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

[hazel]

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.

 

[travelislife]

WTF! Did you have an email showing the booking reference?

 

[serfty]

It really seems strange.

Did you not have a printed copy of your e-ticket?

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

 

[The Flying Brick]

No matter which airline or length of flight I always carry a printed copy of my e-ticket for events such as this.

Didn't help me in 2011 in Shanghai when a coughpy TA managed to delete the return half of my ticket but has always been the definitive answer when challenged at the gate.

 

[kpc]

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

Having a printout of my ESTA saved my butt at checkin for my Hav-Pty-Sju flight on Copa

 

[Mattg]

That's really bad.

Do you have a copy of the original ticket anywhere? Even a copy of the email you presumably received after making the booking?

I would absolutely be pushing for a refund of the second fare you just paid to get from MEL to HBA.

 

[hazel]

Just got home. I had e-ticket, email from the Dept of Finance Travel provider with the booking, boarding pass on my phone for the CBR-MEL flight & I still had to pay.

 

[Mattg]

Just got home. I had e-ticket, email from the Dept of Finance Travel provider with the booking, boarding pass on my phone for the CBR-MEL flight & I still had to pay.

Did the E-Ticket have the MEL-HBA flight on it? (I presume it did.) If so, why didn't the VA staff member accept it?

 

[hazel]

Yes it did - they said the problem was my booking was no longer in their system. I just received an email from Virgin that says "a credit had been applied to your travel bank for future travel" I'm assuming that's the fare I paid tonight.
I will be asking for a refund not a credit.

 

[cssaus]

Not a dis-similar issue with VA IT.

Earlier this year I was ticketed SYD-LAX-JFK with the LAX-JFK sector being a VA code-share booking. In the months prior to departure there were a number of changes made to the LAX-JFK sector (flight number changes & departure times). Each time a change was made VA re-issued the ticket.

Checking in at SYD I was issued a BP on VA stock for my LAX-JFK flight.

When I presented myself at the Delta lounge at LAX to have my BP re-printed on DL paper I was told that I couldn't be checked in as the DL reservation system could not locate an e-ticket that reflected my intended flight. It took a 45 minute call to the VA reservation staff back in Australia and handing the phone over to the DL CSR to resolve the issue and for DL to manually update their reservation system to reflect the latest iteration on my ticket.

I was told that if I had gone straight to the gate instead of stopping by the lounge I would have been refused boarding and would have most likely missed my flight.

The very last reservation listing that VA emailed me showed eight e-tickets belonging to the reservation, no wonder the Delta system was incorrect!!!

 

[Jurahn]

Not a dis-similar issue with VA IT.

Earlier this year I was ticketed SYD-LAX-JFK with the LAX-JFK sector being a VA code-share booking. In the months prior to departure there were a number of changes made to the LAX-JFK sector (flight number changes & departure times). Each time a change was made VA re-issued the ticket.

Checking in at SYD I was issued a BP on VA stock for my LAX-JFK flight.

When I presented myself at the Delta lounge at LAX to have my BP re-printed on DL paper I was told that I couldn't be checked in as the DL reservation system could not locate an e-ticket that reflected my intended flight. It took a 45 minute call to the VA reservation staff back in Australia and handing the phone over to the DL CSR to resolve the issue and for DL to manually update their reservation system to reflect the latest iteration on my ticket.

I was told that if I had gone straight to the gate instead of stopping by the lounge I would have been refused boarding and would have most likely missed my flight.

The very last reservation listing that VA emailed me showed eight e-tickets belonging to the reservation, no wonder the Delta system was incorrect!!!

Interesting to hear what happened with your Delta codeshare flights - there have been IT problems as well with my upcoming booking in March 2017 - PER-SYD-LAX-SEA return - which was fine until there was a change to the LAX-SEA sector which is a codeshare with Delta. I received an email from VA advising I had been changed to another (later) flight the same morning, which actually suited me better, so I accepted the change and VA reissued the e-ticket. I then found I couldn't get into my booking on VA's website. I rang the Gold desk and they did something with the booking and I was then able to view it, but both the original LAX-SEA flight AND the new one were showing as current! The very helpful Velocity CSO I was speaking to then removed the original flight (she wasn't sure why it was still displaying) and all seemed OK - until I looked at the booking on the Delta website (because I wanted to try to do seat selection) and the original LAX-SEA flight was still there, but not the new one. I rang Delta and they told me that there must be a problem with the information not being generated correctly to come across from the VA system and I would have to go back to VA. I was able to contact the VA reps on this forum, and they were able to assist (and many thanks to them for their help) - the Operations team had to manually "push" the information across to the Delta systems, which took a couple of attempts, before the correct flights were displayed.

So from your experience and mine, it seems there's some sort of "glitch" between the VA and Delta systems when there's a codeshare flight change, and somehow the information regarding the change isn't going across from one system to the other.

 

[cssaus]

Interesting to hear what happened with your Delta codeshare flights - there have been IT problems as well with my upcoming booking in March 2017 - PER-SYD-LAX-SEA return - which was fine until there was a change to the LAX-SEA sector which is a codeshare with Delta. I received an email from VA advising I had been changed to another (later) flight the same morning, which actually suited me better, so I accepted the change and VA reissued the e-ticket. I then found I couldn't get into my booking on VA's website. I rang the Gold desk and they did something with the booking and I was then able to view it, but both the original LAX-SEA flight AND the new one were showing as current! The very helpful Velocity CSO I was speaking to then removed the original flight (she wasn't sure why it was still displaying) and all seemed OK - until I looked at the booking on the Delta website (because I wanted to try to do seat selection) and the original LAX-SEA flight was still there, but not the new one. I rang Delta and they told me that there must be a problem with the information not being generated correctly to come across from the VA system and I would have to go back to VA. I was able to contact the VA reps on this forum, and they were able to assist (and many thanks to them for their help) - the Operations team had to manually "push" the information across to the Delta systems, which took a couple of attempts, before the correct flights were displayed.

So from your experience and mine, it seems there's some sort of "glitch" between the VA and Delta systems when there's a codeshare flight change, and somehow the information regarding the change isn't going across from one system to the other.

Yep that pretty much sounds like the sort of issue that caught me out.

I'm now very aware that if I have a VA codeshare flight with a partner carrier and VA advises me that a change has occurred, I make sure I check the reservation out in both the VA reservation system and the operating carrier's reservation system.

I've got VA codeshare flights coming up next month operated by Etihad and I've made sure that the ticket number that VA has issued to me is the same ticket number that appears in Etihad's reservation system and that the flights check-out in both systems.

Just as an aside, I was never actually a Twitter user but in recent times I've had some measure of success and timely response from VA by contacting them via their Twitter account.

 

[UP4014]

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.

 

[cssaus]

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.

Well in my case I was traveling with carry-on luggage only. Can't imagine what might have happened if I had checked baggage through to NY and I was denied boarding.

 

[cssaus]

I guess these experiences should act as a warning to make sure that you always have a print-out with you of your very latest e-ticket iteration.

 

[rtyuiop]

By the sounds of it I don't think that would make much difference - for instance, if someone doctors up a printout of an e-ticket that puts them in J from BNE to LAX, but the reservation doesn't show up in the system (what seems to have happened this time, which is just horrifying), they're hardly going to look at the system and the printout and decide to put the passenger on the plane, are they?

 

[cssaus]

By the sounds of it I don't think that would make much difference - for instance, if someone doctors up a printout of an e-ticket that puts them in J from BNE to LAX, but the reservation doesn't show up in the system (what seems to have happened this time, which is just horrifying), they're hardly going to look at the system and the printout and decide to put the passenger on the plane, are they?

The point I was trying to make is that it is the E-ticket number itself that is important. If you can provide evidence that you have a valid E-ticket for one reservation system which doesn't appear in the operating carriers reservation system, you then stand a better chance of having the issue resolved and that the operating carrier can then liaise with the issuer of the ticket, which was what ended up happening in my situation.

 

[clipped_wings]

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?

 

[Mattg]

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?

There is a reason... this thread may provide some enlightenment: http://www.australianfrequentflyer....-separate-ticket-interline-changes-76450.html

Basically, booking things on one ticket gives you protection in the case of missed connections due to delays etc. on a connecting flight. It also means that you can have your bags checked through directly to the final destination. This is particularly important if transiting a third country between the origin and final destination, as it means you don't have to clear customs & immigration (and potentially have to pay for a visa) just in order to re-check in.

 

[cssaus]

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?

In my case, SYD-JFK, two reasons. First one is price (I bought a J class ticket) and secondly booking a VA codeshare flight number for the LAX-JFK-LAX sectors counted towards my eligible sectors flown for status re-qualification.

However having said that, I have an upcoming itinerary from SYD-LAX-LAS return and booking a separate LAX-LAS-LAX return in Y worked out a whole lot cheaper than if I had booked the flights as J class via VA.