There is at least one difference between Ryanair and Germanwings: ryanair.com still works, while germanwings.com seems to have collapsed under high load (eurowings.de currently won't load, too). So trying to book some 1 Euro Germanwing tickets is a complete failure up to now.
Meanwhile, I managed to get some of those 50 Cent Ryanair tickets. They seem not to be available for destinations in Scandinavia, so we opted to travel south instead. Once you finally found your flight, it takes no more than 2 minutes in a straightforward procedure to terminate the booking.
Interestingly enough, both Ryanair and Germanwings seem to use the same booking system: SkySales Booking, part ot the Skylights E-Suite Booking System of Minneapolis, MN based Navitaire ("Technology that liberates"). To copy what Ryanair did might be a clever move of the competitor, as defective Ryanair customers won't have to learn another booking procedure with another GUI (it even has the same tiny little Javascript/Back button bug on both sites) - and in contrast to the Irish, Germanwings didn't fail to built an appealing site around the module (with an obvious lack in server power, though). GUI-wise, this is something Mr Nielsen should like. Stay tuned for more on an innocent customers online quest for budget tickets.
In unrelated news, ordering at the Siemens Mobile online store is a breeze: ordered yesterday, the parcel just arrived - exactly 23 hours later.
ELSEWHERE
:: Heiko Hebig - Cheap air travel. Or not.
:: Martin Röll - Verrückte Welt
IN THE ARCHIVES
:: 2002-12-05 Ryanair: New Adventures in Online Booking
:: 2002-12-05 These guys remind me...
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