Actually I'm getting angry about the delay in releasing the Gatwick flights. It's just an inconvenience for us as we are retired and are normally pretty flexible about when we go away. But I'm thinking about people who need to go in the school holidays or are trying to book holidays with friends from another area, whose flights have already been released ages ago. Popular places get booked up very quickly in peak periods and it just doesn't seem fair that we Southerners are at such a disadvantage. And it's EVERY time! Why can't EJ release flights in a different order each time so everyone gets their fair share of early booking advantage for their accommodation.

Rant over, but I can't be the only person feeling hacked off about this, can I?

No you are not, but we must be patient, I am sure Logistics are involved.

I'm getting angry about the delay in releasing the Gatwick flights

- what delay? I can't see that they ever promised a release date so how do you calculate delay. It's only the last couple of years they've released any summer flights before Christmas, it used to be much later than this. We've been through this many times before on various threads - even though some operators sell seats a full year in advance their ATC slots aren't confirmed until a few months before the season starts and if you buy early you still aren't guaranteed anything. Easyjet and some others tend to play safe, that way they have less hassle having to tell people about changes and you have more chance of getting what you paid for.

OK, Steve, so are you saying that the ATC slots for Gatwick are consistently released much later (closer to the dates they relate to) than other airports?

I've no idea when they agree them but I do know I've booked Gatwick flights after Christmas and they still had to be altered to suit closer to the date (it was a June flight and I think I got the email in March). Bear in mind that easyjet are still only just announcing new winter routes which start in a few weeks time. Gatwick Airports own site does show a summer 2011 schedule with Easyjet flights included but I've no idea how long that has been online. Their slot coordination is done by http://80.168.119.219/default.aspx - they do show a contact email address, you could ask them vaguely how the process works and what sort of deadlines they work to (like someone working on a uni project) , if you go head on and demand to know what is happening to easyjet at Gatwick they will tell you to go away.

I've heard that easyjet are moving 3 flight destinations from the north to south and in return moving 6 from the south to the north, not sure when this is exactly happening but goes to show that schedules are being revised etc. Also to bear in mind is that there are many more airlines involved at Gatwick to put all their schedules together in regard to the other airports that have released theirs.
I don't think southerners are being disadvantaged ( i am one and use gatwick ) because we have far more choice in terms of airlines , also easyjet fly to many more destinations from gatwick and on a more regular basis compared to other airports.
The schedules from gatwick are going to take more time to put together because there are so many, this is most likely the reason why we are still waiting when others have been released.
when i took my mum to gatwick recently for a flight to dubrovnik there were 25 easyjet flights departing in just over an hour so a fair bit of scheduling there along with all the other airlines, so i suppose a few ATC slots to sort out before schedules can be released.

steve8482 wrote:

, if you go head on and demand to know what is happening to easyjet at Gatwick they will tell you to go away.

i can't even imagine what ryanair would say!

I don't think southerners are being disadvantaged ( i am one and use gatwick ) because we have far more choice in terms of airlines , also easyjet fly to many more destinations from gatwick and on a more regular basis compared to other airports.

Well said Andy

I'm from Northern Ireland and would ABSOLUTELY LOVE to have the choice of airlines and destinations you have down there. There are so many major holiday destinations (eg anywhere in Greece or Turkey for starters!) we can only get on a package or charter. I appreciate the frustration of waiting for flight releases, Easyjet virtually took over my life as I checked obsessively for weeks for the flights we wanted to be released and we still missed out on our preferred accomodation for Easter.
If it's making you angry, use another airport - you've got plenty to choose from down there! Next summer we will be sitting in Bristol Airport for 5 hours and Stansted for another 5 waiting for connecting flights to and from Funchal, as that is the only way we can get where we want to go.

Incidently, if anyone from easyjet is reading this - Thanks for the 1st new route from Belfast in years, but I think your missing a trick if you don't invest in more. There's obvious demand in NI if you hit the popular destinations, but also, due to the weak pound against the Euro, the Southern Ireland market is also there for the taking. You only need to listen for the growing number of irish accents in Belfast International to know this!

another point to consider is it may not be a problem at Gatwick. They show 30 destinations from there but they don't have 30 Gatwick planes with each doing one route, they'll have about a dozen each doing 2 or 3 different places a day. So if say 3 or 4 of those destinations are a bit behind everyone else with their slot allocation the entire plane allocation plan could still be at the pencilled in stage. At this point certain airlines would sell the seats anyway but that doesn't seem to be the way easyjet work.

Of course it could be a commercial strategy but I'm not sure why their Gatwick strategy would be different to other airports.

I have been on the easyjet site and would like some clarification on baggage please. It says " up to 8 pieces of luggage up to 20kg." Is that each person and is there a charge as there is with ryanair.
Sorry to be dim, but haven't used budget airlines for a long time and have heard all the horror stories about excess charges.
many thanks
bee

Hi this may be helpful to you but in summary, you have to pay for any hold baggage. You have 20kg per person total weight allowance regardless of how many bags you take.

http://www.easyjet.com/en/planning/baggage.html

thank you shirley

Hello
I am due to get married in Rhodes in September 2011 and I need your advice regarding flights.

If i book my flights just after new year, would you expect the flights to stay the same? I'm not bothered if easyjet have to adjust the time of the flight, but i am a bit scared incase they need to change the date, or cancel the flight, leaving us with no flight.

thanks

it just doesn't seem fair that we Southerners are at such a disadvantage

But you tend to get your flights cheaper than us lot oooop North so I wouldn't say you were disadvantaged at all

With regard to baggage....I've been checking our flights for next year to see how much they've gone up since we bought them. We opted for 2 hold bags with a combined weight of 64kg and have this in black and white in our paperwork HOWEVER booking flights now the 2 hold bags have a combined weight of 40kg and if you want the combined 64kg weight it will cost and additional £336

So do I go by my paperwork which clearly states 2 lots of hold baggage between all (5) passengers up to a total combined weight of 64g or do I now only have 40kg and will they charge me for going over?? Seems a bit of a sneaky move to me!

I think you've read it wrong the second time! The link to the rules in pictures has been posted on here every few pages, latest earlier this week.

The weight you get free is 20kg each, any more you pay for.

The number of bags is how ever many handling charges you have paid for, none get handled for free.

The 32kg is the maximum weight they will allow in one bag, if it's one passengers then 20kg is free and 12kg is chargeable, if it's split between a number of passengers there may be no excess charge but put more than that in one bag and they won't take it at any price.

So, 5 passengers could get 100kg free weight but since you only paid for 2 handling charges each way you can only fit in 64kg (2x32). If you had paid for 3 handlings then you could get up to 96kg, spread evenly. Easyjet is one of the few airlines that let you pool weight, most would say each passenger needs a seperate paid bag or loses their weight allowance.

If your confirmation does say combined weight but doesn't mention the bag limit then it's technically wrong. If you put 30kg in one and 34kg in the other you'll have trouble at at the airport. Even at 32kg they wil give you a black look and then cover it with warning stickers! And they'll probably make you drag it to the oversize bag desk which is always the furthest from where you are!!

And southerners are at a big disadvantage - they live in the south!!!

And southerners are at a big disadvantage - they live in the south!!!

We flew with Easyjet this year and as with this year's confirmation it says 2 suitcases paid for with a combined weight of 64kg allowed. We paid for 2 suitcases as we're picked up in a Zafira and there's only room for the 2 suitcases plus our hand luggage. One weighed in at 24kg and the other at 26kg (which ended up with a HEAVY label on it) so we were under the 64kg allowance anyway.

This is a pic of the screen that I've just taken:



The booking page wasn't like that when I booked my flights that much I do know, nor in the last couple of weeks as I've looked at our flights rise in price but from that screen to me it reads that if I was booking that now, and I was paying for 2 hold baggage I would be allowed a total of 40kg for the 2 cases (20kg each) and if I wanted to increase that to 43kg, 46kg, 49kg, 52kg, 55kg, 58kg, 61kg or 64 kg I would have to pay between £42 and £336 for the privilege.

From that it makes it look like our 2 suitcases now have a combined weight of 40kg not 64kg as stated on our confirmation UNLESS I'm missing something (highly likely) lol.

when we booked our flight from MCR to Tenerife we added 1 hold case (there are 2 of us) and we were able to take 32kg in the one case at no extra cost. looking at flights for nexttime this advantage seems to have ben stopped and 1 case for 2 passengers is now only 20kg and any more you pay - is this change correct

Chris

Chris, that's what I'm saying...Easyjet on the surface look to have been well sneaky with this one It definitely wasn't on the system when we booked ours a few weeks ago but is now, my paperwork states we have 2 bags booked and can have a combined weight of 64kg so I would have good grounds for an argument at check-in!

Have just gone into our booking and it actually states:

2 hold bag(s) + 24kg extra weight per flight between all passengers

The (5) passengers in this booking may check in a combined total of 2 hold bag(s) each flight on this booking. The total hold weight must not exceed 64kg

So looks like anyone who booked before this change is okay (I've taken screen shots of it all just in case I need it for ammunition at check-in) but if you are booking now you WILL be affected.

Well that's how it looks to me at any rate.

I stand corrected!

Although the pictures in the link posted last week appear to show the original version of the system, the words have changed ever so slightly from what it used to say. So although you can still pool the weight and spread it around there is no longer any free allowance.

But you still wouldn't have had to pay another £336 to get up to 64kg because your group could buy the 2 more bag handling charges with the 20kg each allowance needed to get up to 80 kg in total - and I assume that charge hasn't risen to £160 per bag !! So the actual increase through the new system isn't huge but anyone used to working the old system could get caught out.