Flying Jan 12th - what to expect?

[ROTR]

I will be flying MEL-LAX on Saturday, the day of the changeover to Sabre

I have received a couple of emails from VA advising that there could be some slowdown in service and advising to check in 3 hours before departure.

Fortunately I will be in J so hoping impact would be minimal.

Anyone have other thoughts on what to expect?

Cheers.

 

[Hvr]

I reckon it will be one of those days that if anything can go wrong it will. So have all of your ticket details including seat reservations printed out so you can show them to the check in staff if required.

Hopefully you will go through quickly with no problems and enjoy the lounge before travelling.

Enjoy the USA.

 

[ckck]

Hopefully all will go smoothly but worst case scenario would be hand written boarding passes and having to be ticked off a printed passenger list. Coupled with massive queues of grumpy travellers, many of them missing their flights.

If Virgin have sent you a couple of emails regarding early check in I would take their advice and turn up early.

I have family flying DJ domestic flight early Monday morning so I am hoping that all goes well with the changeover on the weekend.

 

[KCMil]

I will be flying MEL-LAX on Saturday, the day of the changeover to Sabre

I have received a couple of emails from VA advising that there could be some slowdown in service and advising to check in 3 hours before departure.

Fortunately I will be in J so hoping impact would be minimal.

Anyone have other thoughts on what to expect?

Cheers.

ROTR I have an email that states that there will be large levels of support from Sabre etc.. on hand, so in all likelihood things will go okay, prob after those support teams head back to the US the probs will hit. The main concern that they have is the migration of data from Navitaire to Sabre. You are travelling VAI which uses Amadaeus not Navitaire and the data has reportedly been 100% succesful in migration tests. You prob wont have an issue. They are going to be using a manual system, so the advice for early check in is sound, I'd do it if I were you. They have stated that VA 23, 29 and 30 will be using the Etihad system for check in so no disruption expected. VA1 and 2 are using manual, so may be printed or handwritten, or a mix. But either way if all turn up early there is no delay expected.
The whole system is expected to be online by 1230 on Sun 13th. By Mon morning any missing data is expected to have been captured and loaded manually. Hope that can ease your mind somewhat.

The big writing stressed to take your printed itinerary with you so that even if your data is missing you can still be processed without delay.

 

[ROTR]

ROTR I have an email that states that there will be large levels of support from Sabre etc.. on hand, so in all likelihood things will go okay, prob after those support teams head back to the US the probs will hit. The main concern that they have is the migration of data from Navitaire to Sabre. You are travelling VAI which uses Amadaeus not Navitaire and the data has reportedly been 100% succesful in migration tests. You prob wont have an issue. They are going to be using a manual system, so the advice for early check in is sound, I'd do it if I were you. They have stated that VA 23, 29 and 30 will be using the Etihad system for check in so no disruption expected. VA1 and 2 are using manual, so may be printed or handwritten, or a mix. But either way if all turn up early there is no delay expected.

Thanks KCMil for the detailed breakdown I will be on VA23, however I am actually on a DL issued ticket (was $2000 cheaper than the same VA), will this make any difference?

 

[KCMil]

Check in is the same irrespective of ticket issuer. Just make sure you have all your RES details printed out etc.... And the earlier you are there and check in the better!

I am told that the international check in desks, the nearest ones to the VA domestic area will be manned all day to allow people to check in as early as they like. Also remember that the flights are capped at 70% loading to also enable smoother processing. I guess this is why they say there is a significant one off cost for this. They are supposed to be having large numbers of support staff at the airports to help people with check in queries etc... these are staff from back office areas. There is also rumoured to be refreshment stands etc... being provided to make things more comfortable should long ques develop.
Not looking forward to flying Sat, but fingers crossed it will be a non event!

 

[Jousams]

Check in is the same irrespective of ticket issuer. Just make sure you have all your RES details printed out etc.... And the earlier you are there and check in the better!

I am told that the international check in desks, the nearest ones to the VA domestic area will be manned all day to allow people to check in as early as they like. Also remember that the flights are capped at 70% loading to also enable smoother processing. I guess this is why they say there is a significant one off cost for this. They are supposed to be having large numbers of support staff at the airports to help people with check in queries etc... these are staff from back office areas. There is also rumoured to be refreshment stands etc... being provided to make things more comfortable should long ques develop.
Not looking forward to flying Sat, but fingers crossed it will be a non event!

At least their prepared!

 

[notzac]

Don't know how relevant this is to ROTR's situation, but the information regarding the timing of the change has been clarified on the VA website - it looks like the change from Navitaire to Sabre is occurring overnight between the 12th and the 13th:

For flights departing on Saturday 12 January 2013, web and mobile check-in will be available from 36 hours prior to flight departure until 2am (AEST) on Saturday 12 January 2013 to allow you to check-in earlier for your flight.

For flights departing on Sunday 13 January 2013, please check-in for your flight at the Virgin Australia counters at the airport as our web and mobile check-in services will not be available.

I don't know how this affects the change from Amadeus to Sabre for longhaul bookings - so I would still arrive at the airport nice and early, armed with a printed copy of the e-ticket and a little more patience than usual.

 

[ROTR]

Well things went pretty well as expected. Long queues for check-in, the J line took me around 30mins. Staff were handing out free water. I showed up around 2.5 hours before and by all accounts checkin had only been open for around 15mins. There were plenty of staff (2 per check-in counter, 1 VA, 1 Menzies - presumably since they knew how to use the Etihad system).
As a result of the queues departure was delayed also by around 30mins (but we still managed to land early).
Couple of interesting points:
1. Guy sat next to me in row 5 knows John Borghetti (something about cars) so John emailed him while he was checking in about one of his cars, and casually asked how things were, guy told him as it was and within 10mins more staff appeared The guy also then got a personal escort from checkin to the gate where the crew onboard made a huge fuss of him <lol>
2. Arrival in LA was interesting in that the US Border team said that none of us on the flight was actually listed as being on the flight (linked to the change in check in systems I guess) so we had 10min delay while the Supervisor acknowledged that we had in fact been on that flight and let us be processed <lol>

 

[Mal]

Some moaning on the VA fb page about delays ex lax due to the Changes. Not sure what the issue was.

 

[Saab34]

VA2 was the only major delay, didn't leave until 1am.

 

[Rdarby]

Just checked in for a VA/NZ flight in Brisbane (International). I arrived three hours early as instructed to find the place pretty well deserted, and everything going smoothly. No queues anywhere. They are manually processing and will change over at mid day. The only change I could see is that your bag gets two tags, one of which is manualy. Staff are chatting to each other, there isn't much going on, so no problem at all. Except for the wait I now have, but at least it's on a Koru lounge chair and not in a queue!

 

[VHOEJ]

VA2 was the only major delay, didn't leave until 1am.

Left 3.5 hours late, the Brisbane flight the same. Not exactly minor.........

Most of these things going smoothly if they prepare, have extra staff and give instructions to passengers. They usually go wrong when they don't prepare.

 

[Sprucegoose]

It's all about keeping people up to date and communicating.

 

[Fruitcake]

Sitting in the BNE Lounge at present admiring boarding passes with a VA flight number on them. General check in queue ~80% filled the barriers and was quite orderly. Priority queue was very quiet anyway, but when identified as platinum we were escorted directly to a check in agent.

Staff said the cutover was delayed slightly due to crowding in SYD, but from their end everything is going to plan.

 

[notzac]

Sitting in the BNE Lounge at present admiring boarding passes with a VA flight number on them. General check in queue ~80% filled the barriers and was quite orderly. Priority queue was very quiet anyway, but when identified as platinum we were escorted directly to a check in agent.

Fruitcake, I think we're both here -- just got in to the BNE lounge myself. Kinda odd seeing "ETKT" anywhere on a VA boarding card. Staff mentioned to me that flights post 17:30 ex-BNE are running on Sabre (and now have VA as the airline code); flights before then are still running on Navitaire.

As an aside, the Sabre PNRs can be viewed at www.virtuallythere.com

 

[Major]

Fruitcake, I think we're both here -- just got in to the BNE lounge myself. Kinda odd seeing "ETKT" anywhere on a VA boarding card. Staff mentioned to me that flights post 17:30 ex-BNE are running on Sabre (and now have VA as the airline code); flights before then are still running on Navitaire.

As an aside, the Sabre PNRs can be viewed at www.virtuallythere.com

I can see it now..."Paging Mr Fruitcake, is there a fruitcake in the Lounge"?

 

[KCMil]

As of 2 minutes ago (1950h) VA was running 94.7% OTP for the day, they should do system change overs more often!!!

 

[mardy]

As an aside, the Sabre PNRs can be viewed at www.virtuallythere.com

Wow, I was just able to look up a VA Long Haul (LAX) booking made months ago through a travel agent from that site.
Seat Map is viewable, though I can't see if my seat allocation was entered in or not.

So far so good Sabre!

 

[Ausbt]

Well, I guess it's a good result but I'm still sitting on the Tarmac 45 mins late into Hobart right now. SYD could board me to MEL but no further, and a 40 min delay there meant I arrived at my MEL gate as they were closing my flight. They let me on, but we are still waiting while they 'manually reconcile' the pax manifest. I'm hungry that's for sure. Anyway at least I'm on the plane.