I had flights Basel-Tel Aviv (and back) for the next week. I used the transfer flight options online to fly Basel to London Gatwick (and back) next year. Five minutes afterwards, I booked the same flights to LGW for my kids. (They weren't coming to Tel Aviv with us).
I was surprised at the total cost of my flights compared to my kids, so I checked the Payment Confirmation breakdown. What I found was, for the outward leg, I've been charged 262.90 for two seats. But for my adult kids (separate booking), I've been charged 79.90 for two seats.
That price was the price on the website before I made the booking (sneakily checking via incognito mode), and afterwards... So it seems that if you change your flights, you cannot have visibility on the price you'll be charged. It's complete at easyJet's whim.
I've spoken with easyJet and they say there are no fixed charges and flight prices vary. Which I know.
TL;DR
Be aware if you book a flight and then want to change it months later.
You can't ask for a full refund (well you can, but you won't get one) when you change the flights. I had to change the flights as I can't go to the destination at the moment due to covid. If they cancel, I always get a refund. Plus costs of new travel arrangements and incidental expenses.
The cost of changing flights is 0. Which is nice. But it seems they'll simply add that charge to one of your new flights. Instead of it being 39.95 (price visible before changing flights, after changing flights, and for exactly the same flight for two other people as a new booking), it was 131.45. Over 3x higher.
I post this for one main reason:
To raise awareness that it seems the price you pay for flight change with easyJet isn't really what they say it is.
I got vouchers for one flight during the pandemic and refunds for the others. But that's got nothing to do with my current issue.
It is. Doesn't excuse it though. I'd rather they brought back the flight transfer fee and were transparent with the costs. This is anything but transparent. If I'd cancelled the flights, I'd have lost 600 francs. This way I've got flights, but paid 200, so "lost" 200 francs.
A bit of a shoddy practice to claim free flight transfers, and then hide the cost in the new flight price. I'm not angry, just disappointed.
I only had one instance of flight problems during the pandemic, when I had flights to Beijing in 2020 cancelled. The airline offered no refund and refused to even offer vouchers, so I submitted a fraudulent transaction claim to my bank, who investigated and refunded me in full (and presumably went after the airline for the costs behind the scenes).
That was a huge lesson to me to always pay for flights with a credit card (rather than a debit) - I know this isn't applicable to your particular episode here NotAllThere but thought I'd share my own experience too.