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Want to book a Ryanair flight? Prepare for a face scan

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Re: Want to book a Ryanair flight? Prepare for a face scan

#41

Post by atlasduo »

shever73 wrote: post #6
madjam002 wrote: post #3

Requiring an account to book a flight seems perfectly reasonable to me

Could you elaborate on why that seems reasonable to you? The airline will already have my passport and credit card details, home address and mobile number. In my opinion, it should be the user's choice whether they create an account or not.

User account is an interface between a User and a system one interacts with. If you book a flight, a user is created - no way around that. So, what you essentially demand is to NOT provide you with a user interface to interact with the system. Instead, you would resort to interface through online/offline/phone support.

Your demand boils down to having less options to do actions with the business. Options that already exist and come out of the box.

Having an account is not as scary once you realize what it is and what it represents.

Re: Want to book a Ryanair flight? Prepare for a face scan

#42

Post by tgsovlerkhgsel »

aziaziazi wrote: post #37
fipar wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It will only be awkward and uncomfortable for those who can’t afford business class and not flying in low cost airlines. So basically, it’s the same way it has always been, since we’re in the climate change situation because of rich countries, and I don’t think a lot of us in poor countries care to stop producing CO2, it’s our turn now. “Everything is gonna burn, we’ll all take turns, I’ll get mine too”

> I don’t think a lot of us in poor countries care to stop producing CO2 I’m not sure about the situation everywhere but China gouvernement seems to care more than most other countries, rich or not. They flew a commercial plane with SAF in September. I personally think SAF is a terrible idea but give them credits for willingness.

Curious: Why is SAF a terrible idea? I don't think we're going to be able to electrify long-distance flights any time soon, and SAF seems like the most sensible solution that's actually available.

Re: Want to book a Ryanair flight? Prepare for a face scan

#43

Post by fipar »

rafaelmn wrote: post #29
fipar wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It will only be awkward and uncomfortable for those who can’t afford business class and not flying in low cost airlines. So basically, it’s the same way it has always been, since we’re in the climate change situation because of rich countries, and I don’t think a lot of us in poor countries care to stop producing CO2, it’s our turn now. “Everything is gonna burn, we’ll all take turns, I’ll get mine too”

I mean if all you care about is greenhouse emissions this still works - leess flying is less flying.

Well, point is that as long as there's enough demand from people who can afford to fly, this won't mean less flying, or at least not significantly less flying, but it will mean even more inequality.

I just don't think this is an easy thing to resolve.

Re: Want to book a Ryanair flight? Prepare for a face scan

#44

Post by lgbr »

I get that this is about preventing ticket reselling, but I have a different question: Can someone explain the controversy around face scans for air travel? Governments have clearly laid out that flying affords zero expectation of privacy, and the airlines won't let you buy a plane ticket without knowing your name (as opposed to bus or subway tickets). If the airline knows your name, and their attendants see and verify your face when boarding anyway, then are we losing anything through the use of face scans?

Domestic flights in the US make extensive use of facial scanning, and both US and EU border agencies digitally scan your face to identify you (Global Entry in the US even means you theoretically don't need your passport to enter the country).

So why should we pretend like face scanning isn't happening? I can understand the idea that at some point, I won't need a boarding pass nor identification to get onto a plane, and at this point, it appears to not cost me any privacy that I've already lost over the last 25 years.

Re: Want to book a Ryanair flight? Prepare for a face scan

#45

Post by dagw »

unsigner wrote: post #25
hoseja wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Modern airliner travel is about as or more co2-efficient as riding a bus.

I don’t regularly take buses to the other side of Europe to eat some gelato and gawk at cathedrals for a weekend. A lot of people use cheap airlines as cheap entertainment.

don’t regularly take buses to the other side of Europe

They used to. When I was growing up, way before budget airlines, buses used to be the way you traveled around Europe for cheap.

Re: Want to book a Ryanair flight? Prepare for a face scan

#46

Post by technothrasher »

grishka wrote: post #34
madjam002 wrote: post #3

Requiring an account to book a flight seems perfectly reasonable to me

No. Most airlines allow you to manage your booking with your last name and PNR. Which is perfectly fine. You would usually only need an account for two things: the loyalty/miles program, and having your details autofilled next time you book.

I remember the good old day when you could just walk up and buy a paper ticket, and that was all you needed to board the plane. They'd ask for your name, but you could give them any name, they didn't care. I realize that we're a long way from that world now, and we could never go back to it, but it sure was nice.

Re: Want to book a Ryanair flight? Prepare for a face scan

#47

Post by lifestyleguru »

sureIy wrote: post #38

What is wrong with Ryanair exactly? Do they have too many customers and want to trim some out? All of these are just barriers to bookings and reasons to prefer other airlines. It's true that they don't have competitors on certain routes, but they certainly do a large number of them.

What you gonna do, hire private jet? Fly with Lufthansa or Air France for EUR 500 and look at those VIPs shuttled with black Mercedes'es? Precariat should stay low, near the ground even while flying.

Re: Want to book a Ryanair flight? Prepare for a face scan

#48

Post by fipar »

aziaziazi wrote: post #37
fipar wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It will only be awkward and uncomfortable for those who can’t afford business class and not flying in low cost airlines. So basically, it’s the same way it has always been, since we’re in the climate change situation because of rich countries, and I don’t think a lot of us in poor countries care to stop producing CO2, it’s our turn now. “Everything is gonna burn, we’ll all take turns, I’ll get mine too”

> I don’t think a lot of us in poor countries care to stop producing CO2 I’m not sure about the situation everywhere but China gouvernement seems to care more than most other countries, rich or not. They flew a commercial plane with SAF in September. I personally think SAF is a terrible idea but give them credits for willingness.

You are correct in part but I think not in whole, since I said "a lot of us" and I'm pretty sure people in China would continue driving ICE and flying if it was up to them, the changes are just imposed top-down.

I'm glad when an authoritarian regime does something that ends up being good but 1) I still dislike the regime, and 2) I don't think that's something you can rely on.

Plus I'm pretty sure (just like everyone else) they're doing this not to avoid climate change but because they have a huge opportunity coming out ahead as providers of cleaner means of transportation (IMHO they already kick ass in EVs and will be the dominant player in this market).

But your point stands and has a lot of merit. What remains of my point is that I suspect most people in China wouldn't care about CO2 if up to them, and most of the rest of the poor/undeveloped countries will continue to not care.

Re: Want to book a Ryanair flight? Prepare for a face scan

#49

Post by switch007 »

dspillett wrote: post #26

The whole budget airline market is a pile of scams. Try booking on one of RA's cheapest flight offers, and you'll find that there are things you can't not book, like a seat on the actual flight(s)!, for which there is no zero cost option. There are zero-cost options for those things on the other price-points, but they remove this to try make the cheapest options look cheaper than the competition even thought they act…

People may be thinking "what's wrong with that?" but two things to remember: Ryanair will split up people on the same booking if legally allowed to, and some seats are pretty horrible, and some Ryanair flights are 5-6 hours.

(I swear some people would argue that if there was a 200% charge for booking 2 flights together that the other person should just go on holiday alone a week later...)

Re: Want to book a Ryanair flight? Prepare for a face scan

#50

Post by acdha »

hoseja wrote: post #18
amelius wrote: post #4

This is a good thing. Let them put those facial scans on a wall of shame. Generating CO2 should be as awkward and uncomfortable as possible. I'm waiting for airlines to remove all passenger seats.

Modern airliner travel is about as or more co2-efficient as riding a bus.

I haven’t seen any figures supporting that - do you have a citation?

https://ourworldindata.org/travel-carbon-footprint has data from 2022 for passenger-kilometers in the UK:

    Domestic flight 246 g
    Diesel car 171 g
    Petrol car 170 g
    Short-haul flight 151 g
    Long-haul flight 148 g
    Motorbike 114 g
    Bus (average) 97 g
    Bus (local London) 79 g
    Plug-in hybrid 68 g
    Electric car 47 g
    National rail 35 g
    Tram 29 g
    London Underground 28 g
    Coach (bus) 27 g
    Ferry (foot passenger) 19 g
    Eurostar (to Paris) 4 g
So the only way that could be true would be if the bus was significantly emptier than the plane so the same emissions were amortized over an order of magnitude fewer passengers.

Moreover, this ignores the future: there’s a straightforward path to electrifying a bus which has been deployed in production for years but no proven alternative for planes.

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