The Customer Experience Provided by Budget Airlines

Travelling for business, having elderly parents living abroad and the odd holiday overseas means that I regularly fly short-haul.

The air miles quickly mount up, and in the past year, I've caught 26 flights - all with budget airlines.

I'm a simple man, the cheapest airlines will do for me.

Flying so often with Wizz Air, Ryanair, Jet2 and easyJet, I've noticed quite a lot of differences between them and the customer experience (CX) they deliver.

Plenty of blogs out there discuss the baggage allowances each airline allows but I'm going to miss that out. Instead, I'm going to give you an airline comparison focusing on the customer service each provides and how much I enjoy traveling with them.

The Experience

Each airline has a different feel about it; if they were all flying the same route, I would choose them in this order:

1. Jet2
2. easyJet
3. Wizz Air
4. If you were forcing me, Ryanair

Let's do an airline comparison to see why.

Ryanair

Starting on a positive note; Ryanair's coffee is superb. They serve you Lavazza filter coffee in clever meshed lid cup which allows you to drink from them, without taking the lid off.

The planes are always modern, but the legroom is just OK (bear in mind, I'm 6 foot).

It's one of the cheapest airlines if you're flying light.

Now the negatives.

They fly to some second-tier airports that are not even close to the cities that bear their name, such as Frankfurt-Hahn Airport which is a 77-mile drive to Frankfurt City Centre.

I'm always on edge when booking Ryanair. They appear to delight in catching people out and making them pay a fine. The staff always appear tired, their uniforms look like they have seen better days, and many of them give the impression that they are looking forward to their shift finishing.

Despite the great coffee, you can never relax, with more announcements than a racecourse blasting over the tannoy, and they are always trying to sell you something, such as their "charity" scratch-cards (which according to The Sun, you have a 1.2 Billion to 1 chance of winning the jackpot, and they give just 0.3% of the profits to charity).

Ryanair seems to love treating people poorly, and I've met plenty of people who refuse to fly with them.

 

Wizz Air

Wizz Air is an Eastern European airline whom I would describe as professional and functional. Based in Hungary, they tend to fly to Eastern European destinations, and every plane I've flown on has been modern.

The staff are professional but a little stand-offish and very matter of fact. They welcome you onboard and do their job, but there is no conversation or attempt at interaction, although this could be because English is usually their second language.

Wizz Air sometimes flies to second-tier airports, which are far out of the city they are named after. I made the mistake of booking a flight to Paris, Charles de Gaulle Airport and then flying out of Paris Beauvais Airport.

Paris Beauvais is 55 miles outside of Paris, and when I travelled, the trains weren't going there on Sundays! They have cheap coaches going there from Paris-Porte Maillot, but they take at least 80 minutes to get there, and we had to queue for over 50 minutes just to get on one! Even though there was a 6-hour gap between flights, I only just made it.

Their coffee is barely drinkable, and you are unlikely to order a second. The legroom is adequate, and the flight usually uneventful. They regularly have 20% off days, so it's worth being signed up to their email list to be informed of these.

easyJet

easyJet is a UK based budget airline whose staff always appear a bit stressed and harassed to me, although I've always found them to be professional.

It is a bit pot luck as to how the staff treat you. Some of them really make an effort, but others don't appear to care.

The flights usually go to the main airports, so even if the cost of the flight is higher than Ryanair or Wizz Air, you can easily save more than the difference by not having to fork out for onward travel.

Every journey I've made with them has been on a modern plane. The legroom is just about OK, but the thing which stands out in my mind is that the coffee has always been disgusting.

Jet2

Yorkshire based budget airline, Jet2, runs a mixed bag of planes. Most are new, but it has some older ones, with the oldest being 32 years old - although I've been on this plane and found no problems with it.

Aeroplanes are designed to last indefinitely, and I think I would prefer to fly on this well-tested plane than a brand new one (especially a Boeing 737 Max).

For the last couple of years, I've had plenty of legroom, but previous to this, on some journeys I've been too cramped.

They serve Starbucks coffee, which is good, but it is instant Starbucks coffee and not a patch on Ryanair's filtered Lavazza.

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Why I'd Always Choose Jet2 First

The Customer Experience provided by Jet2 is fantastic. They have reasonable baggage limits that are not designed to trap you into making a mistake so they can penalise you.

The cabin crew are well dressed, smile and make you feel welcome as soon as you board the plane. Everything appears to be designed to make for a pleasant experience for the customer. They play relaxing music before take off. On my last flight, I remember it was My Girl by The Temptations.

The Pilot occasionally lets you know where you are and keeps you informed about the flight, and when you land, they thank you for flying with them and wish you a safe onward journey.

My colleague always complains that they are constantly playing Jess Glynne, who he dislikes, which just goes to show, you can't keep everybody happy.

To Conclude

"Over the last year, sentiment around airline stocks has eroded. Ryanair is down 32 percent, EasyJet has shed 23 percent, and Wizz Air is also 17 percent lower. Meanwhile, shares in Dart Group (Owner of Jet2) - while far off its highs of last summer - are up 22 percent."

Running an airline is challenging, but it's apparent Jet2 understand that in such a competitive industry, providing an excellent customer experience is essential if you want to grow.

Michael O'Leary's team has built Ryanair into the largest European budget airline carrying more international passengers than any other airline. But if they want to carry on growing in a competitive market, they need to start putting as much effort into their customer service as they do their coffee.

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