Thanks Shirley and steve, it depends if it's well organised, otherwise might as well keep the £20 for ourselves! Just used Jet2 and they had excellent pre-book your seat at £5.99!
Why can't Easyjet let you pre-book, much easier

ah but last week I had the choice of Jet2 or easyjet, chose EZ and got back on time, Jet2 were expected 3 hours late and it would have cost me £70 taxi after last train had gone!

i have used easyjet a few times as a family and with friends ive never booked speedy boarding or pre booked seats been going for 9 years abroad and never been seperated i just find its plenty of money to fly without paying the extra, saying that we are going to turkey in 5 weeks and our little girl is 3 and i think they ask for family who have children under 5 to go after the speedy boarders, but we always go with the flow and never rush.

I've recently read about the issues with SB at certain airports and have to say I'm a bit concerned. We're flying from Liverpool on Saturday and bought SB because I have walking problems and will probably be using two walking sticks, so getting through a plane in a scrum isn't easy!

I would suggest that when you go to the gate and you see staff getting ready to make the boarding calls, you go and show them your boarding pass and explain your situation. They will perhaps let you have a bit more time to board, but there are seats set aside - normally 2nd or 3rd row on RHS of plane - for those with walking problems. You might ask them very very nicely if they could inform the cabin crew of your walking problem and ask them to keep this row free for you and your party. Then you don't need to dash. It will mean entering the aircraft by the front steps.

a few points to bear in mind here:

first, if you buy SB or have small children you must be at the gate when they open it. They don't say "we sold 20 SBs and only 18 have gone so we'll hold everyone else until the other 2 come out of the shop". Once the initial priority queue has gone they let everyone else through immediately afterwards - if you'd bought SB and then were 2 minutes late for the call that's tough!

second, during the walk to the bus/plane they don't keep people in order. Even if you were a priority at the gate they don't stop people overtaking you or hold them back to give you a bigger chance. So if you aren't very mobile you will get caught in the rush. In this case do what Alsacienne says and get them to hold those seats - then you can let the mob go first and follow along.

Cheers for the advice, will see what they say

Just done our first flight from Edinburgh to Munich yesterday and it was excellent. We purchased Speedy Boarding and asked re how this works if they have to bus you to the aircraft. We were told they sit all the speedy boarders at the back of the bus and the driver opens the back doors of the bus first to allow the speedy boarders to board the plane first.

I must say as well there was a blind couple on the plane and Easy Jet were excellent with them and quite rightly so, escorted them on the plane before anyone else.

hi looking at going to tenerife next june does anyone know when easy jet flights be out for then going on previous years.also aprtment getting booked up so looking to book apartment first so which days will be cheaper or will they all be the same if book as soon as there first out?any help be much appreciated.

Just back from Palma with easyjet and they are now very hot on the hand luggage. What concerned me is that previously we have tried ours in the frame upwards but they are now putting them in sideways and my daughter had a lot of pushing and shoving to make hers fit because of the wheels. We have used these cases for quite a few years with no trouble at all.

I've just replied to that in the ryanair thread!

http://www.holidaytruths.co.uk/viewtopic.php?f=38&t=4288&p=1534000#p1534000

Thought I would be helpful by posting this on both ryanair and easyjet threads as we were boarding at gates next to each other and could see what was going on and wanted to warn passengers. Never in all the years we have been using these airlines have our baggages been checked 'sideways' We are well under the width and depth dimensions but 2 cms over the height because of the wheels. Looks like new bags will now need to be bought but hope that they do not change there mind again about how to use the measuring basket. Only a few months ago at Tenerife and Funchal before that, the stewardess observed me put my bag in standing up. Wish they would make their mind up. Sorry if it concerned you I had posted twice.
Trish

There probably hasn't been a change of mind (= policy) it's just that these days they are tougher about enforcing the policy. And it isn't exactly the same for all airlines. When a smaller proportion of passengers brought the carry on short stay cases they were all a bit lax in checking the sizes but now so many do it there's a problem in getting them all in so they need to be stricter. It isn't just a matter of being picky over the rules, if too many people are allowed to take bags which are a bit too big the whole boarding process comes to a grinding halt as the cabin crew try to find space and then you get flights delayed. This really annoys me as I don't try to take a bag right up to the limit but I get delayed as well.

As you say, in the past they may have let you stand it up in the frame and they could see it was close enough overall, now they are more likely to want to be sure. And when you say standing up, that's based on where your handle and wheels are - if you look at the traditional airline captain's case it's actually the same way round as the frame (although whether it would fit for some airlines is a moot point!). The wheels are important, handles are often retractable but the wheels almost always stick out a bit, get a load that are just 1cm too big and those gaps soon add up - next thing you know you've lost the equivalent locker space to a whole bag.

The important thing is that you never assume that what happened last time will happen again (that rules applies to everything to do with travel!). Keep an eye on the rules, for instance easyjet still don't have a weight limit for bags that fit the frame. I can see that being changed because weight = fuel = cost and if you add up the extra they allow (compared to some others) over a year it must be worth something significant. Others have a weight limit but normally don't check if it looks right. Enforcing the existing weight limit would be a way of raising income without technically raising fees.

You are correct, have never had the case weighed by Ryanair and already knew about the lack of weight restriction for Easyjet but couldn't see me managing to get much more than 10kg in our hand luggage case anyway.
Just to be safe will be buying another 2 cases so we are not sweating at the gate as we holiday 3 or more times a year with hand luggage.

Easyjet announces new UK hub

Easyjet is to fly out of London Southend airport from April next year.

It will operate three A319 planes from the base to ten European destinations including Barcelona, Faro and Ibiza. ... click here for more details.

With permission from Travelmole

Just thought I'd give an update on our experience with SB at Liverpool and Barcelona.
We had absolutely no problems at either end. We went through check-in very quickly at Liverpool with 1 family in front of us at 5am compared to a very long queue for this without SB.
When the gate opened, they called SB first and we went down the stairs to walk to the plane, and the other passengers were held back until we were all on the stairs.

At Barcelona, it took us a while to find the check-in desks, as the printouts only said Terminal 2 - no mention of the fact there's Terminal 2 A,B and C, or that Easyjet use Terminal C, which happens to be before A rather than after B!
Check-in was very fast again and the gate had a separate queue for SB, and we were allowed onto the bus first which had a cordoned off area for SB passengers at the front. Once we were boarded, the front doors were shut so that other passengers boarded at the rear. When the bus got to the plane, only the front doors were opened to allow SB to board first.

Overall, it was quite a smooth process and I wasn't rushed at all as I wobbled across the tarmac. I'll definitely use Easyjet again.

Lastly, two of our carry on bags were checked at the checking desk at Liverpool, but we weren't told to put them in in any particular orientation, they weren't checked at the gates, or at check-in at Barcelona.

Just back from Edinburgh where we flew EDI to MUC and return today. Going out was fine as Speedy Boarders were all let through first. Fortunately there was no bus involved on the way out. However coming back today a different story. The flight was at 16.30 from MUC. Check in was supposed to open 2 hours before. We were first in the queue at the speedy boarding check in desk. At 15.10 no staff at check in desks and the queues at the normal fast baggage and check in desk were huge. Only about half a dozen people in Speedy Boarding queue.

Got to gate and speedy boarders let through first, however we were then transported by bus and this is where their system fell down. No organisation for speedy boarders on the bus and it was basically a free for all when the bus arrived at the aircraft. So in this instance speedy boarders did not get on the aircraft first.

Not sure if this is something I should complain about?

We've seen this several times sugarbabe, which is why we don't bother booking speedy boarding.

Never used easyjet before untill now, we are a group of 10(4 adults, 6 kids)and it say we are allowed a max of 140kg and 7 cases. Im assuming they don't all have to be 20kg or less, can you have one at say 28kg another at 15 or 22 etc as long as the total weight doesnt exceed the 140. Anyone clarify this?
I also thought everyone in party was allowed 20kg each but they are saying 140kg for 10 of us?