Ryanair turns on blogger who found website glitch

RYANAIR HAS launched an attack on “idiotic” bloggers after a web developer wrote online about a bug he found in the no-frills airline’s website. Freelance web developer Jason Roe found that while trying to avoid credit card charges when booking through Ryanair’s website, he managed to reduce the flight price to zero.

He shared the glitch, which he says was a usability issue rather than an attempt to get free flights, with readers of his blog and followers on social networking site Twitter. However, the post soon attracted some critical comments.

One branded him an “idiot and a liar”. “You’ve opened one session then another and requested a page meant for a different session, you are so stupid you don’t even know how you did it,” it said.

Another wrote: “I’m not sure what you think you have achieved here, that wouldn’t have gotten you through to the back end . . . You must never have seen a decent exploit if you think this is something worth bragging about.”

Other comments criticised Mr Roe for not reporting the anomaly directly to Ryanair and said “they” were aware of such anomalies.

“When I saw the comments, I was quite taken aback,” Mr Roe said. “It took me a few minutes to work out what I wanted to say.”

He traced the comments via their IP addresses and discovered they appeared to come from Ryanair’s headquarters. Ryanair admitted yesterday it was a staff member who posted the comments.

“It is Ryanair policy not to waste time and energy corresponding with idiot bloggers and Ryanair can confirm it won’t be happening again,” Ryanair spokesman Stephen McNamara said.

“Lunatic bloggers can have the blogosphere all to themselves as our people are far too busy driving down the cost of air travel.”