European LCC's with good customer service

[Carolinian]

A number of the European LCC's are noted for poor, almost non-existant customer service, particularly RyanAir, but to a large degree EasyJet as well.

Two LCC's that I have been particularly impressed with on customer service are Wizz and SkyEurope. I have flown both quite a number of times and have had major schedule changes and cancelled flights on both. Both have telephoned on such occaisions and worked out alternative flights. I had the most recent situation a few hours ago with Wizz. Even though they are point to point airlines, they understand that passenegers connect from one of their flights to another, and if a schedule change means the connection doesn't work any more, as happened in this situation, they change both flights for you and at no charge.

On the other hand, I had a flight impacted when EasyJet cancelled its Bucharest to London service, and when I asked if they could re-route me with a connection through either Madrid or Milan, they said no they did not do such things. I did that on my own, but at a higher cost. EasyJet also took its own good time to refund my cancelled flight.

I also have had good experience with Air Baltic when I had a conflict and had to cancell a flight I had booked between Vilnius and Tallinn. The fare was, of course, non-refundable, but they quickly refunded my full taxes and fees. On the other hand, I had a work conflict where I had to cancel a flight with FlyBE, and when I asked for a refund of taxes and fees, they said that the service charge for refunds was more than the amount of the taxes and fees.

I feel good about flying Wizz, Air Baltic, and SkyEurope, a bit less so with EasyJet, and much less so with FlyBE.

I hear horror stories about the customer service at RyanAir, but the flights I have had with them have all left on time with no cancellations or schedule changes. Still I try to give them a wide berth if there are other LCC options availible.

[abbekit]

We were about to book with Ryan Air late last year but found Aer Lingus had a fare for the same route that cost only a little more so we went with them. Seems like the major airlines sometimes will match the fares of the LLCs on competitive routes. Plus the major airlines are acting more and more like LLCs every day with all the added fees.

[Keitht]

I had always thought that the terms 'LCC' and 'good customer service' were mutually exclusive. Good to hear that I'm wrong.

[Passepartout]

Keitht, you look better without the beard!

Jim Ricks

[Carolinian]

Another LCC worth mentioning for its inflight service is Aegean Air. The four intra-Europe flights I had with them averaged around $40-50, yet on each one, they served a meal (free) and brought me a free beer. So-called ''full service'' airlines in the US don't do that these days!

[Carolinian]

Another pleasant surprise from Sky Europe. My flight from Vienna to Bucharest was delayed a bit over two hours for operational reasons, and they gave me a meal voucher for airport restaurants for 18 euros.