I’m a big easyJet fan. The bright orange planes are always my first choice of budget airline and I’ve been travelling with them across Europe for nearly 20 years.
First time round was for a friend’s wedding in France and since then I’ve flown with them on heaps of European trips to Amsterdam, Venice, Geneva, Paris, Gibraltar, Berlin, Barcelona, Kos and closer to home with trips to Belfast, Edinburgh and Glasgow.
But budget airlines do what they say on the tin; they’ll get you there and back for a rock bottom rate, (if you book early enough), but any extras are down to you.
So here’s how to beat the budget airlines and save some cash.
Be first at check in
No I don’t mean racing to be first in the queue at the airport.
Once booked, I stick a note in my diary to remind me when online check-in opens. With easyJet it’s 30 days before and I jump online and check in as soon as I can. So far, even with three of us, we’ve never found ourselves separated by the booking system unlike the common complaints you hear about other budget airlines.
Plus means you can print out your boarding pass well in advance of your flight. Or easier still download it to your phone to save printer nightmares or having to face extra charges if you lose your paper version on the way to the airport.
Cabin bags only
Forget hold luggage. You’ll pay for each bag on each flight and spend ages waiting for it to arrive the other end.
I pack light with a cabin bag and ready to go with no waiting around once you arrive. If it’s a beach break it’s easily done and with some clever packing you can get a fair bit in, though trickier if you’re going somewhere colder where you’ll need bulky layers or ski stuff. Or if you can’t cope without a bigger bag, book one for the hold and share it!
Size matters
Yes it’s got to the stage where you pretty much need a different case for every airline, especially if you’re going to do the cabin bag trick.
Don’t second guess the size or assume you’ll make it through with a bigger one, or try and sneak on with a second bag. Ok so the ground staff don’t get down on their hands and knees and measure every bag but it’s the luck of the draw whether you’ll be asked to pop yours in the size gauge machine. And if your bag is taken off you at the gate because it’s too big it can cost you around £40.
In all the years I’ve flown with easyJet I’ve only once been asked to pop my cabin case in the size machine and that was at Majorca airport several years ago. And while I make sure my case is the right size, it has on occasion been over some of the budget airline weight limits especially on the trip home!
And while there’s no guarantee, I have ‘tested’ the ‘one bag only ‘ policy with easyJet and found you can often get away with a rucksack or shoulder bag as well as your cabin case on the return flight, especially at smaller airports if its busy. However it’s pretty much guaranteed that you’re unlikely to get away with this on your way out of the UK.
Don’t eat on the plane
The mark up on plane grub is huge. So stock up ‘airside’ on snacks.
While even a ‘meal deal’ from Boots or bars of chocolate from the airport WH Smith may be more pricey than the cheapest deal on the high street, stocking up on snacks is still bound to save you money compared with rates in the air.
The one concession I do make is having a coffee or glass of wine (depending on the time of day!), once I’m airborne but funny enough compared with the bar prices at the airport, I’ve usually found on board ‘bar’ rates are actually pretty competitive.