Easyjet vs Swiss etc.

A snowHead

Just booked some flights to Geneva from the evening of the 22nd March returning on the evening of the 2nd April. Taking a suitcase and ski bag.

Flights from Gatwick on Easyjet were coming in at over £200 when you added bags and skis on and a £9 admin fee. Swiss Air was £110 with skis going for free from Heathrow. Was the same price from City.

Basically f*ck Easyjet. Unreliable and a totally depressing experience from start to finish.

If anyone does need to take skis and are thinking of EJ a few of my friends did get away with this last couple of seasons. Only book luggage then enter 2 bags at the computer to pick up tickets. It says error and sends you to the desk where they just check your bags in anyway. One of them was asked once and just said that they had booked 2 bags. Stick it to the man!

J

A snowHead

Spare a thought for those of us in the sticks who cant fly from Heathrow without a three hour journey

Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?

Easyjet is three times more popular than Swiss.

Higher demand = higher price.

Swiss(air) went bust a few years ago.

Like Swiss trains, Swiss planes are wildly overrated.

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Looks like I've got a choice of Easyjet or Jet2 to Salzburg. Not much difference in price or customer experience I think.

Flying Easyjet to Barcelona next week but that's without luggage, i.e. the ideal way to do budget airlines.

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queen bodecia, I wasn't impressed by Jet2 from leeds bradford. I'm also doing EJ to Barcelona with hand luggage - I'm giving MrHL my toiletries bag to take when he goes earlier in the week!

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holidayloverxx, I think Easyjet from Luton is a little cheaper. I'm flying from Luton next week to Barcelona too, although Luton is quite a distance it's an easy journey on the M1 so I'm hoping it will be OK. If so, Luton to Salzburg might be my best plan for skiing, or Birmingham to Munich on Lufthansa again. When do you go to Barcelona?

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I thought Easyjet were alright when I used them last season... the secret is to fly with folk like Ryanair a lot, and then suddenly EJ seems like a breath of fresh air with sensible baggage rules, liberal carryon allowance and a pleasing lack of adverts over the PA. Oh, and slightly more honest pricing.

Swiss already booked for my next trip though. They're a budget airline now, as far as I'm concerned. They're dead cheap, and all they have to do is be less awful than Ryanair. I'm easy to please like that.

After all it is free

sanman, Yep Sanman. Agreed.

Whitegold, Wasn't trying to promote Swiss and maybe just been lucky with delays over the last 10 years.

But...What's there to like about Easyjet? Nightmare queues most of the time especially at Geneva. No freebies and loads of add ons and people lose their minds trying to get on the plane first. And it's not even cheap unless as queen bodecia, said you are off for a short break with a back pack.

What I would say is that they did cancel one flight a few years ago and transferred me immediately to Lufthansa who then lost my skis for 36 hours with ski gear packed in the same bag. Luckily Chamonix lifts were all closed as it was dumping so hard and got the skis just in time.

Swiss bunged me £50 for the trouble and an extra £200 to cover some clothes I bought and toothbrush, boxers etc. Good luck even speaking to a human at EJ.

And no, I don't work for Swiss. Just saying.

I've never flown with Easyjet before. I'm anticipating a bit of a hand luggage bun fight as it seems you can take absurdly large bags as hand luggage. In the past I have usually flown with BMIBaby or WizzAir without luggage and been very glad of only having a handbag as I watch other people trying to stuff wheeled cases in already full overhead storage. However, I'm going to Spain for 5 days so I need one of those myself this time.

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Whitegold, never been on a late running Swiss Train, have been on a late German train going through Switzerland NehNeh

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Swiss cancelled me while I was sat on the plane at LHR one Thursday night. No substitute services nor assistance available until a possible reroute via Frankfurt that would have got me to resort Saturday night. Not really worth it for a long weekend. Did pay up their EU mandated compensation without too much quibble although they refused to cough for wasted travel and hotel costs at LHR. Ended up skiing on Box Hill that weekend wich was a poor substitute for powder packed Tignes.

Sorry not intended to be a whinge - no airline is 100% great all the time and particularly they all fall over in my experience when it comes to late night cancellations as absolutely no-one is available for rebooking and ground staff cannot cope with finding a plane full of people hotels or taxis.

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fatbob, pretty cool that you got to ski on box hill though!

You know it makes sense.

fatbob, Yeah I have heard a couple of shockers like that. I think Geneva is very strict on night flight landing times if anything slips.

Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:

kesone1, It is.

We were bumped off an oversold Swiss a few years ago (on way home, thankfully).

IIRC, 250 Gbp (!) compensation each, decent hotel, dinner with wine and first flight out in the morning in business, which at least meant a hot breakfast.

Hardly going to complain about that; stuff happens.

Equally, I fly Easyjet twice a month or so and have not had a difficulty in about 6 years. I probably fly Swiss/LH group 4-5 times a month, only because they offer better connections to where I am usually going.

A snowHead

Swiss for the free wine and the chocolate.

A snowHead

Easyjet are a great airline. I admit a little expensive on the ski charges, but that's why I don't have my own skis anymore. By the time you service them pay to take them with you. It's just as cheap to rent.
Don't forget from November onwards most if not all easyjet will be allocated seating, so this will hopefully stop the big surge to get on first. However if you get on last with just hand baggage you will have a fight.
And not to mention easyjet has come out tops for on time performance at London gatwick.
Go Easyjet.
Orange all the way

Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?

Gjspain, Boooooo! Mad

Now you've opened the rent versus buy thread.

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Can't comment on Swiss, but I have flown with Easyjet twice to ski (once with my skis as rental of equivalents was expensive and only one rental outlet in village). Absolutely no problems and have booked with them again for next group trip. They are gold compared to Ryanair and every bit as good as the BA flights I have had.

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Ahhhh brilliant, the monthly "Slag Easyjet" thread. Ive flown with them about 15 times all over Europe, from Spain, Germany, France, Switzerland, Holland etc, and never had any problems that have been their fault. I was on an Easyjet journey yesterday, 30 minutes late departure because the groud staff took ages loading 19 bags (yes 19). People always try to slag Easyjet. Personally i think part of it is a class thing. People who simply refuse to use them because they are cheap, not fussed over and things you want are extra. The OP is slagging them because another airline is cheaper. I guarantee that if he had originally looked at flying with BA, then found cheaper flights with Swiss, this thread wouldnt exist, the fact it does is because he was originally looking on Easyjet. Quite simply, if you dont like, then go elsewhere.

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Fly Easyjet for virtually all ski holidays, in my experience they provide a great service from Scotland, very few other direct flights other than charter which are in my experience way worse for punctuality.
Have flown other airlines and changed planes at diffrent airports but even if the initial price is cheaper which it occasionally is, the extra time spent eating expensive airport food and the added hassle means it is rarely worthr it.

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I'm completely with the OP, nothing to do with class, nothing to do with punctuality or orange seats or anything like that - purely down to cost. Flying from any London airport, with checked luggage and ski's, I've never managed to make easyjet cheaper than swiss - and when you add on the cabin service (drink etc.) with swiss it's a no brainer for me...

After all it is free

Serriadh,

These are last years passenger numbers

Easyjet 50m

Swissair 15m

Basic common sense tells you there will be more people unhappy as Easy-jet carry more passengers

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I assume Swissair are only any use if you are flying from London to Switzerland...

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No, in this thread. I see two complaints about Easyjet, both from kesone1, which basically boil down to "there are things about easjet I will not put up with if I get cheaper service elsewhere", and a bunch of people saying that they don't really have any problems with EJ.

Slagging? Not quite.

On the other hand we have a few people talking about the issues they had with Swiss, involving cancellations and spoiled holidays.

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We have a wide choice of different ways of getting places - and a very competitive market. The result is much more affordable fares than used to be the case, in the days when only really well-off people went on ski holidays, or flew anywhere, for that matter.

It's also easy to compare prices - though people complain if they have to spend more than a couple of seconds on the internet to get a flight price. Spoilt, that's what they are. They complain about the Tour Operators (who take all that pricing and planning and comparing on their own shoulders, when they charter aircraft) and they complain about the wealth of choices of travel and accommodation available for DIY holidays, on the internet. They complain if they might have to sit apart from their friends, etc etc etc

To read some threads on Snowheads you'd think it was the most enormous chore and bore to have to arrange a DIY holiday. So, use a TO. As for choice of airlines, it depends when and where you are flying. Some people will find Swiss very convenient, a rather larger number will find easyJet preferable. Some like the train, some drive. All methods of transport go smoothly sometimes, and get screwed up other times.

I don't think much of recommendation that customers should lie and cheat their way out of paying the correct price. rolling eyes

There are no free lunches and profit margins are pretty bare. The rest of us pay for the cheats.

You know it makes sense.

Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:

andy, yes, it really is pretty easy to compare prices. Easyjet and BA are particularly quick, IME - it takes very few minutes to get flight prices from their websites. We are spoilt for choice, and for instant access to information. In the olden days, even where flights existed, it would have been much more difficult, which is why travel agents were invented........

If people are daft enough to book up without comparing (or perhaps they put too high a value on the opportunity cost of their time to spend an entire evening to save £20) then that's fine. I just don't know why people get themselves in quite such a stew about it. It's very bad for their arteries - and holidays are supposed to be fun! People are leaping up and down getting red in the face arguing about which airline is the biggest lot of crooks. Laughing

Of course they don't want to make it easy for us to compare costs at a glance. They'd be very irrational to do so, and irrational businesses tend not to last.

A snowHead

rob@rar, BA don't charge for skis if they're in a single bag - how many hairdryers and moisturisers do you need to carry?

A snowHead

I've flown EJ, Swiss and BA, London to GVA many times. Every time I do it I search on all three, and take the best option on the day. Usually it's EJ, sometimes it's Swiss, rarely BA. Between now and Christmas, I'll be traveling Swiss twice and EJ once. In my experience, the customer service, in order of preference is Swiss, EJ, BA. Look carefully, add all the extras, and make an informed decision.

Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?

EJ looks great until something goes wrong (eg bad weather) in which case you are dropped like a hot potato and it is hard to sort. For this reason much prefer Swiss and BA. Had a disaster with EJ couple of seasons ago. Happy to use them in summer!

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My (considerable) experience of Swiss is very favourable. I'm not sure about the prices as the company has paid for most of it, but they would certainly be one of my first choice carriers.

Never having flown EassyJet I can't comment on them, but when I have looked at prices (the total cost, not the headline) they have never been significantly cheaper than a BA / Swiss / Lufthansa etc. alternative.

I also have no complaints and only very favourable experience of Swiss railways.

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You might want to check Swiss for skis. It looks like they have brought in charges this year.

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Philbo, i was just looking at booking some flights and it says by the star at the bottom that the first set of skis go free!? all a bit cinfusing so I'm going to ring them and get the details. They are well priced at the minute and it beats sleazyjet any day NehNeh

After all it is free

andy, Expedia list Easyjet alongside at least Swiss and BA and you don't need to leave that site to book.

Kayak I think lists all of them but you then have to move site to book.

Expedia might charge an admin fee. But i've rarely/never seen big price differences. What Expedia excels at is custom flight & hotel deals for trips. Have often got big discount over booking direct by booking a combo.

EJ were huge amounts cheaper for a January flight to Geneva for me - just over £300 for 3 people, with 2 ski bags and 2 baggage.. Swiss air was £202 per person, admittedly with baggage, but still double the price of EJ.
Also, never had a problem with EJ flights, although admittedly never done a ski trip with them. And after going on a coach a few times, any sort of journey less than 20hrs feels luxurious!

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Easyjet vs Swiss etc.

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Easyjet vs Swiss etc.