V-Flyer

This report is split into two parts to incorporate the outbound and return flights, saving two threads. Enjoy!

PART ONE
Liverpool Jonh Lennon-Malaga
Saturday 10th February 2007
G-EZBE Airbus A319-111

Yay! A day flight for once. Left house shortly after 10am to make the 30-min drive to Liverpool John Lennon Airport, where we dumped the car in the long-stay car park and walked to the termial.

Ryanair737 of Airliners.net was keeping me posted b y phone on the progress of the a/c allocated to the flight for me in case of any delays, and as we was waiting in the check-in queue I got a call saying that we will be delayed for about half an hour. This was confirmed when we checked-in. We was assigned Boarding Group A.

We then moved upstairs to have a coffee, buy some magazines, and for me to pay to tap into The Cloud Wi-Fi network present at the airport. Moved onto ecurity after that which was only 10 mins long and moved into the departure lounge. The board (and Ryanair737) stated that we would be delayed until about 3pm, so we bought anotehr coffee from Starbucks and bought some sandwiches from Boot's (they have a meal deal going at the minute where you buy a sandwich, a drink and a packet of crisps for 3).

At 2.15pm we boarded the aircraft after it arrived into LPL 45 minuts late and I settled into seat 17A before being pushed back at 2.35pm. The aircraft is a recent addition to easyJet's ever expanding fleet of Airbuses and was very smart inside...a far cry compared to the cabin on myJet2 trip to Venice a few months back

We didn't take off until 2.50pm because of ATC giving priority to departing a/c from MAN (Quote captain 'Lucky them'). The captain came on to explain that he will be 'giving the engines a good spanking' to make up for our delay (we should've departed at 1.45pm). He also went onto explain that the delay was caused when the a/c was used onthe first flight of the day to Malaga and a bag for the easyJet flight to Faro was loaded onto it thanks to ome dozy baggage handler which meant that all the bags had to be offloaded, identified then loaded again onto the correct a/c. Here's hoping the baggage handler responsible gets fired for this aviodable inconvenience to me and many others.

Our cruising altitude today was 33,000ft and engines were at full welly for a lot of the trip.

The cabin crew were friendly and attentive and came round twice with the easyKiosk (were we can purchase food and drink) and the duty free trolley. The beauty of easyJet is that if you wanted to buy something from the easyKiosk you can do so at any time by simply pushing the 'crew call' button. I took advantage of this and bought a Batchelor's Tomato and Vegetable Cup A Soup and a bottle of water for 4.50 which I thought was resonable (3 it equated to). The seat was comfortable enough even though the new easyJet Airbuses have no recline, but since this was a short flight I wasn't that bothered too much, so settled down to read my magazines and listened to the iPod.

The captain was true to his word and the 'spanking' of the 2x CFM56-5B5/P engines meant that we landed at Malaga airport only 20 minutes down, a slow approach into Malaga meant that it wasn't 10 minutes down. The captain explained that 'we was behind an aircraft which was travelling slower than us, so they must be getting paid by the hour'.

The landing was smooth and disembarkation was quick. I congratulated the captain at the end for the smooth landing as he was standing with the crew seeing the passengers off the aircraft.

Security was cleared quickly and the bags came through shortly afterwards and we got picked up by our pre-booked taxi to our timeshare resort in Mijas-Costa.


PART TWO
Malaga-Liverpool John Lennon
Saturday 17th February 2007
G-EZIA Airbus A319-111

After relaxing on my last day by the pool after visiting numerous places within Andalucia, including Cadiz, Ronda, Seville, Cordoba, Nerja and a visit to Gibraltar it was time to head home.

It was raining on the day of departure and we got picked up by our pre-booked taxi at 8am local time and we got driven to Malaga Airport. easyJet had several flights out that morning to Dortmund, Milan, Bristol, Stansted, Luton and Liverpool so they had two groups of check-in open; one for Dortmund/Milan and one for the UK flights. The check-in for the UK fligths did not open until 9.30 so we was waiting there for over half an hour before then 20mins afterwards.

Security clearance was quick after that and we went upstairs to have a drink and buy some newspapers for the flight. We got called down at 10.30am and boarded shortly afterwards. This time I had seat 10F which was an exit seat meaning more legroom.

Pushback was on time and we took off 20mins later, with a cruising altitude of 38,000ft.

It was a different cabin crew this time but they still gave the same professional service as the outbound trip. Sadly the captain who was on our outbound trip was nowhere in sight.

I bought another Cup A Soup again and also a pack of Mini Cheddars and for most of the flight I settled down to reading the newspapers and magazines, and attempting to finish the Sudoku puzzle in the Daily Mirror (I nearly finished it but I had messed up somewhere).

Arrival into Liverpool was at 12.50pm GMT 10 minutes early which was pleasing. I was separate fmr my parents so I was on the 2nd bus to the terminal and by the time I had cleared passport control they had the luggage and we left the airport half an hour later.

OVERVIEW
You get what you pay for when you fly with a LCC such as easyJet and my 2nd trip with them (I flew with them to BCN in December 2005) was good and free of the usual crap you hear about then giving bad service and free of any appearance on ITV's Airline.

I was impressed with them again and felt that our money was spent well. I couldn't fault them, ok the seat didn't come with recline and theres no IFE or meals included but so what? With a price of under 400 for 3 return tickets to Malaga during the half-term what do you expect?

I personally haven't got a problem with the LCCs since they have a lot of these trips possible. Andalucia is a beautiful part of Spain and if you stay away from the usual chav spots of Torremolinos, Benalmadena, Fuengirola and the overhyped Marbella then you will enjoy a great holiday in the Costa Del Sol. Car hire is recommended.

easyJet you have proven to me (again) that low-cost doesn't necessarily mean that you get a low quality of service and Sir Stelios fully deserves his knighthood [y]

If anyone has any comments/questions feel free to post and I will try to answer them as best as I can.