Velocity Website Update - Single Sign On for Velocity/Reward Booking sites

[eastwest101]

"Total failure" implies that there were massive problems across the board. Clearly that wasn't the case, as a great many people have had no issues. I was placing bookings and taking flights right around the time of the migration, and had no issues other than the advertised downtime and minor issues like lack of SSO.

Sure, I might have been lucky, but it can't have been a "total failure".

Have a look at this list:

Velocity/Virgin websites are RUBBISH - Blogs - The Australian Frequent Flyer Online Community

Sure - the change to Sabre did not stop planes from flying but after reading that list of problems you would have to admit that there were (and still are) numerous "bugs". Judging by a lot of feedback on Facebook and on the boards here the double charging, missing seat selection, missing SC and pts and general congestion of the VA call centres mean that in no way could that transition be fairly described as "trouble free".

 

[hgwells01]

has the transition worked well - probably no, are they continuing to improve - yes, I travelled around the changeover time, somethings didn't work and others did, but in the scheme of all things I just sucked it all up and took a deep breath and said.... no lives were lost in this transition, its a good thing still happy to fly with Virgin every time over Jet* which is my other option usually out of Newcastle.

 

[Princess Fiona]

has the transition worked well - probably no, are they continuing to improve - yes, I travelled around the changeover time, somethings didn't work and others did, but in the scheme of all things I just sucked it all up and took a deep breath and said.... no lives were lost in this transition, its a good thing still happy to fly with Virgin every time over Jet* which is my other option usually out of Newcastle.

I'm hearing you
However it sh!ts me to tears that I still can't select a seat online for some of my recent point redemptions, at least with Deathstar I can put in my QFF number pay $12 and it works EVERY time

 

[Melburnian1]

I like VA and fly it in preference to QF.

However as a non-IT expert, I find its Velocity rewards site fairly difficult to use. It isn't comprehensive: not all city pairs show the number of reward points one needs.

My tip is that both VA and QF will announce poor earnings for 2012/13 when both report to the stockmarket in September. QF may make a small profit, way less than satisfactory for its stockholders: VA may lose money depending on what measure one examines (NPAT etc.) Neither will pay a dividend. Let's see if I am correct.

 

[Fruitcake]

So it looks like there has been some progress with single-sign-on on the website. The 'log in' panel at the top of http://www.virginaustralia.com - not seen since the Sabre switch - has returned.

However, at this point, a lot of functionality seems to be broken, up to and including invalid HTTPS certificates when trying to access "my bookings."

 

[aloha]

So it looks like there has been some progress with single-sign-on on the website. The 'log in' panel at the top of http://www.virginaustralia.com - not seen since the Sabre switch - has returned.

However, at this point, a lot of functionality seems to be broken, up to and including invalid HTTPS certificates when trying to access "my bookings."

Submitting credentials over HTTP is also not very good.

 

[EvanC]

Submitting credentials over HTTP is also not very good.

The form does submit via HTTPS.

 

[aloha]

The form does submit via HTTPS.

My choice of words wasn't very good, this'll explain things:

Troy Hunt: Your login form posts to HTTPS, but you blew it when you loaded it over HTTP

 

[EvanC]

Troy Hunt: Your login form posts to HTTPS, but you blew it when you loaded it over HTTP

Very true, but your redirect or other methods to get you to the HTTPS-served form are in themselves almost as vulnerable (a little easier to detect, but not going to set alarm bells off for everyone). The only way to ensure security is to make the choice to go directly to the HTTPS site in the first place (which certainly works - https://www.virginaustralia.com.au). That is until browsers try HTTPS before HTTP (can't be that far away, surely?), though in the meantime there are extensions like https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/https-everywhere/gcbommkclmclpchllfjekcdonpmejbdp?hl=en that can help.

 

[EvanC]

Actually, correction - https://www.virginaustralia.com.au is no longer working (despite working when I tried it 15 minutes ago), and redirects to HTTP. That is dodgy.

 

[totd]

Actually, correction - https://www.virginaustralia.com.au is no longer working (despite working when I tried it 15 minutes ago), and redirects to HTTP. That is dodgy.

Perhaps they noticed a bit spike in HTTPS requests and 'turned off' ssl for the bulk of their site. You just slashdoted them... From AFF.

 

[notzac]

Perhaps they noticed a bit spike in HTTPS requests and 'turned off' ssl for the bulk of their site. You just slashdoted them... From AFF.

I think it's more to do with the fact that the SSL certificate is issued to www.virginaustralia.com - rather than www.virginaustralia.com.au (..which they ought to have a SAN on the certificate for, seeing as it redirects to the same content). The certificate was issued quite some time ago as well, so this isn't exactly a recent change.

 

[aloha]

The issue has always existed for velocityrewards.com.au