I love EasyJet. They’re budget-friendly, always have flights, and make it easy to jump from European city to European city. But even though I love this airline, today made me feel like I should’ve taken the train instead.

A train to Paris from Nice is about six hours or more. So it’s nice that this flight is about an hour.

I opted to pay a few extra bucks for Easy Boarding on this Nice to Paris flight. This means you get to board first. It’s great if you’re worried about overhead compartment space or if crowds make you nervous.

I also decided to pick an exit row seat because, in my experience, exit row seats have more space than other seats.

The boarding

As boarding begins, the hordes of people start to cram the line. But this is pretty common on all airlines. It’s not an EasyJet thing.

So if you’re boarding with Easy Boarding, you have to push past all the people who give you dirty looks and sometimes tell you something. It’s a really uncomfortable experience.

Nevertheless, we push through.

Because we have an American passport, we have to have our documents checked again (at least that was my impression, the gate agent didn’t check anyone with European passports, but perhaps they have a different system.) The gate agent checked our health pass, passport, and boarding pass.

We proceed to scan our boarding pass and enter the holding pen.

There are two different holding pens, one for Easy Boarding and one for general boarding. 

The people in general boarding looked anxious to beat the Easy Boarders. It felt like we were going to race for the plane.

As we begin to board, the general boarding section gets more anxious and pushes past their roped-off area, trying to beat the Easy Boarders. It’s bizarre boarding behavior.

But now, there are two lines on the jet bridge, so what was the point of it all?

The lines make boarding more efficient. If your seat is near the first half of the plane, you board through the jetbridge. You board through a different area if you’re sitting at the back half.

This allows for quick boarding. I like it.

The Race for Overhead Compartment

Since everyone seemed to want to win this race, it was the same for the overhead space.

I usually have one small bag, so finding a space isn’t too hard for me.

I placed my bag and sat in my middle seat.

But I observed and watched as people ran across the plane to place their bags in before someone else did.

Some of these travelers had many bags, backpacks, purses, hats, grocery bags. Perhaps they were here for an extended amount of time, but it seemed excessive.

I also watched curiously how they all stuffed their sweaters and scarves in the bins, which I thought was weird, but it seems they know EasyJet more than I do.

The exit row

This is an Airbus a319/320, but my exit row did not have extra leg space (or at least that’s what my knees told me.) It was the same as any other seat. So, in this case, I felt any seat would’ve sufficed. Now that I know, I won’t make that mistake again.

They kept the plane extra warm. So I had to take off my two layers of sweaters. 

I folded them neatly and placed them in my lap.

The seats are thin, which means my broad shoulders rubbed both passengers next to me. Thankfully, my partner was one of them, and I could lean towards him to avoid uncomfortable rubbing on the stranger next to me.

Then, I watched the flight attendants walk through and tell all the exit row people that they could not have anything under their seat since its an exit row.

Luckily, out of all 12 seats, only one person had a small bag under the seat in front of her.

But then she proceeds to tell us all that we cannot have anything on our laps—no scarves, no sweaters, no items whatsoever. Everything must go into the overhead.

Although it makes sense to keep the emergency exit clear of any obstacles, it felt excessive. Overall it wasn’t very pleasant.

Now all the overhead space is occupied, but do you need everyone to store everything? No wonder people ran to empty bins. Now I get it. It’s ridiculous, to say the least. But it sure is a learning experience.

Beverage service

Pre-covid beverage service on EasyJet was as usual, but I’m not sure how they did it this time or if things were pre-ordered.

I didn’t want or need anything, but I observed as they only came up to a select few. They asked them their preference, and they were given their drink (not free, paid by credit card.)

After the flight attendants took care of the select few, the beverage service ended. It was strange to watch. If anyone has any insight, please leave me a comment.

I’m so glad this flight was about an hour. It was not a good flight experience.

De-boarding

Now that I knew what to expect from the passengers, I decided to take my time deboarding. Passengers ran up and down the aisles attempting to beat others to the bins. It was chaos.

People got up even though the plane was still moving. Even after the captain announced to ‘please stay seated,’ all passengers got up, ran to their bins, and grabbed their luggage.

Perhaps EasyJet’s made decisions based on their low-budget fares that make people act this way. Or maybe covid is bringing out the crazy in everyone.

Let’s break it down:

I would usually recommend EasyJet to anyone traveling within Europe. But this has to be the weirdest experience I’ve encountered with them.

Perhaps it’s covid taking its toll on how things are run, but lots of things seemed to have changed.

I can only hope that things continue to change for the better. 

Even though this experience was annoying, EasyJet has some of the lowest fares in Europe, and that makes them worth trying again.

Learn from my experience, so you’re not caught in the chaos.