The stark difference in how airlines display their purchase policies

During a purchase process of a flight ticket, interested buyers like you and myself care a lot about the policies such as those on baggage, change, rewards redemption, cancellation or refund. The longer and more expensive a flight is, the more we want to know about the policies of such a flight. Let’s look at how some of the popular airlines display their policies

Cathay Pacific – Great

It’s easy to see the important policies on Cathay’s flights.

Emirates – Great

You can see the difference in policies across tiers. It gives the audience a chance to compare the options and select what works best for them.

Eva Airways – Good

Eva Airways opts for a text-based presentation of policies instead of bullet points and icons like Emirates and Cathay. Even though the information can be read easily enough, there is room for improvement

Delta – Acceptable

Delta spells out whether a flight can be changed or refunded, but the UI is not as user-friendly as other airlines that we have seen above

Singapore Airlines – Great

Similar to Emirates or Cathay, Singapore Airlines makes it easy for travellers to see what they are paying for

Korean Air – Good

Even though the comparison is easy to spot, the information leaves something to be desired.

American Airlines – Below average

The airline displays some basic information, but you’ll have to click on the baggage and optional fees on the bottom left corner to have more details. Even then, it’s not really easy to digest their complex policies

United Airlines – The absolute worst

Look at these chunks of text. The airline doesn’t seem to want their customers to know what they are paying for. The use of text instead of visuals is bad enough. They manage to make it worse by using capitalized fonts which are not user-friendly AT ALL.

Customers do buy services or products deemed good value for their money. Subtly and implicitly scamming customers doesn’t generate much trust or goodwill. In a cut-throat industry, trust and goodwill can be the difference between prosperity and struggles.