No frills flying

In November 2015 I went to Vienna and wanted to go by British Airways. My p/a Polly dismissed this out of hand as a waste of money and airspace. She recommended Easyjet and since then I have used that air carrier. Indeed I was so impressed by their punctuality and price I bought some shares which initially did well but suffered as the pound dropped and travellers became concerned about terrorism and stayed at home. My friend and contact in Nice Rory uses it the whole time or go back and forth. He uses the Easyjet plus card and I thought that it would take my comfort up a level.

I already mentioned on the outbound flight the steward wanted to bump one passenger off. This was due to a routine practice of overbooking flights on the basis that 1) the business model is to have as high a seat occupancy as possible 2) not every passenger will show. Nonetheless to bump passenger off is unacceptable and United’s reputation and image may never recover from their violent attempt to do so.

Nice is now the second busiest airport in France and carries 35 million passengers annually.

Armed with my vivid orange Easyjet card I thought I could circumvent most of the queues. In the Easyjet-dedicated fast track check which was quicker I asked to check in my cabin case which with my new status I could bring on free. For this I was charged 5 euros.

I tried to argue that this was illogical especially as delays are caused by so many passengers bringing too large cabin cases on board. I asked in the security queue to go the fast track section but was refused.

I had 2 more queues through passport control and to board the plane. By the time of arrival I was exhausted and needed a holiday.

I am still an admirer of Easyjet and it’s CEO Dame Carolyn McCall but I’m afraid to say that its attempt to provide at cost greater comfort did not work.