Airline Plans To Cancel All Flights Booked Through 3rd Party Websites
from the piss-off-your-customers-much? dept
And people wonder why airlines have so much trouble staying in business? We were already confused enough by American Airlines' desire not to be listed on the sites where people search for airfare, and easyJet's plan to sue the sites that send it customers, but Irish-based airline Ryanair is taking this all to a new level. Beyond just being upset about those 3rd party sites (i.e., sites that send it business!), it's planning to cancel the flights for everyone who booked through one of those services (thanks to Sean for the link).Yes, we understand that these airlines prefer people to purchase flights from the airlines directly, but it still seems bizarre to try to cut off a great promotional channel. People already know to go look at 3rd party sites for airfare, so actively working against having your flights promoted doesn't make much sense. Then actively pissing off a bunch of your customers who booked through those sites by canceling their flights is even more braindead, as you've just formed a huge group of customers who will complain about your airline and spread the word about how you canceled their legitimately purchased flight for no reason other than spite and a confusion over business models. When Ryanair started promoting how some of its seats might come with sexual gratification, I'd bet many passengers didn't realize it would end with them getting screwed.
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Filed Under: aggregation, airlines, cancel, global distribution services, scraping, ticket prices
Companies: ryanair
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A game of chicken?
High fuel prices?
it still seems bizarre to try to cut off a great promotional channel
I'm guessing that the normal rules of business become distorted when you actually lose money on every flight, as almost all airlines (at least in the US) are.
I heard a story on NPR this morning about how all of the new fees being charged by airlines are a way to keep the up-front costs down enough so that the company's flights can appear on the critically important first results page when people do a search. The main point of the story was that all of the US carriers know that their fares are way too low to actually make any money -- given today's fuel prices -- but that no one wants to be the first to raise prices for fear that they'll fall off that first results page and lose business.
The story even implied that the US carriers blame their financial troubles on their customers for "unreasonable" demands for low airfares. With an attitude like this, it's no wonder that an airline would cancel flights like this.
(So, how's that for turning your standard principles of capitolism on its head: all of the companies in a certain area know that their prices are so low that they can't stay in business for long, but no one wants to be the first to raise prices. It's like a game of chicken, but on a massive scale. Scary.)
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Re: A game of chicken?
To be fair, airlines had trouble staying in business long before the price of fuel shot up. It's not helping matters, but it's hardly the cause.
I heard a story on NPR this morning about how all of the new fees being charged by airlines are a way to keep the up-front costs down enough so that the company's flights can appear on the critically important first results page when people do a search
I'd agree... except for the actions described above are so that they no longer appear on the search at all.
That's the part I don't understand.
The story even implied that the US carriers blame their financial troubles on their customers for "unreasonable" demands for low airfares. With an attitude like this, it's no wonder that an airline would cancel flights like this.
But the actual complaint was that the fees charged by those 3rd part providers was too high. So that doesn't mesh either.
I dunno. I understand the points you're making, but they don't seem to explain this behavior.
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Re: A game of chicken?
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Re: A game of chicken?
ISP's
Telco's
software comapanies
Hardware manufacturers
OPEC
Utilties
Cell phone carriers
RIAA/MPAA
Have all managed to notice. Namely collusion and price fixing.
Its worked for every other industry in America with a barrier to entry higher than a small business loan, its a wonder the airlines haven't clued in yet.
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Re: Re: A game of chicken?
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Re: A game of chicken?
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Mind you, neither is refusing to honour the bookings made in good faith by the victims of said fraud, and nor is making the fraudsters themselves responsible for refunding the money paid in the vain hope of making their lives difficult. easyJet seem to have been motivated by a genuine wish to protect their clients and the company's reputation from an outright scam; damned if I can figure out Ryanair's objective, though wangling of a cut of the surcharges is one possibility that springs to mind.
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Guess that's unreasonable too.
I'm tired, my flight to Boston last night arrived 3 hours late. That's just the normal service from American Airlines.
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Re: On time
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Hmmm...
It actually sounds like these sites are not authorized to sell tickets for the airline and are selling direct use 'screen scraping'. It is one thing to link to the Airline's site, it is another to be an unauthorized sales agent or to not at least own the tickets for resale.
I disagree with them going this route. It would be better to find a way to stop the initial sale and force a link instead.
Punishing the consumer to get at the reseller is wrong.
Freedom
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Sorry ass business models
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If they don't make money, why are they in business?
I could see ending their relationship with the online booking agencies, but going so far as to cancel already booked flights seems a bit silly.
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Re:
Some use an API to pull the info, others spam their website with bots to get the info.
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Insight about airlines ? From Techdirt ?
Now Ryan air's idea is equally impressive. Get out of the 3rd party websites (like southwest) and force the issue with the 3rd party firms.
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Re: Insight about airlines ? From Techdirt ?
Really? You overestimate most people. They'll check Expedia, and if United or AA doesn't show up, then they'll just assume that there's no reasonably priced flights from those airlines.
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Businessmodel.
They rely on enough customers getting extra services like rental cars or insurances to make that cheap flight pay of for them. So it adds up in the end.
If they lose those extra services to others they can't keep their planes flying.
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Well, simply boycott any airline....
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The end goal isn't that far off of SWA
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Ryanair is essentially preventing theft
I actually side with Ryanair on this one, and also, Ryanair is a European-only airline so comparing it to the US airline subsidies is not really a fair comparison. The main reason I side with Ryanair is in other businesses this lack of communication between middlemen and the end customer costs money, time and customer loyalty. Think of it this way: a businessman rents a car from Company A, and then in turn rents it out to another person at a higher rate. The businessman makes a wad of cash, and Company A doesn't have a clue that the information they have is invalid, nor is the person they loaned the car to driving the vehicle. This is not really a consumer vs. business situation, it's a business vs. business. They've already sued and won:
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/07/11/ryanair_screen_scraping_victory/
So please, this is not US failing airline problems. It's illegal behavior that Ryanair is trying to stop.
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Re: Ryanair is essentially preventing theft
"I actually side with Ryanair on this one, and also, Ryanair is a European-only airline so comparing it to the US airline subsidies is not really a fair comparison"
Italy, France, Greece and other EU countries are among the top ones subsidizing airlines here in Europe. No idea of what you are talking about not fair comparison.
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Those 3rd party sites charge
I have worked in hospitality and hotels hate them especially Expedia they are the meanest rudest people to deal with if your on the business end of things.
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I'm going to have to side with lines like Ryanair and Southwest
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Ryanair
So while it's a bit cheeky, I think Ryanair has a point.
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Botched headline
TFA says they cancel the booking, not the flight.
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Ryanair not found by regular travel site searches
RyanAir mostly does not use "regular" airports. You will not find a RyanAir flight searching for a flight from, say, Frankfurt to Gothenburg. Ryanair does fly from a place 120km from Frankfurt to the old airport of Gothenburg that nobody else uses, though. People in Europe wanting to fly really cheap know they need to check RyanAir.com, EasyJet.com etc. The 3rd party sites mentioned by RyanAir are just interesting for stuff like airport transportation, since that can be quite a challenge with the types of airports Ryanair typically uses.
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watch who follows
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Sense, it seems, is not so common!
What interests me the most is that all they have to do is put up a mirror website for the use of the 'perpetrators' of the 'crime' (that crime being accessing the public website!), or maybe just increase their hosting space or whatever.
But. it seems, being managers, they choose the way that lacks the most in the way of commonsense.
I have to admit that if I was put through this by this airline, I would make sure it never happened again by the simple act of never buying a flight from them ever again, like I did with Cathay Pacific after they dumped my wife at a different destination than booked, due to 'rescheduling'. Never again!
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Ryanair web site
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Re:
The good old days = flying 4 or 5 star hotel.
Today = Nazi boxcars from Schindler's list without the fire hoses. THAT will cost you $5.00 extra.
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