Any experience with EasyJet?
 

Does anyone have any experience with EasyJet? It's a "budget" airline in Europe. We will be flying from Lyon, France to London (Stanstead). I'm not a good flyer anyway, so I'm just a little worried about flying on a "budget" airline that I'm not at all familiar with.
TIA,
Mindy

they're a reputable firm. You've nothing to worry about.

Their Chairman (although he is non-exec) got done for gross negligance when he allowed some tanker to crash - he owns a med-based shippinmg firm and is the second oldest (I think) son of a shipping tycoon. But he claims to have learnt from his mistake and he is not involved in day to day running of his airline anymore...

It's safe and the service is OK. You'll just have to buy your own sandwiches. And there will be a rush on to the plane because it's a ticketless airline.

I have flown it twice from Munich to London Stansted. Very cramped seating--both width and pitch, but you get what you pay for: a seat and nothing else. It's very safe, IMO. Just see how practically every flight is full...how could you sell out on an unsafe flight?

As a 'ticketless' airline, you get your seat assignment upon check-in. It's not, as is mentioned above, a rush to 'find' a seat, like trying to get a seat on public transportation. At least, it certainly wasn't that way for me last year.

Flew this route with Easyjet the other week (and have flown Easyjet loads of times - it must be one of the most popular airlines in the UK). It's fine. Last time our flight even arrived early. Take your own snacks if need be (the flight's so short that I don't bother).

If you're fussy about where you sit on the plane, make sure you check in at Lyon as soon as the desk opens (2 hours before the flight leaves). You'll be given a boarding card number: when the flight boards they do it based on these numbers: 1-30, then 30-60, 60-90, and then everyone else.

Also note that at Lyon airport, they don't always let you go into the departure lounge as soon as you've checked in - sometimes you have to wait for people on other flights to go through first.

Oh, and one last thing about Lyon airport: there are virtually no shops or refreshment areas once you've gone through security - just a large "duty free" shop and a couple of vending machines. So get all your magazines, chocolate, etc. before you go through!

Wow - thanks everyone! This is some great info! I feel much better about EasyJet now. Will definitely give them a try.
Thanks!!
Mindy

Riffic is sort of right. You don't actually get allocated a seat at check in. You get a boarding number (ie first person to check in gets 1 and so on).

Then at boarding the people with the lowest numbers get to board first. they di it in blocks, eg 1 through 30, 31 through 60 etc so it is a bit of a free for all.

Otherwise you get exactly what you pay for and for some of the prices I see people pay, I hope their expectations aren't ridiculously high.