How easyJet Passengers Are Facing A ‘Bonk’ In Their Customer Experience

Firstly, I will explain for those unfamiliar to biking terms that ‘Bonk’ is cycling’s classic term for hitting a brick wall.

My eldest son is into Mountain Biking in a ‘big’ way. Not only does he ride downhill extensively in Europe, but he has his own company specialising in titanium suspension springs for Mountain Bikes and nearly new bike parts.

Recently he noticed that easyJet have changed their sports equipment weight allowance for passengers with bikes impacting their customer experience.

Previously, with an appropriate 32kg maximum weight, a bicycle could be well packaged and transported in a padded bicycle bag.

Unfortunately, they have now have reduced the maximum weight by 9kg! The maximum weight is now just 23kg, meaning it’s almost impossible to pack a bicycle without coming in over weight!

We are exactly not sure why easyJet have reduced the maximum weight allowance for a bicycle or even why they have reduced the maximum weight by so much?

We would assume that the majority of customers who travel with bicycles are either mountain bikers going on holiday, or cyclists with touring bikes. We are not sure if they are precisely aware of how much a bicycle weighs, so here are so facts and figures;

• A full suspension mountain bike on average will weigh around 18kg.
• A touring bike with panniers on average will weigh around 23kg.

Now, with the 23kg maximum weight, for a full suspension mountain bike, that leaves just 5kg to package and securely box the bike, which is required as per their criteria which states:

”Bicycles are permitted for carriage provided that specific criteria is met: The bicycle must be packaged in a bicycle box or bag”

5kg to package and securely box a bike is simply not enough. The average bicycle bag will weigh around 7kg on its own!

Let me break it down for you..

18kg mountain bike + 7kg bicycle bag = 25kg (2kg overweight!!)

A 2kg overweight bag will incur a £20 penalty fee at the airport, each way swell!

The easyJet Experience Begins

So, imagine you are going on a mountain bike holiday to the Alps. As a Customer of easyJet you will have to pay £70 return alone just to take the bike, then you pay an additional £40 worth of penalty fees at the airport for being 2kg overweight! This will surely encourage passengers (customers) to drive to their holiday destinations instead of flying or choose another carrier.

Because of the new maximum weight allowance, many of easyJet’s customers will have to replace their bicycle bags for a cardboard box instead, which offer little or no protection if mishandled.

In turn, surely they will most likely see an increase in damaged bicycles, insurance claims, complaints and unhappy customers, which can only be bad news for their Customer charter, something that they surely don’t want?

My son a regular easyJet flyer recently averted incurring the £40 worth of overweight baggage penalty fees on taking his mountain bike with him by resorting to using a cardboard box – which has resulted in a slightly damaged bike.

He also removed some of the parts from the bike frame itself and put carried these in his hand luggage instead. (Surely more dangerous than in the hold – but ‘still’ on the same flight!) He actually removed the bicycle from the box at the check in desk and did this in front of the check – in assistant to make a point of how ridiculous this whole thing was.

Unless they decide to increase the maximum weight allowance for bicycles back to a reasonable weight, they are going to notice a decrease in customers during the summer season if they have to spend extra for those overweight baggage penalty fees.

At the time of writing this post easyJet have acknowledged the issue on their Facebook page so it will be interesting to see how this develops. We’ll keep you posted.

But it does beg the following questions for other CEX managers:

• What policies have you changed that are causing a negative impact upon the customer’s experience?
• When you change policies does anyone actually consider the impact upon the customer journey?
• Are you about to make any policy changes and if so who is standing in the customer’s shoes to consider the impact?

This change in policy has so far earned easyJet our One Odd Shoe Award the first of 2014. Let’s see if they resolve it and win a Golden Shoe Award instead.