When will the virgin website work??

[flyertom]

Does anyone have any idea of when the Virgin/Velocity website will work?

I've been flying the competition (sadly) because of continued frustration with the website. I thought that it might have been fixed given the Sabre change was some months ago, so booked Virgin to fly tomorrow.

But sadly the website still doesn't work. My experience tonight:

• Attempt to login on my mobile to Manage my booking (ie: change flights on a flexi booking). After putting in the details, I get told the mobile website isn't able to manage/change flight bookings.
• So off I go the Virgin website. Try to Manage my booking by putting in my Velocity details. Then get sent off the the Velocity website.
• At the Velocity website, I then need to click "View Books" to go back to the Virgin site.
• Then when being sent back to the Virgin site, it loses my details.
• At this point I give up and call Virgin
• After 10 minutes on hold I get told that my Flexi booking can only be can only be changed on the phone for a $35 fee!!! At this point I lose it at the operator given the above frustration, and he finally concedes to drop the fee.

On Qantas, this can all be done by logging in, selecting your booking then selecting your preferred flight. Easy.

Then to upgrade my return flight on points, another call to Virgin (Velocity). On hold for 15 minutes, only to find out no upgrades available. With Qantas, just login and see if upgrades are available.

Finally, to rub it in, I then tried to check in online, but get the message "We require more information from you and are unable to check you in. Please see a Virgin Australia Customer Service Agent at the airport to complete your check in at least 90 minutes prior to your departure time."... so now the Virgin website is saying I need to get to the airport over 1.5hr before my early morning departure website!!

Way to piss off a customer who until recently has been incredibly loyal to Virgin.

Does anyone know if Virgin are working on fixing their websites? Is there any ETA on when these issues will be fixed?

 

[MarkD]

In Summary... Doubt it will get fixed. Im just on the phone to try to use one of my complimentary upgrades, this is the third time I have tried, hanging up after each attempt after 10 minutes. the first call was great, "yes there is availability, but I need to transfer you to someone else to do it," well bugger me, I was transferred to the worst Jazz style music and left in limbo. I have entered my platinum number each time and am now u to 12 minutes again. Sorry Virgin you can stick your complimentary upgrades in your tail. I remember now why I have been giving QF my business...
UODATE, after 35 minutes in total.... SORRY BUT WE HAVE NO AVAILABILTY NOW. You suck Virgin!!!!

 

[Markmat]

Hi Flyertom,

Your experience mirrors my experience. I was flying VA until the Sabre changeover and then moved all my bookings to Qantas. I tried VA last week to see if anything had improved and my experience reflected almost word for word your sequence of events. I will now continue flying Qantas until I feel like giving VA another chance and will monitor peoples experiences in these forums as a guide. These steps take up significant time and "time is money". The biggest issue though is there is no communication about the problem or remedy. I would also like to hear if there is any communication on an ETA for resolution.

 

[totd]

Your not the only one. There was a lengthy discussion a few weeks ago which resulted in the reappearance of the Velocity Rep. See http://www.australianfrequentflyer....ity-virgin-websites-are-rubbish-48005-11.html

Eastwest101 is maintaining a list of issues to be taken up with Virgin contacts, might be worth getting your points added to his list: http://www.australianfrequentflyer....865-velocity-virgin-websites-are-rubbish.html

 

[flyertom]

Thanks todt. Good point.

The problem is that like many people here I genuinely WANT to fly Virgin over their competition but their website and the Sabre changes are driving as back to the red roo. I haven't flown Virgin in some weeks whereas previously I flew at least two sectors a week - often considerably more.

 

[Deleted member 29185]

Does anyone know if Virgin are working on fixing their websites? Is there any ETA on when these issues will be fixed?

ETA? Come on, be real. An ETA can't be given as that's "commercially sensitive" information that can't be shared with the riff-raff (pax).

VA also don't have time to fix the website as they're too focussed on making excuses as to why so much has turned to cough since the migration! But we have to give credit where credit is due. They took a remarkably poor booking engine that most people knew how to work around and made it an almost complete basket-case booking system that no one can work (including VA). Let's face it, not everyone can manage a feat like that in such a short peroid of time. It takes skill and a total distain for their long-suffering customers.

Oh, but on the upside, they do manage to fix things fairly quickly when it advantages us at their expense. As soon as AFFers do the R&D for them and notify of their findings, those little gems that make life worth living suddenly vapourise. It's just the multitude of problems that has our hair turning grey that they can't seem to allocate time to fix.

Well done VA. I've said before, this little website struggle your inflicting on us will be recorded in the annals (or should that be anals) of aviation history...........as how not to implement a booking engine! It'll probably also get a chapter or two in the revised "Dummies Guide to Pissing off Customers" handbook!

 

[lovestotravel]

Feels worse than a LCC website to me

Even the JQ website is a breeze in comparison (yes I did have some JQ flights that I had to change, but they were for F lounge access only)

As for VA it's been close to 3 months now since the changeover, and it's still a rubbish website.

Well done VA

 

[Markmat]

I think swanning_it has portrayed the sentiment precisely.Way to drive customers to the opposition. They worked so hard to bring customers to VA with status matches etc. What they have failed to realise is that frequent flyers want convenience in their dealings with the airlines and that means interacting with websites rather than people. The VA website is unusable in comparison to QFF and that means irrespective of fare differences it is very hard to justify going with VA, especially if there is no recognition that improvements are on there way.

 

[hdfb]

The website leaves a lot to be desired. When searching for flights, the boxes are so long that you really got to scroll a lot to choose the return flight. And when you DO select a flight it takes a good 10 seconds for it to process.

The rest of the process is messy, you can't view your bookings without re-entering your velocity number, can't reselect your seat, the general level of detail is just not there. When you click on My Bookings, it only shows the date of travel and the flight number, but no departure or arrival time which is really annoying. lovestotravel is right, JQ is so much easier!

 

[notmensa]

This is a little off-topic, but the website doesn't seem to specify when baggage drop closes. The Check-in page lists times that 'CHECK-IN' closes for each mode < Virgin Australia Check In Options | Virgin Australia >. Each one then has this:

"Note: Guests travelling with checked baggage will need to drop off their baggage at the Virgin Australia bag drop before proceeding to the gate."

There's nothing in my eticket either.

 

[notmensa]

Adding to the website woes:
- The 'Need help? Ask me here' function / Virtual Assistant is abysmal. Clicking 'Ask' causes the the booking page, and then the answer to the question. Links in the pop up do NOT open, they just reload the booking page and the same pop-up answer page. i.e. you cannot open the links in Virtual Assistant pop-up page
- Once opened, the Virtual Assistant pop-up loads on every page I access on the Virgin Australia site. It still appears when I close the tab, open a new tab, and access the Virgin Australia page!
- Information on 'Connecting flights' is under "Experience -> At the airport"; there's nothing under Planning or Bookings when the information is also needed
- There is no information on the minimum recommended connection times in the page on Connecting Flights. Domestic and International Flight Connections | Virgin Australia

What a mess.

 

[maninblack]

Your not the only one. There was a lengthy discussion a few weeks ago which resulted in the reappearance of the Velocity Rep. See http://www.australianfrequentflyer....ity-virgin-websites-are-rubbish-48005-11.html

Eastwest101 is maintaining a list of issues to be taken up with Virgin contacts, might be worth getting your points added to his list: Velocity/Virgin websites are RUBBISH - Blogs - The Australian Frequent Flyer Online Community

Can't see any contribution from the VA rep in that thread. Can you point me to it.

 

[totd]

Can't see any contribution from the VA rep in that thread. Can you point me to it.

My statement may have been a little misleading. VA Rep did not appear in that thread, but it's my understanding that the reappearance of the VA rep is a direct result of Lindsay Wilson's discussions. That is in the indicated thread. See here: http://www.australianfrequentflyer....websites-are-rubbish-48005-10.html#post787706

The first appearance of the rep this year (and post SABRE) is here: http://www.australianfrequentflyer....r-australian-frequent-flyers-loyal-48713.html