06 January 2009

Why I Like the F9 Interface

Frontier's new simplified system for air booking is a wonderful thing.

For sometime I have been a big critic of the other displays particularly the ITA Software based displays as being way too complex.

I like simple.

Here is a good example of 3 different interfaces which illustrate my point.

the new Frontier display is very nice and the new Southwest display is nice - both have issues (Frontier has some bugs - WN is now hiding its cheapest fares making my jump through extra hoops to get to the cheapest fare).

Air Canada's display is just plain horrid.

Try this yourself at home - chose a high traveled city pair for each airline (I recommend DEN-SEA for F9 - same for WN and then chose YVR-YYZ for AC).

Congrats to the boys at Jim Young and his team at Frontier and Datalex for delivering something in a hurry. Now just fix that entry bug

Cheers





4 comments:

Anonymous said...

I am sorry. Can you please elaborate as to why you feel the F9 display is superior to the "horrid" AC display? The examples appear virtually identical to me. Is it simply aesthetic?

Thank you.

Professor Sabena said...

The simple answer is that it is easier for the consumer to see the lowest fare. I have to hunt through the AC display. It has more information and it is more functional but also harder to read. If you are used to it then fine - but if not then it is clear that clean the WN and F9 displays are better. Hence this is why I prefer the F9 display.

Call me a heretic but - for once form beats function

Cheers

The Professor

Anonymous said...

Hey

Why not just use a aggregator site like Momondo.com or Kayak.com to ensure you find the cheapest available tickets?

Cheers

Professor Sabena said...

I dont think this is an apple to apple comparison. I want a better display in direct airline than any neutral player can provide. So there is no comparison in my view.

Cheers