RyanAir Scrapping Bookings - Why?

I've never flown with RyanAir, one of the cheap UK airlines. I never will.

Yesterday, it was reported that they are to scrap thousands of bookings made via price comparison websites, which they call, "screen scrapers".

The reason, they say, is that these sites slow down their booking systems and cause inconvenience for their customers.

They say that they aim to create chaos for the screen scrapers (could that mean affiliate sites? I think so), by cancelling all tickets from tomorrow and only allowing people who have booked direct to fly with them.

I'm not sure how screen scraping works, as RyanAir say that they aren't giving permission to anyone to use their system. That must be the case, but surely they're being paid for the tickets.

The prospect of thousands of passengers being turned away from the check-in desks isn't a pleasant one and I can't imagine RyanAir would generate much sympathy with such an aggressive move.

What's this got to do with the Internet?

Well, looking more deeply at this issue, I wonder if the motivation is less to do with the customer experience as they claim, or if it's more to do with the back-end sales opportunity they miss when a third party makes a booking.

Think about the last time you booked a flight online.

Once you've booked, you're offered airport parking, car hire at your destination, hotel rooms and an array of other services.

Each one of those services, nicely integrated into the sales process, is not there for your convenience as a passenger, but as an automated revenue generator for the airline - they get a sales commission from the provider and they keep the customer details. I bet the take-up rate is pretty good too.

All of that back end disappears when bookings are made via a third party - RyanAir doesn't receive the customer information, which denies them the opportunity to email special offers and other products to these customers.

Personally, I don't blame them at all for taking a stance against companies that are using their system illegally (if they are).

I don't think cancelling thousands of tickets is the answer though. But then, I'm not a multi millionaire airline owner under extreme pressure from rising fuel costs, shrinking customer base and the rest of the economic pressures at the moment.

Is this the beginning of the end for price comparison sites?

I would imagine that the insurance industry will be next to follow these lines. Direct Line are already advertising heavily on TV that their products cannot be purchased at price comparison sites.

I can see why. Buy house insurance from them and you're bombarded with marketing for their other products.

It's not just online where the money is in the back-end and as business people, we must never forget that!