EasyJet gets the thumbs up from agents

Agents have been quick to praise easyJet for its flexibility over booking errors on a travel industry Facebook forum.

A discussion on Travel Gossip began Thursday when Croydon-based Travel Counsellor, Barbara Charlton, shared a story with fellow agents about a client who had spelt his child’s name wrong on an easyJet booking.

When the client checked the airline’s policies, it transpired that he would be able to correct the mistake at the airport on the day of departure, at no extra charge.

"Credit where credit is due," said Charlton. "Well I am impressed beyond words that they will change this FOC when they get to the airport. So called Full SERVICE airlines perhaps you should take note of what the so called NO FRILLS airlines will do for passengers!"

Other agents joined the discussion, saying they were also impressed.

"It’s amazing how easyjet, who once were nicknames sleazyjet have turned their business around! Well done them, I quite like flying them actually!!" said one.

Another added: "I was so relieved to find this out last month myself. A lady had booked Alfie instead of Alfred!!! I was shocked she didn’t have to pay!! Nice one Easyjet!"

The airline was then congratulated by an agent who had also had a good experience with easyJet this week, when she had booked a flight for a client but with the wrong dates.

"Rebooked via call centre for correct dates, no charge, and even a refund as flights were cheaper for the correct dates. What a difference from 8 years ago when we first started…………. Good on you EJ."

And another commented: "I find Easyjet so much more pleasant than other airlines nowadays, to be honest, I much prefer to book customers with them of going short haul than any other airline."

In a statement, the airline said: "easyJet aims to make travel easy and affordable for its passengers and we understand that sometimes genuine spelling errors are made when booking. In such instances our customer services team use their discretion and will gladly rectify the error free of charge before a passenger’s flight."

The praise from the travel trade came as easyJet was also congratulated by financial analysts.

Following strong winter figures released earlier this week, analysts at Barclays tipped the airline for a strong summer, saying: "Be it business passenger, digital initiatives or simply careful capacity allocation, the company has developed a business model that continues to exceed expectations."

As a result of the endorsement, easyJet rose to the top of the Footsie on Thursday.