DJ's Comms still need work

[leemin]

Today I have realised why people have been so frustrated over the ash cloud incident.

Let me first say, I have no problem whatsoever with DJ cancelling flights to/from Perth today. That's a safety decision and I will always, always respect their judgement on that.

However, were it not for the fact that I happened to have a look at The Age website this morning at about 10am, I would have no idea this was the case. No text message, no email, nothing on the website (it hasn't been updated for over 24 hours!).

The only means of knowing were Twitter and Facebook with messages posted about 9am.

Even then though, these - "all flights today" - were different to the recorded guest contact centre message which said "flights from 12.30 WAST today".

Unfortunately the recorded message says it all in the first sentence: "as reported in the media today... the Virgin Australia Group has cancelled...". As far as I'm concerned, that's just not good enough. Pax shouldn't first find out from a chance reading of online news that their flight has been cancelled.

I guess I'm a little bit more sensitive in this case because it's actually my Great Aunt that's flying, but booked through my account with all my contact details. I need to be able to tell her what's going on and I can't. If it was just me I wouldn't be so concerned.

Am I being unreasonable or do Virgin Australia need to lift their game when it comes to communication in these situations? A bulk email or sms isn't hard or expensive. Even if it was just to say "Due to ash cloud your flight has been cancelled. Please don't go to airport. More info to follow". Not that hard..

 

[markis10]

However, were it not for the fact that I happened to have a look at The Age website this morning at about 10am, I would have no idea this was the case. No text message, no email, nothing on the website (it hasn't been updated for over 24 hours!).

The only means of knowing were Twitter and Facebook with messages posted about 9am.

Even then though, these - "all flights today" - were different to the recorded guest contact centre message which said "flights from 12.30 WAST today".

Unfortunately the recorded message says it all in the first sentence: "as reported in the media today... the Virgin Australia Group has cancelled...". As far as I'm concerned, that's just not good enough. Pax shouldn't first find out from a chance reading of online news that their flight has been cancelled.

Am I being unreasonable or do Virgin Australia need to lift their game when it comes to communication in these situations? A bulk email or sms isn't hard or expensive. Even if it was just to say "Due to ash cloud your flight has been cancelled. Please don't go to airport. More info to follow". Not that hard..

I think you are being unreasonable given the timing, things are very dynamic with the ash cloud and given the cancellations were only announced an hour ago, and AFAIK not all services are being cancelled, only those after midday. I note QF have also not updated their webpage despite making similar noises at the same time.

At least their website is running, ADL airport was down for most of yesterday! A bulk email would take some time to set up, as would a SMS, we have not even perfected that sort of thing for bushfires etc!

 

[leemin]

I think you are being unreasonable given the timing, things are very dynamic with the ash cloud and given the cancellations were only announced an hour ago... A bulk email would take some time to set up, as would a SMS, we have not even perfected that sort of thing for bushfires etc!

Fair enough.

AFAIK not all services are being cancelled, only those after midday

And there in lies a significant issue still IMO. Some sources are saying all flights, others saying from this afternoon WA time. DJ are currently delivering two different messages. Irrespective of the other stuff above, this is still a problem.

 

[markis10]

And there in lies a significant issue still IMO. Some sources are saying all flights, others saying from this afternoon WA time. DJ are currently delivering two different messages. Irrespective of the other stuff above, this is still a problem.

I agree with the confusion, with Facebook saying all while the call centre and the departure boards for PER indicate check in for flights up until noon WA time.

 

[leemin]

A bulk email would take some time to set up, as would a SMS, we have not even perfected that sort of thing for bushfires etc!

Actually, I've just remembered that V/Line (Victoria's country rail network operator - the decent public transport service down here ) do this all the time. I am registered to receive updates for the Traralgon line, for example. Whenever a train on that line is late, I get both an email and an sms as soon as V/Line's systems recognise a service as being late (however that is).

Perhaps DJ could look at implementing a similar system that automatically 'subscribes' pax to updates according to their flight number(s) on a particular day.

 

[nlagalle]

TripIt Pro alerted me first that my flight was cancelled, it beat QF!The following day QF advised my flight was delayed via SMS.. TripIt didn't have the new flight entered...

 

[medhead]

Well, I had 2 cancelled flights yesterday and received no communication from QF. Suggests it is not a DJ thing and is more about the situation.