Originally Posted by
Skipness One Echo
I can't believe they are actually closing the whole site for an upgrade.
The upgrade... one more reason to be worried? Navitaire's "New Skies" system appears to be more vulnerable than the former "Old" Skies
, so what's coming next?
This is crap project management and penny pinching on fundamental infrastructure. Even US Airways had the beta site up and running before the changeover.
Right, such a solution would have been much better also for Ryanair.
In my opinion, FR could even attempt to run two systems side by side for a longer time. Or maybe two different interfaces providing the alternative approach to searching and booking.
Much criticized "zero" price + supplementary fees way of selling flights could be complemented by the coexistent "flyryanair.com" (or alike) site showing the total price (all inclusive) first. Needless to say, with the possibility of getting "discounts" during the booking process. No luggage? It's 10 €/£ less. No priority boarding? Look, the price drops again! No credit card, Visa Electron instead? Even less. I wonder how many customers having this option would prefer to do business that way.
The alternative site could also try out the hidden potential of selling some connecting flights. And more!
Unfortunately, I doubt it would even be considered. The ingeniousness doesn't seem to be a strong side of FR sells.