How the programme data is collected and ranked

Each value is taken from one of five kinds of source: the operator’s own website, a PDF the operator publishes (rate sheets, programme guides, terms and conditions), a press release, a contract filed publicly, or a regulatory filing. These are the only source types our records accept.

Every value is stored with the address of the page that states it, the page’s date and the kind of source it is, and every programme page links each figure to its source. A value without a source and a date cannot be saved as published: the database refuses it.

Some values are found with the help of AI research tools. Such a value is recorded only against a page that states it, with the exact wording kept for the reviewer, and the programme stays off the site until a person has reviewed it. No programme’s terms appear publicly before a person at Instajet sets it live.

Every programme is on a 90-day re-verification cycle by default: a person re-reads its sources, updates any term that has changed, and marks it verified. Each programme’s page states when that last happened and its interval. A programme that has not been re-verified since its values were entered says so rather than showing an entry date.

Re-verification is recorded only by that explicit step. Editing one value does not mark a whole programme verified, and every change to a value is kept in its revision history.

We rank on published terms because they are the one thing an operator and a reader can both check. A ranking an operator disputes is then a disagreement about a term it published and a rule stated here — both correctable — rather than about our opinion. These are the rules every ranking follows:

1. Every criterion is a stored field. A category whose criteria cannot be computed from what we store is not published — however useful it would be.
2. A condition (Europe in the service area, for example) decides which programmes a ranking is about. Programmes that do not meet it are outside that ranking, not marked down by it.
3. Missing data keeps a programme out; it is never filled in. A term we have not researched, or whose value is awaiting re-verification, excludes the programme, and the ranking lists it with that reason.
4. Where a criterion is required, a programme whose operator does not publish it is excluded and listed. Where it is not required, the programme is ranked and scores nothing on that term: an unpublished term earns no credit.
5. On each term, the best value among the ranked programmes scores full points and the weakest scores none, with the rest placed in proportion between them. When every ranked programme has the same value, all score full points.
6. A programme's score is the weighted sum, out of 100. Each roundup prints every term's weight, and every programme's points on every term.
7. Ties are listed alphabetically by programme name, so the order is the same on every build.
8. Amounts are never converted between currencies. A ranking on money names its currency, and a programme priced in another is listed as not ranked, with that reason.
9. Only programmes on sale are ranked. A discontinued programme keeps its own page but stands in no ranking.
10. A ranking is published only when at least 5 programmes can be ranked. A shorter list is better served by our head-to-head comparisons.
11. Every sentence a ranking page writes about a programme is checked automatically before the page is built: each figure must equal the stored value; a word like “lowest” must belong to the programme that actually holds the lowest value under the stated criteria; and no line may characterise an operator except by restating its own published terms. A page that fails is not published.

If a figure is wrong, out of date, or attributed to the wrong source, use the corrections form. Name the programme and the term, and give the address where the correct term is published. We change a value only against a published source — the same standard every value met to be entered — and every comparison and ranking that uses it is recomputed from the corrected value.

If you represent an operator and a term is shown as not publicly disclosed, the fastest correction is to publish it: send us the page, and it will be recorded with its source like any other. Corrections to published reporting are logged on the corrections page; how articles are written is set out in the editorial policy.