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Easyjet Nightmare

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  • March 26, 2014 at 4:11 pm #21036
    Emma Halls

    Never ever will we travel again with easyjet. We are busy people and we love our cycling, love Majorca and enjoy bringing our own pride and joys (Orbea Orca Carbons) with us. We look forward to our week cycling and its booked and planned months in advance. Bikes and luggage pre paid many months in advance. WHY then did easyjet drastically over allocate more bikes than the plane could cope with. Between 70 and 100 bikes went onto the plane. However only 15 bags made the flight. We were informed by the pilot with 30 mins until landing that a lot of bikes were on the flight and these were prioritised over the luggage and some luggage was left in Stansted. We were met by two very harassed easyjet people (the last contact we would have with easyjet) and some lost luggage forms. 100 bags were left at Stansted so everyone’s luggage really. We got our bikes and left the forms with a promise for a call that day and again the next to let us know when we would have our bags returned. In fact we had 1 message given to the hotel that bag would arrive the next day and 1 more call on the mobile the following day to say bag would arrive that night. Well 1 bag arrived Sunday at 9pm and the 2nd arrived Monday at 4pm after some frantic phoning to try and find out if and when we would see the second bag. We were left with no numbers or lost baggage reference numbers for the bags. We were abandoned by Easyjet who accepted our money but wouldn’t taken any responsibility to fulfil their obligation to deliver passengers, bags and bikes on the flight all were booked and paid for months in advance. My tips, First never fly with Easyjet, pack all bike clothes in bikes bags/boxes and carry everything else in hand luggage.

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  • April 2, 2014 at 9:05 pm #782971
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    3bikedoc

    I have used Easyjet to fly
    I have used Easyjet to fly with my bike to Portugal and had no problem.
    Although what happens to you is unfortunate and unacceptable, it is a good moment to reflect on our planning for these kind of situations. I have found the following advice and always follow it.

    I will not pack anything other than the bike in the bike bag. If it does not arrive or get damaged, you can hire one and continue the tour.
    I carry my essential cycling cloths and gear, including helmet in my 5Kg allowance cabin bag. Therefore, if all others doesn’t arrive, I can still continue.

    March 31, 2014 at 7:34 pm #782969
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    faz.

    It’s March and it’s
    It’s March and it’s mallorca….. The only reason planes fly there is to ship bikes back and forth… 🙂

    I do agree it’s a total pain in the backside and it sounds a nightmare, but unfortunately you’re going to find a clause in the contract which allows them to do exactly what they did, and you signed the contract… I don’t know if BA are any better but I thought they didn’t charge extra for bikes, so I don’t know.

    I agree with you that the leaving bags behind is not a life or death situation, but to then not contact you, it’s unacceptable.

    Also to all of you suggesting filling your bike box with kit, they state that this is not allowed, and they’ll reject the box if they suspect it has other equipment in (they’ll X ray it…). Also, I took my bike in a polaris bike box last year, I did disobey the rules and put a lock and some bottles in there, nothing heavy really, and it was 19.8kg with a 7.5kg bike…. So don’t overload it or its £10/kilo.

    March 31, 2014 at 7:28 pm #782967
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    Colin Peyresourde

    How come there were so many
    How come there were so many bikes?

    March 31, 2014 at 7:11 pm #782965
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    Emma Halls

    Well we arrived back safely
    Well we arrived back safely with both bike boxes and both cases.

    In response to “and it’s unlikely they are going to fly with empty seats just so everyone can fly with their hold luggage.” Yes I do expect Easyjet to fly with empty seats in order to accommodate all the cases and sports equipment which they have taken payment for. If I book a flight with luggage and bikes I expect all to make the same flight and nothing to be deliberately left behind. Easyjet offer a service for which we offer payment and they should deliver as promised.
    Easyjet handled the whole thing very badly, if cases had been delivered to the hotel a few hours later or the next morning or even if we had been given the calls we expected would have gone a long way.

    Emails of complaint now sent and lessons learnt re packing and travelling for next time and hopefully never again with Easy Jet.

    March 31, 2014 at 3:27 pm #782963
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    simonkenyon

    Same here, I fly 5 or 6 times
    Same here, I fly 5 or 6 times a year with EJ with my bike and have never had an issue. This is often on flights with tons of other bikes including my own team’s training camps, and even on return flights from remote airports like Biarritz with half the plane flying back to London with their bikes.

    From Easyjet’s point of view – it’s not as if they can roster a bigger plane, and it’s unlikely they are going to fly with empty seats just so everyone can fly with their hold luggage. On occasions where people I’ve flown with have had their bike or bag delayed they have generally been very efficient at getting the bikes delivered to the hotel at the other end, often within a few hours (there are several flights a day to Majorca, for example).

    Bear in mind there is always the risk that your baggage won’t arrive, so always worth taking enough stuff in hand luggage so you can function at the other end. I generally put helmet, tools, and bike shoes in the bike box and there’s usually some bike clothing in there too. Similarly a spare T-shirt and pair of underpants in the hand luggage works wonders.

    March 31, 2014 at 10:33 am #782961
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    Martyn_K

    I flew Easyjet on 12/03 and
    I flew Easyjet on 12/03 and had no issues. I hired a bike on the island but still took the precaution of packing pedals, shoes, helmet and 1 day worth of kit in my carry on.

    So if the worst happened and my luggage did not turn up at least i had the first day covered.

    March 29, 2014 at 8:35 pm #782959
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    Colin Peyresourde

    Can I ask if there was a
    Can I ask if there was a cycling event on? That seems like an unusually high number of bikes for the trip. If there was an event it would probably have been fair to fore warn Easyjet.

    I did the RAB with Threshold. They know that the train to Penzance is not going to take 400 bikes and passengers and so they pre-arrange transport for the bikes and tell the cyclists not to get on the train with theirs. A few do, but it would not be fair to expect Great Western trains to cope with an usual set of circumstances like that. Equally if there is an event taking place which invites a lot of people from the UK to Spain the organiser should be sensitive to the logistical overload that their race causes and should try to stem that with forethought.

    As with other people here I have a good service with Easyjet, so I wouldn’t throw the baby out with the bath water.

    March 29, 2014 at 6:19 pm #782957
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    ajmarshal1

    Cyclist wrote:I have flown

    Cyclist wrote:
    I have flown dozens of times with easyjet, with bikes/skis/snowboards etc and have not got one bad word to say about them. And to be honest as long as my bike turned up the rest is neither here nor there.
    To say you will never fly with them again is a bit over the top for one flight. I lost a bag with BA on a trip to NY a few years ago but I still fly with them.
    So point is:

    A: did you get your bike.
    B: did you get your bags back.
    C: did anyone die… No. So stop moaning… Talk to the Malaysian families about your missing for a few hours underpants.
    D: get some perspective.
    E: learn to pack.. Take a carry on. With the Right clothes it’s easy for a two week break. Merino is your friend.

    Easyjet are a good are airline with foibles yes… Well there are humans involved.

    Utterly disagree. If someone has paid for a service that service should be delivered as expected. Whether you have never had a problem is neither here nor there. They have. Bringing up the Malaysian Airlines incident is crass, asinine and irrelevant.

    Losing luggage is one thing, overbooking is another. Easyjet have a history of over booking both passengers and cargo, if they don’t have room for everything they should make that clear to the customer, not just say all is fine, take the payment and then point out there’s an issue when your in the departure lounge, onboard or worse, at the other end. I deal with large business all the time and many possess the attitude that they can get away with a fair degree of shit because the customer will simply take it and keep coming back. If the customer is unhappy with the service provided and it isn’t as expected it’s well within their right to walk away from that company or seek compensation.

    March 29, 2014 at 6:07 pm #782955
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    Cyclist

    I have flown dozens of times
    I have flown dozens of times with easyjet, with bikes/skis/snowboards etc and have not got one bad word to say about them. And to be honest as long as my bike turned up the rest is neither here nor there.
    To say you will never fly with them again is a bit over the top for one flight. I lost a bag with BA on a trip to NY a few years ago but I still fly with them.
    So point is:

    A: did you get your bike.
    B: did you get your bags back.
    C: did anyone die… No. So stop moaning… Talk to the Malaysian families about your missing for a few hours underpants.
    D: get some perspective.
    E: learn to pack.. Take a carry on. With the Right clothes it’s easy for a two week break. Merino is your friend.

    Easyjet are a good are airline with foibles yes… Well there are humans involved.

    March 29, 2014 at 11:50 am #782953
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    bailey19

    I just put all my personal
    I just put all my personal kit in with the bike, take a carry on bag as well. Job done.

    March 28, 2014 at 8:12 pm #782951
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    Anonymous

    I have a friend who got so
    I have a friend who got so sick of airlines damaging or loosing his dive gear and luggage that he started sending it all by DHL or FedEx (whichever is most convenient) to the hotel he’s staying at. All he travels with is passport, tickets, cash/travellers cheques, wet wipes and his toothbrush.

    As he says “It probably isn’t the cheapest way, but, it is the most stress free.”

    To date he hasn’t had a problem. If he can send his dive gear you can send your bike.

    March 28, 2014 at 6:31 pm #782949
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    Emma Halls

    We have travelled with
    We have travelled with easyjet 3 or 4 times now and this is the first time we had a problem. It was the lack of communication from easyjet once we had got to Palma that really upset us and not knowing if the bags would both turn up at all. After only 1 arrived on the Sunday night we did assume the worst but eventually the other suitcase turned up on Monday at 6pm. My husband’s cycling shoes, bike batteries and Oakleys were in the case so we were a little worried and couldn’t cycle until this case turned up. Home tomorrow and praying all goes well.

    March 28, 2014 at 3:46 pm #782947
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    andycoventry

    Shades wrote: Sports

    Shades wrote:
    Sports equipment seems to be a money-spinner for Easyjet but got the costs down sking this year by paying for 1 x Sports Equip and taking a double ski bag (a lot of analysing the ambiguous small print!).

    Sleasyjet….. sports equipment used to be 35kg but this year they reduced it to 20kg and charge £60 a bag. Bag, 2 snowboards, 2 pairs of boots, 2 sets of bindings and both jackets and trousers and thats over 20kg……. its a joke. and when you get to the airport is £10 per kilo over.

    March 28, 2014 at 3:00 pm #782945
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    paulrbarnard

    To be fair EasyJet made the
    To be fair EasyJet made the right choice. You can make do without your clothes for a day or two, even replace it while you were there if it never showed up but if they had left the bikes behind that would have been a very much more worrying situation. I agree they shouldn’t have over booked the space but that is not unusual for airlines. Happens with seats all the time. You see desperate souls wait listed at airports struggling to get home all the time.

    March 28, 2014 at 1:09 pm #782943
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    pirnie

    In the interest of fairness,
    In the interest of fairness, I’ve flown with bikes by easyjet on 2 trips now (out and back both times) and not had any problems. The same was true for the rest of my group coming on various easyjet flights from around the UK.

    This sounds like an exceptional set of circumstances that were handled badly. In my experience it is nowhere near the norm. Hope you get things sorted out though!

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