Changes to DJ's booking engine? And credit card fee?

[anat0l]

Was doing some idle fare searching with QF, DJ and the rest and noticed DJ's booking engine has changed.

It looks a lot more like QF's (or rather VA's) in some ways, although some of the classic layout (or elements of it) still remain. It's much easier to see the fares across different days due to the tabs (compared to before where you needed to go "Next Day" or "Previous Day" each time and mentally track prices). It's a little bigger in size, there are a few more boxes here and there to check, and although checked baggage isn't defaulted to an option (you must select an option unless you already get baggage) the travel insurance is defaulted (to selected, so most of us would need to deselect this).

Has anyone noticed these changes?

Also, has the mechanics for surcharging for credit cards changed? I tried to silly booking (ABX to TSV return), which yielded me choices of two trips each consisting of three legs (I believe ABX-SYD-BNE-TSV). Just for shiggles I selected that one because I wanted to see the credit card charge for it. Normally I thought the rule is $3.50 per passenger per sector flown, so I was expecting to see $3.50 * 3 legs / trip * 2 trips (the outbound & inbound) = $21.00. Instead, the charge was only $7.00. Is this normal or have I known the rules incorrectly for a long time? I selected Premium Economy, but I wouldn't think that'd make a difference.

Sorry if I sound really slow - yes I don't fly DJ a lot so perhaps this is a case of me being too out of the loop...

Note: if this is in another thread, please roll this into it, Mods. Cheers!

 

[notzac]

Has anyone noticed these changes?

Yes -- the new booking engine is a part of New Skies (c.f. Open Skies, which is what made the old res system do its' thing).

Slightly easier to navigate, which is a definite plus.

 

[jsd]

Has anyone noticed these changes?

Short Answer: Yes

Long Answer: I'm not going into that:mrgreen:

Also, has the mechanics for surcharging for credit cards changed? I tried to silly booking (ABX to TSV return), which yielded me choices of two trips each consisting of three legs (I believe ABX-SYD-BNE-TSV). Just for shiggles I selected that one because I wanted to see the credit card charge for it. Normally I thought the rule is $3.50 per passenger per sector flown, so I was expecting to see $3.50 * 3 legs / trip * 2 trips (the outbound & inbound) = $21.00. Instead, the charge was only $7.00. Is this normal or have I known the rules incorrectly for a long time? I selected Premium Economy, but I wouldn't think that'd make a difference.

If my understanding of this is correct the CC charge is charged per sector, not per flight, so for example if you wanted to go from HBA to SYD and did a stop in MEL it would only charge the fee once instead of per flight (If that makes sense) I'll try it and post my results


Josh

 

[crazydave98]

My understanding is that for formal connecting flights (such as where you enter ABX-TSV and we offer a multi-flight itinerary that satisfies minimum connection times) this is treated as a single flight (you and your bags are checked through) and the credit card fee is $3.50. However this is not what our website says as observed by jdevereux3.
Will get the website fixed (hmmmm or maybe we should just charge as the website says per individual sector....). Thanks for the pickup.
cheers
CrazyDave98

 

[YellowLemon]

Nah don't charge the CC charge per sector.... keep it the way it is. Makes more sense. CC fees are a rip anyway.

With QANTAS I can just Bpay which is the best option ever.

So with this New Skies sotware, when can we expect to see advanced seat reservation and prioritised seats based on VB Velocity Status?

QANTAS have had the latter for ages and it makes flying so much more pleasant.

 

[anat0l]

prioritised seats based on VB Velocity Status?

QANTAS have had the latter for ages and it makes flying so much more pleasant.

I was under the impression that DJ had similar, i.e. DJ Golds can see and select better seats at OLCI than those without status.

 

[YellowLemon]

Yes but you still have to OLCI on time. 5 minutes after 24 hours prior, and the good ones are gone to wherever. And I often see no-status bogans in the better seats on VB.

What QANTAS has is called PRE-ALLOCATION, where your "default" seat is already a good one, way before check-in.

 

[777]

NOt sure how it works but i'm DJ Gold and since the new reservation system started up the worst i've had is row 4. Been booking reasonably early but the options seem better than under the old system.

 

[YellowLemon]

NOt sure how it works but i'm DJ Gold and since the new reservation system started up the worst i've had is row 4. [...] the options seem better than under the old system.

Thanks for the update! That's great to hear. I'll have to try fly with Virgin again soon and see if it holds true for Silver too.... best I would ever get is row 7 on the old system. (However if I went through the lounge they would often/always check me in a better seat, like rows 2-4)

 

[777]

Thanks for the update! That's great to hear. I'll have to try fly with Virgin again soon and see if it holds true for Silver too.... best I would ever get is row 7 on the old system. (However if I went through the lounge they would often/always check me in a better seat, like rows 2-4)

Yeah, that was my experience with the old system as well - i would check in via the lounge or the priority queue as the OLCI didn't recognise status at all.

 

[anat0l]

I guess one odd quirk with DJ's "preferred seats" is that at most (all?) airports, DJ offers both front and rear boarding. So "preferred seats", if measured as a function of time required to embark/disembark, could include both the first few rows at the front and rear of the cabin.

Someone else who flies DJ regularly can comment on this.

 

[YellowLemon]

I guess one odd quirk with DJ's "preferred seats" is that at most (all?) airports, DJ offers both front and rear boarding. So "preferred seats", if measured as a function of time required to embark/disembark, could include both the first few rows at the front and rear of the cabin.

Someone else who flies DJ regularly can comment on this.

I strongly disagree: as a regular VB flyer (mel, syd, bne) - The back door is not always used, and even then the back is where all the smelly people sit who show up late to check-in, ie people with kids and footy hoons etc. Also the back door always uses stairs, and you can bet there will be some incontinent granny or dumb child that can't use the stairs and takes five minutes for each step.

Rather than pushing the abovementioned customers down the rear stairs and making it look like an "accident", I would rather sit in rows 2-7

 

[markis10]

DJ dont use two door loading in bad weather, so it can be a bit of a lottery at times.

 

[crazydave98]

NOt sure how it works but i'm DJ Gold and since the new reservation system started up the worst i've had is row 4. Been booking reasonably early but the options seem better than under the old system.

We have some rough rules in place for seat allocation. One of our priorities is to refine this to allow Velocity members to record preferences and base default allocations on this. I believe there will be some form of public announcement when this happens along with other new features for Velocity.
cheers
CrazyDave98