I have been treated like a piece of sh. today by easyJet at the Charles de Gaulle (CDG) airport in Paris at terminal 3, and I think it is worth sharing the story with everybody also tempted to fly with this low-cost and lowest customer service airline.

I arrived at 16:43 on Friday at the check-in counter to get my boarding pass for a flight leaving at 17:25. That is 42 min prior to departure I thought and my watch is fully accurate. Not so with easyJet. They told me that the flight had been closed and that I could not get on board any more. All my attempts to tell them that this must be a mistake because on the BIG sign right above the counter it says "check in 40min prior to departure time" were without any results. In fact they looked away and ignored me, pretending I did not exist. I then walked to the easyJet info booth in the same hall and told them about it. She said I am right and I should go back to the check in number 30 she would call them.
So I walked back again and the lady there picked up the phone and was talking to her. The result was no different though, she said "the flight has been closed and you cannot get on board." Another try with the info lady resulted in her saying that I had to take the next flight which is on Sunday; then she picked up the phone and pretended to be busy. I had had enough of this and while fuming decided to check out other flight opportunities. I am now sitting in the Swiss business lounge where I could sit after I told them the story with easyJet and they got me a return flight (coming back on June 27), more expensive of course but with a smile on their face and showing enough consideration to allow me to sit here with an Economy ticket.

This is in fact the second time in just a few weeks that I have had such problems with the check-in crew at easyJet in terminal 3 at CDG. The last time they refused to let me board because my passport had expired (my new one I had to give to the Chinese embassy for a visa at the time, but I had an old passport which I used). I told them that it is possible to travel for one more year with an expired passport, which I had checked with the police and the airline prior to my flight. I had to insist that they would call someone who had a clue and after insisting and not moving for about 15min finally they did, and were told that I was actually correct. Then she handed me the passport back without saying a word. I guess you get what you pay for with easyJet and they probably treat their own people no better than they treat customers. I was a customer but have decided not to use this airline any more and allocate a higher budget for our travels.