Ryanair online booking...really annoying now

mattser

I've noticed this in the last week or so. They now have a security box into which you type two given words, one of which can be hard to read. And it can appear more than once at one visit.

mikedragon32

It's to stop bots and skimming sites from hoovering up cheap fares. It's a minor inconvenience really!

uli84

omg, was about to post it. Minor inconvenience? I have to write this captcha every time I click on a different flight date than initially selected. As usually i dont have set flight date or even destination and prefer reviewing whole month trying to find a cheap and most convenient flight I have to type this captcha 5 - 10 times during each visit. It drives me mad tbh to the point I gave up searching for fare on their website/flying with them. And yes obviously as most captchas they are hard to read.
They are doing Aerlingus a big favour I must say

MOH

Bizarrely it doesn't seem to have affected Skyscanner, and in fact now makes Skyscanner the easier website to use.

shannon_tek

MOH wrote: »

Bizarrely it doesn't seem to have affected Skyscanner, and in fact now makes Skyscanner the easier website to use.

That seems like one hell of a rip of website. €110 to fly to London in December.
I bought the same flight for €30 on Thursday

MOH

shannon_tek wrote: »

That seems like one hell of a rip of website. €110 to fly to London in December.
I bought the same flight for €30 on Thursday

All it does is pull the flight details from the airline sites and show them - if you want to book you're brought through directly to the airline site, so there's nothing to gain by ripping you off.

I'd imagine December flights are going up fast at this stage. Did you check the same flights to see what they cost on the airline site now?

mattser

Just like Uli I tend to spend a bit of time between dates/times at a visit. Minor inconvenience my ass.

another native

Is life not made difficult enough for Ryanair users without also having to solve captchas on their behalf? I tried to book a couple of days ago and had to repeat the process over and over again, but got nowhere with the booking. A major and upsetting inconvenience for sure!

mattser

As if that was not enough...I rang them yesterday to ask if this was temporary. A lady told me it was permanent.
Adios, Michael. Unless you get your undoubtable act together I'm off to Birmingham in 2 weeks with the opposition.
At a greater price, OK, but right now your'e wasting my time.

boreder

They're not in Chinese for heavens sake. Just booked London from 23rd to 30th of Dec for €40. Typing in two slightly blurred words made little or no difference to my life in the slightest. Getting home to my house from town (8 miles) costs about €25-28 so it's a bargain in my book.

Savman

FFS. Takin the piss with this captcha business tbh, but nothing more than I'd expect from this shower.

You have to hand it to Ryanair, no other airline gets away with treating its passengers with such contempt, always coming with innovative schemes to inconvenience the very people who fly with them.

MyKeyG

boreder wrote: »

They're not in Chinese for heavens sake. Just booked London from 23rd to 30th of Dec for €40. Typing in two slightly blurred words made little or no difference to my life in the slightest. Getting home to my house from town (8 miles) costs about €25-28 so it's a bargain in my book.

I'd feel better if they were in Chinese at least then I'd have a good excuse for the fact I can't read them sometimes.

The point people are making though is that you have to do it every time you try to compare a different price. If you get it first time then great but every time you go back and into a new date you have to enter it. Seriously! How many times should someone be expected to prove they're not a bot?

woodchuck

If you find them too hard to read there's button to generate new words... they're actually not that bad compared to other websites!

I'm finding it's not doing it every single time I go to look up new flights, it seems to be more time dependent.

MyKeyG

It does appear to be time dependant but I usually have one or two other windows open comparing the competition or comparing my dates with hotels, car hire, travel etc.

Still see no need to keep proving you're not a bot.

ASOT

mattser wrote: »

As if that was not enough...I rang them yesterday to ask if this was temporary. A lady told me it was permanent.
Adios, Michael. Unless you get your undoubtable act together I'm off to Birmingham in 2 weeks with the opposition.
At a greater price, OK, but right now your'e wasting my time.

So you just booked a dearer flight because you didnt want to type in two words ?

You sir are an idiot.

another native

The saga continues. Today, Ryanair announced on its own site that it will now modify its reCaptcha security feature after Bravofly and Edreams "recommenced unauthorised display and sale of its low fares."

mikedragon32

Here's the article: http://www.ryanair.com/ie/news/blocking-screenscrapers-proves-ryanair-doesn-t-need-edreams-and-bravofly

RYANAIR WILL CONTINUE TO PROTECT CONSUMERS BY FINDING WAYS TO BLOCK THE UNAUTHORISED SALE OF ITS SEATS
Ryanair, the world’s favourite airline today (28th Nov) vowed to continue to protect consumers again the unauthorised sale of its seats by screenscrapers, and will now modify its new reCAPTCHA internet security feature, after Edreams and Bravofly recommenced the unauthorised display and sale of Ryanair’s low fares, just hours after Ryanair, last Friday, welcomed their decision to cease scraping Ryanair.com.

The reversal by Edreams and Bravofly proves that while Ryanair has not been adversely affected by the blocking on unauthorized travel sites/agents, these sites/agents clearly can’t survive without access to Ryanair’s low fares, which they then offer to customers at inflated prices or with hidden charges.
Ryanair will continue to find ways to block screenscrapers and urged all consumers, who want the lowest fares to/from Spain, to book their flights directly on the Ryanair.com website. By eliminating unauthorised screenscraping, Ryanair will continue to improve consumer access to, and the response times of, the Ryanair.com website for genuine consumers/passengers.


Ryanair’s Stephen McNamara said:

“Ryanair was delighted when Edreams and Bravofly stopped displaying our prices and seats last Friday. We expected them to look for a way around our new reCAPTCHA security measures since they clearly can’t operate their price comparisons without displaying Ryanair’s lowest fares.
Ryanair will continue to implement security measures to get rid of unauthorised screenscrapers and travel agents from our website, so that we can maximise consumer access and continue to improve the response times for ordinary passengers who want to book Europe’s lowest air fares without doing it throughcostly and expensive unauthorised screenscrapers such as Edreams and Bravofly.”

FouxDaFaFa

Booked flights for my parents today and they were flexible on which days to fly so kept switching days of the week to compare prices. Captcha code every time. Really bloody annoying. Pretty glitchy too, every now and again I'd switch days and it would force me back to the home page.

woodchuck

Am I the only one who’s not that bothered by this? I’ve been researching flights the past few days (different airports, dates, airlines and comparing hotel prices/availability for the different dates), booked flights with ryanair this morning and didn’t find it much of an inconvenience.

I think everyone knows at this stage that ryanair don’t have the best customer service compared to other airlines, but they do (generally) have the cheapest flights. If it bothers you that much then pay extra to fly with another airline! More cheap seats for me :P

copper04

Ryanair can stuff their so called cheap flights if they want to make us jump through hoops just to book. i have flown a lot or Ryanair routes but this is a bridge too far. They coulp have just blocked the IP address of the offending web sites instead of inconveniencing theitr prospective customers.

theteal

woodchuck wrote: »

Am I the only one who’s not that bothered by this? I’ve been researching flights the past few days (different airports, dates, airlines and comparing hotel prices/availability for the different dates), booked flights with ryanair this morning and didn’t find it much of an inconvenience.

I think everyone knows at this stage that ryanair don’t have the best customer service compared to other airlines, but they do (generally) have the cheapest flights. If it bothers you that much then pay extra to fly with another airline! More cheap seats for me :P

yup, i just double checked what all the fuss was about as I booked flights yesterday and it was not hassle.

i've just flicked through a whole row of dates for the month of december and i was only asked for a captcha (once) when I submit the details on the initial homepage

problem

woodchuck

copper04 wrote: »

Ryanair can stuff their so called cheap flights if they want to make us jump through hoops just to book. i have flown a lot or Ryanair routes but this is a bridge too far. They coulp have just blocked the IP address of the offending web sites instead of inconveniencing theitr prospective customers.

There’ll always be new websites though and I’m sure they could change their IP addresses easily enough if they wanted to. I would’ve thought that this was a fairly routine security measure. I’ve come across it lots of other places so I really don’t see what the big deal is! If it saves me 70euro to book with ryanair instead of another airline (which it did this morning!) then I’ll happily take the extra 10 seconds to type in 2 words.

mattser

ASOT wrote: »

So you just booked a dearer flight because you didnt want to type in two words ?

You sir are an idiot.

Given a choice I will fly AL before Ryanair, unless the gap is too wide. Quite often there's only a few quid in the difference.

As for your last line, I'm disappointed the mods haven't taken you to task.
Less of the sir, please. It's unbecoming of one with no manners.

mikedragon32

mattser wrote: »

Given a choice I will fly AL before Ryanair, unless the gap is too wide. Quite often there's only a few quid in the difference.

As for your last line, I'm disappointed the mods haven't taken you to task.
Less of the sir, please. It's unbecoming of one with no manners.

That poster received an infraction. There's a red card on his post to indicate this.

mattser

mikedragon32 wrote: »

That poster received an infraction. There's a red card on his post to indicate this.[/QUOTE

Sound. Although I don't see any card red or otherwise on said post.

theteal

mattser wrote: »

Sound. Although I don't see any card red or otherwise on said post.

bottom right hand corner

mikedragon32

back on topic now folks

testicle

boreder wrote: »

They're not in Chinese for heavens sake.

AfterDusk

testicle wrote: »

In this case just put in the '('. I've just booked a flight and got a similar image, but you just type the 'English' letters.

I am pie

First world problem !! ...i booked a flight last night. Took about 10 minutes. No issues typing a few codes in here and there, flight was 100 quid cheaper than nearest competitor.

MOH

In fairness, the real problem is Google, whose stupid ReCaptcha system regularly churns out illegible rubbish.

JaneyMacker

oh this really pissed me off tonight.
im sick me off typing in capchas trying to find a date to fly.
im giving up for tonight and will just go to skyscanner. if ryanair arent on it they arent on it. its just easier.

ArmaniJeanss

If you do 'Select New Search' on the page where it gives you the fares, it doesn't prompt you for the captcha again. So you can change dates and destinations and search again as much as you want.

Xiangjiao

MOH wrote: »

Bizarrely it doesn't seem to have affected Skyscanner, and in fact now makes Skyscanner the easier website to use.

Really? Because Ryanair results were conspicuous by their absence when I tried using it late last week...

Irlandese

mikedragon32 wrote: »

It's to stop bots and skimming sites from hoovering up cheap fares. It's a minor inconvenience really!

Sorry, possible Lying Air staff member?? ( They do it all the time ) , it is simply another secret trap to bugger up your on-line booking and make you pay and pay and pay, for the sin of believing all the lying guff they spout to hook you and then clean your wallet out !

AfterDusk

Irlandese wrote: »

Sorry, possible Lying Air staff member?? ( They do it all the time ) , it is simply another secret trap to bugger up your on-line booking and make you pay and pay and pay, for the sin of believing all the lying guff they spout to hook you and then clean your wallet out !

I think this is what you're looking for http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/forumdisplay.php?f=576

Irlandese

woodchuck wrote: »

Am I the only one who’s not that bothered by this? I’ve been researching flights the past few days (different airports, dates, airlines and comparing hotel prices/availability for the different dates), booked flights with ryanair this morning and didn’t find it much of an inconvenience.

I think everyone knows at this stage that ryanair don’t have the best customer service compared to other airlines, but they do (generally) have the cheapest flights. If it bothers you that much then pay extra to fly with another airline! More cheap seats for me :P

Do the research. Lying air are certainly NOT the cheapest airline in money terms.
Yes, they are the cheapest in terms of standards, safety and quality, but at
final checking, with all their add ons and cheating, they come out as one of the most expensive rip-offs on most routes.
Thats why their profits are so huge and sites like the Ryanair campaign are so full of sad stories from their day to day victims.

Irlandese

neil2304 wrote: »

I think this is what you're looking for http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/forumdisplay.php?f=576

Sorry, old son, I was one of the people on the famous christmas mutiny flights who had to blockade the satellite desks in Stanstead for 22 hours, before xmas eve, a few years back, to get lying air to complete their part of the bargain and fly us on to where we had paid them to bring us. Four flights cancelled and 470 odd passengers abused, threatened and starved, in the name of cash !
Are you a lying air employee ?
Shame on you, but you have seen the last of my money and that of a heck of a lot of
people all over europe, fed up with being ripped off and scared witless by appalling safety standards.
I have a web site for you to look at ;

http://www.ryanaircampaign.org/

Irlandese

JaneyMacker wrote: »

oh this really pissed me off tonight.
im sick me off typing in capchas trying to find a date to fly.
im giving up for tonight and will just go to skyscanner. if ryanair arent on it they arent on it. its just easier.

You are a lucky lad.
Have a look at this site;
http://www.ryanaircampaign.org/

Yes, the rip offs and stranding you in the middle of nowhere
are part and parcel of the lying air business plan

anyone booking with these cowboys needs some friendly advice first.
Don't do it !!

AfterDusk

Irlandese wrote: »

Yes, they are the cheapest in terms of standards, safety and quality

If you seriously think Ryanair skimp on safety, you really are delusional. "If you think safety is expensive, try paying for an accident."

Also, do you get a kick out of trolling or something? Someone makes a positive comment about Ryanair and you try and make out that they work for them. :pac:

woodchuck

Irlandese wrote: »

Do the research. Lying air are certainly NOT the cheapest airline in money terms.
Yes, they are the cheapest in terms of standards, safety and quality, but at
final checking, with all their add ons and cheating, they come out as one of the most expensive rip-offs on most routes.
Thats why their profits are so huge and sites like the Ryanair campaign are so full of sad stories from their day to day victims.

I do a lot of research before I book anything and if Ryanair is the cheapest, then I still go with them. I'm well aware of any extra costs that will be added at the end (admin fees etc) and also take into consideration the cost of getting to and from the airports they fly into if they are further out.

While Ryanair are not always the cheapest, a lot of the time they are.

And I've never come across anything unsafe in all my years of flying with them...

lasno

Regarding the security question, its only the word in wavy letters that has to be entered. Disregard the other word.

CricketDude

Ive got so used to skyscanner now that i wouldnt be bothered going to the Ryanair site.
Skyscanner just makes booking flights for various days, months even so much easier that even if ryanair are cheaper i cant out myself through the hassle of going to the ryanair site.
If ryanair dont want to be on the aggregator sites, then i think thats a very bad business decision on their part.

RoundyMooney

I'd imagine they don't want their (not always) cheap flights degraded by some spiv site selling them with commission on top, thus making them even less value for money.

As a frequent user, my biggest problem is with the pervading lack of thought in relation to customer service that goes into everything that they do. You can be cheap, and cheerful at the same time.

Why not simply have the captcha at the actual booking page, then said portal sites can continue to act as a conduit funneling would be passengers to the final Ryanair booking page, where the actual fare, by necessity, is then charged? And people can surf away sussing out dates and fares without any problem, whatever site they use?

lasno

CricketDude wrote: »

Ive got so used to skyscanner now that i wouldnt be bothered going to the Ryanair site.
Skyscanner just makes booking flights for various days, months even so much easier that even if ryanair are cheaper i cant out myself through the hassle of going to the ryanair site.
If ryanair dont want to be on the aggregator sites, then i think thats a very bad business decision on their part.

You can not book flights on skyscanner. It directs you to the airline webpage to do the actual booking and yes you can check Ryanair flights on skyscanner.

MyKeyG

lasno wrote: »

You can not book flights on skyscanner. It directs you to the airline webpage to do the actual booking and yes you can check Ryanair flights on skyscanner.

Yes but you can compare prices conveniently. I have no problem connecting to the airline in question once I have my flight sorted.

CricketDude

lasno wrote: »

You can not book flights on skyscanner. It directs you to the airline webpage to do the actual booking and yes you can check Ryanair flights on skyscanner.

This I know. Ive been using the site for a long time now. I know how it works.

I want to compare prices and i'll go to the web page then when i find the flight i want with one click.
Ryanair cost me too many clicks so i dont go there anymore - Webenomics 101 : Too many clicks is a bad thing.

On skyscanner, ryanair appear in the prices one day when on the site. Then the next day they might not appear. Its up to them if they want to be included in my search or not.

shannon_tek

Personally in my opinion, Ryanair , as much as I may be annoyed by them it is a love/hate relationship. But I think they are truely the masters of the no frills airline. For simple day flights to the UK as low as <€25 it really is great. No check-in bar online no baggage. No hassle. It's great. Just arrive 10 mins before check-in closes go through security and straight to the gate is perfect no long wait bar at the gate were you queing up. No need to pay the 20 quid priority boarding.

mikedragon32

This thread has run its course. The topic WAS Ryanair Online Booking. Irlandese, I've issued a warning for trolling. Have a read of the charter.