Praise for easyJet…..yes, praise!

Budget airlines always seem to get the rough end of the deal when it comes to reviews and handing out compliments and in the past I have had some not so favourable experiences with the ‘cheaper’ airlines of this world, but I am about to hand out praise to easyJet for their handling of the recent flight disruptions. Yes, praise.

Working for a German company we have to visit our Head Office in Munich quite frequently and the normal route would be to book Lufthansa from Manchester to Munich.  But, on this occasion, with a new route we decided to book easyJet, the times were good and bearing in mind we needed to fly late on the Wednesday evening ready for Thursday meetings and fly home late again on Thursday night after a full day in the office.  We only needed hand luggage so didn’t need to pay the additional extras for baggage, so the price was really reasonable.

Check in was similar to that of any airline, although I must say that we did begin to doubt a little when a lady tried to board the flight and was told by easyJet personnel ‘Read the screens. You’re boarding the wrong flight’ – the passenger didn’t seem to mind the lack of manners and in true English style just replied with a simple smile and a ‘thank you’ but a quick reminder as of how to speak to people after a very long shift may be required for the young hostess in question. I suppose we all have off days.

Safely on board and belted in it was a smooth flight, with nothing much really to talk about. Refreshments were offered, in-flight magazines read cover to cover twice and before we knew it we were preparing to land in Munich. 

Now the problems began on the Thursday morning when we realised we may be delayed in flying home.  As we monitored the situation throughout the day, checking the easyJet website we realised our flight may even be cancelled.  The easyJet website was constantly being updated with the most up to date information possible and their home page amended so that you could clearly see where you needed to click for info on all the cancellations. It was a very quick reaction to a situation that no-one expected.  OK, so their LIVE flight departure information was not necessarily updated as quick as we would have liked it to have been, but the info was there.

 Sure enough easyJet emailed me confirmation that my flight was cancelled, clearly stating in the subject line ‘URGENT – your flight has been cancelled’ so I knew immediately it wasn’t a marketing email from them and something I needed to read. Any easyJet customer receiving such an email would have known immediately what was happening, with instructions very clearly displayed as to our options of rebooking of obtaining a full refund.

My colleague in the UK called the easyJet call centre and changed out flights, so we were all set for the Friday flight.  Logging in to my account I could access all the flights we had booked and easily printed off our new boarding cards, for the amended flight. Sorted.  Well, we thought we were for a whole 12 hours until we woke up to more information from easyJet that their flights were cancelled due to UK airspace remained closed.  At that, we gave up checking the site as we realised we would have to get home some other way with flights no longer looking to be an option for some time as the situation even on Friday did not look as though it would be getting any better any time soon.  Working for Sixt rent a car, that option was car hire and like many UK passengers we made our own way home knowing that once I got back into work I would have the agonising task of trying to get my money back on the four flights that we had lost back from Munich.

This is where the real praise comes in for the airline.  I need not have worried as I can honestly say that this was the easiest process of obtaining a refund from any company I have ever experienced.

In returning to the office I put off going onto the easyJet website to sort this out, I have tried to get refunds from major airlines before and it involved a lot of emailing, faxing and  phone calls, which I wasn’t looking forward to. So, Monday afternoon I went online and looked at the FAQ section of the website.  I decided that I wanted to email them to get a refund and sure enough, after logging in, I was able to choose the topic ‘My flight was cancelled, I need a refund’ Taking me to an online refund form, all I had to enter was my flight and booking reference numbers, the date I should have taken my flight and how many passengers were on the booking. I gave the passengers names, attached the easyJet flight confirmation that they sent through to me and clicked continue and that was it!  You also have the opportunity on this form to claim back any expenses relating to hotel stays, alternative transport used and food costs if you need to.

I did wonder how long it would take to hear anything and again was so surprised that I didn’t have to wait long at all.  Later that same evening I got confirmation for each individual passenger of the amount that would be refunded to my card.  I was expecting to have chase them to say I hadn’t received an acknowledgment or response of any kind, but here it was, just a few hours later. Of course, it can take a while for the amount to actually be credited back to my card and show on our statement.  But the speed in which easyJet acknowledged my request and confirmed amounts is a shinning example of excellent customer service and service recovery from a difficult situation that was not caused by their own doing.

Working in the marketing and internet area for Sixt UK myself and being based in a Head Office with a call centre, I can fully appreciate how quickly easyJet and their teams will have worked to change their home page and feature different text, keep their site updated with news as and when it arrived and generally keep the customer informed.  What I also appreciate is that easyJet is very much an online company, they like you to do everything online as much as possible, resulting in as few calls going into their call centre as possible.  Like most online companies, their call centre will only be big enough to cope with the amount of calls that they forecast they will receive. Now I am sure that some people with have tried to call their call centre for help during the days that flights were disrupted and I sure they will have had difficulty in getting though.  But they must have been experiencing an unprecedented amount of calls, like our call centres were and in helping people, you can only answer so many phone calls – of course we have to wait to speak to someone.  Their phone lines had a polite message explaining the current situation with the volcano, pointing out that you would have a wait if you wanted to speak with an operator and reminded you that you could change your booking or get a refund online.  Yes, I am sure that some people given the situation preferred to speak with a person than handle their booking themselves, just to make sure it was changed correctly and they may now be discussing on a blog or a forum how long they had to wait and how much the phone call will have cost them.  But everyone’s experience is individual and I can say that on this occasion, mine was a positive one with nothing but praise for the airline and it’s staff during a period of high demand which has never been experienced before.

Even when you look on their site today, their information for stranded passengers and those due to fly within the next few days is clear, concise and well put together.

Well done easyJet and I hope the service I receive when I fly with you on 2nd May is as good as that which I received last week!!

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