The definitive thread on Qantas IT gripes

[juddles]

Hi all,

some of you will "know" me, others not, but I have a bit of a reputation of being a Qantas fan.

I absolutely love Qantas, yet they have many failings. Unlike others that have jumped ship, I choose to fight for this airline. Not by singing praises where undue, but rather by making a hoo-hah about things that even to me, simply stink. In the forlorn hope that someone, somewhere, in Qantas may hear these and change something.

This specific thread is about IT - this encompasses both the QF website, and also any other interaction with pax that is guided or commanded by what must be IT reactions.

Being aware of the myriad threads and opinions about Qantas on AFF, I see a niche for more specific gripes and problems - think technologically, not subjective experiences on a random flight. This is NOT intended by me to be where you complain about an overcooked steak, failure in priority boarding, or even crumbs on a lounge carpet. It is about how their mastery of the technological age is simply not that - it is painful.

To open discussion I will share my latest experience of how they fail in this area (which should be so bloody simple!!)

As a P1, a benefit I get is to nominate someone else for WP status. Used to be a benefit restricted to partners, ie wife or hubby. But recently they changed the rules. So now I can nominate my daughter, which I did.

The process went ok - I contacted them and they assured me they would make my darling eldest WP. And they did. Part of the process needed us to update her profile, contacts, etc.

But within a couple of days my daughter then gets an email from QF inviting her to sign up to Qantas Club??

The invitation email goes on about lounge access, etc. How on earth can an airline send an email to a member offering them to sign up for less privileges than they already have???

I really think that QF has got back on track as a company in recent years, but this sort of offer suggests to me that they still cannot master basic things that this era allows.

I invite you to share any such similar experience, so that maybe Qantas will fix this stuff. Sheer stupid things......

 

[RooFlyer]

You wrote that just for me, didn't you?

Where do we start?

The most notorious I remember is after one of their periodic web site tinkering, they re-launched it and the "Book business" button (as it was configured back then) was not functional. So they locked out people wanting to book a (revenue) business class fare. No pre launch testing, no care.

And there's always the ads on one's booking page. i fly OUT of Hobart, so the ads are inevitably about hotels in Hobart.

 

[snabbu]

This is going to be a long thread.
When I search SYD-LAX as a classic award if the only option in the "Business" column is SYD-BNE in J and BNE-LAX in Y, show results like this as "Mixed class" or similar.

 

[La Mouette]

The Qantas mobile app not refreshing unless you have Wifi. What if you're travelling and, well, mobile?

Everything about the current seat selection gizmo user experience. I work in IT and still cannot follow the random combination of steps you need to on first attempt.

Not being able to see all fare types on international flights ... although sometimes they randomly appear. Other airlines have supported this for years.

When you're a P1 and your preferences are set to forward aisle, not assigning the most forward empty aisle seat. How difficult it that formula?

 

[juddles]

.....Everything about the current seat selection gizmo user experience. I work in IT and still cannot follow the random combination of steps you need to on first attempt.....

That new process had me stuffed for ages. I have learnt how to use it, but OMG it is painful.

 

[Limewood]

Well we al dislike the outrageous international award fees and charges unlike most airlines

Recently was looking at a week in HNL they had J but return was through PVG! (Shanghai) what a joke.

Site should be only show what real seats Y/J/F there are, as when they show J most times the J long haul shows up as Y, ridiculous.

 

[Lynda2475]

My big gripe with online seat selection is where there is a change of plane on a single flight number i.e. QF12 JFK-SYD, where it is a Dreamliner (JFK-LAX) then A380 (LAX-SYD) it wont let me pick a seat myself online "individual seat selection is not available" - it should be simple for the IT system to detect plane change and allow you to select two seats (or limit your choice to seat numbers which exist on both plane types).

When I last spoke to online chat thingy after booking (10 months out form flight) they would only offer me cough seats at the back, no ability to pay for exit row even though Im silver so should at least have choice ahead of the bronze/non frequent flyers. It sux cause anyone flying only the LAX-SYD leg can pick a seat, given Im flying further I shouldnt be able to select seats now?

Reminds me I might have to call (how painful) to see what can be done.

My second issue is when trying to use website (not app) from my android tablet in chrome, when you go to log on you cant click in the field to enter your pin if not is desktop mode and in portrait, in landscape it wont stay open.

 

[Pushka]

A couple of things. At this stage.

1. If there is no revenue fare for the trip I’m trying to book with awards, using the app is useless.

2. Search using multi search function, then proceed and then when you select Modify, it reverts back to the normal city - city function and you then have to select multi search again.

3. The way airport functions are selected. Using the iPad you have to keep clicking the x in order to select the airport you want otherwise it reverts back to the city of a previous search.

4. On an iPad when selecting the airport, the typing function covers up the drop down list. Scrolling up causes the letters you’ve already typed in to be deleted and it reverts back to the previously entered airport.

I can’t count. I’ll think of more.

 

[Pushka]

The Qantas mobile app not refreshing unless you have Wifi. What if you're travelling and, well, mobile?

Isn’t that a setting on your phone in not having mobile data enabled for that specific app?

 

[Flying Fox]

I hate the new more complicated seat selection process.

Please bring back the old system that was so easy to use and you could do everyone in your booking in one pass! Please bring it back!!!

 

[Lynda2475]

So I've been on hold for 20 mins waiting to get seats sorted that I can't do online, their hold message keeps telling me that phone, online or social media assisted bookings attract a service fee, so please do online instead - if only I could!

My colleague reckons they deliberately make somethings unavailable online so they can keep that $200 service fee income stream alive and well. A CSR they pay $30/hour can easily generate $800 an hour of fee revenue before selling any flights!

Update --> After 30 Mins got through to an Aussie on the premium line, she sorted seats for me (where the online help people couldn't) but they aren't what I ideally wanted. Last 2 times I've been on QF12 Ive been able to use points (or cash) to get 48A or 48C about 9 months out, now these apparently aren't available to buy until 48 hours out for lowly Silvers like me. If a new DSC promo comes through and I get my Gold before this flight (as opposed to earning on this flight) I will try again then to get a better seat, also try in the 48 hour lottery.

 

[Pushka]

Does Qantas Business Rewards count? When logging in for business bookings and using the FF member number when booking it doesn’t take into account the status of the Pax when selecting seats so they are always at the back of the bus. Of course you can go back in and change once booked but it’s an annoying double log in process and really, just dumb IT.

 

[odysseus]

The process went ok - I contacted them and they assured me they would make my darling eldest WP. And they did. Part of the process needed us to update her profile, contacts, etc.

But within a couple of days my daughter then gets an email from QF inviting her to sign up to Qantas Club??

The invitation email goes on about lounge access, etc. How on earth can an airline send an email to a member offering them to sign up for less privileges than they already have???

I can actually understand why this probably happened, and there’s no easy solution.

As you say it was only a couple of days, it is likely that the email list used to who gets the Club invite had already been extracted before your daughter was upgraded to WP. You can even see that the migration process of people going up/down isn’t immediate/in a split second i.e. there are flow on timing issues.

So you might say, well, why don’t they just send the email to whatever their selection criteria is at that exact point in time, instead of using an extracted list? The issue there – as has even happened with previous promotions – is that if the list isn’t vetted there have been times that a whole bunch of incorrect people get the wrong invite – which is typically worse than this, where the person can just ignore if not relevant, and the numbers are much more limited.

And this sort of issue has always been around, pre-IT. It’s just to do with mailing lists, but because people’s circumstances always change, there’s always a few who will be affected by timing whatever the method.

 

[Daver6]

Most of what people are listing here as problems, while genuine problems/annoyances, are not really IT problems as such. They're management problems. Management will define the functionality. IT implement it.

 

[RooFlyer]

Most of what people are listing here as problems, while genuine problems/annoyances, are not really IT problems as such. They're management problems. Management will define the functionality. IT implement it.

Well, they are problems with the IT, which can ultimately be sheeted home to management. But some-where along the line, some head of IT, or technically responsible, has to say 'Enough! We are inflicting utter, embarrassing, cough on our customers! Its impacting the business!'. Or maybe they do, and they wheel them out the back ...

 

[drron]

The definitive thread on qantas IT-please explain.
how can qantas IT ever be definitive?

 

[calmelb]

That new process had me stuffed for ages. I have learnt how to use it, but OMG it is painful.

Why does the next button take you to finish, instead of the next flight!?

 

[RooFlyer]

Why does the next button take you to finish, instead of the next flight!?

The consecutive flights have to be accessed via a drop down box which contains the first sector. Took me about 15 goes to realise that.

 

[calmelb]

The consecutive flights have to be accessed via a drop down box which contains the first sector. Took me about 15 goes to realise that.

I’ve done it a few times now and I still get it mixed up. No other airline company does it this way

 

[La Mouette]

I’ve done it a few times now and I still get it mixed up. No other airline company does it this way

This is what I get wrong every time ... brain says big red button with Next means press it ... then, No!!