easyJet review by pete 2015-01-25

Milan MXP to Prague. My first flight on Easyjet. Check in was fine since I paid for front row seat. I was given preferential baggage check in and boarding. I was very surprised to experience their unusual boarding process. The boarding gate area resembles cattle yard in a farm. Then they call out the seat rows and herd you into the appropriate 'cattle yard' lane. Then open the gate and make you walk down the jetway until you are almost about to board. So far so good, but there is one thing missing.... the plane. My guess is they have designed this process to minimize the turn around time, alas at the expense of passenger comfort. Since I was one of the first passengers, I had to stand in the freezing jetway for about 25 minutes. The plane arrived and the incoming passengers were shoo'd off the plane hurriedly down a roll-away stair hastily and then we were hustled onto the plane in the next three minutes. That process would have been completely unacceptable for the elderly or handicapped. The only other issue I had with the flight where the cabin crew. In their effort to make the turnaround as quick as possible they were picking a fight with anyone who stood in their way. When it was my turn to be in their firing line, the female FA wanted to unload all the overhead luggage in the compartment above me because she couldn't shut the door. I told her that I had already shut it once and was not going to pull all of it out again. I stood up and shut it again and she walked away, completely embarrassed. Then the male FA tried to pick a fight with my neighbor (in front row) because she wanted to hold her purse, about the size of a flattened grapefruit, They argued and finally he almost snatched it off her and placed in the overhead leaving my neighbor visibly upset, yet said nothing of my larger headphone holder box which was bigger than her purse and was placed in the pouch on the bulkhead wall. Why she couldn't place her little purse in her netting pouch is beyond me but demonstrates the crews lack of logic and exploitation of the word 'safety' as license to do whatever they want. It also shows that they appear to be overstressed which would indicate a safety risk in itself. My 'trip satisfaction' would be 8 if it wasn't for the combative attitude of the cabin crew. So I give a 4 for 'trip satisfaction'