Comments on: EasyJet Speedy Boarding Madness

By: ValiaC

ValiaC — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 18:17:04 +0000

Hi Andy,
Just to close the loop on my easyjet experience. I got a reply from them, saying that only the first 30 passengers checking in at the airport are likepy to get a group A boarding pass, so they recommend that we pay the extra money to get speedy board !

ValiaC

By: AndyParkes

AndyParkes — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 07:51:41 +0000

Thanks for the comment susan

I’m going to disagree with you though

Are children not allowed holidays now? Not all kids are screaming brats

If you had a family member who was disabled would you not expect to sit next to them?

What if you were flying with an elderly relative? Would you prefer they sat on their own?

It’s not about preferential treatment

By: Susan Richards

Susan Richards — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 00:44:20 +0000

Of course nobody is going to give up the seat they chose for you just because you have kids. It’s bad enough that you insist on travelling at all with screaming brats, let alone expecting preferential treatment. Get over yourselves.

By: tremchez

tremchez — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 00:03:21 +0000

I’ve had my share of bad experience with EasyJet (not even getting on the plane twice) but one thing to concider, Andy, is that EasyJet is one of the cheapest airlines around and one of the reasons why it is so cheap is that you lose some of the comfort you would get if you purchased your tickets with the (much) more expensive rivals.
From experience I can tell you that the other cheap airlines are generally much worse.

By: AndyParkes

AndyParkes — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 13:59:58 +0000

Hi ValiaC

I did get in touch with them and I did get a reply. I planned to do a follow up post but never got around to it!

Here is the message i got (names hidden)

X has read the entry on your blog and asked me to reply to your e-mail on his behalf.

I was sorry to read that you were disappointed with our boarding procedure.

I have to agree that for passengers’ convenience, announcements at boarding gates should be clearer. Also, usually 2 agents are handling with boarding the passengers, although that depends on the hour of the flight and traffic at the airport.

Unfortunately, from time to time we receive complaints on our boarding system. Or to be more accurate, about lack of allocated seats on our flights.

As you probably know, easyJet never allocated seats on the plane. We know that certain Spanish destinations are mostly occupied by elderly passengers or families with young children. For these, specific ticket with number of their row and seat would be the best solution. I’d love to assure you that we switch to allocating seats as soon as possible, but at this moment I cannot make such a promise. It’s to be discussed by our Executives and Marketing Department.

When there are more passengers travelling to holiday destinations, so mainly in the Summer, we tend to receive more e-mails on boarding issues. I guess that everyone is excited before the flight as everyone would like to already enjoy their break. This also results in passengers not listening to our agents at the airport. Still, we are seriously considering retraining of our airport staff. Our representatives are visiting randomly chosen airports to monitor level of service provided by us. It already happened in Berlin and a couple of other airports. I hope those steps will much improve the passengers’ experience with easyJet before and during the flight.

From what I understood, the situation happened at Las Palmas airport, just before your flight to Gatwick. If you give me the date of the flight, I will be able to forward an e-mail to the airport manager. I think that Palma should be aware of such situations.

On your blog, you also suggested that there should be a limited number of Speedy Boarders. Our system allows to book only certain number of passengers with this service, however our easyJet Plus! card became more popular and we cannot limit Speedy Boarding for those passengers.

Andy, it was great to read your detailed report on your blog. We will surely benefit from the observations you’ve made. So, if you have any further questions or suggestions, you can contact X or myself.

By: ValiaC

ValiaC — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 11:32:35 +0000

Hi,
Had same experience yesterday. Family of 3 ended up being separated despite getting to the airport two and a half hours before the flight. Did you ever write to them and did they respond ? I am waiting for their response to my note.

By: Richard Tubb

Richard Tubb — Sun, 21 Jun 2009 10:25:58 +0000

Blimey – just sounds like chaos. Air travel is a stressful enough thing at the best of times, but if the Airline gives their unspoken permission for a free-for-all, as appears to have happened here, then it’s just inviting chaos.

I’ve never flown Easyjet and hope I never find myself in a situation where I have to!