As much as I love flying SWISS, it just made more sense to fly EasyJet considering flight schedules and availability. Yet it came at a cost.
Why We Chose EasyJet Over SWISS To Switzerland
We arrived in Copenhagen (CPH) from Chicago (ORD) at around 10:30 am and our usual connecting flight to Zurich (ZRH) on SAS at 1:00 pm was sold out…very few flights were operating on Christmas Day and the SAS afternoon service to Zurich was booked solid by the time I booked out flights from ORD-CPH.
That left us a choice: fly into Zurich on SWISS at 7:55 pm (which would have created a 9-hour layover) or take the 5:10 pm EasyJet flight to Basel (BSL), an airport that is only 15 minutes from my in-laws versus 50-60 minutes from Zürich.
We chose the EasyJet flight. Tickets were about 170 USD each with no hand baggage or checked baggage…yes, we traveled light (the irony being that SAS has one of the most generous baggage policies in the industry and with the four of us flying business class and my SAS Gold / SkyTeam Elite Plus status, we could have checked up to 10 bags at no cost).
As a side note, we keep a full wardrobe of clothes in Germany, including winter jackets and shoes, so my wife and I really don’t need to take any clothing along. The kids, however, are growing, so we stuffed their backpacks full of clothes. Can I say how refreshing it was to travel light?
But had we needed to check bags, SWISS would have made a lot more sense, since the tickets would have come with one bag each and my Star Alliance Gold status would have given me a second checked bag. Plus, we each would have had been allowed one carry-on and one personal item.
The SWISS flight to Zurich was almost 400 USD one-way… typical one-way pricing on network carriers in Europe…but there was award space so it would have cost 7.5K Aeroplan miles or 6K United miles with negligible taxes.
EasyJet was charging 55 EUR for a carry-on bag and 75 EUR for a checked bag…wow, that’s pricey. I’m happy to see the budget carrier model work well in Europe, but that’s a little steep for carry-on bags. As a side note, carry-on limits were strictly enforced. A guy was positioned at the boarding gate with a handheld credit card reader and he dutifully made sure that people were not slipping by with extra items.
In retrospect, this was 100% the correct choice. The flight was smooth, arrived on time, and we arrived at my in-laws by 7:15 pm to enjoy a nice dinner together, then sing carols and open gifts (one day later…the Germans do it on Christmas Eve…but good enough).
CONCLUSION
No, I do not enjoy flying EasyJet, which has no Wi-Fi or power on board and charges for everything, including water. But it was the pragmatic choice here to arrive in Basel and reduce our layover by two hours.
Ahh, that Swiss 1PM flight would’ve been perfect. Was wondering why. Good follow-up post and review.
Sometimes when we fly with children it’s more about what schedule works best versus getting to spend cozy hours holed up in a nice lounge. It’s also about flying to a more convenient airport when called for and not having the longer journey in the end of a long day. Might not have the conveniences of SWISS, but it’s likely a lot less stressful at the end of the day..
A pending strike action made us change a longer, first class flight to a direct, Ryanair flight. We survived and got to Aix in time for a lovely lunch. Made me more open to those carriers for the future.
We flew East Jet from FAO to GVA in 2024 over Swiss. Our family of four saved quite a bit of money since we planned way in advance. It was a perfectly comfortable flight for the duration and would recommend if you follow the rules. We don’t ever fly budget airlines we so we were nervous but it worked out for us in the end.
And how many more years we’ll have to wait for a direct high-speed train service from Copenhagen to Basel?
Hello Matt. I wish you could have given us the total in dollars to compare oranges and oranges.
I ran the numbers and it sounds like you paid $170 for the easyjet flight, per, versus 6K in United Miles? That’s 24K total or about $250 at lowest valuation in United Miles versus $680 for Easyjet to save on time. That’s about a $400 or so with change difference. On the other hand, copilot says you’re out about $150 or so for Swiss rail to get to Basel. So the total savings is down to $250.
This is Christmas, of course, so that time is valuable particularly for a family of 4. You’d need to navigate through the rail connections, wait for THOSE, and deal with further issues (the kids and wife ALWAYS need refreshments or other goodies at the rail stations…)
So for a total of about $250 and your (jealous!) tall knees suffering on easyjet economy, I suppose it’s worth it. I’m glad you didn’t have irregular operations but if you did, you could have instead used the miles and gotten the ZRH flight as a backup.
Hi @PolishKnight. I value the miles at two cents each, so the 6K miles is $120 each, a delta of $50/ticket…and the taxes were about $43 each. So that $200 (or maybe that $28) spared my dear sweet MIL from having to drive to ZRH on Xmas Day to pick up late at night and we got to enjoy a nice dinner with them instead. $200 very well spent.
Did you have to pay for your carry-on bags?