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Is it possible to remain Airside at Gatwick Airport when changing between two Easyjet flights? I will have Hold luggage.

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  • I won't leave this as an answer as I'm unclear if it is still running at the moment. But if it is the GatwickConnects (heraldscotland.com/business_hq/…) program could make things easier.
    – skifans
    Commented May 28, 2021 at 10:37

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easyJet does not transfer bags. They just don't. You need to collect your bags, check them back in and go through security again.

This is a fundamental difference between traditional and low cost airlines: low cost airlines are point-to-point.

With a traditional airline, if you buy a ticket from A to B with a connection in C then their contractual obligation is to get you from A to B come hell or high water. Much to the chagrin of some tricky people, they have no contractual obligation to take you to C, in fact. This is to compare with easyJet which will take you from A to C (probably -- but see below) and should you make the second flight then they will also carry you from C to B. But if you are late from the second flight, you will be in C, in your case in LGW, and you are completely on your own to get to your original destination. As far as easyJet is concerned, it doesn't matter whether you started late from home driving to the airport or you took another flight with whichever airline which was late -- even if that airline happens to be easyJet. This is called an unprotected connection.

In fact, you might even find yourself stranded in A. If the first flight is cancelled, easyJet will probably have a lot fewer options than a traditional airline and might just decide to offer you compensation. A traditional airline likely will just reroute you (and offer delay compensation if you are starting from or arriving to the EU).

This is not to discourage you from flying such LCC airlines. This is to calibrate your expectations. People tend to be rather critical of airlines when the airline merely fulfills their obligations according to terms and conditions instead of fulfilling the wishes of the passenger. Airline tickets are just that: contracts with very, very specific terms and conditions.

Ps. Buying a second ticket to a later flight from Gatwick to your destination might be considered good insurance. Consider the price of it at purchase and try to guess how much it could be when bought last minute based on the current last minute prices and decide. Actual insurance will never exist for this kind of thing, would be too expensive.

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    For the record, easyJet do now have the "easyJet Worldwide" service, which in principle protects connections provided some minimum transfer time between scheduled arrival and departure. But that "protection" doesn't seem to be worth much: It comes from Dohop rather than easyJet, and their terms and conditions seem to explicitly exclude (section 4) many of the most common reasons protection would be necessary, while also giving them "absolute discretion" presumably to just say no for any other reason they feel like.
    – Chris H
    Commented May 28, 2021 at 10:09
  • Right, so that service is snake oil, it doesn't change the fundamental operations and nature of an unprotected connection.
    – user4188
    Commented May 28, 2021 at 10:19
  • yes. That comment was intended to support your answer (by explaining why easyJet promoting protected connections isn't the full story); not to disagree with it.
    – Chris H
    Commented May 28, 2021 at 11:08
  • Didn't Easyjet have a limited programme allowing luggage transfers in some airports? Or was it Ryanair? It looks like Ryanair does it in Fiumicino only, but I have a vague recollection of one of those doing it in a few more places. Can't find anything about Easyjet doing that at this time though.
    – jcaron
    Commented May 28, 2021 at 13:12
  • Actually EasyJet used to sometimes offer missed flight cover as an optional extra when booking the flight. Not sure if they still do! If you purchased that for your second leg, it would actually mitigate some of that risk. I've bought it a few times and even used it once. Got caught in traffic on the M25, missed my flight and true to their word they booked me on the next flight for free! On trouble was, it was the next morning...! Commented Jun 8, 2021 at 15:30

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