It's embarrassing how bad the QF website is

[sergeyvzn]

One thing I can't understand is their origin/destination list in the search engine...looking for flights from LHR to LED it's all good. Looking for flights FROM LED to LHR - LED does not come up...
Doha does not come up either on the origin list - how is this possible, it's a major OneWorld hub???
One can't do a search for all NYC airports or all London (LON) airports either...
I think I've seen it mentioned at least a hundred times before for at least a year and nothing's been done
Every day I catch a train to work and get off in Mascot with a crowd of Qantas IT people...I can see them getting their coffees from nearby cafes but it seems like that's all they do all day and no time is left for fixing the website

 

[Cynicor]

Why does the site keep assuming I am in Sydney?

To Qantas, isn't everyone in Sydney? I'm just in far, far, far West Sydney (commonly known as Perth).

Adelaide, being on the "East Coast" is probably a form of South Sydney.

 

[RooFlyer]

Why does the site keep assuming I am in Sydney?

But you ARE in Sydney. You just don't realize which part. North Sydney = everywhere north of Sydney CBD; west Sydney = everywhere west of CBD, etc etc etc.

Simpler. Fairer.

 

[docjames]

Why does the site keep assuming I am in Sydney?

Because the end aim is to transit all QF pax through Sydney. Irrespective of final destination.

 

[Himeno]

But you ARE in Sydney. You just don't realize which part. North Sydney = everywhere north of Sydney CBD; west Sydney = everywhere west of CBD, etc etc etc.

Simpler. Fairer.

Maybe we should just change the name of the country to Sydney.

 

[Benno]

From a technical web design POV, the performance of the website is shocking. Using firefox's built in performance analysis tools, it takes 30-35 seconds for me to load a typical booking search page, and even longer when managing an existing booking.

 

[boomy]

Interesting read, my experience is totally different. I do a lot of bookings on the QF website and so far so good, no complaints.

 

[Anna]

I sent some feedback on the website via Customer Care on the weekend and this is the response I got. The fact that they call me FF Gold when I am WP was not a good start.

[h=2]RE: Website - Site Feedback & Suggestions/FF No. Redacted/FF Gold‏[/h] Dear Anna

We appreciate you taking the time to send your feedback to us.

Qantas is continually trying to enhance the design and functionality of the site to best suit the needs of our customers. I will certainly forward your email on to the departments concerned.

Thank you for taking the time to communicate with us and I hope you will enjoy the site and its continued development in the future.

Regards,

(name)

Qantas Websupport

 

[RooFlyer]

I sent some feedback on the website via Customer Care on the weekend and this is the response I got. The fact that they call me FF Gold when I am WP was not a good start.

[h=2]RE: Website - Site Feedback & Suggestions/FF No. Redacted/FF Gold‏[/h] Dear Anna

We appreciate you taking the time to send your feedback to us.

Qantas is continually trying to enhance the design and functionality of the site to best suit the needs of our customers. I will certainly forward your email on to the departments concerned.

Thank you for taking the time to communicate with us and I hope you will enjoy the site and its continued development in the future.

Regards,

(name)

Qantas Websupport

Oh, that's wonderful. From Qantas' own, er auto reply robot. They are continually enhancing the web site.

Yes, its bleeding obvious!

 

[Brettmcg]

Oh, that's wonderful. From Qantas' own, er auto reply robot. They are continually enhancing the web site.

Yes, its bleeding obvious!

To be fair, the whole "enhancement" in-joke doesn't mean a hell of a lot to punters outside of this forum.

 

[RooFlyer]

To be fair, the whole "enhancement" in-joke doesn't mean a hell of a lot to punters outside of this forum.

Up to a point. You may be surprised how widespread the "enhancement" in-joke is. Its certainly a widespread bon mot as far as Air Canada Aeroplan-ers are concerned and I was on a tour with a group of BA-flying English folk a year ago and they were using the term to describe BAs deteriorating service.

 

[whatmeworry]

I just hate when companies get conned by their IT/Marketing or whoever to use more coughpy flash in their websites. The QF website wasn't perfect but it was more user friendly in its previous incarnation.

 

[Mr_Orange]

I just hate when companies get conned by their IT/Marketing or whoever to use more coughpy flash in their websites. The QF website wasn't perfect but it was more user friendly in its previous incarnation.

Flash, used on web sites, is an evil that should be banished to the depths of Mordor, and web sites that do not serve up an alternative, HTML only, version when the browser/device does not support Flash should go the same way, IMO!

 

[eastwest101]

I just hate when companies get conned by their IT/Marketing or whoever to use more coughpy flash in their websites. The QF website wasn't perfect but it was more user friendly in its previous incarnation.

I know it may not all be about flash but you make a good point there whatmeworry - if you think back to say 1 or 2 years ago - the Qantas web site did just pretty much all the basics and the moderately complex things pretty reliably, and fairly well. If anything - they have actually gone backwards in performance and useability in the last 1-2 years, as demonstrated by all the things it cannot do up the thread.

DJ/VA took a slightly different approach, and in my opinion they had a reservation system that was prone to crashing and had a fairly unreliable web interface patched with sticky tape and string that could do the basics some/most of the time. Then they went Sabre and it has taken them about 18 months to get most of the things back that they lost from the previous (admittedly old and sometimes unreliable) web site. There are still some things that the old DJ/VA web site could do that the new one cannot, and also some features that are available on the new site that were not on the old site. At least their reservation system is stable.

Its quite surprising that both airlines work in a high wage environment where even the outsourced call centres must surely be costing them money to provide services that a proper competently designed web site could do for a lower cost. For both airlines - the IT manager must be wondering why when the actual business (including modifications to the FF schemes and entry and departure of partner airlines) has got a little more complicated, the booking engines and web sites have actually lost functional useability in the space of 1-2 years, that pretty much says to me that they have a major problem on their hands,whether its resources, communication or planning.....

 

[medhead]

Adelaide, being on the "East Coast" is probably a form of South Sydney.

My children will be pleased if they live in The Shire.

 

[notsure]

I've also found it's currently impossible for me to join the Frequent Flyer program online - I've tried on and off for a couple of months only to get an error message every time.

I've become resigned to the fact that if I want to join before I move back to Australia, then I'm going to have to ring them up to do so.....

 

[Red Roo]

I've also found it's currently impossible for me to join the Frequent Flyer program online - I've tried on and off for a couple of months only to get an error message every time.

I've become resigned to the fact that if I want to join before I move back to Australia, then I'm going to have to ring them up to do so.....

While I'm not aware of any such system issues (I can follow up with the qantas.com team separately), I'd be happy to assist. Please send me a private message with your name and contact details as reference.

 

[codash1099]

While I'm not aware of any such system issues (I can follow up with the qantas.com team separately), I'd be happy to assist. Please send me a private message with your name and contact details as reference.

Nice of you to assist Red Roo, but I'm surprised that you have chosen to comment on this problem but none of the other failings mentioned in this thread. It would be somewhat comforting to know that these have been referred to the appropriate department.

 

[opusman]

The implicit message is they know, don't care, and therefore have nothing to say.

 

[RooFlyer]

The implicit message is they know, don't care, and therefore have nothing to say.

Agree, although I dare say Red Roo, being on the front line of customer interface, does care at the very least, but is bound by management's policies with respect to the others.