Low cost airlines have a bad reputation worldwide but to be fair, they offer excellent value for money. Easy Jet is one of the largest low-cost airlines in Europe with a fleet of over 200 aircrafts
In our last trip to France and UK, we were evaluating options of trains between Marseille – London – Edinburgh – Paris. Since we were stretched for time, the train journey with changeover was posing to be a big problem – especially the first & last segment. I happened to check out easyJet’s site which stunned me as far as the prices went.
The airfare for 2 adults & 1 child was actually cheaper than that of 2nd class train fare. The time you save – priceless. The amount we paid for 3 trips was € 441. That too, with 2 bags thrown in for each journey. A steal as far as we were concerned …
easyJet works on a simple principal – flight is basic, you pay for everything else. So there is a €10 ~ €15 charges for better seats (first few rows and emergency exits), about € 4.90 to block a seat that you want and €14 per 20Kg of luggage you want to book. One hand bag of limited size is allowed as hand baggage – though a good thing is that they don’t care for the weight there. By one they mean ONE … your laptop bag, purse, kids bag etc., irrespective of the size gets counted so pack one inside another if you can.
The additional baggage allowance also allows for multiple bags to be brought in as long as the total weight does not exceed 20 kgs. This is the biggest challenge if you are an international traveller flying to Europe in the winters, you will have heavy bags. So please buys additional lots of 20 Kgs to be safe – as you can pay double at the airport. And they are strict to enforce this … we were 6 kgs over in an allowance of 40 Kgs and had to take out some jackets etc. to reduce the weight by about 3-4 Kgs. Strollers are not counted in this weight.
With the special seating comes ‘speedy boarding’ – very helpful in some cases in case you have a slightly larger handbag. The queues can be bad in certain sectors and it’s especially true in the baggage drop section where one or two counters cater to multiple flights. Most staff are friendly – especially in Edinburgh though London team was a little surly. You queue up as per directions and are boarded within minutes of the earlier flight landing. The service is very efficient and nice … never once we were rushed or spoken to badly. The airhostesses were also helpful – all meals including water has to be bought though there are no restrictions on food you may want to carry.
Every flight that we boarded(3 in all), were on time, seating comfortable (though not one of the seats reclined) and good snacks. Would highly recommend their service as you will save a lot of time and they cover most popular destinations in Europe and around – including some in Egypt.
Cheers!!