Google and Ryanair

[SpringHeeledJack]

O'Leary reveals Ryanair-Google plan to 'change how we buy tickets forever' - Independent.ie (http://www.independent.ie/business/irish/oleary-reveals-ryanairgoogle-plan-to-change-how-we-buy-tickets-forever-29907730.html)

I wonder what advantage there will be for the passengers if this comes to pass (and well it might!) ?



SHJ

[Capot]

Key sentence is ""It'll blow comparison sites like Skyscanner out of the water."

That identifies the project as Google trying to takeover and develop a monopoly on another internet-based service namely price comparison websites for air travel such as Skyscanner.

They might well be using Ryanair as a launch customer and getting some development assistance for nothing, but that's as far as the relationship would ever go. To succeed the website would need to include all the principal airlines including Locos, having first persuaded them that they need to be there if they can do that.

This could be the first time in living memory that Ryanair has been used and screwed by an even more predatory outfit, as opposed to Ryanair using and screwing every business Ryanair comes into contact with.

Google's aim is market dominance to increase its profits and share value, and there is nothing good in that for customers.

Let's hope that other airlines have the balls to hold the line and tell Google to stuff its new "select and buy" website, so that this misbegotten "partnership" withers on the vine.

Unfortunately, they may not have those spherical objects.

[Hotel Tango]

Am I the only one who never uses these type of sites anyway?

[PAXboy]

Capot Nice summary :ok:


"... change the way people buy tickets forever." is the kind of hyperbole that MoL cannot avoid using. The rest of the regurgitated PR notes repeat similar things.
MoL is trying to change things to keep up the percentage rises in the profit. This is a perfectly reasonable one to try. Particularly as it costs him nothing. "The famously frugal Ryanair is not putting any of its €3bn cash pile into the new scheme, with Google only seeking valuable data from the airline."
Do not imagine that MoL is a busted flush. He invented a whole range of new business tricks that are now a received way of doing things.
It is true that he has used up many of those wheezes - like the regional airport subsidies - but there is life in the old dog yet.
MoL has always relied on the free publicity of rude gestures, now he needs another kind of free publicity.

Hotel TangoAm I the only one who never uses these type of sites anyway?Agreed. I sometimes use them on routes I don't know - but only to identify the carriers and the options. Nowadays I almost always book directly with the carrier. For 99.99% of the time journeys go well but when they don't - I want to be able to reach out and get the attention of the carrier directly. I avoid:

"Oh but you booked through SantaScanner and so you must contact them for a refund/change/etc."

Yes, I possibly pay a bit more but I am old and have travelled a bit and yeah verily, I have seen the @rse end of hotels and airports. :* So I pick the carrier, the airport and (often) the particular machine to operate the route. I buy from the carrier and will hold them to account.

drift
That said ... there was a time I was coming back from DUB on FR and checked the flight details on line the night before AND checked e-mail that morning before leaving the hotel. On arriving at check-in:
"The flights closed - you're late"
No [showing print out] I'm on time.
"The flight time was brought forward, you should've checked your emails."
I checked last night and this morning and you did not email me
Embarassed Silence
I've only got a hand case?
"Run"
I made the flight but lesson learnt, especially when VS did the same a few years later.

[Sunnyjohn]

Am I the only one who never uses these type of sites anyway? We don't either; we go straight to the carrier. Even with his supposed new image, MOL does have a way of getting straight up peoples' noses:"We own the 81 million price-sensitive people or people who live around our airports in Europe (my emphasis). You don't own me, sunshine . . .

[davidjohnson6]

It comes back to the old conundrum for providers of a product (e.g. car insurance) as to whether or not to be listed on price comparison websites. If you believe the comparison website is puny, and the insurer has a large market presence and brand recognition, it is often not worth the insurer showing product quotes to the comparison website.
Once the price comparison website becomes all powerful, the insurer is on much less certain ground.

If Ryanair won't say no to Google, you can put on all the spin that you like, but it says to me that either MOL is worried or someone is twisting MOL's arm

[SeenItAll]

Note that Google already owns ITA Matrix, which supplies pricing information to many (if not most) of the major Internet travel agencies.

http://http://matrix.itasoftware.com/search.htm (http://matrix.itasoftware.com/search.htm)

ITA Software by Google (http://www.itasoftware.com)

[farci]

Agreed. I sometimes use them on routes I don't know - but only to identify the carriers and the options. Nowadays I almost always book directly with the carrier. For 99.99% of the time journeys go well but when they don't - I want to be able to reach out and get the attention of the carrier directly.With Skyscanner you are making a direct reservation with the airline. They make their money with a fee for each click through.

Very few of us on short haul trips have loyalty any more to an airline, especially if self-employed and looking for the best bang/buck. Sites like Skyscanner and Dohop provide a good service for those of us outside London where reasonably priced connections are becoming rarer

[ExXB]

What MOL doesn't realise is that I don't trust Google any more than I trust Cryanair.

NB - use duckduckgo.com to surf anonymously, using Google's search engine.

[Hartington]

I wonder (if at all) how IATA NDC fits?

[ExXB]

FR hasn't been an IATA member for at least 10 years.

[Hartington]

True but if Google do want to take a piece of the travel market they are going to have to deal with "legacy" carriers who, through IATA, are proposing NDC.

[PAXboy]

Did someone mention expansion?? BBC News - Nest acquisition: Where next for 'new' Google? (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-25725808)

[llondel]

That's so they can tell how hot under the collar you're getting and adjust the price to a safe maximum.:}

[Piltdown Man]

"We own the 81 million price-sensitive people or people who live around our airports in Europe, so we now have to go after the 20 million or 30 million people, the people who'd say, 'I'd rather pay €20 or €30 more to fly Aer Lingus,'" he said.

Erm... To a point. MOL forgets that some people will pay considerably more than €20-30 NOT to fly FR. Others like me would prefer to walk or swim. Some will not even fly for free!

But the real fun will start if the true comparison costs are not included in the webpage. Little items such as Frankfurt being Frankfurt, booking fees, baggage fees etc. will have to be included.

And remember, the tie-up between FR and the World's new Thought Police in the form of Google, lots of lovely will people quickly get your measure. Your inbox will be and online webpages will stuffed full of lovely junk mail just because you flew FR. Well, you have to pay for your flight somehow.

PM