Hello Efers,

Having been shoved into the plane like sheep from Zurich airport with Easy Jet for last 5 trips I decided to look for alternatives. The main advantage of EasyJet for me was flying to Luton Airport which is close to my home town Cambridge (I pay 50 quid to the pre-arranged cab which is convenient) and I always thought they are cheaper.

Last week I decided to look for alternatives and found a BA flight from Zurich to London City at 220 pounds return compared to the Easy Jet one which was 240 (plus a debit/credit card fee), plus BA treats you better, gives you free meal and a free luggage allowance. My cab to Cambridge won't be as cheap but hey I can always get a train (with 2 changes). Why has EasyJet gone so cocky over the years? Why is Ryan Air not flying from Switzerland to Stanstead anymore?

I have just booked some easy jet flights ZH LGW ZH for £59 return. Had I not had an original flight starting in London which I cancelled it would have cost £65.

I always check BA, Easyjet and Swiss before I go back to the motherland. Swiss can have some really good deals.

http://booking.swiss.com/web/Swiss-O...d-Ireland.html

£220 return seems very expensive regardless

It's clear. The easyjet flight you looked at is nearly full so you pay more to subsidise everyone else on the flight who already bought tickets. This is normal. Same thing for me to Manchester with Swiss or sleazy. Book early, sleazy is cheaper. Leave it a while and swiss can be cheaper.

Sent from my HTC Desire using Tapatalk

To my understanding all airlines have classes of seats at set prices (I think with the major carriers these correspond to the single letter class you might see on your ticket e.g. M, Y etc.).

The low cost carriers are unbeatable on price at the lowest tier, but as they sell out you are going to get overlaps with what classes are available from each airline e.g. what is left from Easyjet is only their 100 GBP fare but BA might still have seats in their 90 GBP fare.

I know people working in Europe who book their tickets as soon as they become available on Easyjet i.e. months in advance. I guess this is the best approach. If you are booking close to the flight date you really need to shop around.

it's all about the upselling. Travel alone with an approved handbaggage item - easyJet will probably win. Fly mob-handed with normal luggage and the old-style airlines will win.

I paid just over £100 return on Swiss from London City to Zurich a couple of months ago. With Swiss there are no hidden extras. You even get a sandwich, drink and bar of chocolate included. That is about £10 on Easyjet.

Try to be flexible on days/times to get the best prices.

also be selective with your airport, some have taxes that are higher than the fare.

if you're flexible, you save

Always check Swiss and BA before easyjet I guess. i do not fly to the UK but I had such awful experience with EJ that I decided I would not do that to myself anymore...I know it works perfect for some people but the awful lines and not knowing your seat annoy me very much. Yes i am a control freak

Just in easyjet's defence - I recently flew zurich - london with BA and easyjet - better legroom on easyjet !

I found the online check in system for easyjet much easier. That's as far as the compliments go.

Well some of the cabin crew aren't too bad looking either. They all seem quite old (but more competent) on the BA or Swiss flights.

I guess BA are finally awakening and realisng they can't go on treating customers the way they used to.

AFAIK Easyjet was the first airline in Europe to offer things like single trips at reasonable prices, or even to use a genuinely usable web booking interface. If Easyjet hadn't forced the others to move they probabyl would have stayed in their 1970s mindset.

I'm not a big fan of airline food anyway, or of Kindergarten style being told where to sit. I enjoy the no-nonsense cheeriness of Easyjet. BA would have to be seriously cheaper than Easyjet to make me consider switching.

actually as an oft-single traveller not flying to the UK with easyJet, I find the following nice about the airline:

- sit where you want. That's usually where I want no matter when I board the plane - yes, I enjoy splitting the aisle-window crew who got priority boarding for an upsell.
- the crew - they get to be themselves....the Irish pilot speaking Italian telling us that his Dutch co-pilot would inform the Dutch of what's going on was almost as funny as the whole cabin crew who were there to enjoy their job.
- I do of course use Malpensa a lot and easyJet get the shitty little terminal. No delays at all, free motorbike parking, what more could a lady want?

Horses for courses, I say. I'm doing family trips to the UK and US and going from Agno with Swiss

I've flown EJ once and I will never do it again. They take out all the of the frills (and I do mean ALL of them) and then charge you if you want them back.

Want to take luggage? $$$
Want to eat something? $$$
Want to drink something? $$$
Want to get on the plane first for choice seating? $$$

So while the ticket price "looks" cheaper, by the time you get done buying your frills back you've had a much less pleasant experience and spent more money.

And that's my two cents.

They don't take them all out. That's left to Ryanair. Who charge you one fee for checking in online and another for checking in at the airport. Whatever way you go you have to pay extra!

How long before you gotta put 2Euro in the door just to use the loo?

seriously, if you need to use the crapper on a short-haul, you deserve to pay €2

if you're going to pay €2, do get value for money

Try looking at it from the other side.

If I'm off to Barcelona for a weekend I've got all the gear I need in my hand luggage.

If fly with BA I'm

- contributing towards a luggage allowance I'm not using
- part of my fare is going to some frequent flyer program in which I'm not participating because I don't fly often enough with the same airline.
- BA food in economy class isn't exactly worth getting excited about
- choice of drinks is fairly pathetic, unless you happen to think Carlsberg is chic.

So in summary, I'm paying for loads of stuff I don't appreciate and don't want.

On the other hand with EJ.

- if I'm late to check in I can jump the queue
- check in is very simple and I don't need a printed ticket. I once actually booked it online on my laptop while standing in the check-in queue.
- staff are laid back and funny and make you feel good.
- because they make money on the on-board food and drinks they actually put some effort into making sure you're happy.

hmm my last and final experience with easyjet

let you board the plan, sit on the runway for 4 hours

ok everyone to make you more comfortable we'll unload you, you can get some food and then get back on, leave your luggage here

like suckers we all got off

while we're all using the £4 voucher they unload the luggage and the plane takes off empty, in the mean time all easyjet staff have buggered off and called the police.

police tell us to leave departures and goto the easyjet desk, easyjet have cancelled 3 planes at the same time, there are over 1000 people trying to rebook with 2 counter staff

its ok you can get on the next plane tomorrow, that has 2 spare seats (our flight was full) we don't fly the day after, and we can't tell you about the flight in 3 days time

forget that, get on a train, and fly out of london instead, wait months for easyjet to reimburse, of course they don't give the manditory eu compensation.

so never NEVER again with these lying idiots.

__________________
https://starkindustries.ch/
http://www.swissr2.ch/
http://www.tk16431.com/

You were very unlucky- I've flown with EasyJ 100s of times, and I've never ever had a problem of any kind.

Basically- just 2 words -supply and demand.

If you want to save money though- why take a cab to Cambridge???