

Virgin America's Web Meltdown: Four Weeks and Counting - technologizer
http://technologizer.com/2011/11/22/virgin-america-problems/

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jtchang
As a technologist my sympathy goes out to Virgin. Airline reservation systems
are some of the most complicated beasts we've ever created. The risks of
migrating are enormous and with the busiest travel days ahead you can bet that
David Cush has every resource available trying to fix the issues.

That said it is never easy. The changes may amount to just a handful of lines
but understanding such systems is key. My most recent encounter with bugs was
that the system couldn't find a reservation for me even though I made one
while authenticated. I just plugged in the confirmation number manually and
that seemed to work. I didn't think too much of it though...maybe because I am
use to mediocrity in the airline industry as a whole.

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waterside81
Having worked with Sabre and Gallileo (did they merge?), I, too, can attest to
the fun and joy of working with airline res systems. Wacky XML, fixed length
fields, unique fields that aren't really unique. It's a right of passage that
most devs should take so that they (1) Promise never to build something like
this and (2) Learn to never work in travel.

~~~
namdnay
The problem is that we're having to keep perfect compatibility with stuff that
was done in the seventies. So you quickly end up with something just as (if
not more) horrendous as the Windows or Office codebase. Take EDIFACT for
example...

~~~
waterside81
Oh for sure compatibility is a huge issue and getting airlines to update and
keep in step with things like herding cats. I don't envy the role of a dev who
works for one of the large GDS's

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erickhill
It's their entire system, not just the customer-facing site. "The woes stem
from Virgin’s switchover from its old reservation system, iFly, to the
industry’s 800-pound gorilla, Sabre." As stated in the article, "...modern
businesses, of all sorts, don’t have Web sites. To a remarkable degree, they
are Web sites."

Even at the airport if you go to a kiosk to check-in with a bag, you won't be
able to print out a boarding pass. You'll have to go stand in line.

~~~
nlh
_The woes stem from Virgin’s switchover from its old reservation system, iFly,
to the industry’s 800-pound gorilla, Sabre_

Ah. I have a hyphenated last name (it's been in my family since the late
1800s), and I was wondering why, on my most recent VA reservation, I was
suddenly greeted with the all-too-familiar "Your last name contains invalid
characters". Thanks, Sabre.

Virgin's old system supported my real name (as most on the web do, as they
should). It's remarkable to me that the industry's 800lb gorilla can't support
something as simple as a "-" character in a last name, something that's fairly
common (or at least not unheard of).

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raganwald
Ah, happy memories of making a big mistake: providing an online airline
reservation system with an email address containing a “+”.

<http://weblog.raganwald.com/2007/09/you-suck.html>

~~~
davedx
Beautiful. Several times in my career I've passionately resisted that kind of
stupidity, most recently concerning phone numbers (we should only accept
numeric characters, right?!).

Sigh...

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ibejoeb
Thanks for the link; I was wondering what the hell has been going on. I've
been flying Virgina for a while, and I flew on the weekend of the transition.
I think I slipped my online ticket sale in just in time, but check-in, seat
selection, frequent flyer info: all screwed.

I'm sure this is a tough job, but I wish they would have disabled the features
rather than let them fail. The first several times I tried and failed, I
assumed it was a fluke. That these thing sometimes worked and sometimes didn't
led me to believe that these were ephemeral problems, and I must have wasted
hours retrying things. If that had been the case, I would have just arrived
early and done it the old-fashioned. Ultimately, that's what I did, although
their internal systems are just as screwed (and I don't think hand-written
passenger manifests cut the muster anymore).

Anyway, on my second pass through this mess, I just skipped the website
entirely and did everything at the airport. Took a little longer, but it was
pretty stress-free. I'd recommend doing so if you're flying with them soon.

To their credit, they did give us miles and candy, and the staff is still the
best in the biz. And, if you're flying through SFO, you can make the best of
your residual time with a solid burger and a decent drink at Lark Creek Grill.

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bengl3rt
It seems to me that Sabre et al are all overly complex, left over from the
days when you had to physically go to a travel agent's office to watch them
clatter incantations into a monochrome terminal as they manually assembled
your itinerary...

The amount of complexity and arbitrage that goes on in selling plane tickets
today is just nuts. I don't like actually flying Southwest, but I think they
have the right idea with regards to booking - always, and only, on their
website. Ensures a consistent, branded experience and saves them the headache
of listing in a GDS.

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namdnay
For "regional" airlines such as SouthWest or Ryanair, managing your own system
is fine. But if you want to be able to do code-sharing, ground-handling and
all the rest of the madness that comes with being a global airline, you don't
have a choice.

The single website solution also means you're cutting yourself off from people
who are using fare search services.

And let's not forget that in some regions (Asia notably), travel agents with
their "cryptic" terminals and "valuable" tickets are still the norm.

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zbruhnke
Been back and forth to DFW and SFO about 6 times in the last few weeks all on
virgin ... for those flights I have probably spent a combined 5 hours on hold
for one small change or a misbooked flight etc. but their $139 first class
upgrades and friendly staff almost always make it all better for me. I'll be
glad when they get this all worked out thats for sure

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gujk
Why would Virgin migrate _to_ SABRE??

