Saturday, June 30, 2012

The ¨EasyJet Experience¨ : Never Again

If you are looking for the thrill of paying an average price for regular services, being charged for any added value the service may offer and being humiliated and/or diminished in the process you need to become a fan of the Easy Group in Europe. (Easy Jet, Easy Hotel and Easy Money at the end) a UK based business idea, being awfully successful with the easyeverything internet cafes in the 90´s.

Last week I went to Amsterdam for a work trip of on week and tried the EasyJet experience / nightmare.

We booked a flight for two people that was 270€ with a 20kg suitcase, no food included and only one piece of hand luggage. We checked ourselves in online and arrived to the Airport 2 hours in advance for checking the luggage after a 20 minute line. One the passenger beside us had a problem because she had her passport but did not bring her other ID, so she lost her ticket, no refund and could not fly to her destination even having her passport, that was her problem the Easyjet employee claimed.

We go to the gate and find that all the drunks, party weekenders, noisy cheap tourists, and eurotrash available in town gathered there to flight with us and with some other terrified first timers. Waiting in the gate we noticed that our boarding pass had no seat number, so we would have to fight with other passengers to get a decent seat or even be seated together with your travel companion. quite awful but as we are supposed to pay low, then I guess we need to suffer  a bit, you pay either with money or with dignity.

During the boarding announcement the flight attendant specified that no more than one piece could be carried, no personal computers, no handbangs, no shopping, no purses, no nothing  or a charge of 50€ (do not know if this is legal) would apply. Most passengers managed to put their purse, computer and handbag in one bigger bag and even a couple got a trash bin bag to put it all together and squeeze it to fit the maximum size.  Ok passport and ID check again, justin case we could charge or leave someone else, but wait! there is Speedy Boarding! Some smart passengers have paid 20€ extra to their ticket price for jumping th line and having 1 or 2 extra minutes to enter the plane first and get a decent seat, now we know why there are no seat numbers...to be able to sell them!

No problem, but the next thing: the plane has to ¨taxi¨ from the lsat end of the airport for around 20 minutes to able to tae off. In the meantime advertisements in our seats, sell us the sandwich and try to make us obey on buying an awful menu. How could I get to enjoy anything at those ridiculous prices? These people never heard about value for money.

Next Post: the real nightmares: of course at Easy Hotel.