounding this incident is important to us and we do empathise with your situation.

Thank you for your further comments regarding this issue. We are sorry that we are unable to assist you further on this case however, if you have any other questions or issues that you would like to raise, we will be happy to assist you further.

Yours sincerely



Nuala Pillkington
easyJet Customer Services Team



Well, two can play this game. Just dispute the four pound charge with the bank. At least in my case w my bank, it works - as I have it in writing that debits are free.

ive had nothing but great experiences with EZ i was going from BFS-LGW then Luton-CDG but when i was leaving BFS i saw there was a flight right from BFS to Luton. i went up and inquired about it and they said there is a change fee, but they would wave it. excellent. ive taken about 10 flights on EZ and has always been clean and easy. just one thing. they didnt announce the boarding of the luton-cdg flight, no big deal. i just wanted to get there in time so i get an earlier boarding. nothing to be scared of, just know what your getting into when taking the flight. no frills no nothing, just a plane to get you where your going.i always try to get the first seat by the door, extra leg room and first off. also sometimes they use both exits in boarding and offloading. so try for either end for quick exit. just check in early.

grb