Dear EasyJet

I was supposed to fly from Copenhagen to Berlin Sunday at 10 am. That didn’t quite go as planned.

Read the story in my letter to EasyJet here:

Hi EasyJet,

Until today you were my absolute favorite airline and I always preferred to travel with you. You were always on time and traveling with you was easy, as you claim to be. I would call myself a frequent flyer due to the fact that I fly EasyJet in average once a month living in both Copenhagen and Berlin.

I always enjoy my flights with EasyJet, especially because of your superb traveller magazine.

Unfortunately my great opinion about you changed radically today.

This weekend I came to Copenhagen to attend a funeral and I figured my passport expires in a couple of months so I might as well renew it while I am here. To do that they cancel my current passport and I have to wait 14 days to get the new one. I call the airport and they assure me that since I am flying to a Schengen-country I don’t need a valid passport, I can just show my drivers license. I believe the airport information and I go to the airport believing that this will be nice and easy like my flights with Easyjet always are.

I get through security with no problem, and I go to the gate and stand in line. I am the last in line and the woman before me is asked in a very rude tone from the Easyjet worker to put her tiniest pouch she has around her neck carrying her passport into her bigger bag. I mean, I know you have a one bag rule but come on – it isn’t even a bag, it is a passport case hanging around her neck.

Next is my turn. I show my iPhone where my ticket is. The woman with the red hair with the bad tone (sadly I didn’t catch her name) tells me in an even worse tone and points at her coworker Hamza “go over there and get your ticket printed.”. I do that and get my ticket. I hand it to her and she asks for my passport. (This is the first time I was ever asked for my passport on a Copenhagen/Berlin flight, just last Thursday when I flew Berlin-Copenhagen I didn’t show my passport one single time).

I give her my drivers license and my passport which has holes in it to show that it is invalid. She says to me, still with her bad, degrading tone “this passport is invalid so you can’t get on the plane”. I answer “I was told, since Germany is a part of Schengen Agreement that my drivers license is enough”. The to other workers Hamza and a blond Swedish girls pitch in and they stand all three and talk to me in a degrading tone. I start crying, I really want to get on the plane as planned to go home. At no time in this discussion with the three workers against me, I hear any of them trying to help me or come up with solutions or explaining what options I have now. This experience reminded me of being back at the playground in school and being bullied by three people while I am there all alone after a tough weekend with a funeral. The discussion ends with the Swedish girl snapping her finger directly in my face telling me to “hush”. I figure this makes no sense because there is no way that these three bullying workers will help me or do anything for me besides from snapping and talking degradingly to me.

Hamza (the boy worker) was also the guy, that sad on the desk like he was on a swing at a playground in front of all customers waiting to board on my flight to Rome this summer.

I also experienced him before when flying to Berlin, where he said continuously to customers “the rule with easyjet is one bag – so why do you have two?!” Even though we are talking about a 5 centimeter pouch bag. And okay sure – we as customers have to respect the rules of EasyJet, but with that being said, there is no reason for your workers to talk to customers that way. Furthermore I never experienced being talked to or having any bad feelings towards the EasyJet workers in Berlin.

I go crying to “Information” in the airport and the sweetest lady is there to tell me all of my options and tells me to go either to the police or to go to SAS and buy a ticket because they will let me on the plane without my passport just showing drivers license if they ask for it. She also explains that EasyJet might have an only valid passport rules, a thing the EasyJet workers didn’t care to tell me themselves.

She walks me to the SAS ticket office, and kindly tells me to stop crying and sobbing because everything will be alright. Another thing the EasyJet workers were missing – compassion. The SAS woman is just as nice as the information woman, they help me and get me a ticket even one with extra leg room.

I am now left with a sad feeling – the feeling you get when you experienced being bullied. This should never occur to a customer. I get and totally understand that you might have special rules that we as customers have to follow, but there is no reason to treat your customers in this disrespectful, degrading and I would say, mean way.

Regards, Caroline

When I some hours later told my friend about this, she said that I have some serious bad flight karma at the moment. I can only agree with her!

Luckily I arrived in Berlin some hours later than planned. I came back to a totally cleaned apartment, a lot of pink roses, and homemade lunch ready on the table. Great boyfriend I found myself there! <3