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Elysair Parties Like It's 1995

Where: France
November 27, 2006 at 10:24 AM | by djk | 0 Comments


In the grand tradition of airline launch ambiguity, Elysair is kicking it up a notch. We reported on the French airline last month. It's set to become something like the MAXjet or Eos of Paris, with all-business-class flights to and from there and the U.S. There's a big difference between MAXjet and Eos, but because Elysair has yet to release its seating plans, we don't know quite what they're going for.

But while looking for more information on Elysair's supposed December launch, we stumbled upon their killer website, which was beamed up straight from 1994 or '95. Perhaps they're spending so much money or gorgeous seats that they can't afford more than a megabyte of server space? Whatever the case, we love the "Under Construction" graphic, probably because we had one just like it on our very first homepage. The only thing they're missing is an embedded Blind Melon MIDI.

There's no techie competition between Elysair and Virgin America, but the lesson learned from both is the same: to calculate an airline's actual launch date, you will need a TI-83 for some serious multiplication and addition action.

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JetBlue's New Website

October 2, 2006 at 10:35 AM | by djk | 0 Comments


It's out with the old and in with the new for JetBlue, who recently revamped its website. Gone is the simple, subtly sexy veneer of yore; the new look is friendlier, and tries a bit harder to be hip. It's the biggest and most obvious change to the site since the airline's launch six years ago.

New features include a streamlined front page flight search (no menu scrolling required), a blog (or flog, really, since they're calling it a "flight log") for CEO David Neeleman, and lots of orange. Neeleman's flog may be buried under a tiny "About JetBlue" link on the bottom of the front page, but, provided he plans to update it regularly, we're actually kind of excited to read it.

There are still a few kinks to be worked out, though the most glaring of 'em if something JetBlue probably doesn't consider a kink at all. How about that photo of a giant screaming toddler on the front page, guys? There's nothing passengers would rather associate with a six-hour red-eye, huh?

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Site Scramble: LCC Awards

September 12, 2006 at 9:45 AM | by AVB | 0 Comments



It's time for the third installment of our Site Scramble feature to come to an end. This time, we focused on European discount carriers, of which there are many. There were enough to make our eyes glaze over, but we prevailed, and now it's time to pick the winner, losers, and merely laughable.

Best Overall: SkyEurope

Who would have guessed that JetBlue's sister is a smokin' hot Central European beauty? Yup, this LCC, with hubs in Prague, Budapest, and Bratislava (among others) won us over with clean site design, easy and useful searches, and a general sense of order not present on many of the other sites. Plus, look at those flight attendants!

Worst Overall: AlpiEagles

We respect them for flying to Tirana. But can we have an English translation of the site, pretty please? Otherwise it's tough to tell where we're going to be flying. Obscure taxes and fees didn't help the AlpiEagles cause much, either.

So Close, and Yet So Far: EasyJet and Wizz Air

These are both solid LCCs, with good reputations. We think they'd make excellent choices as far as carriers go, but the color schemes of their sites make our brain hurt. Orange? Purple and Pink? While they might be good for decorating a notebook in 1987, they're not the easiest to read, marring an otherwise excellent experience.

Coolest Feature: Air Berlin displays the number of remaining seats on flights you're considering, in case you need to know how much time you have to think it over.

Worst Feature: Many airlines don't initially display taxes and fees. C'mon, if we buy the ticket, we're going to find out eventually.

Still Makes Us Laugh: Ryanair's header of CHEAP FLIGHTS. What is this, 1996?

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Site Scramble: Vueling

September 6, 2006 at 2:44 PM | by AVB | 0 Comments


Vueling is a Spanish LCC, based out of Barcelona. Founded in 2004, they follow the JetBlue model quite strictly: They only fly A320s, they're based from a major metropolitan city, and they've poached some managers from the U.S. airline to help them start-up.

So we came in with high expectations, beyond really digging the arty map concept. We liked Vueling, which is definitely in the top tier of LCC web sites. Fare searches are pretty flexible and display surrounding dates. You also get to pick your seat, which is a rarity with these types of airlines, and a welcome level of service. You can also search the "calendar of prices": Pick your destination and see when it will be cheapest to fly there. That's pretty sweet if you ask us--it's like a built-in version of FareCast.

We were impressed with Vueling. If there was only some way to ensure that they served Iberico ham on board--then we'd be first in line for a ticket.  

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Site Scramble: Smartwings

September 5, 2006 at 1:56 PM | by AVB | 0 Comments



Smartwings is a Prague-based LCC. Operating from the Czech Republic since 2004, their choice of destinations changes more than frequently than Kirstie Alley's dress size. The airline is a subsidiary of Travelservice, the country's largest private airline.

As far as we see it, Smartwings is overshadowed by competitor SkyEurope. Smartwings was exciting when it debuted in Prague, which was late to the LCC game--thanks to the incoming flights from Easyjet and others. The front door isn't confusing, but fare searches are too simple--there's no way to search for days surrounding you intended departure.  Also, the route map on the front door looks an awful lot like an Atari game of some kind.

What's more, it's tough to put faith in a ticket on an airline that changes routes to constantly. LCCs seem impermanent by their very nature, but increasing that feeling just makes us anxious. There are better options to be had in this arena.

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Site Scramble: Centralwings

August 30, 2006 at 12:23 PM | by AVB | 0 Comments



We're going to restrain ourselves from making any kind of Polish joke here, just to prove that we can be wholesome and tasteful from time to time. Centralwings is a Polish LCC that is a subsidiary of LOT, the Polish national airline. The two are so closely connected that LOT rejiggered their routes so as not to overlap with those of Centralwings. It would appear that GM could learn something from LOT, now that we think about it.

Nonetheless, the site itself goes with the Polish national color scheme of red and white, which we appreciate. The airline flies out of quite a few Polish cities, which is good--you wouldn't want the Wroclaw-Cork route to be overserved, would you? Fare searches are displayed by the whole month in a calendar format, which we liked quite a bit. We see it from time to time and it really is the best way to find a fare if you're set on picking on airline. Good luck converting the fares from zlotys, of course, and they're very pushy about selling insurance, which is irritating. All in all, it's a nice interface, but we're not abandoning SkyEurope anytime soon.
 
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Site Scramble: Flybaboo

August 29, 2006 at 9:45 AM | by AVB | 0 Comments



We sure do love us some crazy-named LCCs, but strangely enough, Flybaboo is Swiss. It's not the country that first comes to mind when you think of crazy antics--fondue is about as wild as they get over there. Nonetheless, we want to cover as many of these European carriers as we can, because deals are often where you least expect them.

Flybaboo has one of the best taglines we've seen: A breath of Swiss air. Zing! Take that, polluted Luton and Stansted. Unfortunately, that seems to be the most innovative thing about the airline's website. Fare searches are pretty dull, and because the airline doesn't have that many flights, even from their Geneva hub, flexibility won't help you much. We're talking strictly one flight a day here; surrounding days are listed, and taxes are added once you select a fare. Even those are displayed in Swiss francs, which are tough to convert off the top of your head.

For an airline that's only flying Dash 8's--propeller planes--we'd expect either a snazzier site or better value. Even if the name isn't Swiss, the prices sure are.

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Site Scramble: AlpiEagles

August 24, 2006 at 11:34 AM | by AVB | 0 Comments



We were intrigued by Italian LCC AlpiEagles at first because they are one of the few airlines of any stripe to fly to Tirana, which seemed interesting to us. Beyond that, we didn't know much. The airline itself is based out of Venice's Marco Polo airport, and flies to destinations around Italy, the Adriatic, and Spain. It's pretty old for an LCC; they've been operating since 1996.

While the site interface is sleek in a simple Italian way, we did find a big hindrance to using the site well: It's only in Italian. We suppose we could consider it as a challenge, because maps are easy to figure out in most languages, but that kind of soured our experience. It's a good way to learn the days of the week and the months of the year in Italian, though.

Searches, if you get that far, are easy in the first steps; nearby days are listed, but taxes are not immediately shown. However, once you select your flight, AlpiEagles does break down where each and every one of the charges are coming from, which was informative. Unfortunately, there seem to be a lot of them---LCC equivalents of rust-proofing a car, if you ask us.

So we'll just describe the AlpiEagles experience as authentic. Good luck, and bring your phrasebook.

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Site Scramble: Wizz Air

August 23, 2006 at 11:20 AM | by AVB | 0 Comments



There was no way that we could ignore Wizz Air. Between what is, hands down, the best name of any airline in the history of mankind, to their pscychdelic pink and purple blinking color scheme--it looks suspiciously like the way dusk was represented in many Nintendo games--the airline screams out for attention.

Wizz Air is based out of Central Europe, with hubs in Katowice, and Warsaw, Poland and Budapest. According to flycheapo, they have the lowest cost per passenger of any LCC. As for their site, it's a zippy as the name. There's plenty of color on the front door, as well as a big graphic announcing sale fares and flash map so you can explore where they fly. One thing we liked on the sale ads--below the sale price it lists how much the taxes and fees cost on the tickets. Truth in advertising? Say it ain't so!

Some flights on Wizz Air are only several times a week, so if you search for certain dates they don't fly, the surrounding days are displayed. Fares can be searched for from the front door; taxes in the fares you select are not immediately displayed.

It's hard to believe, but an airline named Wizz Air has a better-organized web site than Us Airways. Actually, it's not that hard to believe.

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Site Scramble: bmibaby

August 22, 2006 at 11:50 AM | by AVB | 0 Comments



Nottingham-based bmibaby may not be the most well known LCC in Europe, but it certainly wins the title for the punniest name. We would expect nothing less from the Brits. A spin-off of British carrier BMI, bmibaby was the first LCC to offer a free flight (including paying the taxes).

Compared to our rapturous experience with Air Berlin and SkyEurope, the bmibaby site is a bit more down-market. Searching for fares is solid, in that days surrounding your search are also presented. Taxes and other fees are not displayed initially. Unlike many other LCCs in Europe, selecting seats beforehand is an option, which was something of a surprise. You can also opt to purchase lounge access, which felt slick.

Overall, we were left with the impression that bmibaby wouldn't be a bad choice, but that other experiences, both online and in-flight, would be more pleasant elsewhere.

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Site Scramble: Air Berlin

August 21, 2006 at 3:18 PM | by AVB | 0 Comments



What we're most digging about European LCC's? Maps. Many of these carriers, which tend to serve slightly odd destinations in the first place, choose to place flash maps of their routes on the front door of their site. If it's not on the front door, they do make them easy to find and play with, which we appreciate. It's much more  fun to imagine flying these carriers when you can see how extensive (or not) their network is.

Air Berlin does indeed have an extensive network, with flights from quite a few different hubs in Europe (London Stansted and Amsterdam included) to destinations in South and Western Europe. Fares are relatively simple to search for; the lowest available price is marked with a four leaf clover. Nearby days are also displayed, as is the full cost of the ticket and the number of remaining seats on the flight, making it the most open search process of any LCC we've seen so far. The big carriers in the U.S. could learn something from Air Berlin, if you ask us.

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Site Scramble: SkyEurope

August 17, 2006 at 1:49 PM | by AVB | 0 Comments



The differences between European LCCs can be quite drastic. To be fair, most try to follow the swish JetBlue model, not the frenzied Crazy Eddie experience that Ryanair offers. One of our favorites from the former category is Central European carrier SkyEurope.

The site is made up of soothing blue and white tones--high-impact sales is not the traditional way of operating in that part of the world--clearly displaying where the airline flies with a simple flash map on the front door. Fares on sale are also on the front door, making this close to the simplest interface we've encountered thus far.

Searching for fares is a little bit more difficult, although they do display dates surrounding those you're considering, if you want to burrow for added value. We wish taxes were displayed with the price of each leg, though, not after you've selected them. In the cool toys area, there is the option to send your itinerary via SMS to your phone. We're not sure if it's useful--we just said it was cool.

Between the leather seats we see pictured in the cabin and the lovely flight attendants, think of this as JetBlue's chic cousin from Budapest.
 
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