Easyjet boarding policy?

jungle_jane

Oliver_Zarmy wrote: »

You won't be buying Speedy Boarding at Heathrow or London City as easyJet do not use these airports.

thats interesting Oliver - that never occurred to me before but you are right - they don't do City or Heathrown/

i have got them from Luton, Gatwick and Stansted many times and to be honest i find it all chaotic. I much prefer City (expensive though) and hopefully Southend will be a bit easier too.

Tojo_Ralph

miamoo wrote: »

Its not actually illegal to sit kids away from their parents
LINK

I recall being asked for my take on the CAA guidelines and my first point of note was as you point out, they are guidelines, not a legal requirement.

CAA wrote:

Information and guidance relating to your flight, seating, seating for infants and minors

So guidance is the key word.

CAA wrote:

The seating of children close by their parents or guardians should be the aim of airline seat allocation procedures for family groups and large parties of children.

Key word being aim.

CAA wrote:

Young children and infants who are accompanied by adults, should ideally be seated in the same seat row as the adult.

Key word being ideally.

CAA wrote:

Children and accompanying adults should not be separated by more than one aisle.

"Should not" in a document offering guidance should ideally be a directive.

Where this is not possible, children should be separated by no more than one seat row from accompanying adults. This is because the speed of an emergency evacuation may be affected by adults trying to reach their children.

Unfortunately the phrase "should not" is then very quickly followed by "where this is not possible" reconfirming the nature of the document.

Where this is not possible, children should be separated by no more than one seat row from accompanying adults. This is because the speed of an emergency evacuation may be affected by adults trying to reach their children.

So the guidance concludes that that worst case children should be separated by no more than one seat row from accompanying adults, but makes no requirement to comply with the guidance.

Needless to say, common sense invariably prevails with regards to seating allocations on most flights, however as miamoo states, the CAA guidelines are simply that, guidelines.

davidlizard

This always makes me wonder what would happen if there was the need to evacuate the aircraft quickly. If parents and kids were separated, then you can bet that the parents would be fighting their way back down the cabin to try and reach their kids and impeding others trying to get off. I am surprised from a safety aspect that the CAA do not mandate this.

Also, can a child sat separately be realistically able to fit their own emergency air supply mask if the need arises without parental supervision.

Whilst I have flown several times with Easyjet in the past and have nothing against them, I much prefer to start my holiday without the stress of this free-for-all scramble for seats and use other airlines.

Doshwaster

paddedjohn wrote: »

agree with all this, last time i had to elbow people out of my way and sprint up the stairs to get good seats that i paid priority boarding to get.

I really don't see the point in Speedy Boarding if you are travelling by yourself. I always stand back let everyone else push and shove and then when I board there is almost always a free aisle seat within the first 10 rows - and then I'm always one of the first off at the other end.

My favourite trick is to find a row which just has someone at the window and then sit in the aisle seat leaving the middle one free. Unless the flight is very busy, the chances are that nobody will sit between you and your window companion.

jungle_jane

Couples often sit one at the window and one on the aisle hoping that they will get all the seats.

I must say I also find all this seats scramble/dash thing very offputting and prefer to fly non budget airlines where possible because of it. I also find the couple thing above a bit annoying too - once again it wouldn't happen if seats were allocated. and the need to queue for hours beforehand to get a decent seat just does my head in. Very stressful and takes the fun out of flying IMO.

thegirlintheattic

davidlizard wrote: »

This always makes me wonder what would happen if there was the need to evacuate the aircraft quickly. If parents and kids were separated, then you can bet that the parents would be fighting their way back down the cabin to try and reach their kids and impeding others trying to get off. I am surprised from a safety aspect that the CAA do not mandate this.

Also, can a child sat separately be realistically able to fit their own emergency air supply mask if the need arises without parental supervision.

Whilst I have flown several times with Easyjet in the past and have nothing against them, I much prefer to start my holiday without the stress of this free-for-all scramble for seats and use other airlines.

That is the point of the CAA guidance. It advises airlines to seat families close so there is not a problem during evacuation.

As for oxygen masks, I remember reading somewhere that no lives had ever been saved by the system. If an aircraft depressurization at altitude the pilots make a emergency descent that takes less than a minute to reach a safe altitude, within that time you are not going to pass out through lack of oxygen. Probably why the CAA ignores the masks in the document.

Oxygen for pilots is a different matter though.

SaveTheEuro

jungle_jane wrote: »

Couples often sit one at the window and one on the aisle hoping that they will get all the seats.

I must say I also find all this seats scramble/dash thing very offputting and prefer to fly non budget airlines where possible because of it. I also find the couple thing above a bit annoying too - once again it wouldn't happen if seats were allocated. and the need to queue for hours beforehand to get a decent seat just does my head in. Very stressful and takes the fun out of flying IMO.

Things are changing.

Ryanair has 21 bookable seats on each flight at the cost of a tenner each. And easyJet is to trial allocated seating on some of its routes.

lutzi1

paddedjohn wrote: »

agree with all this, last time i had to elbow people out of my way and sprint up the stairs to get good seats that i paid priority boarding to get.

If you elbowed me or a member of my family out of the way you'd live to regret it. How very rude and ignorant.

I'd suggest one of you goes ahead smartly with one or two of the older kids and sit in two rows one behind the other, then the other adult can follow on with the smaller children, avoiding people like the one above. I wouldn't worry about it, my husband sat separately from me on a Ryanair flight recently at a stewardess's request, so that a mother and her young daughter could sit together.

dbritain

We flew Easyjet from Geneva to Nice last weekend, and came up against the problem of out kids now being over 5. We were going to be refused entry to the plane with the 'Children' boarding after the speedy boarders, but I argued and was told that this time we could get on with other parents and children but next time I would need to board with every one else. Our youngest has just turned 6.

I find it hard to understand how it can even be legal that parents may end up being separated from children aged 6, 7, 8 etc. We discussed this with a flight attendant who agreed that it was madness, and that they always try to jiggle passengers around to ensure that parents can sit with their children, but that it is not always possible. So when the child throws up, or is screaming because of ear pain, the burden then falls on to whoever is sitting next to them, not the parent who should (and would want to) take responsibility in these situations.

It could be argued that people with children should pay for speedy boarding - but kids (say between 5 and 12) get no price reduction, even though they are lighter (and therefore use less fuel for the plane), and on average carry less luggage (ditto) both in the hold and in the cabin. And, as many posters to this forum have noted, many speedy boarders don't get to board the plane first because of the bussing to planes. And in the case of Nice, boarding was a total farce, just a scrummage.

It can't be that problematic to assign people to seats - other carriers do it perfectly efficiently (eg Swiss) and don't encounter delays as a result. I've come to understand that the real motivation of the scrummage and treating passengers like cattle is to make more money from speedy boarding. If they assigned seats, they wouldn't make this income, of course.

So for us, until Easyjet reviews its policies on how young a child can be before it is expected to be able to sit away from its parents, we shall be avoiding it.