Virgin Australia Becomes One Domestic & International Airline

[notzac]

1. V Australia doesn't exist anymore. It's now Virgin Australia.
2. Virgin Australia don't fly to HKG. Virgin Atlantic do, but that is a different airline/company so you need to go to virginatlantic.com for that route.

1. VA will be codesharing at least on the SYD-HKG leg
2. If the codeshare hasn't been loaded yet, I would expect the website to not allow me to search for the route (this is something that the previous website(s) did - i.e., if a route didn't exist you couldn't search for it)

 

[haydensydney]

The black text on the white background is really hard to read in Google Chrome....

And.... black text on white background is uncommon on the www?

It seems odd that Chrome would make ~90% of all websites look horrible because of a smoothing feature

 

[maninblack]

Everytime I try and search for flights between SYD & HKG I get either an error page or a page that says V Australia don't fly to HKG...

Shhh. Don't tell anyone but Virgin Australia (international) don't really fly anywhere much at all, at least out of MEL. 3 flights a week to LA (plus NZ which only just qualifies) and Sydney to some town in the gulf a few times a week apparently

 

[Demented Freak]

1. V Australia doesn't exist anymore. It's now Virgin Australia.
2. Virgin Australia don't fly to HKG. Virgin Atlantic do, but that is a different airline/company so you need to go to virginatlantic.com for that route.

1. I realise this - yet yesterday I would be directed to a page that says V Australia does not have any flights to this destination.
2. Again, I realise this and I know that the codeshare agreement with VS doesn't come on line until next year, yet previously the website offered the VS flights so what's changed now? As notzac pointed out, if you don't offer flights to the destination, why have it listed as an option?

 

[simongr]

I dont like the QF site or this - all seem to be overly designed and don't get me started on the QF and QFF iPhone apps - but back to Virgin Australia.


On the iPhone version of the site (which works at first glance) about 60 - 70% of the front page is covered by the logo and a pic of an aircraft, a pilot and two crew. Whilst the blonde on the right is very pretty I am not sure she serves any purpose being there (the brunette isn't bad and not being into guys I can't opine on the pilot but he does seem to be standing on a box based on his relative height).

I personally don't like the mouse expansion things on ANY site (for example the digg/facebook links) as hey obscure what you might be trying to click on whilst on your mousely journey across the screen.

At least the site doesnt use [-]thrush[/-] flash

 

[lazybones1987]

I dont like the QF site or this - all seem to be overly designed and don't get me started on the QF and QFF iPhone apps - but back to Virgin Australia.

Seems like there is/will be a new version of the mobile site.
AUSBT

 

[serfty]

... and probably an similarly enhanced version of the Velocity site.

 

[DGW]

I currently can't login via velocityrewards.com.au or virginaustralia.com using either Chrome or IE so I assume there is some work going on the background. Hopefully.

Sent from my GT-I9100 using AustFreqFly

 

[Wayne Herring]

And.... black text on white background is uncommon on the www?

It seems odd that Chrome would make ~90% of all websites look horrible because of a smoothing feature

Wasn't suggesting the colour scheme was the issue, you're right it's pretty common.

The font they've used (DroidSans) appears to be the issue, it looks cough in Chrome at least under Windows XP. Not having a go at them, I know from experience you can't test every possible browser/operating system combination.

 

[DJ332]

Eagerly await full integration of the Velocity website into the new virginaustralia.com.

 

[blackcat20]

You would think that the new website would have been a great opportunity to finally allow international multi-city bookings...

When you click on multi city, it has two "Australia" headings in the drop down list, but no other countries. If you click on the link about domestic and international multi-city bookings, it states that you cannot book the two on a single ticket. It does not say that you can't book an international multi-city ticket, yet it doesn't allow you to do so.

 

[maninblack]

You would think that the new website would have been a great opportunity to finally allow international multi-city bookings...

When you click on multi city, it has two "Australia" headings in the drop down list, but no other countries. If you click on the link about domestic and international multi-city bookings, it states that you cannot book the two on a single ticket. It does not say that you can't book an international multi-city ticket, yet it doesn't allow you to do so.

How could they really offer international multi-city bookings when;
a. They hardly fly anywhere
b. They are not a member of an international alliance (eg; OW or *A)

 

[777]

How could they really offer international multi-city bookings when;
a. They hardly fly anywhere
b. They are not a member of an international alliance (eg; OW or *A)

I suspect the issues are more likely with their IT platform.

 

[blackcat20]

How could they really offer international multi-city bookings when;
a. They hardly fly anywhere
b. They are not a member of an international alliance (eg; OW or *A)

Even so, they do offer multi city trips (Im thinking of the US, they use Delta and VX)...you just have to ring up to book one. Would make life simpler to book online myself rather that dealing with them over the phone.

 

[notzac]

Because they codeshare with a number of airlines now..?

I think the big problem is that there's not been any change to the actual booking engines - they're still using a combination of Navitaire and Amadeus. If I were a betting man, I'd say that the latest round of changes to rename everything to Virgin Australia (but still calling out each airline separately in parenthesis - Domestic, International Short Haul and International Long Haul) - is a transitionary thing and a reflection of the limitations of the booking engines they're using.

Again with the guesswork, but I think the key reason they're moving to Sabre (and not just sticking with Amadeus) is Sabres ability to natively handle ancillary charges. To the best of my knowledge, Amadeus either can't do this or has some problems with doing this, and Navitaire doesn't play well with others (I'm not sure of specifics with either, I'm going on hearsay) - I know that I've read about airlines in the US specifically moving from Navitaire to Sabre with enhanced codesharing and ancillary charges within the GDS being one of the cited reasons (ref: JetBlue could charge bag fee once Sabre's on-board | Tnooz for an example).

Once they've got everything on the one booking system with one airline code, we'll hopefully start seeing far more options - including things like international multi-city.

 

[maninblack]

I suspect the issues are more likely with their IT platform.

That may well be part of it but it is more complicated than just that. Many of their agreements are with individual carriers so integration is not as simple as it is (relatively) when buying something like a OW packaged ticket product.

 

[lazybones1987]

If you click on the link about domestic and international multi-city bookings, it states that you cannot book the two on a single ticket.

You can't book a domestic flight and an international flight on the same ticket (I'm not referring to formal connections here), because of tax and pricing issues.

 

[blackcat20]

You can't book a domestic flight and an international flight on the same ticket (I'm not referring to formal connections here), because of tax and pricing issues.

Which is fair enough; but they don't make clear that you should call to make an international booking (but they did on their old website). If you didnt know better, you'd be sitting there feeling a little lost and confused.

 

[Jama]

No it isn't - you try and go through it, it takes you to velocity rewards, where you then need to enter your departure city and reservation number or velocity number, even if logged into velocity site... Maybe one click to get to the checkin link, but four beers lots of swearing, and in the end, a bloody airport checkin anyway because it NOW WONT LET ME CHECK IN!!!!:evil::evil:

I concur. Logged in to Velocity site, selected booking and then checkin only to be asked to enter velocity number or booking details. Given I am already logged in and have just selected the booking for checkin this is completely over the top.

 

[medhead]

I concur. Logged in to Velocity site, selected booking and then checkin only to be asked to enter velocity number or booking details. Given I am already logged in and have just selected the booking for checkin this is completely over the top.

Did you use the check in tab on the main page of the website?


Sent from my iPhone using Aust Freq Fly app so please excuse the lack of links.