QF website is a nightmare

[ozbeachbabe]

Another item for the work experience kids to sort is maybe an advanced search option for classic awards where you can specify carriers or non-stop flights eg I need to book LAX/HNL and would like an AA flight so I don't have to pay for baggage. Currently just about every option the search returns is on AS via somewhere and you don't get any free baggage allowance as they're not OW so don't recognise OWE status.*

What's annoying is that when you look from some other cities eg PHX/HNL it will give you two AA flights eg PHX/LAX/HNL so you know the LAX/HNL flight has award availability yet that same flight won't appear in the LAX/HNL searches.

* AS will through check to other airlines on separate tickets and honour the other airline's allowance provided there is an interline agreement for baggage between AS and the other carrier and the connecting flight is within 12 hours eg my parents flew SEA AS LAX booked on the AS website then VA LAX/SYD booked on the VA website and AS were happy to through check bags to SYD and didn't charge them for baggage.

 

[esseeeayeenn]

It would be nice if the website did lots of complex things but I'd be happier if it did the basic things a bit better.

 

[michaele]

It would be nice if the website did lots of complex things but I'd be happier if it did the basic things a bit better.

I agree. There is a lot of basic functionality discussed in this thread which could definitely be fixed with a bit of focused dev time. I wonder how must testing is done across a broad range of systems/users?

I find the book a car functionality on the app hasn't worked in months - keeps saying it's removed my info for privacy and throws me back to the enter your dates screen..

 

[Limewood]

No doubt it has a lot of inconvenient clicking to find PE/J/F award seats why don't they just show the lot in one hit??

 

[medhead]

One particular issue is seat selection for a second/return flight on a booking when you've checked in for the outbound. The website refuses to let seat selection happen on that future flight. No doubt something to do with the flight being just about to depart, and I can understand blocking seat changes on the checked in flight. But the App allows selecting the non-current flight and shows the seat map, but just won't let a new seat selection stick.

 

[esseeeayeenn]

One particular issue is seat selection for a second/return flight on a booking when you've checked in for the outbound. The website refuses to let seat selection happen on that future flight. No doubt something to do with the flight being just about to depart, and I can understand blocking seat changes on the checked in flight. But the App allows selecting the non-current flight and shows the seat map, but just won't let a new seat selection stick.

For clarity it is probably useful to distinguish between the website and the app.
Each has its own issues.

 

[medhead]

For clarity it is probably useful to distinguish between the website and the app.
Each has its own issues.

the issue exists on both, and the app links to the website for MMB.

 

[esseeeayeenn]

the issue exists on both, and the app links to the website for MMB.

That clarifies it.

 

[RichardMEL]

The clunky old booking interface is much better than the new one.

It is in general except I had the case the other day of searching MEL-AKL. What I wanted was to do MEL-SYD-AKL (don't ask) in J.

New interface, when I search in Y, I get the J sale option pop up just fine for direct flights and some via SYD. Great.

Try same search via the clunky one (ie: voucher use) and what does it do? if I search in J it gives me only direct flight options, and if I search in Y, it gives me J sale but "Your flight from MEL-SYD will be in Y" and for the same price as the other offers in J. Maybe that's a display bug - I did not click through to see if it booked into J or Y but it was not consistent in that respect.

 

[medhead]

An interesting one. Just searched MEL-KUL on the Qantas website, sorting by direct flights. The only direct flight, operated by EK, was listed as the 4th option. Apparently 3 hours longer on QF and 3K via SIN is more direct than a non-stop MEL-KUL flight.

No need to mention the lack of options on MH MEL-KUL.

 

[wandering_fred]

An interesting one. Just searched MEL-KUL on the Qantas website, sorting by direct flights. The only direct flight, operated by EK, was listed as the 4th option. Apparently 3 hours longer on QF and 3K via SIN is more direct than a non-stop MEL-KUL flight.
No need to mention the lack of options on MH MEL-KUL.

No need to mention the difference in price with MH either?

Happy wandering

Fred

 

[medhead]

No need to mention the difference in price with MH either?

Happy wandering

Fred

Well I want QF to sell me the seat on MH. But buying a Openjaw KUL-ADL, MEL-KUL looks to be about $100 more for the MEL-KUL sector than QF or EK want on the EK flight. Last minute flights so pricing is a bit up there. The advantage of the MH flight is it departs 2 hours earlier so I can get back to family for breakfast.

 

[katiebell]

another problem : if I click on the button to email me my BP the email is a link to a website and not a pdf BP 9as was the ccase previously). Very irritating! And more time, effort and complexity Ibdo not need

 

[JohnK]

Not quite website but you get my drift.

One way flight BNE-SIN $394.

That same flight as part of a return BNE-SIN $468.

 

[esseeeayeenn]

Not quite website but you get my drift.

One way flight BNE-SIN $394.

That same flight as part of a return BNE-SIN $468.

That's standard. One way fares are always a lot more than half return. Not only not a website issue but not restricted to QF at all.

My friend (who is inbetween ID travel entitlements because he changed airlines) was looking at booking one way SYD-KEF for about $1,800.
He was going to be eligible for ID travel for the return leg.
But I found a ticket for him SYD-KEF returning ZRH-SYD for only $2,100 so he went with that instead.
The $300 difference was cheaper than ID travel for the return sectors and confirmed instead of stand by.

 

[ftm]

That's standard. One way fares are always a lot more than half return. Not only not a website issue but not restricted to QF at all.

Except in the case above it is the one way component of a return that is more expensive. Which is unusual, I agree.

Since the new yield management system was launched I have started to see a lot of manipulation by QF of what is available depending on how you search, what else you've got in the PNR and whether it is a change or a new ticket. The above is something new though that I hadn't noticed.

 

[RichardMEL]

I realise the pricing issue is OT to this thread, but are you suggesting that BNE-SIN is $394, yet BNE-SIN-BNE is $936?

What you're (maybe) not accounting for is

a) extra charges ex-SIN and into oz not charged on the OW
b) the price equivalent for a one way SIN-BNE will have no relationship to the ex-BNE pricing (different countries POS, currencies, etc)

We all know that airline pricing can be irrational. As someone else noted often one way fares can be far more than half the return(or thereabouts) which is a factor of the pricing models, and hoping to grab yield off the odd passenger who may actually require that sector

The other thought is that your one way fare may be in a lower booking class than any r/t fare offering in the market by QF, pushing that outbound into a higher booking class OR the return sectors booking classes are not available thus pushing the whole fare into a higher booking class.

Is it manipulation? Isn't the whole pricing models manipulation of the markets to extract as much yield as possible?

As irritating as the new system is, the benefits to QF are fairly obvious. Another offshoot is that they can now more skillfully enforce routing rules and restrictive fares.. for example the recent sale fares in F only allowed for direct/non stop routings (eg: MEL-LAX or SYD-LAX but NOT MEL-SYD(in J)-LAX or v.v.) I noted the same with J sale fares to NZ. In times past one could force a routing on a sale fare of say MEL-SYD-AKL and extract more SC etc. Well you can still do this, after a fashion, but it forces the fare much higher. A combination of pricing and fare restrictions and the better ability to manage these within the booking system.

I still remember the "good old days" where to get a decent sale fare you had to stay over a Saturday night (domestic mostly) which was a way to exclude 99% of business flyers who would only want to fly for a working week. They are just getting smarter. The new version sees some J sale fares in some markets such as transpac enforcing midweek departures...

 

[basso]

One way flight BNE-SIN $394.

Sometimes there are unexpected things - At the moment through to Sep 13, there is a sale on one way fares between Australia and Singapore (Kuala Lumpur, Columbo, India)

 

[JohnK]

I realise the pricing issue is OT to this thread, but are you suggesting that BNE-SIN is $394, yet BNE-SIN-BNE is $936?

A rerurn is > $1000 but the outbound component is $468. The one-way outbound is considerably less. Qantas scamming where they think they can scam?

Awful. They will get my money on outbound only.

Sometimes there are unexpected things - At the moment through to Sep 13, there is a sale on one way fares between Australia and Singapore (Kuala Lumpur, Columbo, India)

Outbound 01 October and return 07 October. Makes no sense.

 

[RichardMEL]

A rerurn is > $1000 but the outbound component is $468. The one-way outbound is considerably less. Qantas scamming where they think they can scam?

Awful. They will get my money on outbound only.


Outbound 01 October and return 07 October. Makes no sense.

oh of course.. I forgot about the matrix showing the component sector prices. duh! You'd think I'd know by now right?!