New booking engine is up

[bullerdude]

Beat me to the punch. Was just going to add that I can select row 3 backwards including exit rows on a dummy booking BNE-SYD tomorrow.

I might beat you to the punch again

Just did a dummy booking to LA and could select pretty much any seat on the plane (relevant to what class being booked) including the coveted Row 5!! Although it seams that plats don't get exit rows for free on long haul.

So far Virgin... pretty good.

 

[KCMil]

I just spoke to an ops guy who said that they are expecting it to take several days for all the bugs to be ironed out. He said that they had a 97% success rate with bookings transitioning across. Likewise he said that there are many many enhancements to be added as the days roll on once they have each step working they will add more features and monitor for issues. Seems to be going okay though.
Interesting to see now that if you choose to fly MEL-OOL via SYD the fares are WAY WAY steeper than previous. This reflects the fact that Navitaire was a point to point res system and Sabre is a GDS allowing more complex pairing. MEL-OOL via SYD is as much as $1100 one way now for fully flex J class.

 

[Meggsy]

Some .. row 13 yes , no charge, row 14 you have to fork out ...

Yes the exit row seats marked with a red line on the bottom of the seat image allow you to choose them on line but then recalculates the fare. Just did a dummy BNE-LAX and can choose virtually any seat on line.

 

[bullerdude]

Yes the exit row seats marked with a red line on the bottom of the seat image allow you to choose them on line but then recalculates the fare. Just did a dummy BNE-LAX and can choose virtually any seat on line.

Good point.. 13 I can select for no charge, but there is a charge for 14.

 

[jazza1971]

Interesting to see now that if you choose to fly MEL-OOL via SYD the fares are WAY WAY steeper than previous. This reflects the fact that Navitaire was a point to point res system and Sabre is a GDS allowing more complex pairing. MEL-OOL via SYD is as much as $1100 one way now for fully flex J class.

Yep looks like all the great 'through' fares are done and dusted, no more ADL-PER via MEL for the same price as direct.....Seems Flexi's have gone up too

 

[Bofter]

Yep looks like all the great 'through' fares are done and dusted, no more ADL-PER via MEL for the same price as direct.....Seems Flexi's have gone up too

I noticed this while doing a MEL-PER booking also - looks like the status run thread might need some revision

 

[Bofter]

Have just done a MEL-PER booking, a few observations:

- clicking on fare rules does not give you something comprehensible to most people
- formatting for print itinerary is horrible, went to the Sabre Virtuallythere site for much better formatting
- information around baggage allowances is there, but the workflow isn't that intuitive

 

[Bofter]

With the new SABRE booking I also get access to more detail than the transitioned bookings, but not as much as I would have expected. If there is a way to change the seat allocation I did at time of purchase, it is not clear to me.

Overall I have to say that the customer experience isn't dramatically better than Navitaire, if at all. I understand it is still early days and things still to come, but I can't say I am overwhelmed. Still, it is no small achievement that all my bookings do appear to have cut across successfully and that I can already make new ones.

 

[Jousams]

I also just made a booking.(reward)
There is no fare class listed on the itinerary?
(that I can see)

 

[Bofter]

There was for me on e-ticket receipt, as fare basis. The fare basis for a cut-over business class redemption shows as ZZDA

 

[ChrisFlyer]

Having a play with the engine, I can't see any seating availability in rows 3-6 on any domestic 738... hopefully just a glitch and not something here to stay!

Also, Diners has been disabled on the payment page?

EDIT: Using my partner's PS login, you can only select from row 11 back (previously was row 8).......

 

[elemist]

Also having a play with the new BE, definitely a load better than the old system that's for sure. There appears to be alot more flight options - although its not more direct flights, just more complex routing. EG searching for PER - DRW gave 2 results, 1 direct and 1 via Melbourne. Now there's 7 different options, some pretty interesting routing for status runs (especially as the points + pay prices are similar) - such as PER - SYD - BNE - DRW.

Also noted the appearance of SG flights. IE searching PER - LHR gave options of SG flights connecting through SG. However it appears only EH flights show up as rewards options. Still way better than it was before.

Excited to look at some of the status run options though!

 

[Intra]

Doing afew dummy bookings, still seems to be issues with some days just having Flex fares available for all flights on that day... But I'm sure it'll be ironed out

Also though, Economy/Business fares now on there own "Search" by class pages. Eh, I liked having all the fares together, but I'll roll with it...

 

[Mak404matt]

Just made a booking, allowed me to select seats on an XR codeshare DRW-KNX-BME-PER.

Whole aircraft was open for selection as a plat, including exit rows.

 

[pythonisman]

OH GOD IT'S SO DIFFERENT!

But seriously, I'm glad they're doing this, it will hopefully make a lot of things much better.
There are a metric ****tonne of bugs in their site at the moment, including pages not found under the "Flexi" dropdown ("The server at iskecmwebuat01.virginblue.internal can't be found" - Dear implementers of technology change: Pointing production users at a UAT server is a no no!), being told the cheapest flight on a day is $80 when the cheapest displayed is a $150 flexi, uncaught errors, etc etc.
Hopefully they're able to resolve them pretty quickly!

Also I can login to my Velocity account through the VA site, but not the Velocity one? Hrmmm

 

[robd]

Just logged in to my Velocity account. If you have a Virgin Flyer card, check the complimentary flights remaining. Hope it sticks

 

[serfty]

Hmmm ....:

You are here Home > Login
[h=2]Login[/h]

Unfortunately this request could not be processed.

 

[Deleted member 29185]

Flights from Tues and Wed of last week are yet to credit.

 

[nlagalle]

In getting a system error so can't login...

 

[Deleted member 29185]

In getting a system error so can't login...

I logged in without issue through the Velocity site. Seems LW can't either.