Description
The Web site from Go, the British Airways no-frills, low-cost airline, was launched in April 1998 as an information-only site and began taking on-line bookings in September the same year.
It was revamped in January last year and currently sees 40%-45% of its clients booked through the Web, with some months peaking at 63%. In a campaign during January and February this year, Go introduced and promoted a booking facility for travel agents. The scheme offers 5% discount on a leisure return fare and 8% discount on a business return fare. By mid-February Go had over 1,000 agents signed up to use the facility.
Home page
Entry to the site is quick, with a minimalist but effective home page. It’s white background is headed by a set of Go’s trademark coloured inkspots, forming a menu of links including news, special offers, hotels, flight information and a Book Now button.
At the base of the page, further links help users to find contact phone numbers, site information, a call-back feature and language options. The latest news and offers from Go, with a simple Next arrow, appears in the central section.
Ease of use
This site is thoughtfully laid out, with effective and clear menus remaining constantly in view. The use of the Next button enabled us to view the site subject by subject. The same button allows easy scanning through each individual subject as well. With this and the ever-present menus, it felt impossible to become lost. We felt comfortable with the friendly dialogue and the fact that no registration was needed to process the availability check.
Ease of booking – flights
The Book Now link took us to a simple form with a pull-down menu of Go’s destinations. The form allowed us to select a one way or return flight destination, outward and return dates, and number of travellers.
A simple click of the Next box yielded an almost instant response with a selection of outward and return flights, along with flight numbers and timings for each. Go states that it automatically displays its cheapest available fare on the selected date. The fare displayed had a clear synopsis of the rules and restrictions, and a choice to select the preferred flight where more than one is available.
Then choose Book Now, or Trade Up to find a higher fare on the same flight, which might offer less restrictions, or to Try Again to find a lower fare by selecting different dates.
The Book Now button took us to the passenger naming process, credit-card entry dialogue, and terms and conditions reminder all on the same page. The final choice was whether to have the confirmation (which also acts as a ticket) e-mailed or faxed. The whole process, where dates were available, was possible well within the 90 seconds claimed by Go for a Web booking.
Where your first of choice dates were not available, a Back button sent us back to a blank search form.
Ease of booking – car hire, insurance
The site also offers an insurance package, car hire and hotel bookings which are currently available by telephone.
A site upgrade in these areas would be beneficial – at least in the area of insurance, which could be easily integrated into the flight booking process as an optional extra. Certainly we felt that the dynamics of the booking process lent itself to ask questions such as ‘would you like a hotel?’ and offers some alternatives.
Nice touches
A call-back facility was good to see and for the potential repeat visitor, there is a choice to allow personal address details to be automatically filled in to make booking even quicker.
The Travel Agents section is helpful – even providing a standard letter to print out and sign to apply to Go Agency Sales for system access.
Value of information
On-line help is plentiful and succinct to help with queries about unaccompanied minors, infant bookings, special needs.
There are useful sections to summarise airport facilities at the various destinations served, brief tourist information for the cities, and useful summaries of available hotels through Hotel Connect. None of this information is extensive, but adequate for the regular traveller and helpful as a shop window for the first-timer, who can call for additional help.
Would you come back?
Yes – this site is hassle-free and accessible, and presents itself as a useful tool without unnecessary flannel.
It is no surprise that the site is used by a large percentage of travellers who fly with Go.
n What is a Portal? A Portal – which literally means a doorway, entrance or gateway – is designed to be the place where you start your journey on the Internet. Many of the popular portals such as Yahoo, Altavista, Excite and Infoseek began life as search engines or directories and were the doorway through which surfers passed in their search for information. However, as the popularity of the World Wide Web increased, these companies began to offer a package of regularly used sites from various categories such as travel, sport, shopping or news. With increased competition portals now offer more sophisticated features and services such as e-mail, chatrooms and free Web space to attract and keep surfers on their site longer. Portals today fall into several categories; horizontal portals provide broad coverage aimed at general interest users who use the Web as a form of leisure and entertainment; vertical portals are aimed at a single topic or audience; geographic portals are based on a particular locality and demographic portals are geared to a specific gender or age group.