That “Don’t Insure Me” option hidden in the middle of a country list is pure evil. I’m used to seeing dark patterns everywhere but that’s a first for me.

From where I stand, it’s not fair to charge the hell out of people who fall for these tricks while giving steep discounts to the ones who don’t. Maybe there’s a “fool me once” aspect to Ryanair’s shenanigans, so at least their impact might be limited somehow.

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wongarsu 4 hours ago | parent | next [-]

To be fair, that is described as an 8 year old example. Their current UX is much more clear.

Their current pattern is more about playing into the fear of what happens without insurance, without selecting your seat, when you don't pay for early check in and forget to do it online on the day before the flight, or what happens if you show up with more or larger luggage than what you booked. Fears they themselves create with high fees for showing up with too much luggage or for checking in at the airport

There is still a bit of praying on people who are in a hurry or are impatient, don't read the screens and just click the most prominent button. The most obvious is the seat selection. But it's no longer the most prominent way they get you

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som 3 hours ago | parent | next [-]

It's funny, I booked a flight with Ryanair only about an hour ago - out of pure desperation - first time in 15 years.

I remember them being crafty, but I have to admit I was surprised by the level of tactics ... that is to say, what they are still allowed to get away with given European / UK consumer law.

Not to mention that a 20kg bag and hand luggage cost me significantly more than the fare itself. They even had upfront "package deals" that would have actually worked out more expensive - bundles of nonsense benefits.

In Australia most of this kind of borderline deceptive selling has been stepped on, to the point that you hardly see it any more.

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netsharc an hour ago | parent [-]

My story wasn't with Ryanair, but I used to use Skyscanner to find the cheapest ticket, which is usually from a reseller agent instead of the airline (and whatever savings one made was wasted with time reading the 1-star reviews of how shit they are and then convincing oneself "Oh it'll be fine.").

One of these sites offered the ticket for dozens of Euros cheaper, and allowed me to go through the booking process until the end: I entered my CC, hit "Buy", and the next page was "Oops, the flight is no longer available at this price. The price now is: [the same price as booking with the airline]. Would you like to complete the purchase with this new price anyway?".

Fucking hell, it pissed me off so much that I said no and booked it with the airline after all.

	▲	kyusan0 35 minutes ago \| parent [-]
		I spent most of my professional life working in various roles in aviation, which included several years in a customer facing position at an airport. I'd recommend never ever using reseller agents. They frequently mess up tickets, they sell tickets that don't exist at all, and most of them won't forward your contact info to the airline's system, so if there's a problem or delay you'll never receive the notification from the airline. (Including coupons, hotel room offers in case of cancellation and other stuff) The airlines may be bad but the resellers are worse.

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noosphr 3 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

Did we read the same article?

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rsynnott 4 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

> That “Don’t Insure Me” option hidden in the middle of a country list is pure evil.

I think they may actually have gotten in trouble for that one; they've stopped doing it (as noted in the article it was from eight years ago).

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whizzter 4 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

If Ryanair was in the computing world, Oracle's audit department would look like nice guys.

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robofanatic 4 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

I always think these airline people see passengers as fish and put baits all over the places.

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throwawaysleep 4 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

Eh, we might be all better off if a lack of curiosity was more regularly financially excruciating.

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paranoidrobot 3 hours ago | parent | next [-]

I would counter this by saying we might all be better off if consumer protection laws were stronger and actively enforced against this.

I don't really have a problem with offering discounts to members of X program, or if insurance is pre-selected.

But the advertised price should be inclusive of everything (taxes, fees, charges, etc) and the price available to the general product before membership-exclusive pricing.

So if you advertise a product for $100 then any normal person can pay $100 and get it for that.

Want to sell it from cheaper to members of your reward program? Go ahead. But it can't be the most prominent price advertised for it.

You want to sell insurance pre-selected? No problem but again the default advertised price needs to include it. Even if they can opt out for a cheaper price.

There are sure to be edge cases. But the point being is that the price you advertise most prominently needs to be the all-inclusive price any member of the public can get without having to fight to select the correct option.

We don't accept misleading and deceptive practices in other areas, why do we let airlines, hotels and hire car places do it?

	▲	expedition32 2 hours ago \| parent [-]
		"We don't accept misleading and deceptive practices in other areas" Religion and politics.

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rescripting 4 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

I just want to see a price and book a flight, not engage in an online escape room with financial consequences.

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piva00 4 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Better off by being exhausted on never trusting any purchasing process? No, thank you, I don't need nor want to be curious when I just want to purchase a flight ticket.

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rurp 2 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Totally disagree. The cost of every single customer doing this for many different purchases is immense, and a completely unproductive use of time. It would be much better if pricing was as clear as possible so people can make make good purchasing decisions and move onto thinking about things that are actually interesting or useful.

	▲	petre an hour ago \| parent [-]
		Why, you think you're German and Ryanair is Lufthansa?

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wat10000 2 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Yes, let's pit ordinary people against gigantic companies with teams of highly paid experts who spend all day figuring out how to deceive them.

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antiloper 4 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

Eh, we might be collectively better of if we just all robbed your house