I flew Easyjet from Gatwick to Budapest yesterday to attend the 13th European Public Information Management Seminar organized by the Bah?’? International Community Office of Public Information (Paris).

Most of the airlines I regularly use have reduced their check-in times by using single queueing, self-service check-in, online check-in. But not Easyjet. Yes, they have online check-in, but only if you have no bags to check in; no, there’s self-service, no single queueing. You take your chance with the queue you get into and then wait. The machine that issues the baggage tags needs a new roll of labels - the check-in agent seems to find this difficult; each and every passenger has a long discussion with the agent. With other airlines they would be dickering over seats or trying for an upgrade - but Easyjet is a one-class airline that does not pre-allocate seats. What are they talking about? They’re making a straight trip from London to Murcia or Palma or Vienna. What’s to talk about?

The woman in front of me - 50s, short blonde hair, tanned, from Brighton - tells me she’s going to Murcia for her son’s wedding. We spend a few happy moments in the favourite British queue conversation - complaining about the queue and the inefficiency, saying how you always choose the wrong queue, better to go for a queue without families with young children (but all the queues seem to have families with young children), and on and on it goes. (I had a similar conversation with a young chap on Welwyn North station the other day - but that’s another story…)

I got to Budapest with just a slight delay but no further problems.

Around 70 public information representatives - many of them old friends, some I haven’t met before - are here in the Hotel Ventura from 34 European countries from Iceland to Turkey. We’re here to consult and to develop our skills as PI practitioners.

Technorati Tags: Baha’i, Bahai, Budapest, media, public information, air travel