Virgin IT issues - had to buy another ticket for flight i'd checked in.

[hazel]

This story is really appalling, obvioulsy a glitch but not acceptable. I take it you hand't checked any baggage through otherwise that might have helped the cause at the time.

I'm shaking my head over this one.

I didn't have checked baggage. I was also thinking that I was fortunate that I had the means to pay for another flight on the spot. There would be quite a few people who wouldn't be in a position to do that.

 

[Jurahn]

Basically, booking things on one ticket gives you protection in the case of missed connections due to delays etc. on a connecting flight.

This would be the definitive reason for me, with regards to booking everything on one itinerary. If things go wrong, it is the airline's responsibility to get you to your final destination, whereas if you book on separate itineraries and a connection is missed/delayed/etc then it's pretty much your problem, not theirs. Having luggage checked through is important as well, especially when travelling on my own. Having said that, I have also booked flights on separate itineraries as well, using Southwest for the US domestic sectors, but always allow plenty of time between connections - with separate itineraries, I now always make sure I get back into LAX the day before my flight back to Australia, to avoid any possibility of missing that flight home. Might be over-cautious (that's me all over LOL), but I prefer to be safe than sorry.

There are a variety of other reasons as well for including all flights on the one itinerary - in my case, I need the eligible sectors, so all sectors had to be VA flight numbers and you can't book US domestic sectors separately through VA. Also, I got a better deal pricewise (J ticket) including the LAX-SEA-LAX sectors on my VA itinerary than if I'd booked them separately through Delta.

 

[williamsf1]

I'm writing this from 14D on VA1332.
I checked in for my CBR-MEL-HBA flight this afternoon & as usual received boarding pass by text. Flew CBR -MEL no issues. When I got to MEL the link in the text would't open for the BP. I went to the desk in the Lounge to ask them to print one out - they had no record of my booking, I had ceased to exist.
The only option I had if I wanted to get on the flight was to purchase another ticket, which I did.
I'm now on the aircraft, more IT issues have caused a delay - departure was supposed to be 55 minutes ago.

Something does not add up.. Bookings simply do not disappear from the system… assuming all flights were in the same PNR , even if the flight had been “accidently” cancelled by travel agent or airline issue, the PNR history showing that flight and who/ when / why the PNR was cancelled would show up. Using that information the check in staff could have investigated further and if time permitted, resolved the issue.

 

[hazel]

Something does not add up.. Bookings simply do not disappear from the system… assuming all flights were in the same PNR , even if the flight had been “accidently” cancelled by travel agent or airline issue, the PNR history showing that flight and who/ when / why the PNR was cancelled would show up. Using that information the check in staff could have investigated further and if time permitted, resolved the issue.

It's possible that with more time it could have been resolved differently. I only noticed that the BP on my phone wasn't working when the flight was called in the Lounge. The two staff in the Lounge who were dealing with called several other people to try and work out what was going on.

 

[serfty]

... I only noticed that the BP on my phone wasn't working when the flight was called in the Lounge. ...

It's for reasons like this that I always endeavor to get a freshly printed BP on arrival at the airport.

Issues such as this may have been apparent a lot earlier.

 

[hazel]

It's for reasons like this that I always endeavor to get a freshly printed BP on arrival at the airport.

Issues such as this may have been apparent a lot earlier.

The phone BP for MEL-HBA was working fine earlier - it was what I used to check into the Lounge.
I will take your advice and have paper BP back up from now on.

 

[Caversham04]

Something does not add up.. Bookings simply do not disappear from the system… assuming all flights were in the same PNR , even if the flight had been “accidently” cancelled by travel agent or airline issue, the PNR history showing that flight and who/ when / why the PNR was cancelled would show up. Using that information the check in staff could have investigated further and if time permitted, resolved the issue.

I had something similar today, although on Qantas. Went to check in for ADL-PLO at the automated kiosk using the 6-digit PNR, but the booking apparently didn't exist!? I tried again using my name instead, but still no luck. Ho hum, so off i plodded to the check-in counter, muttering uncomplementary things about IT....... The mystery deepened when the lady there couldn't find any reference to my booking on the QF system using the PNR, or my name, or even after scanning the barcode on the top of the PDF copy of the e-ticket that was e-mailed to me by Qantas!! Yikes! Fortunately, the helpful lady at the Customer Services Desk was able to (eventually) track down my booking using the very long e-ticket number that was also on the PDF. Apparently, the booking had somehow been cancelled in the system and she had to re-instate the whole thing, with the whole process taking nearly half an hour from arriving at the kiosk.

Luckily there was (i) enough time before the flight and (ii) still a spare seat on the plane.....

Now all I need to do is get QF to reimburse the $8 difference between the "Total amount due" on the original e-ticket and the amount they charged my credit card......

 

[Ralphie]

Interesting, in two separate years (2012 and 2016) both my husband and I, and my parents had problems checking in (and our bags went missing) from ADL-SYD-LAX-JFK flying VA internationally and Delta domestically. I thought they were both just glitches. Maybe not.

Which slightly worries me as our entire next US trip is booked on one codeshare ticket. (The reasons being it was cheaper and I like the protection it should bring!)

 

[Muppet501st]

We booked all our internal USA flights through Delta direct, after we had made our SYD-LAX VA booking. We still got numerous emails throughout the year to say that Delta was changing the itinerary for various flights, this seems to be the norm according to passengers we spoke with at the departure gates. Delta's computer system actually crashed the week we arrived, every plane was grounded and we were quite lucky to even fly, as many passengers' had their itineraries wiped from the database.

Nothing to do with the OP, but I am now confused why people consolidate their flights. Is there a definitive reason as to why booking everything on the one itinerary is preferable?

antother reason, if you've got no status , travelling from Aus and then flying around the states. Being on the 1 PNR , you'll get international baggage allowance, which can save you a lot of $

 

[madrooster]

antother reason, if you've got no status , travelling from Aus and then flying around the states. Being on the 1 PNR , you'll get international baggage allowance, which can save you a lot of $

You also get exempted from two taxes when doing so, potentially saving a few hundred $!

 

[24601]

The incident in the OP is really bad! The delta problems reminded me of a similar experience too. SYD-LAX-MCO with delta on the domestic legs. On arrival in LAX en route to Orlando was told I didn't have a return flight on delta anymore and had been changed to VX. At least they told me. And VX was 1000x better to fly than delta. This was in 2014.

 

[trippin_the_rift]

I'm surprised the system let you have 2 confirmed tickets in the same name/same FF# for the same flight.

 

[esseeeayeenn]

I'm surprised the system let you have 2 confirmed tickets in the same name/same FF# for the same flight.

Well from one perspective it didn't.
It had "lost" his original booking.

 

[JohnK]

FWIW, I never travel wihout hard copies of everything - rarely need them but the times I have they have been extremely useful.

You are very organised.

I have been in trouble more than once and hardly ever take printed copies of anything with me when I travel. Relying too much on luck. About to head off to Hong Kong and then Thailand and the only things I printed out is the map to Holiday Inn Express Mongkok and where Hing Shing Garden is located in comparison to Holiday Inn Express Kowloon East.

 

[williamsf1]

It's possible that with more time it could have been resolved differently. I only noticed that the BP on my phone wasn't working when the flight was called in the Lounge. The two staff in the Lounge who were dealing with called several other people to try and work out what was going on.

were there any changes made to the booking after it was made ? time change or voluntary change ? this is normally a cause of issues with bookings where the ticket drops off the flight segment.. however this does seem extremely unusual as you mentioned you had already had a BP for both flights ....

 

[Deleted member 29185]

You are very organised.

I have been in trouble more than once and hardly ever take printed copies of anything with me when I travel. Relying too much on luck. About to head off to Hong Kong and then Thailand and the only things I printed out is the map to Holiday Inn Express Mongkok and where Hing Shing Garden is located in comparison to Holiday Inn Express Kowloon East.

You sound like me. I've even forgotten to take a map or the hotel name in local lingo in Kaohsiung ... ever tried explaining a hotel in English to a cab driver who has zip English!

 

[JohnK]

You sound like me. I've even forgotten to take a map or the hotel name in local lingo in Kaohsiung ... ever tried explaining a hotel in English to a cab driver who has zip English!

I have been taken to the wrong hotel more than once.

TPE was one of these places. ATH was another and I can speak Greek but still managed to go to wrong hotel.

 

[hazel]

were there any changes made to the booking after it was made ? time change or voluntary change ? this is normally a cause of issues with bookings where the ticket drops off the flight segment.. however this does seem extremely unusual as you mentioned you had already had a BP for both flights ....

I made a date change 2 days before the flight, the CBR-MEL leg was fine & I originally received BPs for both flights.

 

[flying foon]

It happened to me a couple of months ago. Went to check in for a return SYD MEL flight. No record, vanished. Had to buy a new ticket. Sorted it out later and they gave me credit.

 

[alanbgtan]

Even tho I am in the IT world, I don't trust program written by anyone. Programs are written by human thus prone to bugs or accidental deletion. Your best solution is to do a screen dump or screen shot on yr smart phone.