Virgin America Elevate - Virgin America's New System

According to an email I received, their reservation system will be completely down this weekend. No booking or changes or even flight check-in is going to be possible from October 28 until the 30th - on the phone or at the airport.

www.virginamerica.com/vx/sabre

I remember Volaris (Mexico's largest low cost airline) cut-over to Sabre - went pretty smooth... Poor Navitaire folks - are about to loose another airline client...

All of their systems are now officially down.

I travelled on both Friday night and Saturday and had no problems. Most functions were back up yesterday early afternoon.

The website is now up and running. However, there are flights showing all seats available.
Somehow they lost my elevate account.

Thanks Jakester...all your points seem to have gone into my account.^:D

As of Monday morning I now have someone else's account number and I'm a teenager again.

Their web reservations system lost my address setting, won't handle any credit card transactions, and I've now been on hold over 40 minutes.

It's called high-reliability, look into it next time you do a big transition. :rolleyes:

I'm having all sorts of trouble today checking in and trying to upgrade. I've been on hold for 20 minutes waiting to talk with an agent.

It's safe to say this systems upgrade did not go smoothly.

On hold for 35 minutes now. This counts as my first negative VX experience.

Over 45 minutes on hold. This is really annoying.

Over an hour. Just about to give up and try to deal with this at SFO.

Not very impressive, IT team.

72 minutes, and no human. I give up.

Now you can't even hold for an agent. After you request an agent, you get this recording: "Your call cannot be completed at this time." Sounds like a major IT meltdown.

http://i.imgur.com/y7Hm9.jpg

"Please hold... Expected wait time: over 3 hours." And that's when their call center closes in 30 minutes.

(No, I didn't wait. I hung up.)

Tried a bit later to place an order on the website, failed at the last step. "Please call our center...."

They are open 24 hours for the next few days. Through the 4th, I think.

After hitting option 0 and saying it's for Domestic, there's no option to hold at all... "the number you have dialed is temporarily unavailable. Please check your number or try again later." <click>

Does seem like all their computer systems got demolished. If it wasn't sad it'd be funny.

Yes, sad situation. It's bad enough that they're competing against the legacies in tough markets, but right now, they are their own worst competition.

My paid tickets seem to be gone. Can't make new reservation. Phone system stinks. What were they thinking?

I flew out of SFO to JFK yesterday and all the check-in kiosks were out of order; everyone needed to check in with a rep. Line moved relatively quickly though.

Poor Navitaire folks - are about to loose another airline client...

Well, better safe than sorry... (http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/09/30/navitaire_cock_up/)

Sigh. Can't upgrade from MC to MCS at check-in. Get all the way through and get this error after final purchase:

There was an error processing your request. Please see details below:

Sorry, we're unable to process your transaction online for Seat Upgrade. Please call 1.877.FLY.VIRGIN (1.877.359.8474) between the hours of 3:30am - 11:30pm Pacific Time and we'll be glad to assist you.


Of course, can't even get through to that number as I keep being asked to call back later and the line goes dead.

Any suggestions on why seat upgrades are failing...?

After a ~90-minute hold, CSR was able to upgrade me over the phone. Indicated seat upgrades weren't possible online for the time being due to the Sabre migration. (By that point, 3 out of the 4 MCS seats left had been nabbed by others having to phone in so I luckily grabbed the last one.)

While my experience was annoying, everything went smoothly at the airports. The kiosks were shut down, but the lines for the reps were short, and I was able to upgrade my outbound.

I hope they learn from this and avoid a repeat next time they need to modify their systems. VX remains my favorite domestic airline, by far.

There were maybe 15-20 pax in line at the SFO ticket counter at 9:45 last night, which didn't seem terrible. But Wednesday night is hardly a peak time.

Did the new system also remove the Expiration Date for the Elevate points?

any updates on how things are going now? ie kiosks working, long lines etc. I have a flight with them next week.

any updates on how things are going now? ie kiosks working, long lines etc. I have a flight with them next week.

Kiosks at SFO were in use from what I saw yesterday. But the "pardon us" sign was also still up.

I'm unable to access my account online.

I remember Volaris (Mexico's largest low cost airline) cut-over to Sabre - went pretty smooth... Poor Navitaire folks - are about to loose another airline client...

VX were not on Navitaire, they were on IBS iFly, a home-made garden shed solution from India. VX was their biggest customer. I'm sure even Sabre is a step up, but it probably doesn't feel that way right now.

I'm unable to access my account online.

If it makes a difference, their system migration seems to have wiped out the account aliases you might have setup for Elevate accounts. If you used that to sign in, try your email address or your account number.

I'm unable to access my account online.

It's strange...if I attempt to log in and put in the wrong password, I get an error message directing me to customer service, not that I put in the wrong password.

If I then go back and put in the right password, I get in, but cannot modify flight information or check-in.

If it makes a difference, their system migration seems to have wiped out the account aliases you might have setup for Elevate accounts. If you used that to sign in, try your email address or your account number.

You are right. It wiped out my email address. I had to enter my account number and password.

Man, things still aren't working completely right. I wonder if some people are going to lose their jobs over this.

Have you seen their Facebook page since this debacle started? VX used to get almost nothing but love on social media. Those days are clearly over.

Someone just posted this story entitled "Virgin's PR Disaster" (http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-505125_162-57320214/virgins-pr-disaster/).

Trying to help a friend with seat assignments: VX system down. Calls VX and automated system said to try another time - busy handling calls on the newly implemented VX system.

Heads will roll.

This has been going on for nearly two weeks. Yesterday I was on hold for 62 minutes for a first class seat assignment after booking on line for a Nov 30 flight. The agent was blase' about the whole thing "we are suffering too". No indication of when it would be fixed.

Are the upgrade functions working yet?

I am supposed to fly this coming Sunday so am getting a little nervous about that.

This is getting ridiculous, been trying to get through since yesterday and nothing. They say on their facebook page that I could change a flight online, well that's not working either Virgin.

Taking the family to Orlando from SFO in early december. Had tickets with Virgin but needed to move the dates to a week earlier due to work issues that came up. Flights showed available on the website, but i couldn't change my tickets online for some reason (i bought them directly from the website, and for a higher fare than what's available on the new dates...).

After three 1 hour holds on the phone (tried on separate occasions), i finally gave up and booked the tickets on United since they were the same price but i needed to lock in the good seats before they were gone.

I would have been willing to stay on the phone longer but apparently they've never heard of 1998 technology where the voice comes on and says "you're #XX in the queue, the average wait time is Y".

And no, going to the ticket desk at the airport is not an option as I am out of town for over a week and there is no airport with a virgin america ticket desk within 1000 miles of me.

Somebody should be fired for the screw up to their systems.

Taking the family to Orlando from SFO in early december. Had tickets with Virgin but needed to move the dates to a week earlier due to work issues that came up. Flights showed available on the website, but i couldn't change my tickets online for some reason (i bought them directly from the website, and for a higher fare than what's available on the new dates...).

After three 1 hour holds on the phone (tried on separate occasions), i finally gave up and booked the tickets on United since they were the same price but i needed to lock in the good seats before they were gone.

I would have been willing to stay on the phone longer but apparently they've never heard of 1998 technology where the voice comes on and says "you're #XX in the queue, the average wait time is Y".

And no, going to the ticket desk at the airport is not an option as I am out of town for over a week and there is no airport with a virgin america ticket desk within 1000 miles of me.

Somebody should be fired for the screw up to their systems.


I wanted to change a flight from JFK-SFO to MCO-SFO, they waived the 75 USD change fee for everybody in the booking and credited the differance to a travel bank.

I had to wait over 2 hours though, I left the phone on speaker and did my stuff until someone picked up. (worth the wait for waiving the 75 USD change fee).

Waited for check-in time today to upgrade to MCS ... check-in time came and couldn't upgrade via the online system.

Telephoned support and waited in the queue for 1 hour and 20 minutes. Agent came on and checked, eventually said that despite the seat map showing seats available, the flight was sold out.

Twittered @VirginAmerica about it and they said that yes...seatmaps are currently not accurate.

Really? It has been a couple weeks. Must have been a really bad migration of data.

Wow. Still hosing and angering customers two weeks later?

Not good news for a company that exists on a pretty small margin for error (maybe $25 million in free cash), and whose biggest point in their favor was good customer experience.

If it makes a difference, their system migration seems to have wiped out the account aliases you might have setup for Elevate accounts. If you used that to sign in, try your email address or your account number.

Was anybody able to setup the alias again? I'm unable to. After I click the "update" button, the page reloads but the alias still shows my account number :mad:

Currently in coach on the way to FLL.

Showed up at the airport this morning (was never able to snag an upgrade, seat maps were out of date).

Kiosks were working again for checkin and for processing bag checks, but not working for upgrades yet (which means the systems aren't talking yet).

Place was an utter madhouse. Lines out the wazoo.

That said it wasn't too painful. Kind of annoyed at the whole seatmap thing though.

Yeah, definitely doesn't work. I just tried it myself...thanks to whoever suggested logging in with the elevate # instead though...that works. Can't do much after that though :(

From what I understand, having an alias is no longer an option. Whatever they switched to doesn't support it.

Virgin America website is not processing my cancelled flights on the website. The error I get is trouble accessing Travel Bank. Also, calling thier number at 877-359-8474 just gives you about 3 minutes of navigating their voice menus before disconnecting you saying they are unavailable to take your call.

Very frustrating!

I was on a VX transcon flight yesterday. Before that, I could not check-in online, could not upgrade online and because of the new system, I was reticent in getting a seat assignment online without being redirected to the wrong place. I did what I could at a live manual check-in at the airport. The agent told me that the new system is still causing tremendous problems and that the online seat charts are either not functional or inaccurate according to time of day. Later, the flight that I was on was completely booked, because VX could not book many customers on earlier roundtrip flights and had simultaneously reduced flight schedules (and by doing so, raised fares during the same time period) to accommodate the new system cutover. By doing so, there was a backlog of delayed reservations, which could not be accommodated over a week ago that were finally being accommodated over a week later on my flight. This situation is still an operations nightmare. It is just poor business planning and management.

As of Monday morning I now have someone else's account number and I'm a teenager again.

:D Excellent! This is no doubt Richard Branson's master plan. Make you younger. You'll soon be wealthier and have an insatiable desire to fly Virgin America! :p

Well, last time I flew VA was during the massive computer blackout in May of this year. Looks like I'll be flying during another failure unless their computer get back up and running by Tuesday morning. :-/

Any idea why VA's computer system appears to be the short bus, and weak link of an otherwise great airline?

http://i43.tinypic.com/2v8mn0j.png

I couldn't help but laugh at the irony.

I've been trying for over a week to book a flight using Elevate points. I keep getting an error online and trying to get through on the phone is ridiculous. I've wasted a good 8-9 hours of my life on hold only to get disconnected numerous times. I've posted on their Facebook page & Twitter and get no help. VA sucks big time right now!

I've now tried waiting on hold twice for over an hour to get through to an agent to cancel an upcoming flight that I need to change... still no success.

Virgin keeps on extending the dates to cancel without a fee, but ironically the approaching deadlines encouraged me to call in despite the trouble. It was originally 11/14, then 11/16, then 11/18 and now 11/20. That suggests to me that their technical team is really in over their head.

I used to be a big Virgin America fan :(.

Long line at SFO Friday 18 Nov, it was taking agents 5 minutes to check people in - it looked pretty dire. Agents quite frazzled. Our agent had difficulty finding our reservation to check us in, due to the 'new' system. :td: When asked why they made the migration just before the busiest travel week, she rolled her eyes.

Had to make several calls to VX to make changes to our flight before getting to the airport - long (40min - 1.5 hr) wait times on the phone.:td:

What a nightmare - when will this be over?

Strangely enough, the inbound plane was late arriving which consequently delayed our flight. Even though 15 people separately went up to the gate agent to ask about why we hadn't boarded yet, it didn't occur to her to make an announcement. Maybe she didn't think about it (?) but there were ~100+ people sitting around wondering what was going on for 45 minutes, we would have appreciate an explanation...:td:

Then while seated in MCS I asked the steward for a cocktail. He rather curtly told me to order it through the screen so that it would be taken out of inventory. The screen wouldn't let me order because we were going to land within 30 minutes (on a 1 hour flight to SAN).:td:

On the whole, quite a strange experience. I have to ask myself, what's happened to VX? Where's their famous customer service? Is the new reservation system PR failure indicative of a shift in the airline?

Wonder how much investors & the board are pressuring Cush on this. An airline with this light a schedule shouldn't be having problems like this.

On the whole, quite a strange experience. I have to ask myself, what's happened to VX? Where's their famous customer service? Is the new reservation system PR failure indicative of a shift in the airline?

This isn't a PR failure; it's an operational failure that's obviously stressing everything and everyone out.

I flew FLL <> LAX on Saturday night. The lines were better. Needless to say, I didn't bother to try to check in or upgrade online because I figured it would just annoy me endlessly.

Agent at the counter said "Systems are working off and on" when I asked her. Kiosk check-in seems to be working fine, and the seat map was accurate.

Once they get it up and running, the new system should be good. But, whoever handled the migration process from one system to another should be fired.

For one:

- lack of correct seat-maps and inability to check-in indicates that the backend systems were never tied into front-end systems before the cutover

- continuing bugs in the systems and fact that it works "off and on" indicates that the software programs that connect everything together are still having problems processing data streams.

Makes you wonder who they paid to do this.

VX used a system called AiRES. It was made by Travelport. Original customer was WestJet but they backed out before launching. VX was the only other AiRES customer at the time VX launched the airline. Others may have joined in. The idea with AiRES was to use lots of Internet technologies (like Web Services) to simplify and reduce costs.

Today the website for AiRES is non-existant. The Travelport sites doesn't seem to mention it either. They have migrated to SABRE. I do not know this but it would seem their hands may have been forced if AiRES was no longer supported. SABRE opens up a lot of doors, but taking an entire airline's system that was NOT built around legacy aviation rules and plugging it into one that is was probably more complicated than expected. And if they didn't have people who know both systems well, they could have had horrible integration issues.

My guess is that's what has happened. People who maybe know a bit about AiRES had to figure out how to map everything to SABRE. And things that didn't exist in AiRES but existed in SABRE had to be accounted for.

In any case, it's still messy - but I know a friend called on Friday to cancel a ticket during the middle of the day and got an agent in about 40 minutes, so maybe hold times are improving.

And for the person who said "Why would they do this the week before a major travel holiday" they didn't. They did it several weeks ago. It's just really got a lot of issues.

VX used a system called AiRES. It was made by Travelport. Original customer was WestJet but they backed out before launching. VX was the only other AiRES customer at the time VX launched the airline. Others may have joined in. The idea with AiRES was to use lots of Internet technologies (like Web Services) to simplify and reduce costs.

Today the website for AiRES is non-existant. The Travelport sites doesn't seem to mention it either. They have migrated to SABRE. I do not know this but it would seem their hands may have been forced if AiRES was no longer supported. SABRE opens up a lot of doors, but taking an entire airline's system that was NOT built around legacy aviation rules and plugging it into one that is was probably more complicated than expected. And if they didn't have people who know both systems well, they could have had horrible integration issues.

My guess is that's what has happened. People who maybe know a bit about AiRES had to figure out how to map everything to SABRE. And things that didn't exist in AiRES but existed in SABRE had to be accounted for.

In any case, it's still messy - but I know a friend called on Friday to cancel a ticket during the middle of the day and got an agent in about 40 minutes, so maybe hold times are improving.

And for the person who said "Why would they do this the week before a major travel holiday" they didn't. They did it several weeks ago. It's just really got a lot of issues.

Wow - thanks for that amazing post. Sounds like it makes perfect sense then...possibly some data issues also. I do know that most computer screens had a person working and then another "helper" person.

Re: VX's new system: What should have been done was to organize an industry peer review of the new system through beta testing and lessons learned from the beta test. VX should have inquired with one of their airline partners, such as SQ, to see how SQ resolved/did not resolve their problems since SQ also migrated to a new website earlier this year. In SQ's case, their new website was a complete overhaul that literally debuted overnight last spring, without a beta test, which caused all sorts of problems with their customers. The complaints about SQ's new website was so high that they might have lost some customers in the process. VX could have learned from this experience because, while both carriers have different website related problems, essentially, there are common threads of issues that VX could have learned from others transitioning into something new.

Since when are Virgin America and Singapore Airlines "partners" ?

And since when do airlines collaborate via "peer review" and reveal their proprietary systems and interfaces to their competitors?

Since when are Virgin America and Singapore Airlines "partners" ?

And since when do airlines collaborate via "peer review" and reveal their proprietary systems and interfaces to their competitors?

Since the announcement on VX's website:

http://virginamerica.com/travel/virgin-partners.html

Airlines don't have to reveal their proprietary systems to conduct a peer review. And quite frankly, VX and SQ aren't even competitors. How do you think they established a partnership if they were?

Those "Partners" are for interlining.
Plenty of competing airlines interline. AA/UA/US/HA/CO/DL and others all interline within the USA - and they are all competitors to one another on various routes.

Sorry - but airlines don't share their systems with one another to review. You're suggestion is idealistic but not reasonable in the least.

Those "Partners" are for interlining.
Plenty of competing airlines interline. AA/UA/US/HA/CO/DL and others all interline within the USA - and they are all competitors to one another on various routes.

Sorry - but airlines don't share their systems with one another to review. You're suggestion is idealistic but not reasonable in the least.

Let's not get picky here. In your opinion...

Flew Monday. Checked online for FC upgrade, seat map showed sold out. At airport told all seats gone. Plane flew all 8 seats empty. Not good for revenue.

At curbside check in I was told that I already had checked in and had already checked a bag. My "second" bag would be $25. After some back and forth they just took my bag at no extra charge.

There were a few people who showed up at the gate with TWO suitcases. How dumb right? Well not really. They got free gate check. Not good for revenue either.

Flew Monday. Checked online for FC upgrade, seat map showed sold out. At airport told all seats gone. Plane flew all 8 seats empty. Not good for revenue.

At curbside check in I was told that I already had checked in and had already checked a bag. My "second" bag would be $25. After some back and forth they just took my bag at no extra charge.

There were a few people who showed up at the gate with TWO suitcases. How dumb right? Well not really. They got free gate check. Not good for revenue either.

Sounds lovely...I'm thinking of flying them again over New Year...having second thoughts. Might cough up the extra $100 to fly American.

Flew Monday. Checked online for FC upgrade, seat map showed sold out. At airport told all seats gone. Plane flew all 8 seats empty. Not good for revenue.

Flew Monday. Checked online for FC upgrade, seat map showed sold out. At airport told all seats gone. Plane flew all 8 seats empty. Not good for revenue.

Wow, that's simply incredible. Don't the agents at the gate even know that FC is empty?

So I just booked a flight using Elevate Points...However points were not taken off my account. What are the odds if I book the return flight, I can get away with doing it again?

My family and I have been flying Virgin pretty much since they launched. Dismayed by the breakdown of the res system - booked a couple of flights for my mom and they didn't show up, couldn't tell if they were booked. Turned out they were, but one came through booked on wrong day. We spotted this within an hour of booking and tried to call them to fix it but held for more than an hour and couldn't get through. Finally got through today, five days after booking and they said they may have to add change fees, even though their malfunctioning system caused the problem and even though they weren't reachable by phone. Appalling.

What makes it worse if my mom is one of their most frequent flyers, traveling monthly from SFO-JFK-SFO. She's spent probably $25k with them, wonder if she'll keep flying with them. More to the point: I wonder if VX will be around long enough for that to matter. Their flight crews are cool and VX is a better customer experience in the air than legacy carriers but if they're ground cust service is so awful it'll make us - and probably many others - think twice about flying them.

So it's 40 days later and I still can't re-add a frequent flyer number to an existing reservation, and the hold times are still stupid, and things are still broken on the website.

Wow.

They're down to what, $25 million in free cash after all the red ink? Wonder how much cash this disaster's burned off.

They're down to what, $25 million in free cash after all the red ink? Wonder how much cash this disaster's burned off.

Who knows? But one thing is clear, when you frustrate customers this badly you clearly do long-term damage to the airline. Which is a shame because I'd rather fly VX than most of the legacies if I'm going coach.

I too am one of VX's frequent flyers every six weeks on their transcon flights. I've been through the website/reservations debacle during the Veteran's Day weekend. Now I have something that happened last week that might almost make the FT Hall of Fame. Here goes:

I made two one-way reservations online on VX's website last week. It was the last day of last week's sale and seats were supposedly going fast. The first reservation I made was correctly booked and appeared on their system. The second reservation showed a confirmation number and that the fare was booked for $241.70. The system could not e-mail a receipt. I later had difficulty trying to track the reservation. Nothing would show up on the website, even if I went to View Itinerary or log on through the Elevate account. So I waited the next day after the sale was over to see if I could retrieve the reservation. To my complete dismay, I found out that my credit card was charged $425 during the 14 hour period that I could not retrieve my reservation and not the $241.70 charge I thought I had approved. Unfortunately, I was unable to print out my receipt when I purchased the reservation so I had no proof that the ticket really sold for $241.70. I called VX to find out what happened. One of their reservation supervisors claimed that there was no such $241.70 fare on their system the day before and that the fares showed $425 for that route segment and fare class. I immediately had the flight canceled via telephone call. It took 2 hours to cancel the flight. I was absolutely appalled. I told VX is this how they treat Elevate Founding members this way? This was unbelievable.

So without trying to seem delusional, I almost thought there was an online bait and switch, with what seems to be the $241.70 being purchased, then no ability to track the reservation, then finding out 14 hours later that the credit card used to purchase the reservation was being charged $425. Perhaps it was a changeover at the end of a fare sale but still, this is rotten airline management. :mad:

So I just booked a flight using Elevate Points...However points were not taken off my account. What are the odds if I book the return flight, I can get away with doing it again?

Heh. Right.....

That's what VX's cust serv reps don't seem to understand: when you have customers who have been putting up with terrible service, you need to give them the benefit of the doubt. If you tell them you booked for $241 during a time of horrible website problems, they should believe you and make it right.

I too am one of VX's frequent flyers every six weeks on their transcon flights. I've been through the website/reservations debacle during the Veteran's Day weekend. Now I have something that happened last week that might almost make the FT Hall of Fame. Here goes:

I made two one-way reservations online on VX's website last week. It was the last day of last week's sale and seats were supposedly going fast. The first reservation I made was correctly booked and appeared on their system. The second reservation showed a confirmation number and that the fare was booked for $241.70. The system could not e-mail a receipt. I later had difficulty trying to track the reservation. Nothing would show up on the website, even if I went to View Itinerary or log on through the Elevate account. So I waited the next day after the sale was over to see if I could retrieve the reservation. To my complete dismay, I found out that my credit card was charged $425 during the 14 hour period that I could not retrieve my reservation and not the $241.70 charge I thought I had approved. Unfortunately, I was unable to print out my receipt when I purchased the reservation so I had no proof that the ticket really sold for $241.70. I called VX to find out what happened. One of their reservation supervisors claimed that there was no such $241.70 fare on their system the day before and that the fares showed $425 for that route segment and fare class. I immediately had the flight canceled via telephone call. It took 2 hours to cancel the flight. I was absolutely appalled. I told VX is this how they treat Elevate Founding members this way? This was unbelievable.

So without trying to seem delusional, I almost thought there was an online bait and switch, with what seems to be the $241.70 being purchased, then no ability to track the reservation, then finding out 14 hours later that the credit card used to purchase the reservation was being charged $425. Perhaps it was a changeover at the end of a fare sale but still, this is rotten airline management. :mad:

That definitely ranks right up there.

I really cannot believe that it has been THIS LONG and the problems haven't started to go away.

This may well be the dagger in the heart for VX. I find it pretty incredible that a month and a half after a system switchover that is at the heart of their business, they still haven't been able to fix it (http://www.virginamerica.com/news.do#sabre)- the hold times are still stupid, things are still broken, they're still making loyal customers mad (go look at their Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/VirginAmerica) and a few of the posts in this thread). You'd have to think this is bleeding cash and mindshare from them like crazy.

The sad part is that it's an own-goal.

That's what VX's cust serv reps don't seem to understand: when you have customers who have been putting up with terrible service, you need to give them the benefit of the doubt. If you tell them you booked for $241 during a time of horrible website problems, they should believe you and make it right.

+1 Agreed. They should have forgiven and give the benefit of the doubt, otherwise they would lose a sale. Instead, the customer chose to cancel the flight and thus VX shot themselves in the foot by losing a sale...

Well, it looks like they will maybe let me upgrade to MCS. So that's a plus. We'll see if I can sneak into F...

Aaaaand now that it's T-6 hours, the website has no way to let me upgrade from MCS to F.

10+ minutes on hold waiting for a rep. I'm going to give a bit longer and then probably bag it, see if I can do an airport MCS->F- or hell, maybe I can try on the plane. Or maybe I'll be stuck in MCS, such as it is: won't get the fancier food and seat, but I think I can rough it out.

Congratulations, VX, you've implemented something that actively prevents me from giving you money. Brilliant business strategy. :rolleyes:

And the last seats sold while I was on hold. Ah well.

Aaaaand now that it's T-6 hours, the website has no way to let me upgrade from MCS to F.

10+ minutes on hold waiting for a rep. I'm going to give a bit longer and then probably bag it, see if I can do an airport MCS->F- or hell, maybe I can try on the plane. Or maybe I'll be stuck in MCS, such as it is: won't get the fancier food and seat, but I think I can rough it out.

Congratulations, VX, you've implemented something that actively prevents me from giving you money. Brilliant business strategy. :rolleyes:

And the last seats sold while I was on hold. Ah well.

Out of curiosity, remind me which method you usually use to upgrade? Do you follow my rule of not clicking "check-in" and just doing a seat change, or do you try to do it from the check-in pages?

I don't know if this is new or not but I just logged in my Elevate account and I saw a click to chat icon, so I clicked and instantly had a chat with a rep. No need to wait for hours on the phone.

I don't know if this is new or not but I just logged in my Elevate account and I saw a click to chat icon, so I clicked and instantly had a chat with a rep. No need to wait for hours on the phone.

FYI: The chat line was always there for sometime. It's just that it was down for the reservations system changeover, and with it being absent, appeared to be part of the website meltdown/debacle.

Aaaaand now that it's T-6 hours, the website has no way to let me upgrade from MCS to F.

10+ minutes on hold waiting for a rep. I'm going to give a bit longer and then probably bag it, see if I can do an airport MCS->F- or hell, maybe I can try on the plane. Or maybe I'll be stuck in MCS, such as it is: won't get the fancier food and seat, but I think I can rough it out.

Congratulations, VX, you've implemented something that actively prevents me from giving you money. Brilliant business strategy. :rolleyes:

And the last seats sold while I was on hold. Ah well.

My deepest condolences to you. I been through your experiences as well last month. :(

FYI: The chat line was always there for sometime. It's just that it was down for the reservations system changeover, and with it being absent, appeared to be part of the website meltdown/debacle.

Weird -- I can't see the chat option. Is it windows-only, perhaps? Or founding Elevate members?

I'm just trying to change seats on an upcoming reservation... there's no button anymore, just a message that seats haven't been assigned.

Weird -- I can't see the chat option. Is it windows-only, perhaps? Or founding Elevate members?

I'm just trying to change seats on an upcoming reservation... there's no button anymore, just a message that seats haven't been assigned.

From the main screen, put in any dates for a flight search and once that page comes up it is on the right hand side under the elevate log in area.

I was very excited when I learned VX got the government contract IAD-SFO from UA. But after flying last week and having to deal with the messed up reservation system, I will hold off on any more VX flying until they sort things out. Next week I'll be flying UA thru LAX instead. I can't believe they have allowed this to continue so long.

Is anyone able to see the "Change Seats" button?

I finally got the chat button to appear; it took a few tries. Now that I have a reservation and seats assigned, I can't see the option to change seats. I haven't checked in (flight is this coming weekend).

Typically, you could view the itinerary and see a Change Seats button there...

This is incredible -- it's been over a month! I can't recall anything like this with another company. Sony had to shut down the Playstation network for a few weeks, but that was due to a major credit card hacking. For VX, it's simply a change of systems.

This is incredible -- it's been over a month! I can't recall anything like this with another company. Sony had to shut down the Playstation network for a few weeks, but that was due to a major credit card hacking. For VX, it's simply a change of systems.

Westjet had similar problems when it switched over to Sabre more than a year ago. It was not an easy fix. As time went on it got better but there was a few months there where it was a nightmare. I feel for the employees especially in the call centre as pretty much every call they are getting is probably someone irate because of system problems. Why this happens everytime an airlines switches over I don't know but you figure sabre would have it figured out by now.

Why this happens everytime an airlines switches over I don't know but you figure sabre would have it figured out by now.I would be willing to bet the problem is not with Sabre but that it is with getting their other systems to interface to Sabre. Each airline is going to have a unique mix of systems (some off-the-shelf, some custom) that have to exchange data with Sabre so no two cutovers are going to be the same.

Earlier this year, SQ had problems switching over to a new website without a beta test. Their problems were different from VX but had the same results. SQ migrated to a new website but kept the same reservation system. Their new site somehow botched passenger reservations and then the mistakes therefore had a ripple effect in operations. SQ's call centers and e-mail were swamped with customers losing their reservations, could not check-in online, could not verify passenger info, etc. SQ lost business because of their debacle, which took several months to fix.

So I got back from my Vegas trip, and still have all of my Elevate Points in my account, they were not deducted...I tried to randomly book another flight, and it WOULD allow me to book it. Now this might be a "good" glitch!

So I got back from my Vegas trip, and still have all of my Elevate Points in my account, they were not deducted...I tried to randomly book another flight, and it WOULD allow me to book it. Now this might be a "good" glitch!

Glad to see someone is benefiting from this epic screw-up. I haven't seen any of my elevate points post for my last three flights. :mad:

So I got back from my Vegas trip, and still have all of my Elevate Points in my account, they were not deducted...I tried to randomly book another flight, and it WOULD allow me to book it. Now this might be a "good" glitch!

I'd check charges on any credit cards you have saved on your account. Also, like any misdirected deposit made through a cash machine, don't be surprised if your points are deducted later.

Still can't do the MC --> MCS 24-hour upgrade online. I'm beginning to wonder if perhaps this systems upgrade is falling short of the original goals.

55 minutes on hold today, but finally got through to upgrade. I'll keep putting up with this because I'm a big fan of VX, but my goodness what a disaster this new system has been.

55 minutes on hold today, but finally got through to upgrade. I'll keep putting up with this because I'm a big fan of VX, but my goodness what a disaster this new system has been.

I am still waiting for my Gilt purchase points from August. Despite a call getting through and some email back and forth, and then additional attempted calls (having to give up), this is getting old.

Reading this thread makes me very nervous about CO/UA's switchover in a few months. :(

Cranky coverage of the system problems (http://crankyflier.com/2011/12/20/virgin-america-still-having-major-system-problems-more-than-a-month-after-system-changes/)

Reading this thread makes me very nervous about CO/UA's switchover in a few months. :(

I think other than a handful of days and a few occasional post-switch burps due to an occasional bit of corrupted data, it won't be a disaster. The two platforms already communicate pretty well together. This is not the case with the original VX system.

I am still waiting for my Gilt purchase points from August. Despite a call getting through and some email back and forth, and then additional attempted calls (having to give up), this is getting old.

Today's attempt (failed) turned into an hour - 40 or so minutes on hold, using the proper channels per the voice menu, then finally got an agent who didn't originally understand the issue, then she felt sorry for me and told me I needed a different department, and then transferred me - on hold for about 15 minutes more until the people I was expecting showed up (and I got the door, and then went back down to the office) and the hold music was still playing, at which point I hung up.

after 30 minutes I would have hung up and booked though another airline and would not return to Virgin unless they gave me 1 year of free travel in 1st class. No airline or business is worth 11 hours on hold unless you had won a million dollar lottery.

http://sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com/2011/12/20/consumerwatch-virgin-america-customers-complain-about-reservation-issues/

after 30 minutes I would have hung up and booked though another airline and would not return to Virgin unless they gave me 1 year of free travel in 1st class. No airline or business is worth 11 hours on hold unless you had won a million dollar lottery.

http://sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com/2011/12/20/consumerwatch-virgin-america-customers-complain-about-reservation-issues/

This news report, as well as the crankyflier blog entry linked above, suggest that Virgin is allowing free cancellations while their systems are causing problems? Does anyone know if this is the case, or under what conditions this option might be available?

This news report, as well as the crankyflier blog entry linked above, suggest that Virgin is allowing free cancellations while their systems are causing problems? Does anyone know if this is the case, or under what conditions this option might be available?

Correct. Hold on the phone long enough (or use Twitter to get in touch via DM) and you can have your ticket cancelled. I believe they would like to issue a TravelBank credit as the first option. You could press for a refund. No change fees.

That's correct, I have cancelled my ticket free of charge and issued another one, and the remaining balance went to the travelbank, tried to use it at the airport for baggage but couldn't they said "not yet".

Thanks everyone. I cancelled via DM on Twitter for no fee. Was refused a full refund so I took the travel bank credit.

I hope that Virgin realizes that these telephone problems will very quickly kill their appeal to business travelers. Thanks to FT I was able to request a wheelchair for my father via the Elevate chat line (after 45 fruitless minutes on telephone hold).

Been out of the VX loop lately, so is the new sabre up and running 100%?

Last time I checked into this problem they stated first week of December and all would be good..

Seems not...

Been out of the VX loop lately, so is the new sabre up and running 100%?

Last time I checked into this problem they stated first week of December and all would be good..

Seems not...

I tried purchasing a ticket on Saturday - 503 Bad Gateway for 15 straight minutes. :rolleyes:

I was able to buy a ticket for a 1-way flight SFO-LAX, but I still can't get into my Elevate account. They had to create it manually for me since the system kept telling me that I needed to give them my address - which I did. This sort of thing does make me a bit nervous about trusting them with my travel.

I was able to buy a ticket for a 1-way flight SFO-LAX, but I still can't get into my Elevate account. They had to create it manually for me since the system kept telling me that I needed to give them my address - which I did. This sort of thing does make me a bit nervous about trusting them with my travel.

I complained that to them a month ago with screenshots and troubleshooting steps. Glad to know that they haven't fixed that yet :(

I only fly VX 1-2 times a year so have until now missed out on the system conversion "fun." A few questions:

1. I am unable to sign in using my email address. I can only sign in using my Elevate number. Is this related to the problems with the new system?

2. My confirmation number has changed. I made my reservation prior to the new system being implemented. However they seem to be crossed referenced. Was the confirmation number change related to the implementation to the new system?

3. It does not appear my Elevate number is included on the "new" reservation. When I try to add it I receive a message along the lines that the Elevate number does not correspond to the the passenger on the reservation -- me!. Another new system snafu? Do I have to add it at checkin?

4. It appears a lot of people are having to checkin at the airport. The call hold message directs people to checkin at the airport. What are the lines like at the airport?

Thanks.

I

1. I am unable to sign in using my email address. I can only sign in using my Elevate number. Is this related to the problems with the new system?

2. My confirmation number has changed. I made my reservation prior to the new system being implemented. However they seem to be crossed referenced. Was the confirmation number change related to the implementation to the new system?

3. It does not appear my Elevate number is included on the "new" reservation. When I try to add it I receive a message along the lines that the Elevate number does not correspond to the the passenger on the reservation -- me!. Another new system snafu? Do I have to add it at checkin?

4. It appears a lot of people are having to checkin at the airport. The call hold message directs people to checkin at the airport. What are the lines like at the airport?

Thanks.

I am not affiliated with VX, but here's my experience.

1. Yes.
2. Yes.
3. Yes.
4. Depends on the business of the day. I flew the weekend before Thanksgiving and they were backed up, and I witnessed several people missing their flight as they'd assumed they could use a kiosk. They couldn't use a kiosk, and had to wait. I've flown twice since then and encountered minimal lines. If you can, check in online. If you can't, budget extra time. YMMV.

Made a booking earlier today, booking process went fine right up until I clicked purchase ticket. Conformation page flashed up for a split second before website crashed and still no conformation email has been received.

Despite that, I logged into my Elevate account where I do see my booking / 6 lettered PNR and the flight details are correct. Taking that as my booking is still ' live '. Noticed as well my Elevate number was not added to booking and I'm unable to add it.

It's still annoying that VX have not fixed things yet.

This tread is heart-breaking. I'm a fan of Branson and all his companies. I have flown Virgin America and Atlantic, and I appreciate both.
I was gong to book another flight tomorrow, but may not, based on what I am reading here. :(

Fortunately I haven't had any problems with booking or checking in (yet).

I was on a transcon flt to SFO. Booking was made by TA and I could see it online. Logged in to the Elevate account and use the add elevate number. Since then the booking disappeared. Web checkin did not work. I missed ou on MCS or First upgrades as online checkin and telephone checkin did not work.

The kiosks at Airport did not work as well. However the checkin agent was able to checkin seamlessly.

Terrible implementation. I am sure the CIO and vendor are focused fully on this and someday soon we will see a workable system.

Sad indeed!

When that whole fiasco was going on, I booked a trip for which I need a receipt, how do I go about getting one now, the copy I have has no price on it.
Thanks.

Last Saturday, I couldn't upgrade online within 6 hours of a flight, LAX-SFO. What's it been now, three months? Did VX contract with Moe, Larry & Curly IT services?

When that whole fiasco was going on, I booked a trip for which I need a receipt, how do I go about getting one now, the copy I have has no price on it.
Thanks.

You might want to go to the VX website to see if the Chat Line is available and ask them for a receipt there, assuming VX can e-mail you a confirmation from a Chat Line request. If all else fails, you might want to go to your credit card statement, assuming you can do this online to get a credit card statement for the charge. Advice while you are doing one of these things: document everything in the process. What you don't see can burn you. :eek:

BTW, has anyone been able to do the 24-hour MCS or 6-hour F upgrades online since the new system was put in place? I can't recall seeing anyone have success with this since November. I certainly haven't been able to do it.

yes, I was able to upgrade to MCS last night with an award ticket. This is the first time it has worked since their system change.

yes, I was able to upgrade to MCS last night with an award ticket. This is the first time it has worked since their system change.

benallen,

Welcome to Flyertalk!

Many congratulations in your successful use of the VX reservations system.

It is still a disaster, I have flights booked weekly through the end of March and each time I log on, it says "sorry you have no flights" and I have to put in the conf number. They do not send emails when I book flights and I have to go in and manually request the receipt. Big pain that has been going on since October.
Hope the United transformation is smoother than this.:mad:

You've got a good point there. I'm hearing from the UA flyers that the transition will not be easy so this situation with VX's reservation system and not so savory alternatives might leave us transcon flyers SOL.

It is still a disaster, I have flights booked weekly through the end of March and each time I log on, it says "sorry you have no flights" and I have to put in the conf number. They do not send emails when I book flights and I have to go in and manually request the receipt. Big pain that has been going on since October.
Hope the United transformation is smoother than this.:mad:

How could it not be?...

How could it not be?...

UA could totally can both systems and resort to pen and paper for everything.

:O

So, what is the consensus about trying to upgrade to MCS? I have a flight friday, so my t-24 window is tomorrow AM. Is calling better than trying to do it online?

the only way I have been able to upgrade is to check-in for the flight and then it will ask you if you want to upgrade, however if you want to go from MCS to first this will not work. This has been successful on point and cash booked tickets

Well . . . almost 4 months after the change . . . and things still suck. Hold times are still outrageous. As much as I love VA once you get onboard, the pre-boarding experience is a nightmare. VA lost a once loyal customer.

Man, to say that the system sucks in an understatement. Getting to the screen for check-in, then to select either check-in or change flight results in an error, try again. Same thing, try going through the check-in pull down, gets me to a different screen, but there is no option to upgrade even though the seat map still shows seats. on the phone now 20 minutes, no hope.

wow, and now that I can get through on the website, all the way to purchase upgrade all it does is throw errors upon confirmation and says, "we cannot process your request for upgrades online" call the 877 number. Crazy stupid tech on the ground. crazy stupid, could thing I know the US President, he's going to be getting a call from me.

And, you want to know the WORST THING, I have HALF A DOZEN PENDING CHARGES FOR 258$$ from VIRGIN AMERICA VX on my credit card!!!!