Velocity/Virgin websites are RUBBISH

[eastwest101]

Just got a survey from VA after my 20/2 flight ADL/BNE. Absolutely gave them stick over their poor integration of VA and Velocity websites, quoting some of eastwest101's still current issues from the blog. Let's see if I get a call back, if they dare...

If its not too late - you can also add the issue that other people were noting about bookings on the VA web site on EY and DL metal where VA pax were unable to select exit row seats... I am sure you have seen the thread anyway, but I hadn't got it into my blog yet. Ta

 

[QF WP]

Sorry eastwest101, too late...survey done just before I posted above...what I gave them was enough to have them rocking back in their chairs. As an example - a disparity of scores from 3/4's for website, booking, changes, requirement for call centre intervention (on seating) to 9's and 10's for crew, FA's, Lounge, F&B on board. Surely someone will sit up and take notice. Mentioned Sabre & Navitaire, poor integration (timetable rushed at the end when they didn't have the right work done) etc.

Needless to say, I invited them to contact me for further clarification and can point them to this thread and your blog - want to update it? :idea:

 

[eastwest101]

I was going to take some things off that have well and truly been fixed, once I am satisfied they are fixed - for the sake of simplicity. But the multitude of different problems and operating systems mean that just because I think that a bug has been fixed may not necessarily mean that someone else has seen their bug fixed. Plus I don't do everything and wouldn't have the time to troubleshoot everything so its often easier to summarize other peoples experiences in different threads i.e. like this one (that the VA company rep has already responded to):

http://www.australianfrequentflyer....-velocity/att-velocity-rep-no-exit-58275.html

But if its coming from a variety of different sources and going to different people in VA then eventually action will be taken. Thanks for letting us know. I agree with your assesment - things are generally alright with VA once you are on-board the aircraft, but the VA web site and integration with Sabre is very much a work in progess, or a "fixer upper" as they say!

 

[blackcat20]

Access to seat selection for some bookings is still quite spotty. I can't access if for my (international) reward bookings, but have had no trouble with paid (domestic) bookings.

 

[Clivem]

Actually booked some seats to Fiji for a work trip in March and the site worked like a dream and didn't miss a beat, .......what did I do wrong?

 

[kalboy]

This thread is now over one year old.. Still going strong I see

 

[triple7]

Tried to book a seat last night and got an error message. Booked Qantas instead.

 

[StevenBrule]

Tried to book a seat last night and got an error message. Booked Qantas instead.

hahah amazing !!!

 

[bcworld]

Tried to book a seat last night and got an error message. Booked Qantas instead.

I believe there was some sort of global Sabre outage.

 

[QF WP]

More than a year after the changeover and still there are major issues...and from the couple of posts above, the good and the bad.

JB must be despairing at the continuing issue - assuming he knows.

 

[eastwest101]

I just got a new round/bunch of domestic VA flight bookings (non-IBE and corporate travel agent bookings for VA QF and ZL) from the corporate travel agent and nearly fell off my chair when I logged into the VA web site and I can now see and select my VA bookings on the VA web site under "My Bookings" now.

Anyone else who has corporate travle agent/non-IBE bookings and can now see/manage them on the VA web site letely? Just wondering if this is a recent fix or whether other people had it solver earlier on than this?

 

[bullerdude]

Perhaps a recent fix?? I noted an patch was added to the IBE last week that added some advertising stuff in My Bookings and broke the 'modify search' button in select flights.

 

[eastwest101]

Perhaps a recent fix?? I noted an patch was added to the IBE last week that added some advertising stuff in My Bookings and broke the 'modify search' button in select flights.

One step forward (for me) and one step back (for you)!

I noticed that the VA site still has the propensity to open a brand new browser window whenever you want to do something new on the VA website, and you end up with about 3-6 different browser windows open at the end of a session. Surely that can't be good for security can it?

 

[Shano]

Anyone else who has corporate travle agent/non-IBE bookings and can now see/manage them on the VA web site letely? Just wondering if this is a recent fix or whether other people had it solver earlier on than this?

Although not TA bookings, all bookings I now make via the VA corporate log-in portal are visible under Velocity MMB. Problem is I can't manage them.

Had MEL-SYD-MEL booked on the one PNR. Got to SYD and then had to go to PER. Tried to change the SYD-MEL to SYD-PER online using MMB but got an error message saying to ring GCC. Retrieved the booking through the corporate log-in, but then got an error message that I couldn't make changes within 2 hours of departure???

So rang the GCC and explaining my plight they waived the change fee.

I am pretty sure I have changed return bookings before under MMB after the first leg has been flown - so is this a "new" issue?

 

[notzac]

When I retrieve bookings by Velocity number, everything appears to be there for me (there's a mix of corp TA and personal bookings). Seat selection works, however a personal flight that was paid with a combination of voucher and credit card cannot be changed online. I don't know whether that's always been an issue, but it tells me that there's still a way to go yet..

 

[Princess Fiona]

Booked a simple NTL-MEL rtn J saver on the website this weekend. Yet again "Seat Selection N/A" Totally rubbish yet again

 

[pauly7]

Ok here is an odd one - had to manually book two J returns on the VA website as QF was sold out and talent I was booking for to fly with me has a J clause in their contract.

Went relatively smoothly, only one crash halfway through which is pretty good for VA....

Then got my itinerary 30 mins later and somehow the return date had been flipped to be before the outbound!

I didn't think that would even be possible!

Anyway was (relatively) easily fixed by VA's customer don't care line who first of all accused me of making the error. I politely and straight away asked to be put through to manager which shut them up and got them working on the actual problem instead of a free tutorial in how to book a flight. In the end after about 15mins they discovered the flights in their 'system' were actually correct as I had booked them and that it was an error with the itinerary. Told it 'happens' sometimes. Nice to know!

 

[OzEire]

... VA's customer don't care line who first of all accused me of making the error. ...after about 15mins they discovered the flights in their 'system' were actually correct as I had booked them and that it was an error with the itinerary. Told it 'happens' sometimes. Nice to know!

But no apology? You can just imagine the conversation in the break room "This idiot customer booked his return leg before the outbound", oh and how they laughed !!!!

I was pleasantly surprised to get an NZ accented customer care rep yesterday who fixed another broken booking that I couldn't manage online (happens about 90% of the time as I have a non-latin character in my name). Not that I have any issue with the friendly folks in Manila whom I have been dealing with up until now, its just that Laura (Lara ?) couldn't have been more helpful and polite as well as efficiently working on the changes I asked for before feeling any need to spell out all of the T&Cs for an eternity before we actually got to making the changes - surprisingly I actually bother to check the T&Cs for my ticket online before I call and I got the sense that the NZ call centre understood this intuitively.

Thanks VA for a pleasant experience.

 

[Melburnian1]

Improvements to this poor website are thin on the ground (pardon the pun).

I rang the call centre to enquire 'how many points for an SQ Velocity reward seat from Melbourne to Manila return?'

The girl was helpful, but said they could not estimate fees and charges (i.e. taxes). Eventually, she told me that a return economy booking if seats were available upon request from the call centre to SQ would be 90,000 points - last time I checked it was 85,000 - and 'about $115' in taxes and charges. Did VA increase the number of points required for all trips (or just on SQ?) within the last few months?

When will VA improve the usability of its website? It lists Manila as an available destination in the dropdown menu, but only quotes points required for nonstop flights, which is not true in the case of SQ as all flights are naturally via SIN. Poor effort, VA.

 

[anat0l]

I rang the call centre to enquire 'how many points for an SQ Velocity reward seat from Melbourne to Manila return?'

The girl was helpful, but said they could not estimate fees and charges (i.e. taxes). Eventually, she told me that a return economy booking if seats were available upon request from the call centre to SQ would be 90,000 points - last time I checked it was 85,000 - and 'about $115' in taxes and charges. Did VA increase the number of points required for all trips (or just on SQ?) within the last few months?

Well calling the call centre has little to do with the website.

Basically, to tell you how much taxes++ is due on a route, they need to do a booking (or a sample booking). So they have to go through the rigmarole of finding a seat, throwing your details in, then getting to a point where they can see the cost. (I think they may have a workaround if it so happens you don't have enough points for the booking)

Must be living under a little rock but in recent news VA has consolidated the SQ tables into a single table, which is slightly modified. According to the table and my interpretation, it is indeed 90,000 points for MEL-SIN-MNL return (assuming all on SQ).