Using the motorway we were soon back at the concrete block of Bilbao airport and we returned the car and got the refund on the full tank of fuel and then went to check-in. We were in plenty of time and the first at the desk and we should have realised that there was a problem when the check-in clerk couldn’t allocate a gate number because this meant only one thing – the plane was delayed.
We sat in the bar for half an hour until the overhead flight information board finally owned up to the fact that we wouldn’t be taking off on time and the boarding gate time was slipped back by thirty minutes – groans all around. This didn’t seem too bad but then it slipped back another fifteen minutes, and then another, and then another and then another. Now this is really irritating because they knew all along that the flight was delayed by ninety minutes but choose not to reveal this all in one go. What possible purpose could that serve except to get everyone nervous and irritable? Wouldn’t it be better to tell the truth from the very beginning and then everyone can come to terms with the fact and pace themselves and plan their additional time in the departure lounge.
At least Bilbao Airport was quite pleasant and the prices for an airport were surprisingly cheap even though I was restricted to alcohol free San Miguel on account of the fact I would be driving later.
How do I know that they knew how long the delay would be? Quite simple! When we finally got on board the pilot told us so! The plane had been used to squeeze in an additional flight because somewhere, elsewhere in the Easyjet fleet another plane had had technical difficulties. This seems to be common practice for Easyjet who treat their customers with the same contempt as Ryanair but the difference is they don’t admit to it. This is the third time that this has happened to me on a late night return flight and I have to say I find it completely unacceptable but was my own fault because for only an extra £5 I could have flown with the more reliable Ryanair to the nearby airport of Santander and I am sure that I would have got home at the scheduled time.
When we landed the Steward announced ‘Thanks for choosing Easyjet’ as though nothing had happened but I for one shall think twice about using them in the future!
Have Bag, Will Travel 
We have been messed around by Ryanair on two occasions when with very little notice they changed our flights. the first was a flight to Malaga which was shifted to the following day, completely wrecking our weekend plans. To their credit they refunded all the cost including the rip-off transaction charges and we booked a trouble free Easyjet flight to Berlin instead.
the second occasion was a flight to Stockholm where the early evening flight was moved to an impractical night flight (we had a child due back at school the following day with us). We cancelled (the only way to avoid flight change charges) and rebooked the same outbound and a morning inbound flight which wrecked our plans for the Monday.
I don’t care how cheap their flights work out, I won’t use them if I can possibly avoid them in the future.
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Cheap flights seem to be drying up anyway but I did find a Ryanair bargain for middle of February – return flights to Venice for just £17 + the rip-off transaction charge! Difficult to turn that sort of bargain down even if it is Ryanair.
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