Easyjet rip off

[Caley Mad In Berks]

At the beginning of December I booked two return tickets (Luton/Inverness) to see the Rangers game on 26th Feb. At £45 each it was a bargain. The other day my travelling companion had to pull out as his wife had fallen and broken her hip and he has to be chief cook etc for a while.

Another pal stepped in so I went on to the Easyjet website to do a simple 'name' change. The admin cost for this was £70. Bad enough you might think. But when I looked at the 'small print' there was an additional charge of £134, being the difference in price of the ticket from when I originally booked it up to the date of the name change.

So the upshot was I had to pay £206 extra (including credit card charges) just for changing a passenger name on the booking. At this late time they had me over a barrell as all other related charges for the trip had been paid for (parking, car hire,match tickets, accommodation etc).

Of course I complained bitterly to Easyjet's customer services, but to no avail. Their attempt to justify the additional costs were pathetic. I'd done all the work on line myself, including reprinting the boarding passes, so their effort was nil.

So this is just a warning to others not to make any changes to a booking with these cheap airlines, otherwise they will screw you!

So if anyone I know sees me at the match, still looking grumpy, this is the reason. Hope the result will cheer me up though!

[bauhaus]

Managed to fly on holiday via Luton one year, when boarding with our e tickets at Luton after the full days wait, was astonished to find our youngest daughter was not officially booked on, even though her ticket was printed, and we had got from Inverness to Luton with just the five official tickets. After some very freted conversation at Luton as the flight was boarding, had to purchase a ticket, return to Malaga and Inverness for our 2 year old at full price. They were telling us to leave our daughter or not get on the flight, hmmm no choice really! Perfect trip, while their our older daughter caught her leg on a sharp railing, had to get 8 stitches and the hospital did not give her anaesthetic, used the wrong sutures which went septic, and she says she will never go to Spain again.

[Heilandee]

Surely we all realise the whole budget flight thing is a big game, sometimes you have them over a barrel,i.e. they have a big plane to fill and you get cheapo seats for £45,which is unrealistically cheap, but if you can fill the criteria and book early you get the bargain, the minute you change a parameter the dynamics change and it's you thats over the barrel and obviously they take the **** to re-coup as much as they can.I'm amazed at the generosity of whats accepted as cabin baggage and still some folk push the boundaries and girn when pulled up and charged upwards of £40 to check in a bag at the gate, but thems the rules.

While you see it as simply changing a name on the form, they will argue it's a cancellation of original contract and issuing a new one within a few days of take off thus cost goes up big time,while i empathise with your predicament and circumstances are out with your control the airlines will always milk these situations,mebbes morally wrong but i guess thats (budget) business.....PS,i'm flying with them next week, watch me squealing like a girl if they add any extra charges to my flight!

Hopefully ICT do the biz on Sat and make yer trip worthwhile

[The Mantis]

Is it only the budget ones that charge you for a passenger change? I thought it was all of them.

[Alex MacLeod]

Mantis is right. All airlines charge a fortune for name change. My honeymoon was cancelled because of such. Easyjet were the good airline in this. Had booked them to Stansted and Ryanair from there to Killarney. Had booked as Mr and Mrs but forgot to change Aileens passport. Easyjet changed name at no extra cost as they accepted the explanation and said it was a common problem. Ryanair, on the other hand, wanted a total of £330 extra to let us fly. Needless to say we phoned and cancelled the hotel we were going to, told the guy at Ryanair to stick his flight where the sun dont shine (would have smacked him one if it wasnt for the guys with the guns hovering around) and paid £200 for Easyjet flights back to Edinburgh. Have never flown Ryanair since.

[Heilandee]

Not all charge a fortune and some just won't change full stop, but Ryanair seem to be the heftiest. Can understand you being peed off Alex,but yer biting yer nose off a wee bit as there are some great deals with Ryanair if you follow their guidelines,at the end of the day the mistake was yours aye?

http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/holidays/article-1689180/Can-you-change-a-name-on-a-plane-ticket.html

[The Mantis]

Did you hear that Michael O'Leary flew into Dublin recently and fancied a quick pint of the black stuff?

The young barman said 'that'll be one euro please Mr O'Leary.'

Our Michael says 'One euro for a pint of Guinness young man? - Congratulations, that's a great business model, just like my own.'

The barman says 'Why thank you Mr O'Leary. Now will you be wanting a glass with that?'

[caleyboy]

Mantis is right. All airlines charge a fortune for name change. My honeymoon was cancelled because of such. Easyjet were the good airline in this. Had booked them to Stansted and Ryanair from there to Killarney. Had booked as Mr and Mrs but forgot to change Aileens passport. Easyjet changed name at no extra cost as they accepted the explanation and said it was a common problem. Ryanair, on the other hand, wanted a total of £330 extra to let us fly. Needless to say we phoned and cancelled the hotel we were going to, told the guy at Ryanair to stick his flight where the sun dont shine (would have smacked him one if it wasnt for the guys with the guns hovering around) and paid £200 for Easyjet flights back to Edinburgh. Have never flown Ryanair since.

R U sure there was air travel when you got wed Alex? :love02:

[Scotty]

EXCLUSIVE: From the archives ... found a picture of the flight Alex was supposed to catch .... seems they had standby passengers even then !!!

[Alex MacLeod]

I've only been married 8 years this time.