European Reward Bookings - What's Going On?

[rtyuiop]

Interesting - yeah, Y seems to have good availability now! Can't see any J on the dates I'm chasing though...

 

[xtra]

Y availability seems to be back to where it was pre-transition. But J definitely isn't - I can't find any J fares for AUS-CDG/LHR where before there was plenty on the date range I'm seeking.

Hopefully they just haven't loaded them yet. But you'd never know .. arrrghh!!

 

[notzac]

Hmmm - one thing I've noticed is that the Reward fares are being booked on to the VA codeshare, rather than the EY code (definitely different to what it was on Amadeus). Seems as though you can finally include VA 29/30 on a redemption to Europe!

We've only waited 3 weeks for Y availability ... maybe another 3 weeks for J?

 

[jb01]

I had submitted feedback a couple of days ago asking for some clarification after receiving 4 different lots of advise from the overseas call center about availability for an SQ booking; received a call from Velocity today saying they've checked again and have found some seats for me, would I like to book.
I think they've had a fix for this particular bug in the system.

I was very impressed as I had planned on calling them again today - this saved me waiting on hold for another 30 mins.

 

[rtyuiop]

Looks like they may have sorted this out, Y availability for Etihad flights is lower, but now there is plenty of J to AUH around my dates. Not much available from AUH->Europe, mind you...

 

[rtyuiop]

Actually, maybe I'm wrong about them having it sorted out - J availability to Europe seems worse than I remember it being pre-Sabre, I think - I could be imagining it though!

 

[Wayne Herring]

Actually, maybe I'm wrong about them having it sorted out - J availability to Europe seems worse than I remember it being pre-Sabre, I think - I could be imagining it though!

Looks worse to me too, my impression was there was far better availability to Europe previously. Perhaps still a work in progress.

 

[rtyuiop]

Just another data point, I tried calling into the call centre this morning to see if they see anything different - no joy, they seem to have the same showing as the website... Oh well - hope I can get my flights eventually!

 

[rtyuiop]

Argh! Annoyingly, whatever fare class J redemptions go in doesn't seem to be showing up on expert flyer at all, either...

 

[notzac]

J redemptions on VA metal book in to Z. I'd imagine that many/most airlines don't publish award fare buckets to the GDS (though it'd be awfully nice if they did, especially at the moment)..

 

[rtyuiop]

There's actually a respectable number of airlines that EF will search for award fares, but yeah, it probably isn't most.

Just noticed all the Y availability seems to be gone again. I'm really struggling to imagine what they're doing to the system!

 

[davestan]

Economy availability totally gone again, but Reward Business available from mid December. It's crazy! I think a Year 10 student could have done a better job of developing and sustaining the website.

 

[xtra]

Yep, the Business Reward availability in December is exactly how it used to look (except, of course, you could also bag Economy Reward tickets too). Fingers crossed they sort out the rest of the year.

In the meantime, Virgin, if anyone's listening, you continue to lose business. Frustrating your customers and communicating nothing is a dumb, dumb move (receiving that Velocity EDM last week that didn't recognise any problems really pissed me off). Tell us what's going on and if this is temporary.

Not having reward seats might seem like a minor inconvenience to you, but when people have changed credit card and airline loyalties to chase what used-to-be great availability, only to have to deal with hours of hopeless call centre contact and keep their holiday plans on hold, they start booking their revenue flights elsewhere. I have and so has my company.

 

[amagz]

Still waiting, not only for more rewards seats with EY but the fact that you cant even search on the VA site where the "from" is a EY international departure point. e.g AUH - MEL. These airports simply don't come up when put in. Only work when an Australian airport is "from" and then magically AUH appears in "to" section.

Not sure if its been mentined somewhere else but I just came accross this article Virgin Australia checks in with Sabre booking system - airports, Sabre, check-in, navitaire, Virgin Australia - Computerworld which quotes "Etihad Airways is about to move to Sabre in the next few months.". Not sure how accurate that is but perhaps that is where the communication issue lies?

Then I read on another article "Virgin has said the new system will allow it to better link its services to alliance partners such as Etihad and Singapore Airlines, as well as making its flights more visible to travel agents around the world". When? 2014? yehhhh na. I shall continue banging my head against the wall

 

[rtyuiop]

Etihad have a major IT change on Feb 23, might be their Sabre move?

Etihad Airways: Latest news

Cheers,

 

[Fruitcake]

Hopefully EY takes on board some of the VA pricing staff to help with the transition - they might generate some 0pts + taxes reward seats to Europe for us .

 

[amagz]

Interesting, thanks rtyulop. Maybe they waiting for that to happen. If that's the case they either knew the systems wouldn't fully communicate before upgrading or they assumed it would and then they went live and realised... ohhh cough

If that's causing the issue surely they could just let us know and give us some HOPE. I shall continue to wear down my CTRL+R keys in the mean time, its becoming a hobby. I might sustain a repetitive refresh injury...

 

[notzac]

Etihad have a major IT change on Feb 23, might be their Sabre move?

Sure is - let's see how much of a disaster it is for them ..

 

[rtyuiop]

Just called in, and got told no availability, but they definitely seem to think Etihad may release more seats once their Sabre upgrade is done. Pushed to see if they can contact Etihad and get something done, but no joy.

This is getting annoying - if I can't get an award seat, I need to buy one (sadly it'll be Y rather than J) and those are just getting more expensive while we wait for Etihad to sort out what may or may not be an actual problem...

 

[rtyuiop]

Anyone know if there's a way to get a mixed business/economy (business between Oz and AUH, then economy from AUH to Europe) booking?

I imagine not, and I'm not sure I want to try to deal with the offshore call centre to confirm. Would be different if the plat desk could do international redemptions...