Tuesday 3rd Sept

So low-cost airlines, an interesting modern phenomenon. Good when they work well, fraught with pitfalls when they don’t. I booked the family to fly with Easyjet from Liverpool John Lennon airport to Amsterdam for c£250, which we thought was really good value for four people. Though we did book in January, for August departures, to get that price.

Now the first challenge once you’ve actually decided which flights you want, as they are all invariably priced differently, is to decide what you don’t want. All the extra price options. Choose your seating, insurance, meals, car parking, priority boarding, luggage in the hold, the list goes on.

Having said no to every additional extra, you then get to print your boarding card. As we had booked early we couldn’t get them until nearer the flight, but were reminded by email nearer the time to do this, and when we did we had four seats together. So why pay for priority seating, given our flight was only one hour? To be fair to Easyjet their booking system is more user friendly than Ryanair’s, in my experience.

We took only hand luggage and it was plenty. Once again not keen to pay £25 per case. It makes me wonder why we take so much when we go on a package holiday. “You’ve got the allowance, so use it” mentality. The plane was smart, the staff were friendly, and apart from the inevitable delays each way, we’d certainly do it again.

If you avoid the additional extras and the plane goes where you want to go, low-cost airlines certainly work; as long as you make sure they are low-cost for you.

Yours sitting at the back.

Jay