Anyone else had to wait a few days before receiving actual flight info STA

[comradeotto]

Hey so I bought flights online Thursday morning through STA flying one leg with Virgin. I have a velocity account so rang Virgin on Friday to add it to that flight. Virgin said there was no booking. I rang STA up and asked them what was going on and they said it was booked and emailed me their booking reference info. I gave them my velocity account number and they said they'd add it. So checked my account just now and still no booking to be found. I used my parents credit card after giving them the money as I don't have a credit card and they're not sure whether the money has been taken so can't even confirm that way. So just wanted to know if anyone else has had a similar experience going through STA online? Should I be worrying or does the fact they sent me their own thing saying its confirmed mean everything is okay?

 

[here2go]

Hey so I bought flights online Thursday morning through STA flying one leg with Virgin. I have a velocity account so rang Virgin on Friday to add it to that flight. Virgin said there was no booking. I rang STA up and asked them what was going on and they said it was booked and emailed me their booking reference info. I gave them my velocity account number and they said they'd add it. So checked my account just now and still no booking to be found. I used my parents credit card after giving them the money as I don't have a credit card and they're not sure whether the money has been taken so can't even confirm that way. So just wanted to know if anyone else has had a similar experience going through STA online? Should I be worrying or does the fact they sent me their own thing saying its confirmed mean everything is okay?

I doubt many people here use STA, and I certainly haven't since I was at uni back in the 90s. From memory, they use Sabre, so have a look at Virtuallythere.com and type in the PNR STA gave (the six digit number). That should give you the Virgin PNR for the booking. If that doesn't work, go back to STA and demand to know what GDS they use.

Other GDS website out there that would be worth a look at if Virtually There doesn't produce immediate joy.
Amadeus (Qantas, SingaporeAir, BA, etc) = Checkmytrip.com
Galileo/Travelport (FlightCentre) = ViewTrip.com

 

[comradeotto]

Yeah I figured not many would, just there didn't seem to be any other place to get an answer from Australians. That checkmytrip.com brought up the details but it was pretty much just the receipt STA sent me, no reference numbers from the airline.

 

[medhead]

Check my trip is Amadeus. Virgin use sabre which is "virtually there", I think. You need to get the virgin reference, actually this should be shown in the amadeus booking as I've had that with Jetstar flights booked with qantas, I think.


Sent from the Throne

 

[here2go]

Check my trip is Amadeus. Virgin use sabre which is "virtually there", I think. You need to get the virgin reference, actually this should be shown in the amadeus booking as I've had that with Jetstar flights booked with qantas, I think.

Medhead - I thought Sabre migration hasn't happened yet. There would have been uninformed screaming in the streets if it was anything like the SQ migration.

So Comradeotta you have an Amadeus PNR (CheckMyTrip). Are you flying Virgin Domestically or Internationally? If International they should be one and the same as Virgin Australia (old V Australia) uses Amadeus. If Domestic, then you are dealing with the weird and wonderful world of Navitaire. Hassle STA for the "Virgin PNR" regardless.

 

[comradeotto]

Flying internationally. I'm definitely going to hassle them for it because I want to change my meal, plus actually having Virgins PNR would give me peace of mind.

 

[comradeotto]

So just spoke with STA who said Virgin would only be able to see me as a ticket number. Found that a bit suss so rang Virgin and gave them that ticket number but apparently all is good, though they gave me the PNR STA gave me again that doesn't log in to their website. Oh well if Virgin knew all the information I must have a seat booked so can stop stressing. Going to book direct and cut out the travel agent next time I think.

 

[here2go]

So just spoke with STA who said Virgin would only be able to see me as a ticket number. Found that a bit suss so rang Virgin and gave them that ticket number but apparently all is good, though they gave me the PNR STA gave me again that doesn't log in to their website. Oh well if Virgin knew all the information I must have a seat booked so can stop stressing. Going to book direct and cut out the travel agent next time I think.

I start at Skyscanner for point to point travel - it's been pretty good for me. For more complex stuff, best to walk into a travel agent, but note that Skyscanner may still win if price is more important than convenience. I managed to save $1500 for the family doing point to point with a number of airlines in Europe next month compared with a single multi-city ticket.

 

[Travel Guru]

So just spoke with STA who said Virgin would only be able to see me as a ticket number. Found that a bit suss so rang Virgin and gave them that ticket number but apparently all is good, though they gave me the PNR STA gave me again that doesn't log in to their website. Oh well if Virgin knew all the information I must have a seat booked so can stop stressing. Going to book direct and cut out the travel agent next time I think.

That sounds like a load of BS to me, every ticket number has to have a name attached with it, not sure what they were trying to achieve but I'd recommend always booking domestic flights direct with the airline, if you book through any third parties website you're losing too much control for no possible gain (and that's an agent speaking).

TG

 

[comradeotto]

Yeah thats what I thought as well, hence the phone call to Virgin straight after. But I gave ticket number to Virgin and they pulled up my details and also emailed me flight info with their letter head saying all was confirmed. I'm still confused though why Virgin gave me the same reference number as STA which doesn't let me look at my flight through the Virgin site.

 

[jneufeld]

Yeah thats what I thought as well, hence the phone call to Virgin straight after. But I gave ticket number to Virgin and they pulled up my details and also emailed me flight info with their letter head saying all was confirmed. I'm still confused though why Virgin gave me the same reference number as STA which doesn't let me look at my flight through the Virgin site.

You can only view your international booking on the VA website if you booked directly through the website or over the phone. The only way to view your booking if booked through an agent or travel booking site (eg. Expedia) is through checkmytrip.com as VA Int'l use Amadeus (for now). Quite often the VA website for int'l bookings is not the cheapest option and will not list all the codeshare connections available I have found.