Comparison between Air Berlin, EasyJet and BA

Hi all,

I didn’t intend to write a trip report for these flights so made no notes. The details may therefore be a bit sketchy but I am mainly writing this to give you some idea of how the three airlines compare.

Background:

I’m currently working for Deutsche Telekom in Bonn. A friend of mine was getting married on 28th October in the Wirral and I wanted to go. My family also wanted to come out and visit me from 29th October until 3rd November so we booked flights to travel back to Bonn together. I then flew back to the UK with them on 3rd November for the weekend and returned to Bonn on 5th November. My routing was as follows:

28th October: Air Berlin: DUS-STN-MAN (Fokker 100 & 737-800)
29th October: EasyJet: LPL-CGN (A319)
3rd November: EasyJet: CGN-LPL (A319)
5th November: British Airways: LHR-DUS (A320-100!)

Booking:

All three airlines have websites that are easy to use. With Air Berlin, I was able to select my seats in advance since I have a silver Top Bonus card. This didn’t work on the website when I booked though so I had to ring them. No big deal.

Air Berlin: 8/10 (Seat selector didn’t work. Had to ring them)
EasyJet: 8/10 (Website fine but I resent having to pay extra to pay by debit card even though most airlines allow this for free)
BA: 9/10 (Website fine but I resent having to pay to use a credit card because they do not charge you for this if the ticket is issued in Germany. As my flight originated in the UK, my e-ticket was issued in the UK and so the credit card charge was there. Unlike EasyJet, debit cards are free).

Check In:

I used Air Berlin’s night before check in service in DUS. Very convenient as I was able to go straight from the hotel to my flight gate the following morning (I was only travelling with hand luggage). Agent was unable to change my pre-assigned seat on the STN-MAN leg (I wanted to sit on the opposite side of the aircraft to get a view of the city).

EasyJet’s check in in LPL was fine. Use any desk for all flights. We were checked in around 3 hours prior to departure and so got ‘A’ boarding passes. Check in agent was friendly and pleasant on this Sunday morning. Check in in CGN did not open until exactly 2 hours before departure (German punctuality :D). Again we got group ‘A’ and again the agent was pleasant and friendly.

I checked in online with BA and so was able to get an ‘A’ seat in the first row behind business class. The row was in business class config so I had a nice wide seat with 2 armrests between me and the person on the aisle. Online check in is great and my home printed boarding pass caused no problems at LHR.

Air Berlin: 9/10 (Night before check in is excellent but I know the agent could have changed my seat from STN-MAN. I don’t think he knew how to though as he said the flight wasn’t operated by Air Berlin even though it was :confused: )
EasyJet: 9/10 (LPL excellent. They could have opened check in earlier in CGN as there was quite a large queue behind us by the time they did finally open it)
BA: 10/10 (Online check in is fantastic. If you get there early enough, you can get really good seats! No problems with home printed boarding pass in the airport)

Boarding:

Air Berlin assigns seats and so boarding is not too hectic. In DUS, we were bussed to the aircraft so all passengers arrived at the aircraft together. I was off the bus quite quickly so did not have to stand on the tarmac too long. In STN, we boarded using the airbridge.

EasyJet’s boarding annoys me! I don’t like the way people stand at the gate ages before the flight in order to get on the aircraft quicker (regardless of their boarding group). In LPL, the gate agents were there long before boarding should have started but just kept chatting until our ETD then finally decided we’d better be allowed on. Needless to say, this delayed us. On the return from CGN, I was very pleased to see the gate agent enforcing the group boarding system by sending a group of Dutch boys to the back of the queue as they had group ‘D’ boarding passes. What was less impressive was that they started ‘boarding’ as soon as the aircraft was on blocks and so we had to stand waiting for around 20 minutes until the crew were ready for us. I understand this is to speed up turnaround times but it was still annoying.

The BA flight boarded late because of lack of ground staff in LHR. This was announced by the captain once on board and you could tell he was not impressed and that this was a regular occurrence. What did irritate me was that the departure boards did not show any delay. According to the staff at the BA information desk, the do this in case the delay gets shorter so that the passengers don’t go wandering off and delay the aircraft further. This makes sense to me BUT if the gave you the gate number earlier (i.e. when you check in as is the norm in most airports abroad) then people would go to the gate at the designated time anyway and so the abovementioned problem would not arise!

Air Berlin: 10/10 (Assigned seats makes for relaxed boarding. No more to be said really)
EasyJet: 5/10 (I hate the scrum at the gate. The lack of interest in boarding the passengers in LPL and the standing around waiting in CGN added to the negative impression)
BA: 7/10 (Not really BA’s fault although the lack of delay information was a little frustrating. BA can’t help it if there is a shortage of ground staff at LHR nor can it help this stupid policy by British airports of keeping the gate a secret until the last minute so that the passengers have to rush to the gate instead of arriving there in their own time)

In Flight:

Air Berlin serve you a small snack and non alcoholic beverages free of charge. The sandwich choices on the early morning flight from DUS-STN were cheese or ham. I chose the cheese but would not have had I realised it was cheese and egg mayonnaise (I do not like eggs). I was able to have a coffee and an orange juice to drink. On the STN-MAN leg, a cereal bar and a glass of water were served to around 120 passengers in the space of about 15 minutes!!! Excellent considering AB are a low cost airline!

EasyJet give you nothing as you all know! I did buy a drink and some poppadoms on the flight to CGN but bought nothing on the way back as I had sandwiches with me.

BA provided us with its trademark All Day Deli on the LHR-DUS flight and alcoholic drinks were also free. There was no choice of sandwich offered but I did hear someone behind request a different one and get it. The standard sandwich was tuna mayonnaise. There was also a small bag of fruit (which was sour and not very pleasant) and a chocolate (can’t remember exactly what). I had some red wine and a glass of water to drink. I would have liked a coffee as well but the crew didn’t offer any more drinks after the first round. Never mind!

Air Berlin: 10/10 (For a low cost, they are truly excellent in what is provided free of charge on board. Serving snacks between STN and MAN is a fantastic achievement given the flight time)
EasyJet: 3/10 (Nothing included in the ticket price. I did know this before flying with them as I have flown with them before. Food and drink is overpriced)
BA: 9/10 (More food provided than Air Berlin but I wish they hadn’t bothered with the fruit! It was awful!)

Cabin Crew:

Air Berlin’s crew were generally friendly. The crew from DUS-STN were not as pleasant as the ones from STN-MAN. On approach to STN, they were still standing up talking until about 2 minutes before landing. They only just got the cabin secured before we landed.

EasyJet’s crew were awful! I have flown with EZY from Bristol a few times and the crews there are some of the best and most friendly in the skies. I have now taken 4 flights to and from LPL with EZY and the crew have always been miserable. From CGN-LPL, they were downright rude! The ignored me completely during taxi, take off and landing (I was in row 1 and therefore sitting right opposite them). The also scowled the entire flight and it was obvious they couldn’t be bothered to be there!

The BA crew were the best of the lot. Warm, friendly, professional. Everything one could want and expect from a crew. I was so impressed that I went on to the purser after the flight to compliment her on how well they all worked. Needless to say she was quite pleased!

Air Berlin: 9/10 (Crew from DUS-STN were a bit late getting the cabin secured. Crew from STN-MAN were much better)
EasyJet: 0/10 (I am yet to fly with a good EZY crew out of LPL. Maybe I will in the future!)
BA: 10/10 (As said above, the best of the lot by far!)

Aircraft:

I flew on a Fokker 100 leased from Germania and one of AB’s own 738s. Both were comfortable and clean although the seats on the 738 were looking a little worn. Legroom on the F100 was excellent.

EZY’s A319s are very new but are already starting to look shabby. It was obvious that both aircraft had been heavily used during their short lives. While not dirty, both aircraft seemed grubby.

BA’s A320-100 was in excellent condition considering its age. The leather seats were comfortable and the cabin was well maintained.

Air Berlin: 9/10 (Not a 10/10 as the 738 cabin was looking slightly worn)
EasyJet: 7/10 (Aircraft as new as these should not be looking so grubby)
BA: 10/10 (For such an old aircraft, it was excellent. A normal passenger could quite easily have thought the aircraft was newer than one of the EZY A319s)

Arrival and baggage reclaim:

I cannot comment on BA’s or AB’s baggage reclaim speeds since I was only travelling with hand luggage on these flights. My family were travelling with hold luggage on the EZY flights and this came out very quickly in both CGN and LPL.

In DUS, there is a separate exit from the secured area for those travelling only with hand luggage. This was very convenient and helped me get through the airport quicker.

Changing aircraft at STN is a nightmare!!!! You have to get on the train from AB’s satellite to the main part of the terminal to clear passport control and reclear security. There was only 1 passport control desk open for connecting passengers and even though there was a manned desk that was completely empty, we couldn’t use this as it was for non-EU passports only. BAA really need to sort this out as it is making AB’s hub at STN a joke. The transfer time was 50 minutes but we ended up leaving 20 minutes late due to waiting for connecting PAX. AB have since modified the departure time of the STN-MAN flight to give passengers more time to connect!

I won’t give the airlines scores on these comments since I did not have the same experience with all airlines.

On Time performance:

The only flight that arrived on time was the DUS-STN flight. All others were delayed but none by more than 1/2 an hour.

Air Berlin: 9/10 (STN-MAN flight delayed due to STN’s inability to cope with connecting PAX)
EasyJet: 8/10 (LPL-CGN flight delayed but no reason given why. It seemed that the gate agent just couldn’t be bothered to board us on time but I’m sure there must have been another reason. CGN-LPL delayed due to late arrival of inbound aircraft)
BA: 9/10 (Not BA’s fault if LHR do not have enough ground resources to handle all flights)

Overall Scores:

Air Berlin: 64/70 = 91.4%
EasyJet: 40/70 = 57.1%
BA: 64/70 = 91.4%

As you can see, AB and BA scored the same. This is very impressive for a low cost airline to be scoring the same as a world class airline (although the scores are my own opinion).

I remain disappointed in EZY from LPL. I have flown with them about 6 times from BRS and had a very good experience every time. I will probably give them another go at some point but I will certainly look at other airlines first. This is a shame as I have always told people how good EZY are and have always been happy to fly with them.

Thanks for reading and I hope I haven’t bored you too much!