Published: 08 Feb 2008: A few months ago we delved into Facebook with the intention of getting the reaction from consumers about ancillary revenue. Instead the users led the discussion in a much more general direction covering ethics and general treatment they had received from airlines.
We recorded the following definitions (please note these are consumers’ views and do in no way reflect the views or opinions of EyeforTravel), we’ve left them exactly how they were typed, although have removed any profanity: -
AirAsia: Up and coming low cost airline for asia, suffers from poorly designed seats that cripple your back. The seats are probably no different than the european ones, but most euro flights arent more than 2 hours. Food is more interesting than europe though.
WestJet: North American, largely Canada, good all rounder and the crew have the best sense of humour that I have travelled with.
Ryan Air : Cheap and Nasty, you wouldn’t book a flights when on a tight schedule, or if you valued comfort and service levels. Ryan Air is certainly the bottom of the low budget barrel.
EasyJet: Good sturdy airline, if you ignore the epilepsy inducing orange of everything. More realisable than most and comfort levels are acceptable.
Flybe: Reliable and comfortable, largely because they run the old BA Connect routes. Benefits from leaving nice tiny airports like Southampton, only arrived 30 mins before the flights and caused no delay.
SkyEurope: On a par with EasyJet, though a little short on smiles and pleasantries, a common feature on any central European airline in any case.
Tansavia: An offshoot from KLM, comfortable but doesn’t always fit the low cost concept, this is because it doesn’t seem sure if its going low cost or classic.
Other posted comments we recorded were:
‘Budget airlines may be cheap, but by the time you add on ALL the extras its not that cheap at all. I´d rather use a full fare airline, where you pay one amount and that is it, no hidden extras.’ Mark Godbolt, London, UK
‘Can´t believe there´s so much slagging off about ryanair, but not surprised most seems to be from londoners... get a grip! If you book early it´s usually cheaper, and if you´ve paid £20-50 (as I think most do) for a flight, what do you want? Champagne and salmon canope´s?’ Mark Godbolt, Portmouth, UK
‘In my experience, you tend to get what you pay for. Id rather take a "regular" airline and take my chances, if something goes wrong you usually have a better chance that they will be better able to fix it than on a budget carrier. Most of the time with budget carriers like JetBlue and Skybus, if there is a problem, you´re [done for].’ Dave Weil, New York, USA
‘I love the budget airlines, I just think you have to be aware of all costs that are going to be involved and add those onto the airfare (such as ground transportation) before you chose whether to fly the LCC or a Mainstream carrier.’ Dan Gaston, West Midlands, UK
‘Low cost airlines are overall great - they bring travel to the masses. The lack of free food is fine, just bring a sandwich. I even think the free seating is vaguely acceptable, but can´t see why they can´t do seat allocation when they can do boarding by boarding pass numbers? What I do object to is the recent charges for checking in bags, and also Ryanair´s 15 kg allowance, every other airline has a 20 kg. allowance’ Anette Collins, London, UK
