> It seems that the real purpose of the verification process is to prevent online travel agencies from setting up accounts to buy and subsequently re-sell Ryanair flights on their websites.
You'd think a lighter touch verification would also serve this purpose?
A face scan provides all sorts of other information that they might find valuable to have on their clients.
You need the full name & passport to be able to book a flight though. I'm not sure how the agencies can re-sell the flights later on?
I'm assuming agencies do that to lock the prices early on for the flights that they know will be fully booked. If airlines didn't do the nasty tricks with the prices changing every minute, this approach wouldn't work, though.
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.
If the argument is "they're already doing this, so what's the issue?" then I have to ask: if they're already doing this, then what's the value-add? Face scanning seems like quite a large complex system to deploy compared to the tried-and-true method of paper ticketing and identification. The push for this technology is suspicious to me as a Westerner because the benefits to me are unclear, while the risks (e.g., China-like ubiquitous surveillance and repression, and corporate access controls like those attorneys who were barred from a Madison Square Garden show) are a little more established.
> 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?
I've recently flown with FinnAir and they never asked for my ID. All times I went with them. I just scan my boarding pass and done. The only day they asked me for my name is when I was the last person to board the plane because I was late for my flight.
> 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?
Your face scan is now online waiting for the next data breach.
I have seen neobanks requiring such 3D face scans but not Ryanair yet.
> Your face scan is now online waiting for the next data breach
Completely understood, but the point is that it's at CBP or UK Border Force or Bundespolizei, and it's in the security camera system at the airport, too.
If you've been a visitor to Australia recently, you'll be all too familiar with the process of using your phone to scan your face plus passport data.
When you enter the airport, you walk past signs notifying you of extensive surveillance camera use.
lol. people pay $100 for the benefit of signing away all and every privacy just so they keep their shoes. not a single people who signed up for this things realize for much privacy rights they signed away to the government.
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.
They have always treated their customers like crap and in the past it hasn’t hurt their sales. Though recently they have had to sell tickets lower than they would have liked to boost sales. They would like to give the impression that they are always the cheapest option but it’s not always the case and customers are too lazy to shop around. Other airlines have copied their tactics so the alternative isn’t always that much better.
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.
everyone today is rolling out face scans as authentication hacks.
third world banks have palm readers on ATMs for two decades now. amz is trying this on whole foods checkout
most government apps use face scan now, because google and apple limited access to fingerprints on the OS.
they will relearn all lesson learned by govts using numbers at random for people for benefits auth (like ssn) by using biometrics, which is the same thing.
I had to do this recently, actually it was not possible to book the flight without doing it. I already have my passport attached to the accounting and this just felt incredibly invasive. But I still don't buy any of the reasons for it.
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 actually aren't.
(I assume other airlines use similar scummy tricks, I mention RA as they are the subject of this article and I recently looked into travel options for a future trip including them as an option).
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...)
They always do this with my bookings. They say "booking appears to have been made through a third-party travel agent". All the bookings were made from the same account for the same person, yet I'm always forced to do additional verification. Tried creating a new account - same thing. Their support keep saying how sorry they are and that it's a mistake because it shouldn't happen when you book on their website, but it's just BS. But unfortunately, sometimes there are no options other than Ryanair.
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You'd think a lighter touch verification would also serve this purpose?
A face scan provides all sorts of other information that they might find valuable to have on their clients.
I'm assuming agencies do that to lock the prices early on for the flights that they know will be fully booked. If airlines didn't do the nasty tricks with the prices changing every minute, this approach wouldn't work, though.
Name changes in a ticket are very expensive in low-cost airlines, unless it's like a typo.
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.
I've recently flown with FinnAir and they never asked for my ID. All times I went with them. I just scan my boarding pass and done. The only day they asked me for my name is when I was the last person to board the plane because I was late for my flight.
Your face scan is now online waiting for the next data breach.
I have seen neobanks requiring such 3D face scans but not Ryanair yet.
Completely understood, but the point is that it's at CBP or UK Border Force or Bundespolizei, and it's in the security camera system at the airport, too.
If you've been a visitor to Australia recently, you'll be all too familiar with the process of using your phone to scan your face plus passport data.
When you enter the airport, you walk past signs notifying you of extensive surveillance camera use.
It's true that they don't have competitors on certain routes, but they certainly do a large number of them.
third world banks have palm readers on ATMs for two decades now. amz is trying this on whole foods checkout
most government apps use face scan now, because google and apple limited access to fingerprints on the OS.
they will relearn all lesson learned by govts using numbers at random for people for benefits auth (like ssn) by using biometrics, which is the same thing.
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 actually aren't.
(I assume other airlines use similar scummy tricks, I mention RA as they are the subject of this article and I recently looked into travel options for a future trip including them as an option).
(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...)