When I decided to visit my husband who works in London, he suggested to me that I try the new 'Speedy Boarding' facility supplied by Easyjet. Mmmm I thought this sounds good.

I have travelled with this airline many times over the years and found the experience quite pleasant. The staff whether on the ground or in the air were always polite and looked after their passengers. The fact that you chose your own seat after boarding the plane did not daunt me as there were enough seats for all.

Last week I flew from Edinburgh to London Standsted in the late afternoon and tried out this speedy boarding process. Once I found the check-in desk queue, which was situated between two desks to the left of it for Amsterdam and two desks to the right for Standsted, actually getting to the check-in desk itself was a battle. I asked passengers in the queue if they were speedy boarding to be told 'No'. So why were they in that queue and not the one they should have been in? On reaching the check-in desk itself, passengers in the queue for Amsterdam wanted to use this facility for their purposes. I pointed out to them that it was not the Amsterdam check-in but Speeedy Boarding for all flights, of course they were not holders of the speedy boarding pass.

The next battle was at the boarding gate, when boarding was announced all and sundry ran to the gate to be told that only passengers holding a speedy boarding pass were called, and the rest should remain in their seats in the lounge until asked to come forward for boarding. That explanation was alright for those of us who spoke English but for those who did not they were allowed to speedy board anyway. So why, I ask myself, did my husband think I would enjoy travelling with Easyjet again.

On the return journey last Saturday, it was even better. The Speedy Boarding queue for all flights was at least seventy to eighty passengers long, as shown in the photograph. We decided just to join the check-in queue for all UK flights which was only about twenty passengers long. All of a sudden a member of Easyjet staff announced that a Speedy Boarding desk had been especially opened for UK flights, but I replied by saying it was more sensible to remain in the queue we were in as it was shorter.

I must admit I am disappointed that I did not enjoy the Speedy Boarding facility and after discovering the cost of using it I would suggest that either Easyjet employ staff for crowd control and the additional check-in desks required to provide this service or they scrub it altogether and refund the fees to their passengers.

(Article by Kate Condie, editor)