User-friendly, intelligent online reservations systems

Impetus

The “media” seem to be obsessed with the apparent (to them) quality of Easyjet’s reservation system. I am a frequent traveller, and I find it almost as difficult as the “system” used by Ryanair.

www.swiss.com is much faster (especially if one has registered previously or has a Miles & More identity #). It is professionally designed – no clutter, colour clashes or typeface errors – a far more pleasant experience to use than the Easyjet or tabloid styled Ryanair websites. There is also a Swiss mobile phone application which allows reservations, and you can use your mobile phone screen instead of the boarding pass – a barcode is created on the screen which is readable throughout the airport. It supports end to end trips involving multiple flights in the same reservation, unlike Ryanair and Easyjet. The Swiss boarding pass is clean and clutter free, unlike the Ryanair equivalent which has all the appearances of being created by the inmates of a mental hospital. Only Ryanair uses “advertising blobs” rather than ink blobs.

While Vueling is a point to point airline, they allow one to book multiple flights creating an end to end journey in the same process. Ryanair is stuck in the point to point mentality – to the extent that they make it incredibly difficult to connect flights – even harder to do a flight connection at Dublin Airport without going to the landside and checking in again. http://www.vueling.com/en. Vueling is eating Ryanair’s lunch on Mediterranean routes – Ryanair can’t compete with Vueling’s fuss-free, professional service. Vueling emails your boarding pass, as a PDF with your reservation confirmation. You don’t have to visit their website again to check in. While Vueling also uses Accenture’s Navitaire, there is no requirement to provide sensitive ID information like one’s ID number, DoB, and ID expiry dates.

Norwegian also offers a more seamless service – but online and during the travel process. Norwegian offers WiFi inflight – unlike Ryanair or Easyjet. On the downside they use the same horrible hard class Boeing aircraft as Ryanair – though the colours and fitting out is superior. http://www.norwegian.com/uk

Airlines need to respect people’s privacy and the value of their time. Making an airline reservation is a huge time consumer, especially if the timing has to be fitted in with other arrangements – which often makes it a non-deligatable task.

MuffinsDa

Another good thing about Norwegian is that if you change your mind or make a mistake, you can cancel your booking free of charge within 4 hours of purchase. It also allows you to book connection flights on one tickets. Most of their 737-800 planes are very new and use the new sky interior without disgusting advertising and clutter. So all in all, a far better product that Ryanair. They are a bit more expensive in general I think but if I had the choice I would go with them rather than Ryanair. Having said that, I haven't ever flown them so I could be wrong here, they just look superior in terms of booking, conditions and comfort.

Air Malta has a good system too, pity they don't fly to Dublin directly anymore. Fairly similar to Swiss.

Impetus

MuffinsDa wrote: »

Air Malta has a good system too, pity they don't fly to Dublin directly anymore. Fairly similar to Swiss.

Air Malta (KM) is generally a good airline - inflight, good seats, airbus (as opposed to yuk Boeing 737800, good check-in staff and general comfort. They have "free" inflight catering serving Maltese food (as opposed to plastic extruded sandwiches made in China, a la FR).

KM's online check-in (which uses Saber) is flaky though and only works 24h before departure and limited to a few city pairs. The good thing is they are linked with Lufthansa and Emirates and they serve good airports such as Zurich, Munich, Brussels (Schengen), and Frankfurt, as well as less good but important airports such as Rome and Moscow. And of course Malta is in Schengen, unlike Ireland, which eliminates many of the airport delays all over Europe.

pajor

I can't say I've ever really had a problem with even the Aer Lingus booking system.
I've found being able to see the fare code of the flights you're looking at to be pretty useful.

I know they still try to flog you extras like Ryanair do, but it's still just so much less garish and annoying.

Impetus

pajor wrote: »

I can't say I've ever really had a problem with even the Aer Lingus booking system.
I've found being able to see the fare code of the flights you're looking at to be pretty useful.

I know they still try to flog you extras like Ryanair do, but it's still just so much less garish and annoying.

It is OK, but does not fall into the refreshing category in my books... How do you see the fare code on the EI site?

I notice BA show the fare codes (eg Economy selling code H - which presumably means high).

I had some friends visit me yesterday, and they transited via T5 at Heathrow, despite my advice to avoid GB (and Heathrow Airlines [BA]) at all costs (this caused me to go to the BA site where I saw the fare code).

Anyway they checked in at a self-service machine, and when their turn came at the baggage drop, the entire BA baggage handling system crashed. The system that handles all BA flights at Heathrow, the company's main hub. BA had no backup planned and the issue wasn't fixed before the flight took off, and my visitors had to queue up with thousands of other unfortunates to be re-ticketed, get new boarding passes, and check on which involved three or four queues.

A total mess, Mr Walsh. But one shouldn't be surprised, given that that city is and has been in long term infrastructural decay for decades.

pajor

Impetus wrote: »

It is OK, but does not fall into the refreshing category in my books... How do you see the fare code on the EI site?

I'm not saying it's the best in the world, but can't really complain.

When on fare review page, at the bottom there's a tick box for agreeing to T&Cs. Click on the T&Cs and scroll to the bottom of the window.
EI start with A, Z and W for cheap seats. No Gold Circle points on these.

Impetus

pajor wrote: »

I'm not saying it's the best in the world, but can't really complain.

When on fare review page, at the bottom there's a tick box for agreeing to T&Cs. Click on the T&Cs and scroll to the bottom of the window.
EI start with A, Z and W for cheap seats. No Gold Circle points on these.

Nicely hidden ;-)

highlydebased

Impetus wrote: »

Air Malta (KM) is generally a good airline - inflight, good seats, airbus (as opposed to yuk Boeing 737800, good check-in staff and general comfort. They have "free" inflight catering serving Maltese food (as opposed to plastic extruded sandwiches made in China, a la FR).

KM's online check-in (which uses Saber) is flaky though and only works 24h before departure and limited to a few city pairs. The good thing is they are linked with Lufthansa and Emirates and they serve good airports such as Zurich, Munich, Brussels (Schengen), and Frankfurt, as well as less good but important airports such as Rome and Moscow. And of course Malta is in Schengen, unlike Ireland, which eliminates many of the airport delays all over Europe.

+1 for Air Malta. Very pleasant experience.

Impetus

highlydebased wrote: »

+1 for Air Malta. Very pleasant experience.

Somewhat like Malta the country - under promise and over deliver.

I attempted an online check-in on KM yesterday from a hotel, but couldn't achieve more than the seat selection. The "boarding pass" generated by Sabre is not a pdf file - it looks like a maxi jigsaw screen image. If an airline issues a pdf file boarding pass, one can email it to the hotel reception and collect it printed out. An airport, and its lounges, need barcode readers for mobile phone boarding passes to work.

Speaking of barcodes, you can now buy postage stamps on your mobile phone from La Poste/Die Post/La Posta/Swiss Post. You receive a MMS and print the graphic image 3D barcode on the envelope. There must be thousands of real world applications in the pipeline for this type of technology.

LXFlyer

Swiss is indeed the easiest I have come across - and the nicest to use - be it the mobile app or the full website.

But then again with my user name I could be a tad biased!!

Impetus

lxflyer wrote: »

Swiss is indeed the easiest I have come across - and the nicest to use - be it the mobile app or the full website.

But then again with my user name I could be a tad biased!!

I don't know why they didn't / couldn't change it back to SR. Crossair is no longer (LX).

It is somewhat like HSBC - a big Chinese bank, still using MIDL, (a no longer existing British bank's) SWIFT address well over a decade after it bought Midland out.

One wonders when an airline is going to bring in an "advanced user" command driven option on their website - eg JFK LAX OCT 23 - instead of messing with drop-down lists, to get a list of flight times and fare options. Bing already offers this eg you can put FLIGHTS JFK LAX OCT 23 in the Bing search box.

Web bookings are a huge waste of time as it stands - especially if you have to check boxes for No I don't want insurance, No I don't want to buy a crappy suitcase, No I don't want a ticket for a rickety bus ride from the airport, No I don't want a text message, No I don't want a seat allocation etc etc.

andy_g

Moved to travel

jjbrien

Impetus wrote: »

Air Malta (KM) is generally a good airline - inflight, good seats, airbus (as opposed to yuk Boeing 737800, good check-in staff and general comfort. They have "free" inflight catering serving Maltese food (as opposed to plastic extruded sandwiches made in China, a la FR).

Ok bashing the boeing 737-800 because you think its a yuk aircraft. A lot of the very big airlines use the 737-800 luftansa, SAS, United to name but a few use that 737-800. There is very little diffrence between Boeing and Airbus aircraft for comfort. It all depends on how the airline decks out the cabin. Ryanair chooses to put in seats that dont recline, no seat back pocked, no in flight entertainment and lots of adverts everywhere this is thier business model. I have flown WizzAir which is as bad as Ryanair and they use Airbus A319 aircraft. They are pretty much the same as FR. In fact the overhead bins on the plane were an even cheaper kind than what Ryanair puts in. The doors on the bins were so thin that if the aircraft rolled too steep the bags would bust the bins and fall out.

Aircraft interiors are down to the airline as to what level of comfort they wish to give passengers. You get what you pay for really. Norwegian as others have said is a good product using the B737-800 with the lovely blue sky interior.

Impetus

jjbrien wrote: »

Ok bashing the boeing 737-800 because you think its a yuk aircraft. A lot of the very big airlines use the 737-800 luftansa, SAS, United to name but a few use that 737-800. There is very little diffrence between Boeing and Airbus aircraft for comfort. It all depends on how the airline decks out the cabin. Ryanair chooses to put in seats that dont recline, no seat back pocked, no in flight entertainment and lots of adverts everywhere this is thier business model. I have flown WizzAir which is as bad as Ryanair and they use Airbus A319 aircraft. They are pretty much the same as FR. In fact the overhead bins on the plane were an even cheaper kind than what Ryanair puts in. The doors on the bins were so thin that if the aircraft rolled too steep the bags would bust the bins and fall out.

Aircraft interiors are down to the airline as to what level of comfort they wish to give passengers. You get what you pay for really. Norwegian as others have said is a good product using the B737-800 with the lovely blue sky interior.

The PAX cabins on Boeing aircraft are crudely designed and put together in my opinion – irrespective of the airline. Not unlike American cars, compared with European cars. Boeing aircraft are engineered for low cost, while Airbus are engineered for passenger comfort. I am aware that much is up to the original purchaser of the aircraft … however Airbus equipment is more civilized when it comes to the basics, ie before the seats and livery are specified. And I’m not talking about the A380 cabin…. http://www.airbus.com/aircraftfamilies/passengeraircraft/a380family/own-the-sky/cabin/

A320: http://www.airbus.com/fileadmin/media_gallery/files/brochures_publications/aircraft_families/A320_Family_market_leader-leaflet.pdf

A330: http://www.airbus.com/fileadmin/media_gallery/files/brochures_publications/aircraft_families/Airbus-A330-leaflet-Apr13.pdf

I’ve never hit my head against the curved overhead lockers on an Airbus, but it has happened on a B737 (FR) with its un-intelligently designed overhead locker (presumably made worse with the need to store lifejackets above there, rather than below one’s seat, as one might expect). [It is something Boeing have finally woken up to and are planning to fix in the next gen 737 – but there are a lot of badly designed overhead lockers on Boeing aircraft flying around the planet].

Boeing is hampered by the use of antiquated, imprecise, imperial measurements and its lack of access to designers who practice state of the art design. Instead the Boeing focus is on “terrorism” crap.

Boeing came late to fly by wire, and even today decisions are made by a single piece of software. On Airbus aircraft, which have had fly by wire for many years, the system is based on three separate software platforms, written by three different teams, and when an issue arises, it is down to a voting majority – ie two out of three.

I could go on… but in my experience anything made in an Anglo Saxon country is almost always second rate (compared with a Continental European product). Cars, clothing, food, wine, roads/autoroutes, retail shops, telecommunications, rail travel/public transport generally, online services, watches and jewellery, art, television programming, books…. And aircraft manufacture is no exception. Ryanair’s recent order for Boeing 737-800 aircraft at “half price” according to many reports is further proof of Boeing’s problems….

http://www.ryanair.com/en/news/ryanair-and-boeing-finalise-firm-order-for-175-new-737-800-aircraft

zagmund

All very interesting lads, but what does this have to do with "User-friendly, intelligent online reservations systems" ?

z

jjbrien

zagmund wrote: »

All very interesting lads, but what does this have to do with "User-friendly, intelligent online reservations systems" ?

z

To be honest not much.

The best experience I ave had with online reservation systems was with SAS.

Booking online very easy then if you departing from Norway you can go right up to the gate and do the check in at the gate or use a kiosk and simply drop your bag on a baggage belt and your on your way nice and simple unlike Ryanair who try to flog you everything under the sun when you check in online.

keithclancy

Bunch of the European airlines use the same booking system anyway:

http://www.navitaire.com/our-customers.aspx

Best online booking system I used was Singapore Airlines (for the complexity of the route it worked quite well)

Worst online system has to be Alitalia, bad translations all over the place, functionality is broken, christ sometimes your not even sure if you booked something or if the payment didn't go through.

Impetus

jjbrien wrote: »

Booking online very easy then if you departing from Norway you can go right up to the gate and do the check in at the gate or use a kiosk and simply drop your bag on a baggage belt and your on your way nice and simple unlike Ryanair who try to flog you everything under the sun when you check in online.

This focus on simplicity is alien to Irish airlines and airports. They like to screw up the customer experience with all forms of bureaucracy. It is not just the airlines - it is an Irish addiction to do a belt and braces job when it comes to designing how business transactions and interactions are managed. The keep it simple lesson one finds throughout Northern Continental Europe is ignored.

kerry4sam

@Impetus,

Please read your pm & stop re-posting your posts!

Thanks,
kerry4sam

Impetus

I have read it, and replied to you.

kerry4sam

Impetus wrote: »

I have read it, and replied to you.

Yes Thank You.

I've closed this thread as it is outside of our remit here in the Travel forum. Please read our forum charter if you are unsure about what we deal with in our forum. Our charter can be found here.

Thanks,
kerry4sam