Hi John (cc [name redacted]),
Just wanted to let you know that I am a completely and utterly frustrated Platinum member, trying to be loyal to VA, but your Sabre booking system is making it utterly impossible to make bookings and my newly renewed loyalty is fast waning.
My case in point – after getting the Domestic Business Class sale email yesterday, I thought the prices were great and that I’d do a booking in Business Class BNE/SYD return. I thought I’d found availability, but no, it’s like a “bait and switch” – what’s there one second, isn’t there on the following screen (see my earlier emails to Matt).
I have had the pleasure of being in the building beside the Sabre Implementation Team and have many a good chat with them since they arrived. I understand some of the issues with the delay from 26 October to 10 January and the inability to extend them any longer, given they were needed to do the same changeover at
Etihad. I accepted the delay in getting 6 flights flown on 10 January posted to my account (and thankfully [name] came to my rescue 3 weeks later), which got me over the line to Platinum.
What they left you, from a consumer viewpoint, is a completely useless system that should be confined to a training module in Marketing 101 (How Not to Implement a GDS changeover). Bring back Navitaire (but I know that isn’t going to happen
).
So I could get my flights booked today, I have had to resort to using Qantas. Not exactly what I wanted, but at least I get to SYD for my meetings.
[insert screenshot of QF booking, almost same times, cost $50 more per sector but booked in 3.5 mins]
I hate to think how much time I have wasted today that I’ll never get back to spend in my business. But I felt it was important for you to know, on the off chance that you don’t already know some of the problems facing Virgin. I hate to think of the leakage back to QF at the moment…as I know I’m not the only one who has tried to make bookings and have failed.