Easyjet broke my bike!

Have you ever had cause to make a complaint that - for whatever reason - you have had to deal with from start to finish yourself personally (ie you can't get someone in admin at work to do it)?

I have not but I have read enough consumer advice to have made a very simple decision - I am not prepared to fly budget unless I am absolutely 100% happy that whatever goes wrong I will walk away and make no attempt to get redress. In practice this means that I am not prepared to fly budget. As consumers our choices have outcomes and I am not prepared to support a business model based on encouraging environmental destruction and appalling customer service. (By making flights very cheap they are clearly encouraging flying more than normal airlines do).

I probably shouldn't have mentioned the work bit, as that implied I mainly fly for work reasons, that's not true, the vast majority of those flights have been personal, and the few problems I've had, have been on personal flights. I simply mentioned that to show imoney isn't the reason I fly with them.

I have had to deal with two issues, the lost bag and the overnight stay due to the weather. Both times I got the result I wanted, which was the bag returned, and my overnight costs covered, and both without much effort. Sure I had to chase them in both cases, in the case of the bag I had to ring them to see where it was, and with the money I had to actively ask for a voucher (many people on the same flight just went home and didn't ask), but I don't see that as a problem, that's just being proactive.

The difference is the budget airlines won't tell you about your rights unless they have to, and if you see that as bad customer service, then fine, but I have got everything I have asked for, and am perfectly happy with their service.

The environmental issue is another issue, but suffice to say I'm not going to fly any less because of it, because I don't just fly for the fun of it, so I appreciate an organisation which is going to give me what I want as efficiently as possible.