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A review on my trip on board EasyJet's Airbus A320 in economy from NCE-GVA.
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My family and I decided to take our summer travel's in Europe, more specifically in Nice and Geneva. Luckily for us EasyJet has a hub in Geneva and flies directly to and from Nice, which gave us a SUPER cheap one-way ticket to Switzerland. But is the cheaper fare worth the consequences? Read on to find out.
Check-In-
After a beautiful 10 days in Nice it was time to head to Geneva on board EasyJet flight U21384. Once arriving at Nice Airport's Terminal 2, we made our way to the check in counters. EasyJet operates many flights a day from what seems like every European city; so the check-in line was fairly long. But because EasyJet requires you to check-in online, everyone in line only had to drop their bags which made the line go much quicker.
Check-In at NCE
Boarding-
This was a disaster to say the least.
Soon after walking down basically the entire length of the airport to reach the gate, boarding commenced. Yet there was one major issue; the plane hadn't arrived. Finally (after 2/3 of the plane had been boarded and shoved into a small waiting area) the plane arrived and quickly deboarded it's passengers. Literally as soon as the final passenger left the aircraft the gate crew quickly opened the door and released all the passengers to board the plane; which led me to wonder, did the cabin crew have time to clean the aircraft... doubtful. Passengers in the back were instructed to walk down steps onto the tarmac and board at the rear of our A320 with sharklets, but we were seated towards the front so it was through the jet-bridge for us. But all in all, from the moment I scanned my boarding pass when boarding, to the moment I sat down in my seat must have been around 45 minutes; disaster.
As you can see, all the passengers were crammed into a tiny space while waiting for the plane to arrive
Passengers seated in the back walking on the tarmac
Our A320 (HB-JXE) awaited us
The Flight-
Usually I would make separate categories of the flight, yet as this was only a 50 minute hop with literally no service I thought I'd combine it all into one.
The seats looked somewhat new, had little to no legroom (keep in mind I'm 6'1''), and couldn't recline. So basically one of the worst I've ever flown on along with Spirit's A320 and Alitalia's A320.
The thin, uncomfortable, no legroom seats awaited me
The legroom (aka none)
The view from my seat (8A), parked next to an Air France A321
Boarding was really quick and we pushed back at 4:57 p.m. We rushed down the taxiway and took off without having to wait at the runway. Wheels were up at 5:01 p.m. (6 minutes past our scheduled departure time) and we flew over a beautiful Southern French coastline.
The stellar takeoff view
As EasyJet is a ultra-low cost carrier, you literally pay for everything; even water (it was priced at 2.5 Euro's). We climbed to our cruising altitude of 24,000 ft. and the crew had literally 5 minutes to rush through the cabin to see if anyone wanted to purchase anything before we started our decent into Geneva.
Our approach over the Swiss Alps
Despite the chaotic boarding, we landed on time, if not a few minutes early in Geneva. But this is when yet another disaster ensued. Once we parked at a remote stand the ground staff were having a tough time attaching the stairs to the plane, this took 10 minutes. Then once the stairs were attached, the doors were opened and the plane began to heat up, but it didn't matter because we'd be getting off soon right? Wrong. We had to wait 35 minutes, after the 10 waiting for the stairs, for the buses. After the 45 minutes waiting on the plane, we headed towards baggage claim to pick up our bags that had surely been unloaded by now. Surprise, they hadn't and we had to wait another 45 minutes for the bags.
Where's the bus?
Deboarding in sunny Geneva
Overall-
I'm not going to rate this flight in categories like I normally do, because frankly there is nothing to talk about other than the tiresome delays. Although this may be a one-off occurrence, it really made the journey unenjoyable. So down to the golden question, is the low-fare worth the discomfort? My answer is: sometimes. I'd say you get what you pay for, but I wouldn't pay for EasyJet's ultra-low cost fares on any flight 2 hours or above.
Don't forget to check out our Instagram: @theyoungglobaler, and YouTube: theyoungglobaler (links on the top-right of the homepage)