Jet2 have updated their booking website. The old one was horrific so let’s see what the new one has in store for this intrepid traveler!

The homepage:

Fine! Clear calls to action, easy to understand form.

Let’s enter some flight information.

Come fly with me! Let’s fly to Peru! Or in this case Geneva.

Holy mother of Christ! £228 for the outbound flight! Luckily this is a really well designed interface that lets me see cheaper options quickly.

Let’s change to a cheaper option and we’ll be on our way.

Now we’re in to the booking engine proper. I’m asked to provide passenger info and choose the number of bags I need.

And this is where the dark patterns crawl out of the woodwork.

£60 for one bag for my trip! Can I get away with hand luggage only? I have no idea! Oh well, ‘Bagless Col’ it is (I’m assuming hand luggage is cool FYI).

Right, let’s move onto check-in. I need airport check-in cos I don’t have my passport with me so won’t be able to check-in at the office. Luckily, there’s this option…

Charges apply? Oh…£24

I can change to online check-in, go home, pick up my passport, come back to the office etc (HASSLE) but I need to reinforce the hidden charges vibe I’m bustin’ out here yo’.

Oooh what’s this?

No I haven’t. You dark pattern sons of bitches.

Right, what’s next? Seat allocation! I wonder if they’ll char…

No seats for me then!

Onwards and er, downwards…

Ho hum.

And on and on it goes. Here’s some meals from £8

Or some travel insurance!

And after a million years staggering around clanging into one signpost here, stepping on another rake there, we finally get to a very nice – it has to be said – payment page.

Le fin

Jet 2 have improved their booking engine considerably. Really! Some of it is very good indeed, especially flight selection and checkout; and they’ve fixed bugs like how the old system tended to crash undoing seat/bag allocation. And I’m grateful check-in options are more visible too.

And I get they’re a business and make money from all these added extras but by crikey it all feels dishonest, sly, and money grabbing; at least for me. And couldn’t some of these options -like seat allocation – default to a free option instead? “I know if I want to change a seat I will be charged, but for now it’s free”? Doesn’t that make more sense?

But what do you think? What airline booking engines have you used? Why was it good or bad? Hook me up on twitter and tell me.