easyJet - not so cheap

Phillip_Lamerton

agrinnall wrote: »

Two points:

1) Last year I made a name correction with Easyjet with one phone call at zero cost (other than that of the call), the call centre was very helpful, had you done this you might not have become an embittered ex-customer.

The call centre may have improved since I tried to contact them. I don't know - I haven't had reason to call them in over 3 years as we don't fly with them anymore. In any case, I've already explained that I did phone the call centre more than once and that they were not helpful at all.

Phillip_Lamerton

bagand96 wrote: »

I can see that this sorry experience has affected you badly... I mean its taken over 3 years for you to even be able to talk about it.

Edit: Just seen that phatbear said the same above...

I am not embittered or badly affected, otherwise I'd have written about the unpleasant experience sooner. However, it's something I will never forget when booking flights - a reminder that it's worth paying a little extra to fly with an airline that I can talk to if I have a problem.

Oliver_Zarmy

Phillip_Lamerton wrote: »

I used to believe that easyJet offered value for money – that they had the cheapest or best prices for flights to Spain and elsewhere in Europe. My wife and I used to fly with them two or three times a year. Then easyJet taught us a lesson - that the cheapest air fares were not necessarily the best.

We fly regularly to Europe but, these days, we never book with easyJet. EasyJet charged us so much for a simple name change that they ended up losing our business.

In October, 2008, we booked return flights to Valencia, Spain for 21 February of the following year. I immediately saw that there was a problem with the names on the booking confirmation – ie my wife’s first name was the same as mine; the booking showed her with a man’s name. I went onto the easyJet web site and, with some considerable difficulty, found the page which allowed me to report the problem. The initial response from the easyJet Customer Experience Team was that they had looked at my email and so provided a web link referring to the Greek strike on the 21st of October 2008, and they hoped I would find it helpful.

Later, an email from a Customer Experience Champion suggested that the error was caused by the ‘autofill’ on my PC, when I was making the reservation and advised me to phone their Customer Services on an 0871 number. This seemed like a reasonable explanation, so I rang the number but I was advised by a recorded voice to contact easyJet via their web page again.

I contacted easyJet again via their web page and explained that I was going around in circles; the 0871 Customer Services number refers me to the web page and the web page refers me to the 0871 number. A ‘personal’ reply came from another Customer Experience Champion: ‘Thank you for contacting us. I would request you to contact our Customer Services on 0871 … … Thank you for taking the time to contact us Mr….If you require any further assistance, please do not hesitate to contact us again via the contact us section of the easyJet web site.’

All this was very frustrating and anything but easy; I put the matter aside until February, just before we were due to fly. The original price of my wife’s ticket was £95.27 but on February 17th easyJet charged me another £149.12 just to change her first name from a man’s to a woman’s name. In total, her ticket came to GBP 244 instead of GBP 95.

We still fly two or three times a year to Europe but, since that incident, we have never booked again with easyJet. We don’t fly with Ryanair or any so-called budget airlines either. We would prefer to pay not much more and have peace of mind with reputable airlines such as British Airways or Iberia.

We felt cheated by easyJet over that expensive name change but easyJet has lost much more in losing our business.

To be fair to easyJet I don't recall them ever claiming to have the cheapest prices. Ryanair on the other hand have been known to claim this.

Oliver_Zarmy

Phillip_Lamerton wrote: »

I am not embittered or badly affected, otherwise I'd have written about the unpleasant experience sooner. However, it's something I will never forget when booking flights - a reminder that it's worth paying a little extra to fly with an airline that I can talk to if I have a problem.

I think you will find that it is often a lot more to fly with other airlines.

scotty1971

why are you complaining about something that happened in 2008???

Louisdf

ALL airlines either charge for name changes or like BA state that tickets are strictly non transferrable. So if the OP made the same mistake with BA, it would have been a lot more expensive as they would need to buy a brand new ticket.

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/british-airways-executive-club/1108171-british-airways-ticket-name-change-please-help.html

Phillip_Lamerton

scotty1971 wrote: »

why are you complaining about something that happened in 2008???

It was something I've been meaning to do and I had some spare time on my hands.

Phillip_Lamerton

nico26 wrote: »

Beat me how he booked in October and decided to finally try and get it sorted in the Feb just days before they flew. No wonder the price was so high

As I already clearly stated, I tried to sort the problem out immediately and then struggled with Easyjet for a day or two. Their system appears to be designed to stop customers from speaking to real employees.

Phillip_Lamerton

Oliver_Zarmy wrote: »

I think you will find that it is often a lot more to fly with other airlines.

Sometimes it's cheaper - I still compare Easyjet bottom-line prices with other airlines just to see how much the difference is. Other airlines tend to be more expensive but not always, and the difference is not always substantial. The last time I ever flew with Easyjet they were very expensive indeed.

clive12

I dont think they are necessarily wrong because they charged you for a name change as they do state this in their policys.

(not saying everyone reads these)

But if its cheaper there is usually a reason why as they are a business like other more expensive companies and not a charity.