The Easy way between Bilbao and Bristol

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20 years 5 months

Posts: 316

NOTES: All times are Local
This is LONG!

As I currently live in Irún in the Spanish Basque Country and my family live in Swansea in South Wales, it seemed silly not to take advantage of Easyjet´s low fares from Bilbao to Bristol to visit them for the weekend. I booked the ticket in April for travel on 18th June returning on 20th June. The fare was €50. At the beginning of June, I was speaking to my boss and she casually mentioned that the 29th and 30th June, as well as 1st July are Bank Holidays but only in my City! She also told me that the firm either allows you to have the Monday before the Bank Holiday or the Friday after off. I chose to take the Monday because I needed to be in Irún on the Friday as I was going to Málaga to visit some family who have moved there. I checked what fares EZY were offering for 26th June to 1st July and found I could get a return for €100. Not very cheap but reasonable for booking a fortnight before travel. This also enabled me to be home for my Father’s birthday, as well as giving me the chance to fly more (as if I need an excuse for that!).

OK, enough of the preamble. I hope you’re not too bored yet & are still reading. On to the flights.

I left work early on this Friday to catch the 2:00PM coach to Bilbao. As per usual, it ran perfectly to time and after the fun of coach – underground – bus, I arrived at the airport at 4:15PM ready for my 6:20PM flight. All was going well and I was looking forward to my first Easyjet flight.

To my surprise, I found that check-in had already opened and there was quite a queue. For some reason, all the passengers had formed a queue in front of one desk even though there were two open. A couple of women in front of me decided they’d go to the desk that had no queue in front of it so I followed! A man in the other queue started lecturing us on how everyone is waiting and that the one line is splitting at the desk and so on but on of the women said that if there were two desks, there should be two queues! We stayed where we were and I was checked in within 5 minutes while the rest of the passengers waited! I got boarding number 29 (not that this makes any difference in BIO but we’ll come to that later).

I had about 2 hours to kill before my flight but the aircraft arrived early from Bristol so I was pretty sure we’d have an on-time departure. I headed through security and down to the usual gate 6 with plenty of time to spare. As soon as the aircraft was on stand, hoards of people came down and I was glad I’d arrived early so that I could be at the front of the boarding queue. They announced families and passengers needing assistance and then general boarding without worrying what sequence number you had. I was first on the aircraft and made my way straight to the back in the hope of getting at least one free seat by me.

EZY 6188 BIO – BRS
18th June 2004
Boeing 737-300 G-EZYT (Delivered to TEA Switzerland, later to become Easyjet Switzerland in November 1994)
STD: 18:20
OFB: 18:16
Wheels Up: 18:24

STA: 19:10
Land: 18:53
ONB: 19:00

Once on board, I was greeted by a very friendly flight attendant who was assisting with placing bags in the overhead lockers and making sure all passengers were sitting down as quickly as possible so we could get going. All throughout the boarding process, the crew kept asking people to move to the rear of the aircraft to leave room for the people boarding behind them. Much to EZY´s annoyance, an airbridge is always used at BIO which slows boarding down as passengers always stop right at the front of the aircraft and block the aisle while trying to stow their hand luggage. Because of this announcement, I didn’t get a free seat next to me as a couple made their way through the aircraft and took the middle and aisle seats next to me. Damn!

The cabin was prepared and the most comprehensive and professional safety briefing I have ever seen was given. We pushed back four minutes early and taxied to runway 30. The flight deck crew did not give us any route information before take off which I found a little odd as this is normally done. The engines were spooled up and we accelerated down BIO´s very bumpy runway. About 30 seconds later, we were airborne.

The take off from BIO is spectacular with a fantastic view of the mountains of the Basque Country to the right of the aircraft and the City of Bilbao to the left. A few seconds after take off, you head out over the sea and make a slight turn to head North towards the Channel Islands and the UK. There was some cloud shortly after take off but this did not cause any turbulence. The cloud thinned and we had a lovely view of the Bay of Biscay.

At 10,000ft, the Crew were released and the Captain came on the PA with some flight information. We would be flying at FL320 with a flight time of 1 hour 30 minutes. The First Officer was flying this leg and our route took us over the Bay of Biscay then the Brest Peninsular. From there, we headed towards Exeter and on to Exmoor before turning towards the westerly runway (27) at BRS.

The crew then started their service by first handing out in flight magazines and then beginning the Easy Kiosk. They worked from front to back so I was one of the last to be served. Soft drinks were reasonably priced (60p for a can of coke, lemonade etc. Even though they are the mini cans) but other items were expensive (e.g. £1.60 for hot water with a tea bag or instant coffee in or £2.00 for cuppasoup!). an interesting point to note was that on this (and all my other EZY flights during this period, the crew made a point of asking passengers to mind their arms and legs while they were moving the trolley through the cabin. Normally, the crews like to have a competition to see who can hit the most arms and legs ;)!

About 20 minutes after take off, it got quite cloudy outside so there weren’t many good views to be had. The cloud remained all the way until Bristol. There was some light turbulence in the cruise but nothing to worry about.

Once the crew had finished their Easy Kiosk service, they started on the in flight shopping. I noticed on this flight (and on all the others) that they really went for the hard sell on this so they can earn more commission. The announcement lasted about 5 minutes informing you of how much better EZY’s prices are compared to the high street!

We began our descent about 25 minutes before landing and the crew came around to prepare the cabin and collect any unwanted in flight magazines. After an absolutely stunning view of the 2 Severn bridges and the Clifton Suspension bridge on the approach, we touched down fairly smoothly on 27 at BRS even though the pilot had clearly been fighting some crosswinds. We taxied off the runway and were on stand ten minutes ahead of schedule which the crew were very pleased to announce! I managed to get a quick look in to the cockpit after the flight. The pilots were friendly but I was asked to leave by the Senior cabin crew member so that the aircraft could be turned around. I went through customs and baggage reclaim and met up with my Girlfriend who was driving me back to Swansea.

So that completed my first ever Easyjet flight. Overall, I was incredibly impressed. The crew were the most professional, safety oriented group of people I have ever met. They made sure all safety regulations were complied with right up to one of the female members standing by my row of seats during the descent until the lady in the aisle seat put her bag under the seat in front. Most crews just say “put that away please” and walk off. The 2 Female and 1 Male crew were incredibly friendly and helpful throughout the flight. The only slight disappointment was that not one of them spoke Spanish. One spoke Italian but this is of little use on a Spain – UK flight. All announcements were spoken in English and pre-recorded in Spanish.

The comfort was as I expected. The seat pitch was fairly tight and the man behind me had his knees in my back for much of the flight. The worst aspect of this flight was that the seat cushions were much further forward than the seat back leaving an uncomfortable one to two inch gap between the cushion and the back. Also the seat backs were not very well padded. Overall, the aircraft was in fairly good condition for its age but the window was a bit dirty. One thing I did notice was that both the cabin crew and the flight deck crew said “Try and make yourselves as comfortable as possible” when they were welcoming us aboard so they obviously didn’t have much confidence in this aircraft’s comfort ;)!

I left my flight with a fantastic impression of EZY – Cheap, friendly, excellent on time performance, very concerned about passenger safety. What more can one want? I was looking forward to my return flight on Sunday and was hoping I’d get on an ex-Go aircraft to see how they differed.

------------------------

After a lovely weekend at home, it was time to head back to BRS for the return to BIO. I was getting a lift with my Girlfriend and her father as they were coming back out with me for a few days.

We arrived at BRS at 12:45PM for our 2:55PM departure to BIO. We parked in the long stay car park and got the courtesy bus to the terminal. We checked in with ease at the dedicated check in area and got boarding numbers 19, 20 and 21. For some reason, my luggage was put in my Girlfriend’s father’s name even though we were on two different reservations. Very strange. We went upstairs to get some food then headed in to the departure lounge and made our way to our gate (6).

EZY 6187 BRS – BIO
20th June 2004
Boeing 737-300 G-OHAJ (Delivered to British Airways on 2nd June 1998 in Delftblue Daybreak world tail. Later transferred to Go and taken up by EZY when they merged)
STD: 14:55
OFB: 15:12
Wheels Up: 15:19

STA: 17:50
Land: 17:40
ONB: 17:45

We boarded on time by bus (which made boarding numbers completely irrelevant as the PAX with low boarding numbers got on the bus first and so on the aircraft last!) but had a delay once on board the aircraft due to a problem with refuelling. As we were parked on a remote stand, we didn’t need to be pushed back so we just started the engines and went. We taxied to runway 27 for take off but had to hold short for a few minutes waiting for an SN Brussels ARJ to land. After the crew had checked the cabin twice, we pulled on to the runway and held for a few minutes until the landing aircraft was clear. The power was then applied and we took off in to the slightly cloudy Bristol skies.

Our route today was very similar to the outbound leg: BRS – Torquay – Channel Islands – Brest Peninsular – Bay of Biscay – BIO (Runway 30). As soon as the seat belt signs were off, the cabin crew sprung in to action. Again, in flight magazines were distributed and then the Easy Kiosk started. Again, two crew members took the trolley to the front of the aircraft and started serving but this time, the purser, Ian, came from the rear galley and served the rear of the aircraft with whatever they wanted off a tray. If it weren’t for the seat pitch and the fact you had to pay for drinks and snacks, you could almost be in business class! The crew then advertised the on board shopping and went through the aisle selling perfumes etc.

Shortly after, we began our descent towards BIO and I could tell we were doing the approach to runway 30. This approach is really spectacular as you fly over the coast and then make a sharp right turn towards the airport. You then fly down a valley on runway heading with the Basque mountains higher than you on both sides of the aircraft. It’s a fantastic view but you just hope that the pilot doesn’t get it wrong as there is not much space to play with!

It was cloudy in BIO and during the approach it got quite bumpy. This made my Girlfriend’s father slightly nervous as he had never flown before. He coped very well though. On the approach, the crew asked for all window blinds to be opened and for any rubbish and unwanted in flight magazines to be handed in as the aircraft only had 20 minutes on the ground in BIO (this was not announced on approach to BRS on the Friday). We touched down smoothly in BIO and the reverse thrust was engaged. We taxied off the runway and followed the “Follow Me” car to stand 6. The engines were shut down 5 minutes ahead of schedule (even though we left 20 minutes late) and we all disembarked into BIO’s wonderful, modern terminal. Luggage reclaim was quite quick and we then made our way in to town to catch the coach back to Irún.

So, what was my opinion of my second Easyjet flight? Again, I was VERY impressed. The crew were once again excellent (with Purser Ian going above and beyond the call of duty). This aircraft was obviously newer than EZYT that I had had on Friday, with a new style of overhead bin (not the same as the 737NG but much more modern and rounded than the older 737 classics I have been on). I was pleased to be on an aircraft with a GO interior which I feel is nice than the EZY’s grey. The blue seats are very pleasant and were also much more comfortable than the seats on EZYT. The carpet appeared more worn on this aircraft but that is not really important. I cannot comment on the cleanliness of the window as, for the first time in my life, I was in an aisle seat (I thought I should be generous and let my Girlfriend’s father have the window as it was his first flight).

I could not speak highly enough of EZY at this point so I e-mailed their customer service department to inform them. A few days later, I received a very nice e-mail off them thanking me for flying EZY and taking the time to e-mail them about my satisfaction (if you want to see the e-mail, I can post it here but I won’t do that unless it would interest any of you).

-------------------

So, on to my next Easyjet experience. So far, it had been very Easy. Was this trip going to live up to my (now) high expectations?

Being the mad aircraft enthusiast that I am, I decided to get the 7:00AM coach (arriving at BIO at 9:15AM) for a 2:20PM flight (the flight leaves at 2:20PM on a Saturday whereas all other days, it goes at 6:20PM). There was however another reason for this. There is an EZY flight that leaves for STN at 10:40AM and I was hoping I could persuade the check-in agents to allow me to check my bag while they were still checking in the STN passengers. This plan backfired and so I was stuck with my luggage (only a hold-all but still a pain) for 3 hours. Doh!

Check-in was eventually opened at about 11:50AM. I had been waiting by the desks (EZY always use the same desks in BIO) for about 15 minutes before the staff turned up so I was at the front of the queue and got boarding card number 1 (which I knew this time was pretty much useless but I still like to have it. Sad I know!).

I had a last stroll outside and through the landside area of BIO before heading through security while there was no queue (BIO security is either maniacally busy or deserted for some reason). There is not much to do once airside but there are some great views through the large windows of both aircraft on stand and the main runway. After a few minutes, I went to the gate (5; which is only used for this flight on a Saturday as there is a BA flight to LHR that uses gate 6 (these are the only two gates in BIO equipped with the passport control booths required for UK flights) at this time). The aircraft arrived roughly 20 minutes early from BRS and boarding was called soon after. This time, the gate agents did announce Families and passengers needing assistance, followed by seq. numbers 1-65 and then 65 plus but this just did not work. As soon as the families were boarded, everyone pushed forward so everyone was let straight on regardless of boarding card number.

EZY 6186 BIO – BRS
26th June 2004
Boeing 737-700 G-EZJN (Delivered in 2002. Unsure when)
STD: 14:20
OFB: 14:30
Wheels Up: 14:38

STA: 15:10
Land: 14:55
ONB: 15:00

I had asked at the information desk beforehand what type of aircraft we’d be on so I was very much looking forward to trying out one of EZY’s 73G’s. I had been on one with HLX a few months before so I knew what they were like but nevertheless it was only my second time flying the type so I was excited.

We were all on board by 14:10 and I heard the APU being started from my seat in the last row of the aircraft. The door were shut and nothing happened! A few minutes later, the captain, Simon, came on the PA to tell us we had a slot of 14:55 due to too much traffic in Northern Spanish airspace as loads of charters from the South of Spain were flying towards the UK and the rest of Northern Europe at this time. He said he had been in touch with Spanish ATC as well as EZY’s head office in Luton to try and get us an earlier departure but that if we wanted to use our mobile phones or the toilets, we could do so until the seatbelt sign was switched on. He was incredibly friendly and informative and apologised numerous times for the delay. He came on the PA a few moments later to say our slot restriction had been lifted and we were departing immediately.

We taxied to the usual runway (30) and did a rolling start down the runway. We rotated quite quickly and did the normal departure over the Bay of Biscay. From there we headed towards Brest and onwards to Dawlish before following the M5 and turning to land on runway 27 at BRS. Our flight time was 1 hour 20 minutes at FL380.

Once airborne, we were climbing and descending quite a bit. This was presumably to keep us out of the way of other traffic as we had just avoided that slot restriction. Eventually, we began a continuous climb to our cruise level and I could see there was some high-level hazy cloud over the Bay of Biscay. This caused a slight amount of turbulence as we climbed through it but was nothing too worrying. The cloud got thicker half way over the Bay of Biscay and we didn’t see anything until about 250ft above the ground on landing. Simon came back on about 45 minutes in to the flight to give us an update on our progress “Ladies and Gentlemen, if you are sitting on the right hand side of the aircraft, you will see cloud over the Bay of Biscay. If you are sitting on the left hand side of the aircraft, you will see cloud over the Atlantic Ocean!”. All the English speaking passengers laughed while all the Spanish speaking passengers looked confused. I had to translate what he had sad to my two Spanish seatmates.

The crew started their Easy Kiosk once we’d passed 10,000ft. Two of the crew members, Purser Ian and Aika (not sure if I spelt her name correctly) were the same as I’d had on the flight to BIO on Sunday. Again, Aika and the other male cabin crew member went to the front of the aircraft to start the service from the trolley and again, Ian served drinks and snacks on a tray from the rear galley. I think it must be standard EZY training because they also warned passengers to mind their arms and legs on this flight. I have never experienced this with other airlines but it was done on every one of my EZY flights.

The crew were short of change on this flight so Ian announced that if you didn’t have the right money, all prices would be rounded up to the nearest £10. Again, English passengers laughed, Spanish looked confused! I only got charged 50p for my 60p drink as I only had a £1 coin and Ian had no 20p pieces for change. I later felt hungry as this was a lunchtime flight so I bought a snack pack. It was fairly expensive at £3.50 but contained quite a lot: Some soft cheese, some white & wholemeal crackers, some pate, a Cadbury’s mini roll, a small bag of Mini Cheddars and some Walker’s honey and oatmeal biscuits. I really enjoyed this as I was very hungry by that time. After the snack service, the shopping announcements commenced but as the flight was short, if you wanted anything, you had to press the cabin crew call button. Not many people did so I feel all the advertising was wasted!

We began our descent at 14:30 (UK time) and soon after were in the clouds and bumping around madly all the way until touchdown. The crew came around and secured the cabin but did not collect in flight magazines as these were in the seat pockets when we embarked (does anyone know why this was only done on the 73G?). For some reason, the cabin lights were not turned off for landing and this was the one time where I thought we would have needed them off.

Anyway, the approach was incredibly turbulent due to low clouds, terrible crosswinds and generally abysmal weather. As we got lower and lower, I still couldn’t see the ground and when I finally did, we were almost on it. The pilots struggled terribly to keep the aircraft straight and level and we approached incredibly quickly. We touched down with a huge bump and reverse thrust was engaged. The only problem was that the aircraft wasn’t slowing down! We just kept going and going and going along BRS’s short runway. I though I was going to be involved in an overrun (fortunately we were on runway 27 and not 09 because at the end of 27, it’s just fields but at the end of 09 is the A38!). Eventually, the crew slammed the brakes on and we just about stopped. As we turned off the runway, the wingtip swung out over the end of it illustrating just how close to coming off the runway we were. I really enjoy flying (as do most of us here) but even I was shi**ing myself! The poor Spanish girl in the seat next to me was nearly in tears as she hates flying!

The crew’s landing announcement was interesting: “Ladies and Gentlemen, welcome to Bristol where we HAVE landed safely.......” by the looks on their faces, they were none to happy with the landing either. It was the worst landing I’d ever experienced and when I said so to the cockpit crew, the First Officer who had flown it, Gary, just kept sighing. Simon, the Captain told me that they couldn’t brake any harder any earlier or the aircraft would have aquaplaned. By the time the eventually braked hard, they knew that if they didn’t we’d have gone off the end of the runway so they had to just take a chance. It was certainly very nerve-wracking!

Apart from the horrendous landing (and I promise you I am not over reacting as the crew agreed with me), I really enjoyed this flight. The 73G is a lovely aircraft and the seats on it are much more comfortable than the original EZY 733’s (I’m not sure about compared to the ex-GO aircraft) with better legroom. The aircraft was in very good condition and the crew (both cabin and cockpit) were extremely friendly and very funny. If only all flight crews could be like this! So overall, another excellent Easyjet flight and I was looking forward to flying them again in 6 days on my last leg back to BIO.

----------------

The six days passed all too quickly and before I knew it, I was on my way back to Bristol airport for my last Easyjet leg of the fortnight. I got to the airport at around 1:00PM for my 2:55PM flight and was very surprised to learn I had boarding number 72. I thought I would be struggling to get a window seat with a number as high as that but luck was on my side. Check in was quick and painless and after spending a last hour or so with my family, I went through to departures.

We were boarding today from gate 7 and again were to be bussed to that aircraft. Boarding numbers 1-75 were called so I still made it in the first group! Remembering what happened the week before when we got the bus, I waited a bit before boarding the bus so I could stay near to the doors to get on the aircraft early. The plan paid off and I was the first up the back stairs of this ex-GO aircraft. I chose my window seat in the last but one row and stowed my hand luggage. As the rest of the people boarded, I thought I may be in luck and get a free seat beside me but then another bus-load of people turned up. This didn’t matter though as they all boarded from the front so I ended up having a whole row to myself (this is why I always head to the back of the aircraft). I overheard that the load on this flight was 119. The only problem I could foresee was that there was a large group of teenagers going camping in the South of France and they seemed like they were going to be noisy. As it happened, they were all quite nice and spent most of the time looking out of the window as many of them had never flown before. The doors were closed on time and we were ready to go.

EZY 6187 BRS – BIO
1st July 2004
Boeing 737-300 G-IGOV (Delivered to Balkan Bulgarian Airlines as LZ-BOF. Delivery date unknown)
STD: 14:55
OFB: 14:55
Wheels Up: 15:05

STA: 17:50
Land: 17:35
ONB: 17:38

We pushed and started on time and taxied towards runway 27 while the crew did the safety demonstration (only in English. Normally there is a recorded version in Spanish but this was not played today for some reason. The crew did however give a very thorough briefing to the passengers sitting in the exit row). We held (I thought) for an aircraft on long finals when all of a sudden, an Isles of Scilly Skybus aircraft nose-dived and did a 90º turn to land on 27. The aircraft was so small (I think it was a DHC-6 but I’m not sure) that it took the first runway exit. We lined up straight after this and while we were still rolling, the engines powered up and we were off!

We climbed steeply and then made the customary left turn to route us over Weston Super Mare, Minehead, Torquay, the Channel Islands and then directly to BIO. Our flight time today was to be 1 hour 30 minutes cruising at FL350. There were some light clouds above Bristol causing some light turbulence but shortly after, the seatbelt signs went out and the crew could start their service. As we continued to climb, we hit some awful CAT which caused the aircraft to drop a fair few feet. The group of campers were panicking at this but everything soon smoothed out and we continued our climb to FL350. Once in the cruise, it was pretty smooth all the way.

The crew did the usual in flight magazines, Easy Kiosk, shopping, collect magazines, secure cabin for landing service. This was the least professional seeming crew I’d had so far but they seemed to keep all the passengers happy by laughing and joking with them. They were all very young but did their jobs quite well.

We began our initial descent at 17:09 Spanish time, during which it started to get a little bumpy again. The approach was the same as last week, over the coast and down the valley to land on runway 30. The weather in Bilbao was slightly overcast, good visibility and north-westerly winds. The speedbrakes were used to slow us down and increase our rate of descent and we headed down the valley on finals. The crew came around once more to make 100% certain that all objects were stowed and that all window blinds were open. The FO performed a firm but very good landing but it was too much for one of the girls going camping who screamed when we touched down (she should have been on my flight to BRS the Saturday before. Then she’d have known a bad landing!). the crew welcomed us to BIO and we taxied behind the “Follow Me” car to stand 6. The engines were shut down over 10 minutes early and that concluded my last EZY flight of four.

Everyone disembarked and I went up to the cockpit to have a talk with the flight crew. Only the Captain was there but he was very friendly and talkative and happy to chat to me for a while. Unfortunately, due to EZY’s fast turnarounds, I was again chucked out of the flight deck so they could get the next lot of passengers on board and on their way to Bristol. I said goodbye to the Captain, went and collected my luggage and headed in to the City centre to get my coach back to Irún.

My verdict of this flight: again very good but definitely the poorest of the four. The aircraft was pretty old and worn and a bit of a mixture of designs. It had mostly GO seats (except for the back row on the right hand side which had go set backs but EZY cushions) and an EZY carpet. There were no personal air vents which I really do not like but fortunately, the cabin temperature was not too high. Also, on boarding, there was a rather nasty smell coming from the rear toilet however this disappeared in flight. Also, the audio system was a bit dodgy, as every time the Captain came on the PA, it went crackly. Finally, the seatbacks were not very high and so did not provide much support. On the plus side, the legroom was pretty reasonable and the seats themselves were not too hard.

The crew as I said above were the least professional I encountered. They were not bad by any stretch of the imagination but I feel I had been spoiled on my other flights but such excellent cabin crew. I think their biggest problem was that there was no senior figure there to guide them and keep them in order as the purser was only about 25-30 (in contrast to Ian who was about 40-45 and much more mature and professional). While we were cruising, they went up to the cockpit and just stayed there chatting for about five minutes with the door wide open. I would have thought this was against regulations and it certainly didn’t give a good impression of professionalism to the passengers. on a more positive note, they were very friendly and chatty and they got the Captain to announce his congratulations to a group of girls going on a hen weekend. Also, the purser, Darren, spoke Spanish and so was able to do the welcome on board and the welcome to BIO announcements in both languages, which I feel is important on UK-Spain flights. He did however forget to give a Spanish safety briefing as mentioned above.

I would like to stress that all the negative points about this flight are trivial and are things I probably wouldn’t have noticed if my three previous flights had not been so good.

So what was my overall opinion of Easyjet? I was incredibly impressed. They provide a good service at a competitive price. They fly to proper airports in the Cities that they offer. The crews were all helpful. As I said, some are more professional than others but you will get this with any airline. I will be travelling with them again in August and I look forward to it.

Thanks for reading this marathon report. I hope you enjoyed it. Any comments are always welcome. If you would like me to post the reply I had from EZY regarding my e-mail about my excellent flights and crew, let me know. Also, if you would like me to post about my flights in August (when I have completed them), I will do so here on request.

Coming soon: Iberia from San Sebastian to Málaga and back via Barcelona.

Original post

Member for

20 years 5 months

Posts: 10,625

Thuroughly enjoyable report cropper!!

Another fan of easyJet!!

Member for

20 years 5 months

Posts: 316

Thanks for that Bmused. Hope it wasn't too long. I certainly am a big EZY fan since I've taken these flights. They just seem to try very hard to get things right & I've only ever seen one delay on the BIO-BRS route since I started spotting at BIO in March.

Member for

21 years

Posts: 4,209

Interesting report there, but not really enough detail for my liking :D

You usualy hear about people going on about how "awful" the landing was, but that one does sound like a truly scary experience!

Member for

20 years 10 months

Posts: 9,401

That is one of the most detailed and interesting trip reports I have ever read.
Great work Mate:)

I wouldn't mind seeing that e-mail from EZY, they seem like a very good airline.

Member for

19 years 8 months

Posts: 679

Excellent trip report! :)

easyJet sound great, I'm flying on them in August for the first time.

I'm also flying on Hapag-Lloyd Express for the first time in August, Is it possible if you could put a trip report about your flights on HLX here?

Thanks :)
Flex 35

Member for

20 years 5 months

Posts: 316

Thanks for the replies everyone. Glad you enjoyed it.

Mark L: Sorry about the lack of detail. I'll try harder next time ;). That landing was truly horrendous. I blame it on my mother who told me that my girlfriend had had an awful landing two days before and said "There's no way yours will be as bad as that"!

LBA: I'll copy and paste that e-mail for you in a couple of minutes.

Flex: EZY are very good. I also enjoyed my flights on HLX when I flew with them in March. I can try and put up a trip report on them if you like but I didn't take any notes and won't be able to do a very thorough trip report I'm afraid. Let me know if you'd still like me to try.

Thanks again guys. Makes all the time spent on it worth while.

Member for

20 years 5 months

Posts: 316

OK, as requested by LBARULES, this is the reply to the e-mail I sent to Easyjet complimenting them on their service and cabin crew. A very nice response I thought.

Dear Mr Beale

Thank you for your recent email regarding your recent easyJet flights
under booking confirmation number E2V5NHC. Please accept our sincere
apologies for the delayed response.

I am delighted to hear of your experience whilst travelling with us
this time Mr Beale and as you can imagine it is wonderful to receive
positive feedback once in a while. I have passed your letter on to the
cabin crew concerned so that they may benefit from your praise.

We aim to give good service at low cost to our passengers and it is
fulfilling to hear that we are achieving this.

I would like to thank you for taking the time to contact us Mr Beale.
Should you have further queries, please do not hesitate to contact us
again.

You are a valued customer and we look forward to welcoming you onboard
in the near future.

Yours sincerely

Noelle McNelis
easyJet Customer Services Team

Member for

19 years 10 months

Posts: 841

Nice to see easy taking care of their passengers :) Great report - looking forward to the EAS-AGP-BCN-EAS reports.

Member for

20 years 5 months

Posts: 316

Thanks for the positive feedback Pablo. I'll get working on the AGP trip report ASAP. Might be a while though as I'm actually busy in work at the moment. Miracles will never cease!

Member for

20 years 10 months

Posts: 9,401

Thanks for pasting the email GPB, you couldn't really imagine Ryanair sending an email like that could you!

EZY sound like a very good company.

Member for

24 years 2 months

Posts: 4,333

Nice report .
An other EZ fan now. According with this report , they deserve it.

Member for

19 years 8 months

Posts: 679

I also enjoyed my flights on HLX when I flew with them in March. I can try and put up a trip report on them if you like but I didn't take any notes and won't be able to do a very thorough trip report I'm afraid. Let me know if you'd still like me to try.

Yeah If you could try that would be great! :)

Thanks
Flex 35

Member for

19 years 11 months

Posts: 313

Well Done croppers! I think you've covered just about every detail of your EZY flights there!

I love Easyjet!! They really are a fantastic airline with an excellent team spirit and low prices for passengers too. Flew BRS-BFS and back yesterday. I trip report is coming soon....

Member for

24 years 2 months

Posts: 6,968

What a fantastically detailed report. Great stuff.

I wonder whether MINIDOH or Andrewm would be as happy to substantiate allegations about safety in front of the lawyers of the airlines mentioned? That's the trouble with forums, it's easy to hide behind a mask of anonymity and say things you would never dream of saying in person.

Regards,

kev35

Member for

20 years 5 months

Posts: 316

Thanks Kev. Look out for more trip reports coming soon.

I have to defend Easyjet at this point from what MINIDOH said. Although I have no idea of the maintenance procedures of EZY, all of the cabins looked well maintained (I know you can't be sure that if the cabin looks ok then the aircraft is ok but this is how it appeared). The pilots I spoke to did not appear overworked and were all very friendly. I still work on the theory that the pilots and cabin crew do not intend to crash either so if they feel the aircraft is safe, why shouldn't we? As you all know, I've done 4 flights with EZY and am going on my 5th (again BIO-BRS) this evening. I have no qualms about travelling with them. Ask yourself a question: Have EZY had a crash yet? Answer: NO. I'm sorry but they can't be as bad as you're making out MINIDOH.

P.S. I am in no way connected with Easyjet, I am just a very satisfied customer!

Member for

24 years 2 months

Posts: 6,968

Does anyone else think it's time for moderation of some sort on this thread? Unsubstantiated allegations like those made above could be very damaging, to easyjet, Key publishing and to the individuals themselves. Do MINIDOH and Andrewm not realise the seriousness of their allegations?

Regards,

kev35

Member for

24 years 2 months

Posts: 11,159

The thread has been moderated by webmaster Kevin.

Member for

24 years 2 months

Posts: 6,968

Hi, Ren.

Thank you. MINIDOH and Andrewm have been around for a long time and are valuable contributors. It would be very sad to see them get into any trouble because of this.

Thanks again.

kev35