As I mentioned in my last post I wasn’t impressed with the way EasyJet board their flights
EasyJey don’t allocate seats. They let everyone choose seats as they get onto the airplane
Their boarding procedure works in groups in this order
Group SB: Passengers who have purchased Speedy Boarding/Speedy Boarding Plus
Group SA: Passengers requiring special assistance and families (maximum 2 adults) where at least one child is aged 5 years or under.
Group A: (reserved for passengers who have checked in online, and the first 30 people who check in at the airport)
Group B: (Everyone else)
On paper this looks like a good idea
People who pay more get on first and get to pick the “best seats”
People with children or wheelchairs are kept separate
Online check-in gets a priority which I see as a nice incentive (and it’s less people the check-in staff to deal with) but in practise is of little use on main holiday as you can only use it if you only have hand luggage
Everyone else just has to queue and pick from what is left
My experience went like this
When we knew which gate to go to we made our way over. Luckily we were waiting quite close to the gate so started the short walk. We then noticed a large family rushing to get to the front of the queue
Once we made it to the gate we were quite near to the front. I figured about 25 groups in front of us and I looked behind to see the queue starting to stretch through the airport
The flight was slightly delayed so people were getting hot and bothered. Especially when staff appeared near the gate but the gate remained closed (presumably they were waiting for the all clear from the plane)
Finally one of the members of staff came forward and asked for the Speedy Boarding group
She wasn’t letting people on but checking passports against boarding passes to save time when the gate actually opened which seemed like a nice gesture but the problem was the queue
The speedy boarding passengers started to come forward but the people who already had a place in the queue didn’t want to move. There was also only one lady checking tickets so everyone surged toward her thinking they were boarding so wanted to be seen first
She gave up and escaped and there was then some mumbled announcement which only came once and I never heard it properly
Since Bryony I had a 3 year old and 5 month old, hand luggage and a pushchair we started to move forward but stepped out of the surge as I was worried about losing Alice. We’d taken Evie out of the pushchair as she’d started to get upset during the wait.
The queue now lost all shape and when they finally started to board the Speedy Boarding group our place near the front had disappeared. Again the other boarding groups didn’t want to move so there was a lot of pushing and shoving as people tried to get on and I actually saw one group who weren’t in the Speedy Boarding group (the large family I mentioned earlier) trying to get through at the same time so they’d be at the front of the queue for the second boarding group!
Eventually I interrupted one of people trying to push past my wife (she was holding a baby! and they still pushed!) and he looked me straight in the eye with a look of contempt and said
“Are you a Speedy Boarder??”
It would have been really easy to be rude at this point and get into an argument but I replied with a simple
“Yes, yes we are”
Which seemed to take him by surprise and he stopped and let Bryony though
We managed to squeeze through only to see people rushing down the boarding ramp. While Speedy Boarders get on ahead of everyone else it’s still very much first come first serve on the plane. We were trying to fold up the pushchair in the middle of all this and no-one really cared about the fact we had two small so I’d be interested to hear any comments they have
I’ll definitely be thinking twice about using EasyJet in the future
Latest posts by Andy Parkes (see all)
- Dishley parkrun, Loughborough - August 1, 2023
- Woodgate Valley Country Park parkrun - July 22, 2023
- Abbey Park parkrun - June 8, 2023
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!
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
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