Jet2? Only if you really need 2

This week I had the "pleasure" of flying with Jet2. I have been flying with a couple of budget airlines in the past, and I never really was disappointed by them until this week. I remember when booking my first RyanAir flight, I was expecting the worst. But flying with RyanAir wasn't a bad experience at all. The service was efficient and friendly.

With Jet2 this week I finally experienced the real budget airline feeling. At Manchester airport, Jet2's check-in is hidden away at Terminal 1's Ground Level. It felt a bit like going to the basement in order to check in.
Boarding the plane, I needed to clean my seat up because someone had seemingly "destroyed" a bag of crisps during the inbound flight. finally seated, a snotty stewardess told me to put my suit jacket under my seat instead of having it on the empty seat next to mine. Needing to attend an exhibition the next day and not having taken another suit with me I wasn't keen on putting my jacket on the floor. If the seats were disgusting, I wasn't expecting the floors to be any cleaner.
After ordering a drink we were told that we couldn't get a receipt, because the staff didn't have a "receipt-book" on this flight.
On the way back from Amsterdam to Manchester, my "user experience" didn't improve. The staff at Schiphol airport were loud and ill-mannered, not especially towards the customers but in their general behaviour. Maybe airlines could also use ASBOs?
And if this wasn't enough yet, my flight was delayed by 2hours ... Why? No idea ...

The online booking process was another annoying experience. Not only will you need to add departure taxes etc. to the prices that are shown but you also need to pay for all luggage that is checked in, for paying with credit card, for checking in online, etc.

Will I ever fly Jet2 again? Not if I can avoid it ...

Orange vs Phones4U: 0-1

I recently went shopping at Trafford Centre (http://www.traffordcentre.co.uk/) and while I was shopping I decided to get a top-up for my Orange "Pay As You Go" mobile phone. Having 3 mobile phones and a Blackberry, I don't need monthly subscriptions for all my mobiles.
So, I first went to the Orange shop for what should have been a quick transaction. I give them £10 and they give me a "code" ... sounds pretty simple. The Orange shop looked pretty slick but strangely the focus didn't seem to be on doing business. There was close to no staff. When I entered the shop I initially saw 3 members of staff, but a few minutes later 2 of them disappeared in the back of the shop, resulting in one member of staff needing to handle all customer requests, sales, etc. I started queuing but after a few minutes I gave up.
I intended on getting my top-up on my next Tesco visit, but then I walked across a Phones4U shop. Intrigued by the place I decided to step inside. This place was completely different from the Orange shop I had just been to. The shop look pretty ugly, but the focus was definitely on doing business. Instead of slick in-store displays most of the shop consisted out of tables at which "sales staff" help you straight away. It took me less than one minute to get my top-up. The sales guy tried to up-sell me a subscription package but wasn't pushy in any way.
Very different strategies at work and different business models, but still if you are paying for staff why don't you try to optimise the return and make sure that selling is facilitated?