Why does everything on the Qantas website default to economy?

[esseeeayeenn]

Obviously I understand that the vast majority of PAX will never even look at anything other than an economy class fare, but the QF website is defaulting to economy in circumstances which are patently ridiculous and annoying. If you are in the middle of the process of making a premium class booking and click on the "Modify Booking" button, when the flight search page reappears the booking class will revert to economy. You'd think QF would be doing everything they can to upsell, not downsell!

Further, the MMB pages are all designed around the assumption that every booking is in economy. For example, they offer to sell business class passengers an exit row seat!

Finally, wouldn't it be nice to be have a single page on which you can view all the fares for a given flight at once, across all classes?
This is already the case if you are booking an award seat with Qantas points.
Again, surely this would be in QF's commercial interests as it might encourage some PAX to consider buying a business class fare?
Widescreen monitors are now the norm for desktop computers and laptops alike, so most users should have enough screen real estate to display all the fares.
Users of mobile devices can use the mobile-optimised website so that shouldn't be an issue.

 

[RooFlyer]

With you, and we've covered this issue extensively in the past.

I don't think there is a 'mobile optimised web site' - and that's the issue. Qantas decided to change its web site to accommodate the kiddies etc on their phones and tablets - so business travellers and grownups now have to put up with the vast amount of white space, thus disabling the ability to see fares on the one screen; back and forth up and down the pages we go.

I have 2 widescreen monitors, but still have to move back and forth to see what the best fare might be.

The fact that when you go back and modify, almost everything is reset to the start, as opposed to where you left it is incredibly frustrating.

Qantas IT (like VA, it seems) is consistently a weak link, which is incredible, when it must be one of the main revenue routes to the company. Beware any site 'update' - it'll result in errors, broken links and more errors. They don't believe in 'proof reading' changes before going live with changes. One time the 'business' link was inoperable - you couldn't book a business class fare!

 

[esseeeayeenn]

I don't think there is a 'mobile optimised web site!

Unfortunately there is!

Spirit of Australia | Qantas

If I use safari on my iphone to go to the QF website it will redirect me to the mobile optimised site.
I have to click a link to return to the full site.
Then at random moments - such as if I log in using my QFF details, or if I hit the "Modify Booking" button - it will either redirect me or offer to redirect me back to the mobile site.
It has a check box to check if you don't want to be offered this choice again, but your response clearly isn't persistent.
I've checked it 100s of times to no avail.

This happens even though the mobile webpage interrogates my iphone, finds out that I have the mobile app installed and offers to take me to that app instead.
Logically, if I have the mobile app installed, and I choose to use my browser instead, then I want to access the full site!
Logic seems to be irrelevant.

 

[RooFlyer]

Oh, that thing! Yes - but I've never thought of it as a 'proper' web site - mobile optimised or no. I thought it was one of those 'application' thing-os. My bad.

Yes, I have the same issues with wanting to tell a device that when I select the full web site, I actually want to use the full web site! Again, this is the kiddies programming - can't imagine anyone using anything but an iphone; assume you are stupid or misguided in selecting PC type web site and just trying to help you, (you silly old fool).

 

[GalaxyNexus]

It's even worse, I've seen cases where award availability is not the same between the mobile and desktop site. E.g. the mobile site shows no availability while desktop shows a few available options. Even on my phone I no longer trust their mobile cough, luckily my browser has a "request desktop site" function.

 

[asdf]

Agree with the frustration. I am becoming increasingly frustrated with the QF website booking engine. How is it helpful to any party to continually *decrease* the usability?

I've just booked a flight on VA through sheer frustration with trying to mix J and Y in classic awards with QF...