Ryanair - 8
CAPTCHA
daz - I find myself taking a view similiar to yours, namely having once been a big fan of FR but now thoroughly put off with the introduction of CAPTCHA. I notice however, that the FR website seems to have been slightly changed recently, so that one gets to see 10 one-way prices rather than just 4, before one has to re-enter a CAPTCHA code - presumably because someone realised bookings were down.
Assuming FR have some degree of control over the management of their website and haven't completely outsourced it (job ads for website developers on the FR website indicate they retain a significant degree of control), it would seem *very* likely that they have a large amount of information as to how people interact with the FR website. In particular, the cookies that are sent from bookryanair.com to your PC should be providing plenty of information to Dublin. Any website developer with even the smallest degree of competence should be able to do some sort of analysis on customer behaviour and track what happens when new features are introduced.
The thing that puzzles me, is that looking round the web, FR seem to have trialled this in one or 2 countries earlier this year - Spain seems to be mentioned regularly - but I don't know if this is true or not. If CAPTCHA *was* trialled for one or two countries, presumably someone in Dublin would have had a good look through the numbers to see what effect it had on bookings before rolling it out to the rest of Europe. Either this trial was only very small scale, or the analysis was done poorly, or adding CAPTCHA actually has little effect on bookings but just dissuades visitors who have no intention of buying anyway - anyone, particularly those living in Spain, able to comment on this ?
Assuming FR have some degree of control over the management of their website and haven't completely outsourced it (job ads for website developers on the FR website indicate they retain a significant degree of control), it would seem *very* likely that they have a large amount of information as to how people interact with the FR website. In particular, the cookies that are sent from bookryanair.com to your PC should be providing plenty of information to Dublin. Any website developer with even the smallest degree of competence should be able to do some sort of analysis on customer behaviour and track what happens when new features are introduced.
The thing that puzzles me, is that looking round the web, FR seem to have trialled this in one or 2 countries earlier this year - Spain seems to be mentioned regularly - but I don't know if this is true or not. If CAPTCHA *was* trialled for one or two countries, presumably someone in Dublin would have had a good look through the numbers to see what effect it had on bookings before rolling it out to the rest of Europe. Either this trial was only very small scale, or the analysis was done poorly, or adding CAPTCHA actually has little effect on bookings but just dissuades visitors who have no intention of buying anyway - anyone, particularly those living in Spain, able to comment on this ?
Last edited by davidjohnson6; 10th Dec 2011 at 15:42.
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Either this trial was only very small scale, or the analysis was done poorly
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Seriously think people are putting too much emphasis on the captcha. It's no more annoying than navigating through the booking and avoiding the optional extras. I find it amazing people will go to another website of another airline and start the whole booking progress again. Is it not just as easy to tap in a few letters. It even tells you the letters out loud if you have problems. Craigslist uses captcha and it doesn't do them any harm. Is it really that hard?
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@fa2fi
Navigating, avoiding the annoyances, trying, re-starting, becoming annoyed again... Sure, the ones like you, possibly like me and many else too will not get annoyed enough to discontinue, but for some it could be one step (one annoyance) too far. If it drives away just 10 per cent of potential customers, does it matter? In the economic terms such a 10% drop in sales it's much, believe me. But... we are living in the free world and indeed, if the airline wants to do business this way, there is nothing we can do about it. I'm just wondering what was the point of publishing these MOL's confidences in 2010... forgotten?
The fares are going up - what about this brand issue, customer orientation and friendliness and the quality of service, including the ease of use of the website?
Navigating, avoiding the annoyances, trying, re-starting, becoming annoyed again... Sure, the ones like you, possibly like me and many else too will not get annoyed enough to discontinue, but for some it could be one step (one annoyance) too far. If it drives away just 10 per cent of potential customers, does it matter? In the economic terms such a 10% drop in sales it's much, believe me. But... we are living in the free world and indeed, if the airline wants to do business this way, there is nothing we can do about it. I'm just wondering what was the point of publishing these MOL's confidences in 2010... forgotten?
O'Leary also said the Dublin-based airline will need a new chief executive as growth slows, admitting that his controversial management style would be out of place in a more mature business.
The airline is facing pressure on costs as it moves into major airports closer to city centres in a quest for more passengers and will also be under pressure to improve levels of service. "We have to move away over the next number of years from being obsessed with having the lowest fares in the market," O'Leary said.
He added that Ryanair will have to become a more sophisticated operation as the business reaches maturity: "Growth rates start to slow down significantly and it becomes more about the brand game, telling all the lies that you need to tell to get the fares up."
In a departure from his usual business philosophy, O'Leary said Ryanair would need to trumpet attributes other than cheap fares – such as its young aircraft fleet and "terrific" in-flight service
The airline is facing pressure on costs as it moves into major airports closer to city centres in a quest for more passengers and will also be under pressure to improve levels of service. "We have to move away over the next number of years from being obsessed with having the lowest fares in the market," O'Leary said.
He added that Ryanair will have to become a more sophisticated operation as the business reaches maturity: "Growth rates start to slow down significantly and it becomes more about the brand game, telling all the lies that you need to tell to get the fares up."
In a departure from his usual business philosophy, O'Leary said Ryanair would need to trumpet attributes other than cheap fares – such as its young aircraft fleet and "terrific" in-flight service
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CAPTCHA
If CAPTCHA *was* trialled for one or two countries, presumably someone in Dublin would have had a good look through the numbers to see what effect it had on bookings before rolling it out to the rest of Europe. Either this trial was only very small scale, or the analysis was done poorly, or adding CAPTCHA actually has little effect on bookings but just dissuades visitors who have no intention of buying anyway - anyone, particularly those living in Spain, able to comment on this ?
Yes out hear in Fuerteventura we have been putting the annoying letters in for quite a while now, at first i thought i had a bug in my computer, i found relief from this annoying add on by changing my ip address to a uk one but alas no more i am stuck with it now.
Yes out hear in Fuerteventura we have been putting the annoying letters in for quite a while now, at first i thought i had a bug in my computer, i found relief from this annoying add on by changing my ip address to a uk one but alas no more i am stuck with it now.
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Maastricht
Nope, no new routes for Maastricht so far. The rumour that Ryanair would leave MAA is also not true. The routes to Girona, Malaga, Tenerife, Pisa, Trapani, Faro and Porto will be restarted in the Summer12 schedule (from March 25). Alicante cancelled, but who knows what will come from negociations between FR and ALC.
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O'Leary also said the Dublin-based airline will need a new chief executive
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The airline is facing pressure on costs as it moves into major airports closer to city centres in a quest for more passengers
A quote repeated biannually for almost his duration at the helm. He'll be there forever, it's not for financial reasons. His ego is interwoven to the whitehouse.
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If the airline can see this why does this not apply to Dublin, Stansted and Berlin which are all major airports yet FR cut services from them.
b) Generally the least major of the (formerly known as) BAA 3.
c) New airport, MOL would probably rather still use the old SXF terminal.
Re: CAPTCHAS. My understanding is that Ryanair keep website management in house, but I recall not too long ago when every other airline was playing the SEO game and adding pages about where they went to keep google happy, Ryanair were very slow to follow. Theoretically, a retrograde move could be put right within seconds, but there is probably some kind of analysis / evaluation period.
I suspect that many people on this site fall in to the category of liking to sniff around / look at destinations, but actually make bookings less often. I for one have persevered on many a site because I have wanted a particular product and by the time I go through the 10th CAPTCHA / re-enter details, I just decide it is more effort to start again with another provider, if indeed there is another provider.
Ryanair.com is basically the website any Web developer will love to hate - the colours are nasty, and there are loads of obstacles preventing you getting where you want. Yet, it has historically at least, put more bums on seats than any other.
I hope that the CAPTCHAs will prove more trouble than they are worth, but I won't be surprised if they are still around for a while yet.
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quote - "and by the time I go through the 10th CAPTCHA / re-enter details,"
Has anyone analysed why? Is it definitely at Ryr? Maybe you have a poor liaison?? An error in the input may have been introduced en route, have you ever checked your routing??
Has anyone analysed why? Is it definitely at Ryr? Maybe you have a poor liaison?? An error in the input may have been introduced en route, have you ever checked your routing??
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Dear barrymah, just imagine kind of a virtual screw. Obviously, it's in the website/ booking system server settings somewhere. First, it was "screwed" just a little bit. Every 10th attempt to search or book had triggered Captcha. Unfortunately for FR, some "hostile screen-scrapers" still fared very well in spite of Capcha. Let's tighten the screw - said one of the well-advised. It was done. Captcha started to show up every 3rd attempt. What? BravoFly and others still offering FR bookings while at the same time the bookings via carrier's own booking system falling (perhaps dramatically, who knows)? Too bad! Let's loose the screw again! That's why Captcha comes every 10th attempt (or so) again.
Kind of fairy tale, you see
Kind of fairy tale, you see
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Captcha alone was not the only reason I and a large group of friends give up on our recent Ryanair booking to ACE from STN.
How can any company wanting you to buy direct from there website think that customers will be happy trying to book or buy blind. Not only do you have to get past Captcha then you get greated with LOW FARES AVAILABLE fan bloody tastic then you have to click on a date where Ryanair say they have a flight only to find they dont have a flight 
. I dont know what the law is on this matter but as far as I can see Ryanair are advertising a flight for sale that does not even fly on the date they say that they have low fares available on this day date route 
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Its like going to Sainsburys website to do some shopping you want some chicken you entre chicken in the search box and you get WE HAVE CHICKEN AVAILABLE no price no size would you add it to your basket ? even if you did try and add it to your basket you would then get a message telling you they dont have chicken so you continue shopping then a message saying you need to entre a code to continue shopping so you entre a code and try to by beans yet again we have beans available ...... well you get the picture its pointless why oh why would any company treat customers this way
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It would not happen at Sainsburys or anywhere else so why at Ryanair.
How can any company wanting you to buy direct from there website think that customers will be happy trying to book or buy blind
. Not only do you have to get past Captcha then you get greated with LOW FARES AVAILABLE fan bloody tastic then you have to click on a date where Ryanair say they have a flight only to find they dont have a flight . I dont know what the law is on this matter but as far as I can see Ryanair are advertising a flight for sale that does not even fly on the date they say that they have low fares available on this day date route .Its like going to Sainsburys website to do some shopping you want some chicken you entre chicken in the search box and you get WE HAVE CHICKEN AVAILABLE no price no size would you add it to your basket ? even if you did try and add it to your basket you would then get a message telling you they dont have chicken so you continue shopping then a message saying you need to entre a code to continue shopping so you entre a code and try to by beans yet again we have beans available ...... well you get the picture its pointless why oh why would any company treat customers this way
.It would not happen at Sainsburys or anywhere else so why at Ryanair
.
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That's completely right. Their website has got progressively more unwieldy to use and more and more frustrating. I've got one more flight booked with FR and then that's it for me. Can't be doing with their evil payment card options anymore. Sad really. I never had any great objections to them but it's just become more and more a degrading process to buy into their product, such as it is.
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And then if you do book the degredation continues through departure gates, on board generally untill you are broke and never really stops till you get off the plane! Many people lump them in the same boat as EZY, but having flown out of Luton with both recently I found EZY way ahead from website to on board, far friendlier and more helpfull crew who seem to really enjoy their jobs and leave you looking forwards to the next flight......that surely must mean a lot to people, I'm sure customers still expect decent service from FR no matter how low the fare I wonder if the public we're surveyed how many just never use them again?
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Compare the CAPTCHA and general Ryanair.com experience with the new iOS and Android apps that EasyJet launched last week. Still not sure if I'd always buy flights without the luxury of computer screen to see a range of dates at once, but once logged in, the app is incredibly fast and easy to use. If you're registered, all it needs is the CVV number of your saved card. I booked a flight to BFS in about 45 seconds over the weekend. Looking forward to intergrated electronic boarding passes that are promised in the next major update 
Last edited by ara01jbb; 12th Dec 2011 at 13:33. Reason: typo
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It's a complete Janet & John simplistic approach to showing what they provide. It's like going into a restaurant, asking for the menu, and being told "No, we don't have one any more, tell us how hungry are you, when did you last eat, what is the maximum you are prepared to spend, then I will tell you what you can have, or say that nothing is available to meet all these criteria so start again".