Easyjet – I´m moaning again!

I know I know, I´m the guy that loves Easyjet – I´ve flown with them for years and never had a bad experience. Whenever any of my friends would dare to criticize the company, I would strike back within seconds, defending my loved one to the hilt and extolling the virtues of their ticketless system, speedy boarding, superb timetables and great value for money…..blah, blah, blah.

But it´s all gone wrong! I feel like a fraudster.I´m now officially ´out of love´ with Easyjet.

A few weeks back, I started expressing my first rumblings of discontent, most notably about the revised timetables, particularly for Spanish property owners needing to travel from the Costa del Sol to some of the UK´s regional airports.

Anyway, I was prepared to forgive my beloved´s first indiscretion and to give it another chance, so I travelled with Easyjet from Malaga to Liverpool on 18th December.

I couldn´t fault them. Departure was on time, landing was ahead of schedule, I had 3 seats to myself with legroom, and everything was tickety-boo. My love affair with Easyjet was back-on, although I wasn´t quite prepared to tell my friends at that stage.

On my return journey, I checked in my bag at Liverpool, and noticed that its weight amounted to 21 kilos. I was aware that the weight limit was 20 kilos, but didn´t expect there to be any sort of fuss about the weight of a bag of sugar! Imagine the shock when the girl at check-in told me that there would be an additional charge of £8 for my indiscretion, and that I needed to go to the Easyjet Customer Services desk to pay my fine.

My initial reaction was to laugh. Believe me, this would not have happened at Malaga airport.  Eight pounds – that´s extortionate!…and the flight wasn´t even full!!!

I asked the Easyjet rep if this was simply a way for the company to make a few extra quid during the Credit Crunch. “Probably yeah”, laughed the rep – don´t you just love that Scouse humour?!

I´m really annoyed about this. OK, I knew the rules, but I just feel that any company during these difficult times should be breaking its neck to retain existing loyal customers and to attract new ones.

Anyway, I´m going to be a man about this. Although I feel cheated, I´m not going to walk out on Easyjet just yet. After all, we´ve come this far together during my whole Spanish property ownership era….but I will be very tempted to look at other options. I know “the grass is always greener” but it might be fun to take a look around!