Easy Come, Easy Go with EasyJet!

LONDON
When I was a study abroad student decades ago, we traveled around Europe via train.  We all had Eurail passes, which allowed us make last minute plans and hop on any train to almost any destination for a weekend or week-long trip.  The travel was slow and we never wanted to pay for sleeper cars, but it was cheap.  I remember taking an overnight train to Florence only to find my friend had departed for another European country the same weekend.  I also took a 24 hour train ride up to Denmark from Paris for the Christmas holidays.

Cheap trains have been replaced by cheap airlines.  My current study abroad students fly in and out of London almost the same as we took long distance train trips.  But they can’t be quite as spontaneous.  The cheapest flights go fast and are often mid-week.  I’ve had to remind my students that missing a Thursday or a Monday class because of a cheaper flight is still unexcused.  One of my students came back from her midterm holiday yesterday reporting a horrendous 48 hour flying journey back from Florence.  She and her friend failed to book a return flight when they left London, and as it was midterm break (or half term as the British call it) literally all over Europe, flights were full when they wanted to come home. She started on a Friday trying to book shorter flights to end up London.  She flew first to Pisa, then stayed overnight; then to Madrid, then Zurich, then Amsterdam and finally back to Gatwick airport.  I didn’t ask how much she spent, but she said she hated Italy as a result.  I hope she goes back in happier circumstances.

We traveled to Berlin via EasyJet, the friendlier of the two lowest cost airlines.  Ryan Air, out of Ireland, has a bad reputation for charging passengers for everything—even to use the onboard toliets. EasyJet is not much better.  It reminds Peter and me of the cattle car days of People’s Express in the 80s.  We booked inexpensive one way legs and decided to avoid extra charges by carrying on our luggage.  Well, only one small bag is allowed onboard, no purse or camera or briefcase.  The bag is smaller than small—Peter couldn’t even fit a second pair of shoes in his.  I packed my coat with my wallet, camera, our passports, tickets—I couldn’t quite fit a water bottle in my pockets.  I felt like a spy boarding the flight.  And of course there are no assigned seats, so everyone rushes in a very un-British way out from the gate onto the tarmac and up the stairs to the airplane.  It’s not a pleasant experience.

EasyJet must be doing very well, nonetheless.  You can also take an EasyBus to each of the London airports run by the same company with the same bright orange logo.  Just yesterday I passed by an EasyGym on the Wood Green High Street.  I guess it makes sense to get in shape in order to win the mad dash out the gate to an Easy Jet flight.  Bon Voyage!

Beth