Adding baggage and selecting seats to my booking today, I notice EasyJet has significantly reduced the quality of their offering and massively increased prices.
Previously if you booked an Up Front seat you were entitled to a standard carry-on, speedy boarding, and most crucially access to the EasyJet Plus check-in desks. Now you just get the seat (and a small carry on like everyone else). It's £29 EACH WAY for the standard carry on. And no mention of speedy boarding/access to EasyJet Plus check-in.
I have to say I am not at all happy. We used to get the Up Front seats plus purchase priority security at both ends. EasyJet Plus check-in at Geneva was always a breeze (and the biggest benefit as queues can be horrendous on a busy changeover day). Put it all together and I felt I got a very pleasant, hassle free and good value experience. No longer.
Checking with BA I would have actually been slightly cheaper in europe business class once everything else is factored in (baggage, priority check-in, priority security etc). I am not the biggest fan of BA for all sorts of reasons, but to my mind EasyJet are running the risk of being seen as worse value.
It's not a big issue as my kids are pretty big now, but it all made a big difference when they were smaller. I am a bit disappointed as I was happy to pay for the extra convenience, to a point.
I wonder if others have noticed/been caught out by this?
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
I’d booked an EJ flight a while back without a real thought as their headline price was so much less than BA but after booking when I checked that by the time I’d added all the paid for extras onto EJ that they were the same if not more than the BA equivalent. As getting to LHR is easier, quicker and cheaper than Gatwick, I cancelled EJ and booked BA even with losing a portion of the booking cost.
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
It’s been that way for a while and not just EJ, if you look on Amazon, they sell specific EJ sized allowed free baggage.
The large cabin bag gets you speedy boarding as default.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
I know everyone's requirements are different but have to admit personally I've never quite got the point of it all.
I don't pay for seats and have always been put together (the seat diagram which we skip always makes it look like nearly all the seats have gone but they obviously haven't). We are a family so that may be an advantage I guess.
The carry on allowance always seems fine, allows me to get my ski boots on the plane, wouldn't want to pay for extra.
Check in is quick on the way out, and used to be painful at Geneva but I think they've changed the set up so it's much quicker now.
And with allocated seats I'm not sure I get the point of speedy boarding either, never had an issue with finding space to put my carry on.
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Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...
@Handy Turnip, Yes, I remember the days when SB got you a better seat, was a right PITA because you usually ended up standing around for much longer than you'd be sat on the plane for anyway.
These days if I'm just making a quick trip to the UK I'll not normally bother with any paid-for seat or luggage, and at the gate I'll deliberately hold back, remaining seated until there are only half a dozen people to go. The dubious additional comfort from an extra-leg-room seat is usually more than offset by the half an hour or more standing in line that many people seem prepared to do.
As for luggage, you must have tiny feet if you can fit your ski boots into a 45 x 36 x 20 cm bag, which is all you're allowed for free. They describe it as an under-seat bag, and say in the blurb that it must be stowed under the seat in front of you. Thankfully they don't enforce that, otherwise I would literally have nowhere for my feet to go. And I've not seen them measuring the bags recently either, but that doesn't mean I'd be prepared to take one larger than that and end up having to pay presumably a punitive fee for it is it were spotted.
There is no check-in needed at GVA or BSL these days if you have no bags to drop, and in fact I think you don't even have the option to do anything but the online checkin anyway, but at the airport you can just go straight to security.
I'd never choose to fly EJ given the choice, but if I want to anywhere in the UK other than London, and/or not from Zurich, there's really very little choice these days, since Crossair became Swiss and moved all their operations from Basel.
Last edited by Then you can post your own questions or snow reports... on Thu 11-01-24 20:21; edited 1 time in total
After all it is free
After all it is free
Anyone else have such a strong middle-seat phobia that they always pay to avoid that?
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I’ve recently taken out EasyJet Plus (£225 a year) as I have a number of flights upcoming. I think it will work out for me but that is on the basis of about 8 flights and that hitherto I have been booking the large cabin bag option anyway.
What I didn’t realise is that whilst you get a large cabin bag included in addition to the small cabin bag, hold luggage is not included. My fault for not reading the benefits properly and assuming that the easyJet plus subscription effectively meant you had a subscription to all the same benefits as you get when booking an easyJet flexi ticket, but I do find the way they describe it slightly misleading as, listed amongst the benefits is the statement ‘With EasyJet Plus, for an annual fee you can benefit from our dedicated easyJet Plus bag drop’ w/out making it clear that the hold bag itself will cost you extra. The ability to change flights is also not as generous as with a flexi fare. Unless that changes in the future so that EasyJet plus gives you the same as easyJet flexi fares I won’t be taking out the membership again.
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red 27 wrote:
Anyone else have such a strong middle-seat phobia that they always pay to avoid that?
Yes indeed! I do
Trevor Noah isn’t but wants some notice! I actually saw him to a hilarious sketch about this at a live show but the content is essentially also in this clip
@Handy Turnip, we have on a couple of occasions paid to be seated together and due to an aircraft change not been, your way sounds better
With regards to paying to sit together it just comes down to how much you want to risk being split up I guess.
We have learnt that airlines consider it perfectly acceptable for a small child to be seated directly behind or in front of a parent (i.e. middle seat to middle seat)...not sure how those sitting on the aisle or window would feel about it though (that scenario was presented to us courtesy of Easyjet during the brief ridiculous period when you couldn't add extra baggage unless you sat up front, something I think that only lasted a matter of months, so there were plenty of seats at the back, but they wouldn't let us sit there, insisting we had to be split up and sit in rows 1 and 2)!!!
When we got to the airport the check in desk were more accommodating so it never actual materialised.
Speedy boarding is because some airlines (BA for example, although they probably don't have speedy boarding) have a very poor recent record of losing checked luggage, so if you are able to take bags on without being forced to check them in it increases the probability you will have clothes to wear when you arrive
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
Chaletbeauroc wrote:
@Handy Turnip
As for luggage, you must have tiny feet if you can fit your ski boots into a 45 x 36 x 20 cm bag, which is all you're allowed for free. They describe it as an under-seat bag, and say in the blurb that it must be stowed under the seat in front of you. Thankfully they don't enforce that, otherwise I would literally have nowhere for my feet to go. And I've not seen them measuring the bags recently either, but that doesn't mean I'd be prepared to take one larger than that and end up having to pay presumably a punitive fee for it is it were spotted.
It's a fair shout - my ski boot bag is one of the Lange bags and is 49x36x11cm, and I've never had an issue yet (touch wood, famous last words!) - it's one of the boot bags that looks like a laptop bag.
As for the tiny feet, my feet are pretty average, although they seem to squeeze me into a lower ski boot size every time I get a new pair, so maybe that helps
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So if you're just off somewhere snowy come back and post a snow report of your own and we'll all love you very much
vjmehra wrote:
@Handy Turnip, we have on a couple of occasions paid to be seated together and due to an aircraft change not been, your way sounds better
With regards to paying to sit together it just comes down to how much you want to risk being split up I guess.
We have learnt that airlines consider it perfectly acceptable for a small child to be seated directly behind or in front of a parent
Yeah, I'm surprised that I haven't been caught out yet. Our youngest is now 12, which isn't that young anymore. I'm surprised they haven't split us up on purpose, as I'd then be under pressure from the OH to pay for seats together on the next flight.
I normally check in pretty promptly, not sure if that helps.
You know it makes sense.
You know it makes sense.
I always assumed (given the airlines constantly stress they don't) that the algorithms would make a point of splitting people up!
Logically checking in early seems like it should help!
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
I think many are missing the point here. The benefits of and Up Front seat have changed (reduced). The real benefit was being able to drop your bags with no delay or fuss at Geneva. There is little point of you are travelling alone and have no luggage. And I suspect you will see dimensions for the small bag to under the seat in front of you will be enforced, making taking ski boots on board chancy unless you pay for a bigger carry on.
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Poster: A snowHead
BA upset me massively last time I went with them, they had obviously decided they wanted to part us with our hand luggage (we had no checked bags) do blocked us from online check in so we were forced to the desk to be parted with it. They lied out right saying NOBODY was allowed larger bag unless you were business class and when we said there was a laptop in larger bag (not allowed in hold due to having a battery) she said oh thats fine I will just put a fragile label on it! I personally think they are going a bit ott with the firerisk thing on batteries but that is the rule and there is a reason behind it. When we got to the gate LOADS of peop had been allowed to keep their larger hand luggage. Obviously target those without hold bags but whole point was we didn't want to or need to wait for hold bags makes more sense to target those that have hold bags already.
At least if you have paid for hand luggage you will guarantee to be allowed to keeep it on easyjet model. Saying that pricing up for 3 of us to prague with easyjet - not inclined to give BA based on how they treated us on that route last time, looks significantly cheaper to put one hold bag between rather than 1 larger hand baggage each.
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
vjmehra wrote:
I always assumed (given the airlines constantly stress they don't) that the algorithms would make a point of splitting people up!
Logically checking in early seems like it should help!
Anecdotally Ryanair do exactly that to ensure you pay to sit together.
I don’t pay for seating and neither EJ or BA have done that when we’ve travelled with them, am not sure if having kids help.
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
This is something that seems to change from airport to airport! When they started bringing the rule in for no laptops in hold, we got asked did we have any of these items (lots of pictures including one of a laptop) by the lady, to which I said yes. I look at the bags and say errr that one, is it disappears onto the belt behind. She jumps up hits the stop but it was too late. We had to gvie her picture of bag and description as she is getting people to find and bring back to us. She at least learned to ask the question BEFORE starting to check bags in. On way out from Gatwick had no such restriction on it.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
@NickyJ, how odd! I’m pretty certain that across most airlines now it is perfectly allowable but the rules around this do seem to have fluctuated over the years. There was even a period when it was the other way round, i.e laptops of a certain size weren’t allowed in cabin baggage and had to be checked in:
I have to confess though I find myself having to double check the rules each time before heading off to make sure that 1) I haven’t misread them and / or 2) they haven’t changed!
(I didn’t mean for the reference to rules to be hyperlinked!)
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Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...
Quote:
With regards to paying to sit together it just comes down to how much you want to risk being split up I guess
I've never paid to book seats. Experience of random seat allocation for a fair number of bookings for two passengers is as follows:
- easyjet and Jet2 have always sat us together.
- Ryanair has never done so - usually 20 rows apart to teach us a lesson!
After all it is free
After all it is free
mountainaddict wrote:
- Ryanair has never done so - usually 20 rows apart to teach us a lesson!
I bet one of you are happy with it though
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Lots of people responding that they don't pay to choose seats. Which is fine, each to their own.
My point was that previously an Up Front seat got you a standard size carry on (so you could take ski boots easily), plus access to dedicated bag drop which avoided the usual chaos at Geneva especially. That is no longer the case.
I don't really see what that has to do with whether or not you pay to choose a seat.
As it happens I have an EasyJet plus card. I travel a lot with them on business. So I am fine personally, but it's not worth getting a card for the other 5 in the family. I have always quite liked EasyJet but charging £18-£25 for a seat at the front, plus £29 for a standard carry-on bag, with no speedy boarding/dedicated check-in is just a rip off. It has somewhat put me off the airline full stop.
I have no problem in principle with charging for larger carry-on bags, like most I think it is actually a better system that avoids the usual bun-fight and makes sure only those who really want/need a larger bag on board are guaranteed to actually get that. That said, it is again not the point at all. I repeat the point is they have increased the price and reduced the benefits substantially. And I wondered if anyone had been caught out by that.
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Ski the Net with snowHeads
Oh and don't get me started on the brigade who choose not to pay to select seats, and then ask others if they can move so they can sit together. The answer is no. Always. If you want to be sure if where you sit then play to do so. If you don't, fair enough but don't create a steer when you have to spend an hour or two not sat next to each other.
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@zikomo, I'm a bit confused, I didn't think anyone paid £29 for standard carry on? You pay for cabin baggage which is larger. You can get boots into standard carry on with the right bag. More by luck than judgement I paid for cabin bag which got me speedy boarding (& priority checkin) and when I checked in online it got all 3 of us sat together without paying for seats. Ryanair do the opposite, they deliberately split it up.
Easyjets own website says
Cabin bags
Hold luggage >
Everyone can bring one small under seat cabin bag per person on board for free.
It can be a maximum size of 45 x 36 x 20 cm (including any handles and wheels) and must be kept under the seat in front of you.
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
Quote:
With regards to paying to sit together it just comes down to how much you want to risk being split up I guess
I've never been so passionately attached to anyone that I wouldn't take the "risk" of being parted from them on a short flight. The EJ rates for a large hold bag are much more economical than for the smaller "carry ons". If I were God of an airline I'd increase that differential to stop people staggering around planes for 20 minutes looking for somewhere to stuff their huge bags!
I have travelled alone a lot, on many very long haul and third world flights and it's the best way to travel. When there are delays, sit quietly in a corner with a good book. Not having a companion huffing and puffing about the delays and wanting you to put your book aside and keep them company. I once landed in Harare with the very agreeable knowledge that nobody, in the whole world, knew where I was!
So if you're just off somewhere snowy come back and post a snow report of your own and we'll all love you very much
So if you're just off somewhere snowy come back and post a snow report of your own and we'll all love you very much
@kitenski, I don't see what you are confused about. My OP simply pointed out that the benefits of Up Front seats has been reduced. You used to get a larger carry-on bag, speedy boarding and access to fast bag drop and now you don't. On my upcoming flight it is indeed £29 for a standard carry-on bag - i.e. not a small one that has to fit under the seat in front of you.
Your points all remain true - everyone can take a small bag that fits under the seat in front of them. But it is irrelevant to the original post. And as an aside there is no way my ski boots will fit in the 45 x 36 x 20 dimensions, and I suspect that is true for pretty much everyone. That is not to say you can't get away with it, but it remains not at all the point.
You know it makes sense.
You know it makes sense.
@zikomo, my confusion is you said standard bag was no longer free, I see now you mean large cabin bag not standard bag , (in easyJet speak) cheers!
How long are your boots? There are messenger type bags where the boots sit top to tail that meet the requirements.
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
mountainaddict wrote:
Quote:
With regards to paying to sit together it just comes down to how much you want to risk being split up I guess
I've never paid to book seats. Experience of random seat allocation for a fair number of bookings for two passengers is as follows:
- easyjet and Jet2 have always sat us together.
- Ryanair has never done so - usually 20 rows apart to teach us a lesson!
Same experience here - always split by Ryanair but Jet2 and Easyjet together.
We don’t mind sitting apart anyway, it’s only a few hours and hubby enjoys the peace
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Poster: A snowHead
@zikomo, this changed last June, and the cost of seat plus bag (on Manchester Geneva at least) is actually in the same ballpark as it used to be for an up front seat (£45-50 each way on peak weekend flights).
In my view it’s actually a good move as it means they can more easily manage/limit the number of large cabin bags brought on board, you can book a large bag without paying the premium for an up-front seat and it does make it easier for ground crew to spot non-paying double-baggers (if you’re not in the speedy boarding queue then you should only have one, small cabin bag).
I’m surprised you’ve not noticed this when travelling with work as even as an EJ Plus member you still need to book your seat and select a large bag as two separate entries - entering your EJ Plus number on the payment screen simply zeroes the charges.
FAQ
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