VA/Sabre IT outage & major delays 21 May 2021

Status
Not open for further replies.
T

trisreed

Member
Joined
Apr 3, 2016
Posts
115
Qantas
Bronze
Virgin
Platinum
Hi all,

Not sure if this is the right thread but I am having all multitude of issues with the Virgin website at the moment. Trying to do the Velocity single sign-on often leads to an error page about half the time whereas actually trying to book a flight leads to the attached. Note that I am apparently not logged in despite being so on the last screen :)

On the phone to Velocity and I have been told the estimated wait time is 60 minutes - apparently on the platinum queue. Guessing this might be a common issue... and having just got a consultant after about ~15 mins apparently all booking systems are down - seems to be intermittent though.
 

Attachments

  • Screenshot_2021-05-21 Virgin Australia - Date selection.png
    Screenshot_2021-05-21 Virgin Australia - Date selection.png
    228 KB · Views: 12
trisreed said:
15 mins apparently all booking systems are down - seems to be intermittent though.
Click to expand...
Try all computer systems... Based on what people are posting on twitter, they can't check anyone in nationally right now.
Screen Shot 2021-05-21 at 5.14.21 pm.png
 
Score 10,000 Bonus PayRewards Points on your business spend!*
Elevate your business spending to first-class rewards! Sign up today with code AFF10 and process over $10,000 in business expenses within your first 30 days to unlock 10,000 Bonus PayRewards Points.
Join 30,000+ savvy business owners who:

✅ Pay suppliers who don’t accept Amex
✅ Max out credit card rewards—even on government payments
✅ Earn & transfer PayRewards Points to 10+ airline & hotel partners

Start earning today!
- Pay suppliers who don’t take Amex
- Max out credit card rewards—even on government payments
- Earn & Transfer PayRewards Points to 8+ top airline & hotel partners

AFF Supporters can remove this and all advertisements

henrus said:
Try all computer systems... Based on what people are posting on twitter, they can't check anyone in nationally right now.
View attachment 248538
Click to expand...
Sheesh. I consider myself lucky then! Trawled the @VirginAustralia page at the time and didn’t see anything about it. On a Friday night no less! Can’t be fun for anyone involved.
 
At least it didn't happen during Happy Hour last night...
 
Absolute shamozle this afternoon and evening. Flights boarded then cancelled. Other flights just cancelled. People waiting hours in check-in areas. No information to passengers. No announcements. Pilots walking off planes and cabin crew and ground staff unaware of what’s going on. Not a good look or experience. Apparently due to a global IT outage... funny it didnt seem to impact QF.
 
Yep was a mess tonight. Quite a few flights tonight impacted, SYD especially. VA seemed to think they could get dispensation on many flights with the curfew but it looks like that never happened.

There were a couple of flights in the network which commenced a manual boarding and then due to the SYD curfew they had to kick everyone off. I knew a few people who cut their losses and booked QF or JQ tomorrow morning. Funnily enough, their VA flights which were delayed 3-4 hours have now been canceled.
 
henrus said:
Yep was a mess tonight. Quite a few flights tonight impacted, SYD especially. VA seemed to think they could get dispensation on many flights with the curfew but it looks like that never happened.

There were a couple of flights in the network which commenced a manual boarding and then due to the SYD curfew they had to kick everyone off. I knew a few people who cut their losses and booked QF or JQ tomorrow morning. Funnily enough, their VA flights which were delayed 3-4 hours have now been canceled.
Click to expand...

Well there are 8 minutes until the SYD curfew kicks and it looks like VA564 (PER-SYD) is not going to make it in time. Wonder if it will divert (and to where)?
 
Mattg said:
VA564 (PER-SYD) is not going to make it in time. Wonder if it will divert (and to where)?
Click to expand...
VA564 has a curfew dispensation. Every other arrival request was declined.
 
So a family member was out at Brisbane airport this afternoon and caught up in it all (I've had to perform the shuttle to/from the airport and also rebook on QF tomorrow).

At around 4pm (AEST) the Sabre outage started which meant that flights around 4:30pm were able to escape as check-in had closed and they could perform a reasonably easy manual boarding.

By 5:30pm cough hit the fan and the queues for baggage drop were apparently crazy but the whole situation hadn't set in yet (took another hour for cough to completely hit the fan). There were quite a few delays especially with aircraft leaving down south, bound for Brisbane and it became clear at around 6pm that nothing was happening very fast. Nothing really happened for about 2 hours except for a few flights that were switched to manual check-in including VA986 the 6:05pm BNE to SYD. I know a few people tried a fly forward to it but staff even in the lounge wouldn't help because lounge staff couldn't help with manual check-in changes.

Eventually, around 9ish the 6:05pm VA986 started a manual boarding process but it quickly became clear that no curfew dispensations would occur and after some had boarded they were kicked off and the flight cancelled. The 7:05pm VA986 was the only BNE-SYD flight that wasn't cancelled at the same time but it finally got the chop at 9:44 pm.

At this stage just three flights remain tonight; VA799, VA383 and VA621 (CNS, TSV and MKY). All three look likely to go ahead but well into the early hours of the morning.
 
Looks like VA383 (BNE-TSV) has been rescheduled from 7.55pm to 1.45am tomorrow morning. New arrival time in Townsville of 4am! o_O
 
Mattg said:
Looks like VA383 (BNE-TSV) has been rescheduled from 7.55pm to 1.45am tomorrow morning. New arrival time in Townsville of 4am! o_O
Click to expand...
When curfews don't exist the possibilities are endless.

That being said the inbound VA616 hasn't left Mackay yet and isn't expected to until 12:04am, this will give it an arrival time into Brisbane of 1:33am which makes a TSV departure of 1:45am impossible.

I suspect it might be much later than that (possibly even until 6am) because tomorrow's 6am TSV->BNE VA362 has already been delayed 3hrs 40 minutes to 9:40ish. Scrap that, just after posting VA383 has indeed been delayed until the next morning at 7am. Just shows this will 100% flow through to Saturday.
 
I was booked on this VA flight, i arrived at the airport and received a text, orginaly stating, a 3.5hr delay. I needed to be back home at a reasonable hour, as i have a 6am start the next ( Saturday ) morning.
I was able to get the last J seat on QF, $750+ out of MKY.
Im very glad i did. Even if there were a VA lounge in MKY, 7+ hour waiting around would be unbearable!


187265701_845089499732731_3437693497414320770_n.jpg
 
When I arrived at Brisbane Airport last night around 6.30pm, and walked down from the train station I could see the crowds out the front of the airport, and I thought there might have been a security lock down or similar. Thankfully I had checked in online and had carry on luggage. At least there were very few people going through security so that was quick.
I was lucky that my flight to Canberra departed only two hours late, at 9.40pm. There was a flight to Adelaide and a few flights to Sydney that were cancelled. It wouldn't have been a good night for many people. A few were getting cranky in the VA Lounge, but most were just going with the flow.
 
kookaburra75 said:
When I arrived at Brisbane Airport last night around 6.30pm, and walked down from the train station I could see the crowds out the front of the airport, and I thought there might have been a security lock down or similar. Thankfully I had checked in online and had carry on luggage. At least there were very few people going through security so that was quick.
I was lucky that my flight to Canberra departed only two hours late, at 9.40pm. There was a flight to Adelaide and a few flights to Sydney that were cancelled. It wouldn't have been a good night for many people. A few were getting cranky in the VA Lounge, but most were just going with the flow.
Click to expand...
Yeah, not much the VA staff can do, out of their control. Can happen on any airline.
Would've been a long night for staff, i wonder if they kept the lounges open ?
 
AIRwin said:
The good news in this thread is achieving your 1000th post... Congrats!
Click to expand...
Haha, less so this morning. I ended up having to make a 4:30am airport drop off. Luckily the family member was able to get out on a 6am QF flight instead. Early this morning they got a text from VA with rebooking on a 2pm flight instead (almost 21 hours after the inital flight).

Hrdlicka said that some will die... yesterday that just so happened to be their computer system.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Become an AFF member!

Join Australian Frequent Flyer (AFF) for free and unlock insider tips, exclusive deals, and global meetups with 65,000+ frequent flyers.

AFF members can also access our Frequent Flyer Training courses, and upgrade to Fast-track your way to expert traveller status and unlock even more exclusive discounts!

AFF forum abbreviations

Wondering about Y, J or any of the other abbreviations used on our forum?

Check out our guide to common AFF acronyms & abbreviations.

Recent Posts

Currently Active Users

... and 20 more.
Total: 1,266 (members: 70, guests: 1,196)
Back
Top