Qantas online checkin launched!!

[serfty]

I have one domestic flight on the end of a multi destination international itinerary & cant get OCLI to work.

I flew up to SYD from MEL this morning on QF73.

Of couse being an international flight (DOM sector) no OLCI was available.

However, I am flying back tomorrow morning and have just checked my booking; the QF73 was dimmed (inactive) and OLCI was available for my AM flight.

Was able to change my 73H 9C to a 7D. www.Expertflyer.com is showing:

J0 D0 I0 U0 Y9 B0 H9 W0 K0 M0 R0 L0 V0 S0 N0 Q0 O0 G0 T0 X0 E0

The flight is just about full; however I could select from quite a few available seats down the back. A lot tighter up front.

As others have noted; not much different from using QuickCheck for your day return flight.

(BTW I had a pretty normal WP view with free 9B seat beside me. I don't expect to end up with an empty seat next to me tomorrow.)

 

[DPG]

Yup, I'm beginning to think that online checkin, rather than being a godsend, really is only of benefit to those with status with QANTAS - it's not really beneficial to the casual user.

On the flip side, some status pax would be mighty annoyed to find a lot of no-status pax OLCI'ed and left him/her stranded in row 30.

The main entity that OLCI will benefit is QF!

Sure, there will be time savings for people flying, but I am pretty sure that QF will be able to cut more staff from the check-in areas of the airport.

Once the kinks in the system are ironed out, I suspect that very few people will need deal with QF staff at the airport, other than for bag drop. As a result QF will reduce the number of check-in positions to what is actually needed... I would suggest around half of what is there now in 6-12 months time.

BA have announced that at some point next year, the only way you will be able to check in for a flight is using OLCI or a kiosk at the airport for Domestic UK services...

Similar to the rabbit like multiplication of QuickCheck kiosks (it is just about impossible to walk 5m without bumping into one in SYD, MEL and BNE), OLCI is designed simply to save QF money!

Just my 2c!

D P G

 

[garyjohn951]

Absolutely right. The bean counters at work.

 

[beardoc]

Just speculation - but I would think each boarding pass has a unique barcode - and if you change seats the barcode changes. Therefore, once you change seats, the old barcode becomes invalid. Obviously if they manually type in the seat number, that will also only work if you haven't changed seats.

The issue I was trying to bring up here is that it is possible for someone to check in online on a seat, get an online boarding pass printed, then recheck-in and change the seat, generating a new boarding pass. Yes, the new online boarding pass would have a new "barcode" that would work (and the old one disabled), but if you have copies of both, then you could use the second one to get on board, then flip out the other one and assert that you had the seat that you checked in first time around. I've examined the boarding cards - when you change seats and reprint a new online boarding pass, the new boarding pass to the human eye is indistinguishable from the first one - both the first and the second passes look genuine.

I can see this sometimes meaning a difficult situation for staff if someone tries to play this way.

 

[kpc]

Don't use OLCI yet....teething problems!

From my post at FT:

Armed with my printed BP after using OLCI the day before, I rocked up to the baggage drop off at Adl today. The checkin girl was very confused when I showed her my printed BP....she thought it was my eticket receipt! Then after she did a few taps on her computer, she asked where I had come from!! "My parent's home in Adelaide I said" but she did not like my answer!...and asked where I had flown in from. "Well I flew to Adelaide from Sydney last week", I said... At this point, one of her colleagues yelled out..."he's OLCI"d...that's why he's already checked into the system. I had the same problem earlier today".

By this time she had printed out the standard BP which she then tore up! Completely flustered by this stage, she then asked me whether I was a QC member to which I replied "QF Gold" actually...mumbling, she then placed a priority sticker on my bag.

I then when to the QP...at the door, I was getting a bit worried and asked the CSA at the door whether it would be OK to use my printed BP to board the plane She said it shouldn't be a problem, and explained that QF management had told them nothing about OLCI...and they were only finding out about it from passengers like me.

When I went to board the plane, they were unable to scan my BP after several tries and minutes (and I tried to help them based on someone's suggestion here), but no dice...the queue was getting longer and longer, so they did it manuallly!!

When I got onto the plane, they asked to see my BP, and I showed mine..."No, I want to see you proper BP!!". I explained about OLCI, and one of the senior FA said he had heard something vaguely about it and waved me onto my seat!!

It looks like QF mangement have not told their front line staff about OLCI...it's probably because by increasing the amount of automation, QF can cut more staff!!! :td: :td:

I suggest avoiding OLCI for another week or two to save yourself some mindless hassles ...and I don't blame the QF frontline staff for that!

 

[DPG]

Re: Don't use OLCI yet....teething problems!

I suggest avoiding OLCI for another week or two to save yourself some mindless hassles ...and I don't blame the QF frontline staff for that!

Heaven Help Me then!

I have OLCI'd for my PQQ-SYD flight tomorrow!

Hopefully I won't have been the first out of PQQ to use it!

D P G

 

[jakeseven7]

Re: Don't use OLCI yet....teething problems!

It looks like QF mangement have not told their front line staff about OLCI...it's probably because by increasing the amount of automation, QF can cut more staff!!! :td: :td:

I suggest avoiding OLCI for another week or two to save yourself some mindless hassles ...and I don't blame the QF frontline staff for that!

Actually they have been briefed, our QF account manager forwarded us a company wide email/memo (which had listed names like Syd-dom check in etc) 2 weeks ago. And about a month ago a CSA was telling me that they had all been trained but there were technical problems delaying the roll out.

I guess there have been just normal rollout problems, people away etc when the msg went out. I've flown 4 times now on OLCI and everything has worked fine so try it out!

 

[Yada Yada]

It was already out of date; BA has been offering OLCI on flights out of Australia for quite a while

Maybe the words "Australia's only online check-in..." were meant to infer an Australian airline? Anyway, the volume of pax checking in online for BA flights in Australia would be miniscule compared with those using the Virgin Blue system.

 

[Dave Noble]

Maybe the words "Australia's only online check-in..." were meant to infer an Australian airline? Anyway, the volume of pax checking in online for BA flights in Australia would be miniscule compared with those using the Virgin Blue system.

they would be implying not inferring .. the volumes that use BA doesn't negate the factual inaccuracy, I am suprised that the advertising standards people didnt get on to it

Dave

 

[oz_mark]

they would be implying not inferring .. the volumes that use BA doesn't negate the factual inaccuracy, I am suprised that the advertising standards people didnt get on to it

I think they only look into things if someone makes a complaint. Maybe that hasn't happened.

 

[BJReplay]

Hate quoting myself.... Here's my experience just then...

As QF Gold, I was preallocated 5C (737-400) with seat preference of forward aisle. As a QF FF with status, OLCI does NOT really help me get a better seat. There were no more forward aisle (i.e. 4C or 4D) seats open when I checked in (Seq Nbr:1) so I couldn't "improve" my seat any more. The emergency row seats were blocked off. I think OLCI is really only of benefit for QF flyers with no status where they can choose the "best ot the remaining seats", unless you have carry on luggage only and want to get to the airport at the "last mniute"

I'm only QC Bronze (QC Life), and my pre-allocated seat last night was 17C on a 737-800 (preference is forward aisle). However, I was able to choose 4C, and there were about a dozen free forward aisle seats closer to being forward instead of aft. Seq No 1 on my boarding pass. So OLCI is a big benefit for me as I start flying regularly again, until those status points build up (which they will very quickly). I'll be making a point of checking in online 24 hours ahead, and grabbing better seats, until I don't need to.

 

[Yada Yada]

they would be implying not inferring

Interesting point. The following is from Dictionary.com:

—Usage note
Infer has been used to mean “to hint or suggest” since the 16th century by speakers and writers of unquestioned ability and eminence: The next speaker criticized the proposal, inferring that it was made solely to embarrass the government. Despite its long history, many 20th-century usage guides condemn the use, maintaining that the proper word for the intended sense is imply and that to use infer is to lose a valuable distinction between the two words. Although the claimed distinction has probably existed chiefly in the pronouncements of usage guides, and although the use of infer to mean “to suggest” usually produces no ambiguity, the distinction too has a long history and is widely observed by many speakers and writers.

.. the volumes that use BA doesn't negate the factual inaccuracy, I am suprised that the advertising standards people didnt get on to it

I think there is matter of perspective here. I really doubt that Virgin Blue was comparing the web checkin service they provide for hundreds of daily domestic flights with the OLCI service BA provides for its few daily international services out of Australia. The intended comparison would have been with QF.

P.S. The punctuaction and spelling in that last sentence of yours needs some work!

 

[openseat]

I used OLCI last night for an early ADL MEL flight this morning and I was surprised to see that it got me seq # 1. Everything went smoothly at the airport apart from a comment from the QC desk staff, first time for that particular employee. Scanned ok at the gate. I was able to move from 10F to 7A.

 

[AnonymousCoward]

The issue I was trying to bring up here is that it is possible for someone to check in online on a seat, get an online boarding pass printed, then recheck-in and change the seat, generating a new boarding pass. Yes, the new online boarding pass would have a new "barcode" that would work (and the old one disabled), but if you have copies of both, then you could use the second one to get on board, then flip out the other one and assert that you had the seat that you checked in first time around.

Don't the cabin staff have access to a printed passenger manifest with each passenger's allocated seat? They'd soon be able to work out who was the troublemaker.

For one of my flights last week, two PAX had boarding passes with 6C (one online, one the older BP), and after consulting the manifest the crew informed one of the two that they should be down the back in row 20-something

 

[beardoc]

Don't the cabin staff have access to a printed passenger manifest with each passenger's allocated seat? They'd soon be able to work out who was the troublemaker.

For one of my flights last week, two PAX had boarding passes with 6C (one online, one the older BP), and after consulting the manifest the crew informed one of the two that they should be down the back in row 20-something

Which one was bumped, though, out of interest?

 

[DPG]

I'm only QC Bronze (QC Life), and my pre-allocated seat last night was 17C on a 737-800 (preference is forward aisle). However, I was able to choose 4C, and there were about a dozen free forward aisle seats closer to being forward instead of aft. Seq No 1 on my boarding pass. So OLCI is a big benefit for me as I start flying regularly again, until those status points build up (which they will very quickly). I'll be making a point of checking in online 24 hours ahead, and grabbing better seats, until I don't need to.

I think the ability to change seats to a more forward seat, depends on the loadings, and number of CL/WP/SG flying on the flight. If there are none in economy, then there is no reason why all seats (except exit rows) can be open for everyone to select, as this would be just like check-in.

One example of this, is my flights SYD-PQQ-SYD. On the flight up, the flight was fully booked and there were several status FF on the plane, so OLCI had allocated me an exit row. The flight back is probably 90% full, and it allocated me 2A, with the exits blocked.

I am guessing that I should be able to change this to an exit at the airport as the flight isn't chockers and I was first to check in. Either that or there are several CL on the plane! (not that likely at PQQ).

I guess only time will tell how it all pans out... I am sure QF probably have an IT department somewhere in the world fine tuning it!

D P G

 

[JohnK]

I'm only QC Bronze (QC Life), and my pre-allocated seat last night was 17C on a 737-800 (preference is forward aisle). However, I was able to choose 4C, and there were about a dozen free forward aisle seats closer to being forward instead of aft. Seq No 1 on my boarding pass.

This situation has me really confused. Seat 4C was not pre-allocated even though passengers with forward aisle preference were allocated seats further back.

Can anyone speculate as to the reasons why?

 

[oz_mark]

This situation has me really confused. Seat 4C was not pre-allocated even though passengers with forward aisle preference were allocated seats further back.

Can anyone speculate as to the reasons why?

Qantas have a long standing habit of not allocating row 4 on the 73H. It was explained to me once that this was for any late booking CL members, but given that the current checkin systems are allowing you to move to these seats seems to be weakening this argument (at least in my opinion).

 

[JohnK]

Qantas have a long standing habit of not allocating row 4 on the 73H.

Mark, I agree with you as well. With online check-in now available on domestic flights it would be a good time to start pre-allocating row 4 to someone with higher status rather than leaving it open for first person using online checkin to allocate.

 

[DPG]

One example of this, is my flights SYD-PQQ-SYD. On the flight up, the flight was fully booked and there were several status FF on the plane, so OLCI had allocated me an exit row. The flight back is probably 90% full, and it allocated me 2A, with the exits blocked.

I am guessing that I should be able to change this to an exit at the airport as the flight isn't chockers and I was first to check in. Either that or there are several CL on the plane! (not that likely at PQQ).

When I got to PQQ tonight, when I asked if something in row 1 was available, was told yes, but they could not change my seat. I asked why as it had happened in Sydney, and was told that:

"Head Office has told us not to change seats if you have used OLCI, as it is causing problems by bumping people off the flight and making them standby"

So I ended up flying in 2A for the flight.

From what I can gather, QF knows there are issues... I just hope they get ironed out soon...

D P G