QF's crazy booking engine!

[Brettmcg]

IMHO the new QF booking engine is average at best.

I keep having to re-search and refresh to try and find flights at specific times of the day. For example, today I needed to book a MEL-ADL-MEL on 08OCT. This morning at 9am no flights were displayed by the engine for departure before 1100. When I checked again 30 mins later a choice of 3 flights appeared, all of which were at reasonable prices. I just checked again now and two of those three flights have disappeared again.

I'm also concurrently looking at a SYD-MEL-SYD on 22NOV: the last three days I have seen pretty good deals on early evening departures, yet now the flights displayed only go up to a dep time of 1615. I guarantee if I check back later this afternoon the later flights will have returned.

I can't believe that any of these issues are related to proactive management of availability as the flights appear to be bookable through other websites. Seems like a bug in the system!

:evil:

 

[serfty]

As far as I know, decided to have the one integrated booking engine which was due to be released in April but was deferred to late July.

The integration is still incomplete and there have been interim measures to get at least some part of it out there.

As with the OPn, what is out there has it's problems.

Here's one for example - want to pay the $ component of an award booking with points? Well then - don't search for awards!

Paying taxes applicable to Frequent Flyer Award bookings

You can also redeem Qantas Points for taxes, fees and carrier charges for some Qantas & Partner Classic Award bookings ...
(ensure Show Classic Awards is not selected on the search panel prior to searching)

Seems a bit counter-intuitive!?!?

So you need to do a revenue booking search, look for the points/rewards options, select one, then use the 'slider' to vary the pay component.

Oy Vey!

 

[Saintza]

I've had issues with flights randomly disappearing for hours at a time only to reappear again later. Really annoying and worrying, really.

 

[Brettmcg]

I'm also concurrently looking at a SYD-MEL-SYD on 22NOV: the last three days I have seen pretty good deals on early evening departures, yet now the flights displayed only go up to a dep time of 1615. I guarantee if I check back later this afternoon the later flights will have returned.

Lo and behold looking now I have departure options on 22NOV right up until 2205 (QF497). Let me check back later tonight. Based on current form half of those flights will have disappeared again!

 

[funnymummy]

I haven't experienced the QF flights appearing and disappearing yet - I just get annoyed about having to re-enter data all the time
but I have found that with the hotels QF says there is no vacancy for dates but I searched the Accor site and multiple travel sites and they all have vacancy for same hotel same day

 

[Ansett]

Tried to look at some flights for next year and all that was coming up was EK Flights under EK Flight Numbers too...... Hope they havent paid who ever developed this cough

 

[Realistic]

QF653 (MEL-PER) for 20/10/13 went AWOL this afternoon, so ended up booking that flight (plus forward journey) through a "third party". I see it's back again on the QF site now though.

Bonus points for using my Earth Black card for the purchase of an eligible Qantas service lost. Doh!

 

[asdf]

I've had this problem as well, it is very frustrating!

 

[greenfish]

Had the same problem today.

Was looking at a QF8 / JQ35 combo - when I searched again, QF8 disappeared! I thought I was seeing things, then saw the OP's comment, so came back and searched again - QF8 was back!

 

[Deleted member]

As far as I know, decided to have the one integrated booking engine which was due to be released in April but was deferred to late July.

The integration is still incomplete and there have been interim measures to get at least some part of it out there.

As with the OPn, what is out there has it's problems.

Here's one for example - want to pay the $ component of an award booking with points? Well then - don't search for awards!

Paying taxes applicable to Frequent Flyer Award bookings


Seems a bit counter-intuitive!?!?

So you need to do a revenue booking search, look for the points/rewards options, select one, then use the 'slider' to vary the pay component.

Oy Vey!

I wonder of this is how/ where the reincarnation of ASA will manifest itself

 

[samh004]

My issues are that MCT has either increased or doesn't play well with the new system, as previous connections (specifically where I know I'd be on the same aircraft despite a flight number change) wont proceed anymore. Forcing me to book 2 one-ways only actually forces me not to book.

 

[straitman]

Seems that Qantas has borrowed Virgin Australia's IT team :!:

 

[Pinkmoose]

I have been trying to book flights SYD-SIN next year and the search engine shows a 'selection' of flights from all the ones which are possible. It seems to be totally random and it changes from one search to another (on the same day).
It it rather frustrating researching to try and book the time you want to fly.

Come on Qantas - Make it easy for me to spend money on your website!

 

[tallboy]

I have been trying to book flights SYD-SIN next year and the search engine shows a 'selection' of flights from all the ones which are possible. It seems to be totally random and it changes from one search to another (on the same day).
It it rather frustrating researching to try and book the time you want to fly.

Come on Qantas - Make it easy for me to spend money on your website!

Same issues just trying to book revenue seats from MEL-SYD in January 2014 yesterday. I noticed on the first search that there was zero flight availability showing between 1200 and 1800 on a particular Monday. Thought that strange so checked on EF to find the usual full schedule with many flights showing very light loadings in all classes. Tried QF again and found one or two of those flights available. Logged out and tried again later and they were all available... Poor IT management and must be costing them some bookings.

tb

 

[Pinkmoose]

... Poor IT management and must be costing them some bookings.

tb

This is the crucial thing here. Some people will wait to book their flights, or try refreshing their search a few times.
Others will just give up and go to a competitors website which works first time.

 

[harvyk]

A couple of days ago I was looking at flights from LAX-anywhere in AU and there was nothing available full stop in any class to BNE SYD or MEL on Oct 10th. Look back a couple of days later and it turns out hundreds of people decided to cancel their tickets across a variety of flights in all classes. I was most impressed...

Since if my LAX trip goes ahead in early oct, I will want (need) to come back on the 10th, I very nearly started looking at non QF options thinking there was no seat available with QF.

QF I don't think that me feeling like I need to start look at Virgin's website was quite the goal you had in mind when you did your website redevelopment.

 

[Ansett]

Not sure what Goal they had in mind other than an own Goal

 

[russ]

I am glad I found this thread!

My normal QF flight was not appearing, so I thought it was full, which was very unusual as I book a few weeks in advance. I checked VA, and business was full but there were some economy seats available. So I shuddered and booked an economy seat.

Later, I saw this thread, did the QF search again and up popped my normal flight with business cheats available! I grabbed one proto.

Thanks for letting me know that something was amiss with the QF booking engine.

 

[CaviAck]

Just took a look at flights for CNS-SYD in late November and the direct QF flights are not showing even though EF say there are plenty of seats available...

Edit: Just did a refresh and all of a sudden all the QF only options have disappeared for Friday... if I want to fly on Friday I'll have to step foot onto a JQ flight...

 

[Jaryd]

I had same issues. MEL-LHR were showing availability on QF9 (over) and QF2 (back), which is what I wanted, but ended up booking QF2/QF1 (over) and QF9/QF10 combos back. Not that I mind. Get another hour to stuff about in DXB in each direction.