harryhv

So as a first-time user of the VX booking page, looking to book SFO-DFW in Sep.

• The one-way fare is $553 in Economy-Plus (main cabin select) but only $453 in First?
• There are two First fares, First and Refundable First. Clicking "more info" shows the "Fees page" which has identical conditions for both, changeable or refundable at no charge
• Just before purchase there is a button to display the fare rules, but it displays the rules for a different fare (but if you page down several times there are more fares and rules)
• According to this thread OLCI no longer works and there's other bugs - is OLCI working now?

BearX220

I can't help you with those questions but agree the new website's experience design and functionality is baffling. The strategy is sort of a throwback to circa 1998-99 when designers went out of their way to be cutesy and unique and make puzzles out of straightforward processes.

After 20 years a set of expected conventions has set in for standard online processes like booking a plane ticket, and it doesn't make sense to toss them all aside just to be cool. Car designers going for cool don't put the gearshift on the sun visor or the headlight button in the glove box.

spin88

I am new to VX (from UAL) and I don't like the web-site. That said, my SO, who dabbles in web-site design on the side, says that it is optimized for viewing on tablets/smart phones. Rather than having two sites (as e.g. UAL does) they went with the tablet/smart phone look.

Since I use a computer, its funky, but I pulled up on my iphone and its very easy to use there.

As to the pricing, I have seen a few times that F is cheaper than MCS. My guess is that F is keyed off of availablity and competitor fares. I only see this when F is nearly empty. Then when I have checked UAL, VX is a similar (and at times cheaper) fare, its not out of wack.

The price is also more real as a refundable fare (for a lot more) is kind of silly on VX, given that change fee is $100 and its waved for certain credit card holders.

USCTrojan83

That type of "scrolling site" is really the trend in web design these days. It's said to make everything feel very sequential and simply things to the user. The flatness of everything is also quite common (see iOS7). It's a bit tricky the first few times you use it but once you get the hang, I wound up liking it better.

fishy21

Just tried out the website using my tablet. It's like 100x better than through my computer. I use my computer 99% of the time for shopping.... So it doesn't help me.

britsv

I hate the new website. My biggest issue is it no longer shows instant upgrade to MCS unless you go through and select an economy ticket. Since that was the fare class I've been most interested in, I think the new site is much worse.

Not to mention the bug where any redemption booking requires you to have twice the number of points available in the account that you actually need for the booking (i.e. 100K points to book a 50K point redemption booking). Had to phone up to get them to do the booking manually and only then did I find out what the problem was (agent wasn't aware of it until they spoke to a manager).

UA Fan

I'm not very impressed by the new website either. That said, there many airlines whose new website seem worse than the old. SQ especially comes to mind.

SoCalZman

Oh so it wasnt just me. Well glad they are aware of it. Hopefully they will fix it soon.

doczim

I have been trying to find a decent MCS fare for LAX to Orlando and they want $700+ to get 3 seats, though its about $350 for one seat for December. The new website I can see no option for instant upgrade at all. Ive tried selecting bothMain Cabin and Main Cabin Express an not avail. Are they just not vailalable any more or is it just bad luck for the day I want?

gooseman13

I believe if the MCS fare does not say "refundable" than it is an instant upgrade fare.

MarkedMan

Having a site that tries to work on both types of devices is a very bad idea IMO, working as I do in the business. Aside from the fact that sequential, scrollable pages are the norm these days (as opposed to "tabbing" style behavior), there are just very different ways to lay out stuff for a computer vs mobile device. It's pretty trivial to design things with a central engine and two different "skins", if you will. What they have right now is hard to use on a desktop/laptop and, worse, very unstable - usage of back and forward buttons on a computer browser breaks the site very easily and you're always getting stuck in a way that is somehow acceptable on a phone or tablet, but clearly not on a computer.

Not the end of the world, mind, but it's a cheap attempt at cost containment that could conceivably cost some business.

VegasGambler

I thought that they got rid of instant upgrade to MCS? Are you saying that it's still there, but hidden?

VegasGambler

Like it or not, this is the "new way" of doing things. I think that the main thing is that they want it to look good on tablets. No one wants a crappy phone-like mobile experience on a tablet (that's why you buy a tablet) but it still has to work with mobile inputs.

It's not really about lowering costs (it doesn't lower costs); it's about providing the same experience regardless of your device. There are definitely pros and cons. The problem with the VX website is not that they are trying to make it look the same on mobile and desktop; it's that they released it long before it was ready. It simply doesn't work very well -- it has not been properly tested or debugged. It's simply poorly written.

doczim

Yes this is my question also, so if anyone can shed light on would be great. Thanks

goback

I've just tried to use the new website for the first time and it sucks!