IdleRich
IdleRich
I don't fly very often, thank fuck. But, we gotta go back to UK for a bit - I can't avoid it forever sadly - see the parents, check up on the flat, get really really fucked up etc so we have to fly. The whole process of flying is an incredibly stressful one, but right now I just want to talk about all these websites like Opodo, Skysanner, one called Kayak I think we used today, they're fucking awful. Especially the way that they change the prices all the time, I really don't get how that is allowed. And it remembers you so if you look at Lisbon to London one time and you go back and log in it thinks oh they looked at Lisbon-London last time, quick, raise all those prices - how is that legal? If you went in Sainsburys and the staff were like "Oh it's that guy who loves baked beans, quick get the thing for sticking labels on and double all the prices" you'd be fucking pissed off.
Today we search on all the ones that fly Lisbon-London and back, but it's complicated cos Lizatron is boycotting Easy Jet since last time it just cancelled and left her stranded in Amsterdam and it's taken her months to get her money back. Eventually we find the cheapest one which is gonna be just under £400 and we click on it, and it says "Ha ha cunt that's one has just gone up to £472" so we go fuck that, back to the drawing board. Also it's impossible to do a really fair comparison cos some give you luggage included and some don't and you're going to have to pay for that which will be a lot of money and so the one you got isn't the cheapest after all. We select one and we're just checking out all the times and so on and these bubbles keep popping up saying "Hurry the price is about to rise" - is it really legal to try and twist people's arms like that?
And when we do select the one we want there are a million different options to click through. Do you want insurance, what kind? And there are loads and loads of different ones - this one will guarantee your money back if a goose flies through the window, this one if it's a duck, but best pay for both to make sure you're covered. At each stage the default button is the one that costs money and it's a big bright orange one that you see straight away, then there is normally a small, hidden white one for the option that doesn't cost extra. That seems to be a deliberate attempt to trick people into spending money by pushing the wrong button. Then they offer you the chance to pick your seat, that's ten quid extra per person, they ask if you want automatic check-in and that is £4 extra - except there are two of us and two flights so that's £16 really. You also have to pay if you want them to text/email you if it's delayed and so on and so forth. It's a fucking racket.
So some of that is an old man moaning. But genuinely
a) Are you legally allowed to change the price based on the person buying, is that not discriminatory?
b) Why do the prices go up all the time anyway? Is it really legal to change the price of an offer once you have clicked to accept it at a previous price?
c) Is it legal to try and push people into buying things by threatening to raise prices like that?
d) Is it legal to have a website misleadingly designed so that people are likely to spend money on things they didn't want or intend to because they have clicked on the wrong thing?
It really feels at every stage as though you are dealing with really shady criminals who are on the edge of the law, not supposedly respectable international companies.
Today we search on all the ones that fly Lisbon-London and back, but it's complicated cos Lizatron is boycotting Easy Jet since last time it just cancelled and left her stranded in Amsterdam and it's taken her months to get her money back. Eventually we find the cheapest one which is gonna be just under £400 and we click on it, and it says "Ha ha cunt that's one has just gone up to £472" so we go fuck that, back to the drawing board. Also it's impossible to do a really fair comparison cos some give you luggage included and some don't and you're going to have to pay for that which will be a lot of money and so the one you got isn't the cheapest after all. We select one and we're just checking out all the times and so on and these bubbles keep popping up saying "Hurry the price is about to rise" - is it really legal to try and twist people's arms like that?
And when we do select the one we want there are a million different options to click through. Do you want insurance, what kind? And there are loads and loads of different ones - this one will guarantee your money back if a goose flies through the window, this one if it's a duck, but best pay for both to make sure you're covered. At each stage the default button is the one that costs money and it's a big bright orange one that you see straight away, then there is normally a small, hidden white one for the option that doesn't cost extra. That seems to be a deliberate attempt to trick people into spending money by pushing the wrong button. Then they offer you the chance to pick your seat, that's ten quid extra per person, they ask if you want automatic check-in and that is £4 extra - except there are two of us and two flights so that's £16 really. You also have to pay if you want them to text/email you if it's delayed and so on and so forth. It's a fucking racket.
So some of that is an old man moaning. But genuinely
a) Are you legally allowed to change the price based on the person buying, is that not discriminatory?
b) Why do the prices go up all the time anyway? Is it really legal to change the price of an offer once you have clicked to accept it at a previous price?
c) Is it legal to try and push people into buying things by threatening to raise prices like that?
d) Is it legal to have a website misleadingly designed so that people are likely to spend money on things they didn't want or intend to because they have clicked on the wrong thing?
It really feels at every stage as though you are dealing with really shady criminals who are on the edge of the law, not supposedly respectable international companies.