Qantas check-in goes down (Merged)

[Blackadder]

Is it just QF that use Amadeus (Domestically)?

 

[anat0l]

Is it just QF that use Amadeus (Domestically)?

I don't know about TT, but I believe that DJ and JQ use different GDSes. I can't remember what they are, but they are not one of the "big" ones out there, though they aren't exclusive in-house GDSes either.

 

[NM]

Suffice it to say, that in my experience most (but by no means all)outages were during or very shortly after some form of maintenance.

Indeed, one of the first questions asked is "what changed?".

 

[FlyboyAl]

This is from the ABC wesite - WOW, no QANTAS bashing yet!!!!!!
----------------------------------------------------

Air passengers around the country are experiencing flight delays this afternoon because of a glitch in the Qantas check-in system.
The trouble started early this morning when the Amadeus system server responsible for checking in passengers broke down.
Qantas says the problem was fixed within the hour but 80 airlines have been affected.
It follows a similar system crash in November which also caused extensive delays.
Travellers have been told to expect minor delays to some international flights and delays of up to an hour for domestic flights.
Passengers at Sydney's domestic terminal are queuing out the door as the result of a more recent glitch in the baggage sorting system.
At least five Qantas flights departing Adelaide were also delayed by about 40 minutes.
Flights arriving were also late and passenger Ryan Pearson arrived in Adelaide about four hours behind schedule.
"Our flight was delayed in Dubai for about two hours, and then when we got to Melbourne we were delayed again because Qantas' system went down," he said.
Qantas has been unable to say if other terminals are having the same problem.

 

[ric_melb]

I notice the radio news items are changing from Qantas systems are/were down to Amadeus systems were down.
If it affected 80 airlines its a much bigger issue than Qantas, though of course in Australia the major inconvenience is with Qantas.

 

[samh004]

I don't think there is enough information to know what happened. Given that it is the weekend, and the the middle of the night in the USA, I wouldn't discount the possibility of some maintenance happening that caused the problem.

As NM mentions, their systems are in Germany, they're a European GDS.

Is it just QF that use Amadeus (Domestically)?

Their website says they serve 458 airlines, but don't list them. Wikipedia says they serve over 500 airlines though.

 

[markis10]

I don't know about TT, but I believe that DJ and JQ use different GDSes. I can't remember what they are, but they are not one of the "big" ones out there, though they aren't exclusive in-house GDSes either.

None of the LCCs in OZ use a GDS as such for departure control/baggage etc according to the Berzurk CEO (http://tims-boot.blogspot.com/2007/09/meta-search-and-gds.html), although the booking system of DJ / JQ and TT is Navitaire "New Skies" which was originally set up and operated by HP.

http://www.navitaire.com/company/customers_all.asp

Its actually Altéa which is the issue, which is part of Armadeus.

 

[Paddy55]

Qantas have, for at least a decade, had a cost cutting emphasis in IT which I think has been reported from time to time in the trade press.

I believe it is not only the quality of the physical infrastructure that deteriorates over time but the quantity, quality and availability of the skilled resources (people) needed to design, implement and support that infrastructure also.

Just as it takes quite some time for this deterioration to become evident... it will take quite a while for it to be improved... if they want it to be improved.

After all the folks who built 97.5% uptime into the systems and infrastructure at Jetstar are running things at Qantas now, aren't they?

A cynical Paddy

 

[codash1099]

Qantas have, for at least a decade, had a cost cutting emphasis in IT which I think has been reported from time to time in the trade press.

I believe it is not only the quality of the physical infrastructure that deteriorates over time but the quantity, quality and availability of the skilled resources (people) needed to design, implement and support that infrastructure also.

Just as it takes quite some time for this deterioration to become evident... it will take quite a while for it to be improved... if they want it to be improved.

After all the folks who built 97.5% uptime into the systems and infrastructure at Jetstar are running things at Qantas now, aren't they?

A cynical Paddy

I'm as cynical as the next man but I don't see how a fault at Amadeus relates to anything QF has done on IT.

 

[samh004]

Strangely channel 9 news reported that Qantas didn't know what the cause of the glitch was, they didn't mention Amadeus, but did mention 55 other airlines around the world also had problems.

 

[anat0l]

Similarly Channel 7 had someone mention Amadeus, although it was stated (from the mouth of the QF rep who addressed the press) in such a way that it seemed, to those not in the know, QF owned a program (or a check-in system) called Amadeus.

As a corollary, there was no mention that the problem was also experienced around the world (this is if, indeed, Amadeus was the culprit).

Many people annoyed, although the news didn't seem to show the most stinging criticisms they could have.

 

[markis10]

I'm as cynical as the next man but I don't see how a fault at Amadeus relates to anything QF has done on IT.

Qantas was the launch customer for Altea, and by moving to an outsourced departure system was able to redirect IT spend across to sales and marketing needs, away from operational needs, its customers today are paying the price for that move once again. Its the old outsourcing versus inhouse argument.

 

[ozbeachbabe]

Someone in Erding (near Munich) was probably tinkering around with the server because it's a convenient time to do so when Europe is asleep.

Shame about the rest of the world who still need to function during the day.

Once incident (November) was unfortunate but after Amadeus' latest effort I'm sure boffins at QF will want to kick a few heads somewhere.

Hope everyone affected got to where they were supposed to get to.

Cheers

Oz

 

[YQY]

As posted previously - once checked in - Qantas got us away fairly quickly.

I was booked on QF443 (my favourite flight - I work in IT security ). The flight was scheduled to depart at 1500 - it departed at 1530 and it arrived at 1650 (scheduled 1630). There was a 25 min wait for luggage (normally 15min) as the flight had other luggage from other flights.

All up - i would have been 30 mins late - not bad given the circumstances.

 

[Oneworldplus2]

As posted previously - once checked in - Qantas got us away fairly quickly.

I was booked on QF443 (my favourite flight - I work in IT security ). The flight was scheduled to depart at 1500 - it departed at 1530 and it arrived at 1650 (scheduled 1630). There was a 25 min wait for luggage (normally 15min) as the flight had other luggage from other flights.

All up - i would have been 30 mins late - not bad given the circumstances.

I agree. Not bad, considering.
Hope that there isn't a problem tomorrow morning, am flying SYD-PER.

 

[Oneworldplus2]

Took me over 45 minutes to get to the bag drop. The Q for normal QF check in is crazy. It's all the way around past the sales desk and the QF SG and QP took forever. I mean, seriously Qantas, only 1 person manning the check in on a Monday morning in Sydney. JOKE!!!

 

[turtlemichael]

Took me over 45 minutes to get to the bag drop. The Q for normal QF check in is crazy. It's all the way around past the sales desk and the QF SG and QP took forever. I mean, seriously Qantas, only 1 person manning the check in on a Monday morning in Sydney. JOKE!!!

Being a computer cynic I know those damn things go down when you least want it. I am commenting on how Qantas handled it. I was at Melbourne yesterday for a flight to Sydney. I arrived at 9.00am which I guess was not long after the system went down. I fortunately got there early expecting a busy check-in on a busy travel day. The terminal was heaving with lines developing all over the place and no seeming order. There were a minimum of announcements as to what the problem was. There were negliglible numbers of staff on the floor advising people what to do. There were arguments in the lines as queue jumping increased. A lack of organisation also applied at the Sydney end when only a small proportion of the luggage arrived.

All up, computer systems die now and then but I am disappointed that QF behaved like a LCC when it did happen. If there was a plan to deal with the chaos I'd suggest they relook at it.

 

[oz_mark]

Someone in Erding (near Munich) was probably tinkering around with the server because it's a convenient time to do so when Europe is asleep.

Shame about the rest of the world who still need to function during the day.

Once incident (November) was unfortunate but after Amadeus' latest effort I'm sure boffins at QF will want to kick a few heads somewhere.

I went trawling through the news reports and came up blank on it happening anywhere else in the world. Check-in chaos seems to have occured on the east coast of Australia, and that is about it as far as the media goes.

So, did it really affect anyone else?

 

[Warks]

Was out there this morning at 8am dropping off my elderly mum for QF512. Queue went right back to the exit opposite Gate 1 near the toilets. Took about 40 minutes to get from the end to the place where the Qantas staffer shunted you to the relevant lines. Luckily we got sent to the Service Desk as did others with small kids so being old helped here. I wasn't flying so I didn't think I'd waste anyone's time by trying to check her in through the QC desk, queues were bad enough there anyway. Wasn't sure I could, maybe if I'd been a WP I might have tried it.
They were pulling people forward to desks 7 and 8 for called flights so it felt a bit like flying DJ on an ordinary day!

News crew (station unknown) turned up about 815am. The usual queue shots by the cameraman with no reporter for a while then a reporter turned up (didn't know her) and would you believe they picked on me to interview?
I was asked how long we'd been waiting, if we'd been told what was going on and if I'd seen queues like this before. I said we'd been waiting half an hour, we hadn't been told anything and I'd only seen queues like this in the international terminal. As I wasn't angry and slagging off Qantas I seriously doubt they'll use me. I wasn't keen anyway. I did tell them I wasn't actually flying.

In any case they had plenty of desks open and it moved fairly quickly despite the length. Not great but could have been worse.

 

[gilby08]

I don't know about TT, but I believe that DJ and JQ use different GDSes. I can't remember what they are, but they are not one of the "big" ones out there, though they aren't exclusive in-house GDSes either.

TT uses Newskies from Navitare (older system)
DJ uses Newskies from Navitare (older system)
JQ uses Openskies from Navitare (newest system, 1st airline to use and trial it AFAIK)