This week: www.easyjet.com
Description
EasyJet, the low-cost carrier, is taking 25% of its sales over the Internet after just one year of on-line booking and is now aiming for a startling 60%of sales on the site by the end of the year.
Its new winter schedule has recently been added to the Web site and is exclusive to people making Internet bookings until 1st September. EasyJet also offers a £1 discount on each flight booked on-line.
The airline advertised in the trade press earlier this year suggesting that agents could keep this saving for themselves if they book on-line on behalf of customers.
Home Page
The simple, distinctive branding of EasyJet hits you as soon as you reach the home page of the Web site. Only a few main options can be chosen – buy on-line, news, info and EasyJet tours. However, the page creates a little confusion with a Swissair headline in French, German and Italian (but not English) and an unexplained Liverpool Echo Daily Post heading for a local newspaper promotion.
Ease of booking
Finding a flight and making a booking is simple. First, EasyJet gives a quick run through how it works with abbreviated terms and conditions – unfortunately we got a bit of eyestrain from trying to read the small print. Clients then proceed to type in the date of travel and choice of airport followed by your destination, return trip date and the number of passengers.
The only bit we found confusing was the return trip date, as a travel industry person I thought this would have been the holiday duration and another colleague was baffled by this section. However, flights meeting the criteria appear within seconds in a clear, concise format showing departure dates, times and prices.
Flights appear in date order and, as they are given for two days before and after the chosen travel date, it may have been better to have seen our preferred dates first, followed by an alternative.
Select the preferred outbound and return flights to progress to a summary page, which clearly shows the itinerary and prices with a quick calculation of the total cost of the trip including tax.
From here security encryption is used (if your browser does not support this then you have the option to make the booking without security).
Only necessary details such as your name, address, contact telephone number and e-mail and credit card information are requested – the booking itself is very speedy.
EasyJet is a ticketless airline and it responds with a confirmation letter and number by fax or post.
Ease of use and navigation
What makes the site so simple and user-friendly is:
* There is a limited amount of choice as EasyJet only flies to and from 18 airports and destinations.
* Everyday English is used – eg “Okay, we’re ready to book these flights” – there is no use of travel jargon.
* Instructions are given throughout the site.
* There is a clean, effective design with few graphics but making good use of the Web’s visual capabilities.
* No whizzy-looking web-design tools that your browser won’t understand (although we found a couple of script errors).
* Quick response times.
* However, late availability and flight offers were of very limited value. There was no detailed information or pictures.
* Despite the heading on the top of the frame, on-line reservations were not offered.
Nice features
When entering the dates for a return day-trip a message appeared to check that I really did want to come back so soon. A calendar facility is also quite handy.
When you make your first booking there is an option to remember the details for the next visit.
To book on-line for extras such as car rental, accommodation, airport car parking, a link takes you to Travel Extras Web site, which ties in fairly well with EasyJet’s destinations.
Value of information
There’s lots of very good information, including timetables for each route, information on destinations and airports, how to book, cost comparisons, aircraft details and financial reports. We thought it would have been very neat if, from the timetables, you could step into the buy on-line process.
We would have liked to have been able to check when the cheapest fares would be rather than just prices for selected dates but EasyJet does not publish fares. Fares change as seats are sold – providing true dynamic pricing. We noticed this when returning to the site a few days later and one of our selected flights had increased from £58 to £118.
Would we come back?
Yes, most definitely. Information is presented in a short and snappy way and even the terms and conditions are abbreviated to answer the main queries a passenger could have.