to think that Easyjet's boarding system is crap?

[YourCallIsImportant]

Easyjet board passengers in this order:

1. Passengers requiring assistance
2. Speedy Boarding
3. Online check in passengers
4. Airport check in passengers

Once on the plane, you can sit wherever you like.

So the other night, in the dark, cold, wind and pissing rain, me and about a hundred other weary travellers are standing on the tarmac and all the way up the stairs of the plane waiting to board our flight, while those who were on first settle themselves in.

AIBU to want people who board first to PICK A FUCKING WINDOW SEAT so the rest of us can just get on and sit down?

AI also BU to expect the Speedy Boarder in the aisle seat to let me into the empty seat next to them without tutting?

Also, if someone chooses an aisle seat, and there's 2 empty seats (window and middle) next to them, why do they always fasten their lap belts when there's a hundred people boarding after them?

Now, I don't want to board first, I just want to make the system work better, so finally AIBU to want Easyjet to change their boarding system so that it goes in this order?

1} Passengers requiring assistance
2) Anyone who wants a window seat
3) Anyone who wants a middle seat
4) Aisle seats.

oh we are flying with Easyjet on Monday - do people with pushchairs count as people needing assistance?

agree it sounds chaotic.

I've given up on them.. flew BA recently as it was actually cheaper than easyjet and the boarding was so civilisied...they used a novel system of allocating seats!

(food was pants though)

Have never understood the concept of non-allocated seats. It's bloody awful, and cannot possibly save time. Of course, it's just a ruse to get more £££ out of customers. FFS I would rather just pay more for the ticket and have an allocated seat. YANBU.

Yourcall, you are seriously overestimating the organisational ability of the average traveller if you think they can sort themselves into a nice neat line depending on where they want to sit

What about families who want all 3 seats on the aisle?

Another reason why the system is crap: If you pay for speedy boarding, you get called first and are allowed to board the bus first. The others then plough on the bus after you, and are closest to the door when the bus stops at the steps
Which means they are first off and first on the plane

Easyjet? I'd rather dine on dogshit than fly with Easyjet. They seem to take a positive pleasure in fucking up their customers. Allocated seats are much more sensible and nowadays, what with online check-in, can't be any great difficulty for an airline to administrate. I recently flew FlyBe to Belfast and the only boarding order was done on the number of your seat - seat at the back = board from the back of the plane.

Families with a child under 5 'require assistance' so you get on after the speedy boarders.

It's better than Ryanair who allow a free-for-all. Although anyone is welcome to sit next yo my airsick three-year-old.

Hi Pollyanna

I think the policy is to allow parties travelling with children of 5 years old or younger to board straight after the 'speedy boarders'. Or it was when we flew with them in Jan & Feb.

OP - the said 'speedy boarders' made a huge fuss when we were 'allowed' to board before them on a flight last year with a 2 year old. Much tutting, huffing & puffing along with loud comments of 'I'll bring a baby next time - it'll work out cheaper' ensued, along with quite a bit of blocking our way through to the departure gate.

Needless to say I had to be restrained by DH from gobbing them and/or shouting at them to get a life.

And you're reminding me why I always try and book with BMI Baby instead

My apologies, it is Ryanair I would rather dine on dogshit than fly with. EasyJet are tolerable even though their boarding system is ludicrous.

Wouldn't touch Easyjet or Ryanair.

We fly with Jet2 who although being cheap are extremely reliable and helpful.

Seats are allocated at check-in and they always call people who need help/people with kids first.

Sorry pollyanna. Unless you've paid extra, you wil not be a priority, baby or no baby.

Flew with Easyjet (and Ryanair) a few times with baby under 6 months old, and nobody gave a toss about the fact I might be a little less mobile and able to 'fight' for myself. Everyone's so out for themselves with that kind of system.

Don't get me wrong... I would still fly Easyjet/ Ryanair, just cos of the price. You just have to know what to expect, and be ready to accept it.

I, for one, got an amazing amount of satisfaction from going to sit between 2 people (who had taken an aisle and a window seat) (especially if they were actually travelling together... but were hoping this would mean they'd get 3 seats between 2 people). The look of horror/ disgust they gave me as I sat between them with a baby on my lap made it all worthwhile.

Mean, I know. But that's how the system works. Either that or I'd be at the back of the plane somewhere fighting my way off at the end.....

Ah we flew with Ryanair at Feb half-term. You can pay for priority boarding with them (we didn't), we made sure we were at the boarding gate nice and early, but there were still some feckers in the wrong fecking queue. Did Ryanair do anything about it, did they what. I would have been extra mad if I have paid for all these people to get in front of us. Then there all these suitcases that get passed off as hand luggage there was so many of them on our flight that they couldn't stow them in all the overhead lockers, the flight ended up 45 mins delayed taking off because they ended up having to put some of them in the hold.

Bah

Ah yes. Sorry. Just read all the X-posts. Actually it's only Ryanair where you're not counted as any kind of priority. Easyjet, you get let on after the speedy boarders....

PS. EasyJet do seem keen to leave their passengers behind though. Having delivered dcs to Belfast International Airport last month, they were quietly pondering what to buy ds2's girlfriend from the shop in departures when they heard a last call for themselves. There was actually three quarters of an hour before the flight was due to leave but apparently, EasyJet had got an earlier slot from traffic control and decided to take off early! Since early running is not something permitted on other forms of public transport, passengers aren't expecting to miss a flight on this basis.

YANBU at all, non-allocated seating on planes truly brings out the worst in the human race...

YAB a bit U about eJ - but totally fair about how irriatating some of their customers are.

You get what you pay for. Personally, I love easyJet and Ryanair. I would not want to fly long haul with them but I'm not bothered about allocated seats, I don't want a meal or a free drink or a trolley dolley who can mix a Kir Royale. I love them because whilst living in the UK, DH & I can travel to Germany, Finland, Croatia, Czech Republic, Hungary etc etc etc and back for about £40.04 inclusding all fees opening up Europe for us and leaving us with lots more money to spend on other thing when we get there. Choose your attitude and embrace what they offer. They also (both) have very good on time arrivals results and are uncompromising on passenger safety.

Neither eJ nor Ryanair are responsible for how thick some of their customers are and it is not even stupidity in many cases - it is selfishness (wanting three seats between two people for example) or unnecessary anxiety (heaven forbit you should have to sit a row apart from your DH for the 1.5 hour flight to Berlin for example). I'm tempted sometimes when you see a man and wife sitting on the aisle and window seat to deliberately sit on the seat which they have left in between them but then whenever I have flown Ryanair/eJ DH and I have always had three seats between the two of us without design so no harm done really. DH and I just chill and take it in our stride and having been last in the queue on occassion have still always managed to get seats together.

Easyjet now charge £18 per item of hold luggage. So the 5 of us are going to be wearing lots of layers and putti g our pants in our handbags.

I only use the cheapies for domestic flights. My personal hatred is for 4 hour flights with three under 5 on a charter packed with pensioners going on a cruise. I needed two weeks in the sun to recover.

When I fly without children, and pay for priority boarding, I want babies and young children to get on first so I can see where they are and avoid them!

try Ryanair thats all I can say

I get stresssed for days b4 travelling

Yes having the kids sat far away from you is an unexpected bonus on Ryanair

You've only to read some of the responses on this topic to realise why non-allocated seating is pants! Like who the feck wants to spend a flight stuck between two people travelling together? To prove what sort of point, exactly? Other than if you pay cattle truck prices, that's pretty much the airborne equivalent that you'll get.

To prove the point that when I get on, and I have the choice between sitting near the front between these 2 people who are together but not sat together, or fighting my way to the back of the aircraft to find a leftover aisle seat, and I'm standing there making it clear I'd like to sit in their row.... and I have a small baby with me.... they could just offer to sit together, thus leaving me a window/aisle seat!

You're right, it's not big and it's not clever. In fact it's pathetic. I hate the way other people (and I) behave on Ryanair/Easyjet.

But after many years of travelling with them (and just accepting the nearest seat to the front that I could find, usually between 2 people... always well away from whoever I'm travelling with), I saw no reason to change when I had a baby with me!

You're right. It's a horrid horrid "cattle-truck" system. But it's cheap....

Easyjet are Singapore Airlines compared to Lyingair.

Jet2 are like the little girl with the curl, when they're good, they're very very good, when they're crap they're Dante's 7th circle of hell. (comes from only having 4 planes that do the whole world or something)

The worst type of traveller on these non-allocated seat things are the couple who pay for one priority boarding, so she gets on, spreads her Woman's Weekly and Crossword mag over the 3 seats, sitting her ample arse next to the aisle so no-one is going to ask her to shift her lard so you can use one of the seats, then Derek/Brian/Keith gets on, all smug and elasticated slacks, and there they sit in relative comfort, with 3 seats between them, while you and your child are fighting to find 2 seats together.