I'm a budget girl, so unless it's long haul I always fly with budget airlines and have experienced both the merits along with the grubby lows.
We flew with
Jet2 thanks to a press trip with
Jet2Holidays, to Tenerife South from Manchester Airport on the 23rd April 2013. The flight is four and a half hours which is a long time on a budget plane with a 6ft2 husband and my general list ticking neuroses, so I have to be honest and I say I set off dreading the journey to our hotel.
Flying with Jet2
Check in and bag drop off
Outgoing
Like most airlines with Jet2 you can check in online 28 days before your flight, just print off your boarding card and you're all set. We had an impressive 22kg hold baggage allowance each (we didn't get anywhere near hitting that weight - I think Mr Thrifty had 12kg and I had 17kg) which we checked in upon arriving at the airport with a really friendly and helpful member of staff. Now I'm not sure if it's because I like to turn up the exact recommended 2 hours before a flight departs (security at Manchester Airport can take hours) but we only queued for 30 seconds to drop our bags off and the process of having them check and weighed took less than 2 minutes then we were on our way.
Return
Bag drop off took a little longer on our return simply because I think a lot of transfer coaches arrive at the airport at the same time. It wasn't an inconvenient amount of time - around 10 minutes queueing. The staff this side were less friendly and a bit curt but we were dealt with in under 1 minute each.
Boarding and the flight
Outgoing
Boarding our outgoing flight was no hassle especially because seats are pre-assigned unlike a lot of other budget airlines, where I've seen people scrapping in the aisle. We were pleased to see although we didn't have specially allocated 'extra leg room' seats (which you can select when booking your flight) that we had more than adequate room for Mr Thrifty's legs and the seats were ample enough to take my extra erm...baggage.
Once on the plane we were waiting quite sometime to set off and I think this was due to a passenger delay, in the end we were about 25-30 minutes late setting off. The flight was seamless and the food and drinks were no more expensive than the supermarket sandwich we'd eaten in the cab to the airport and bottled water we'd picked up at the airport. We arrived into Tenerife South 5 minutes early which was nice after the delay on the tarmac.
Return
Boarding was super fast and the cabin crew were extremely friendly, funny and helpful. We actually set off really early (I assume everyone was on board) arriving back in Manchester about 45 minutes earlier than the arrival time, meaning we back to our flat at a time we had expected to still be waiting for luggage. The pilot on the return flight was great and gave us pointers of where we were passing, which made my window seat all the more interesting.
Other notes
Our outbound flight was on a Jet2 branded plane and our return on a Jet2Holidays plane - they're identical inside however the Jet2 plane looked really sleek and 1950s from the outside. I know it's probably really sad to like the look of a passenger plane but the outbound plane just looked cooler, obviously this in no way an issue I'm just y'know...saying. That said the exterior doesn't matter once you're up in the sky, it's the comfort factor that matters. This isn't luxury but it isn't uncomfortable at all, Mr Thrifty had plenty of room to stretch out and I didn't get a numb bum - so that's pretty much a thumbs up from both of us.
The cabin crew, especially on the way home (I was too absorbed in my book on the way out) were incredible and seemed to help everyone around us in record time whilst managing to seem unflappable and without a hair or neck scarf out of place - if they give lessons could they please let me know!
I would say for long flights (over 3 hours) inflight entertainment in my mind should be complementary. I understand you could hire small media units to watch a selection of films and TV programmes but these weren't advertised very well when printing off our boarding passes nor were they mentioned once onboard. However that really is my only issue with Jet2 and I can understand the units being for hire rather than complementary keeps the tickets at a great price point.
Jet2 Flight Verdict
All in all this has to be one of the best budget flight experiences I've had unless you count the time a man on a flight to Prague bought my friend and I round after round of gin then told us stories of his misspent youth in Mexico.
Both of us were incredibly impressed by the customer service, the comfort and generally by our whole experience and are currently looking to book a flight to Jet2 to Madeira - we'll let you know how we get on.
TTFN,
P.S. I'll be letting you know all about our experiences with Jet2Holidays and our hotels very soon.
P.P.S. This post is not sponsored however we were provided with our holiday free of charge for review purposes.
