Easy Everything

As at this typing, the folks at EasyGroup have made money from our vacation three ways. First, we flew from London to Bilbao on EasyJet, second, we rented a car for two days from EasyCar. And now I sit in the EasyEverything Internet cafe in Barcelona, they get their third stack of money.

All of our experiences with this company have been positive: they run the kind of no frills, no bullshit company that makes you look at other companies and think “why on earth would they ever do that?”.

EasyJet offers very cheap flights within Europe. It’s like JetsGo or WestJet, but with many more flights, and a much more mature set of policies. Web booking accounts for 95% of their reservations. No advanced seating (unless, like us, you have kids in tow, in which case you get to board first). No peanuts or free drinks (although you can buy both). Quick turnaround of planes. Our London to Bilbao experience was quick, efficient, and very bus-like.

EasyCar exposes the costs of renting a car to you, and lets you absorb those you want to, and offset others. For example, if you wash and clean the car before returning, you save 16 euros. If you return the car within a given hour-long window, you save 24 euros penalty. You can only book a car on their website, and all their internal applications are web-based as well, meaning, presumably, they can quickly fire up new operations when and where required. We rented a little Toyota Yaris to take us south of Barcelona. While it was about 1/2 the size of the Jetta we drive at home, it was more than enough car for the task and, indeed, its small size made navigating the insanely small alleys of Spanish villages possible.

Like cars and jets, EasyEverything’s web pricing model is based on demand. They have 300 terminals here in their Plaza Catalunya facility, and the more free terminals there are, the cheaper access is. I’m paying 80 cents an hour right now — presumably the person who came in after me is paying a little bit more. You buy tickets from a central machine, take your chit to a terminal, and enter a code. And then you’re online. As far as I can see, there are no staff. An industrialist’s delight, and Leo Cheverie’s worst nightmare.

They only way to get a grip on what this means on the ground is to dig in for yourself; fortunately this is cheap to do if you are in Europe. And, with luck, some day you’ll be able to fly Easy from North America too.