robsaw

Given the numerous threads on that "other airline" forum regarding IT Fails, I wouldn't hold out this one factor as a sign of great IT.

However, the long explanation from aerobod seems to indicate that Westjet is giving inadequate consideration and priority to usability from the consumer perspective when making design changes to their customer-facing IT interface. Sure, there may be compromises in trying to make divergent systems play nice together but don't make the interface CLUNKY and convoluted to do something that WAS WORKING JUST FINE. And, please promise to never start using the word "enhancement" for ANYTHING that is actually a reduction in function/capability/service or now comes with extra $ attached.

aerobod

Unfortunately the tab based flight listing is quite slow and extremely inefficient. It has to be rendered in the booking engine application servers that have over the past few years been provided by a vendor in Europe. One of the problems we have is that during high load periods we make far too many web service calls to the backend reservation system in Tulsa (about 200 calls per second too much), such that under load we have to reduce the tab view to 5 or 3 tabs or even revert to the low-function site (lite or maintenance site) to reduce load. This function cannot be cached in the app or through JavaScript pre-load, as the data has to be current. We are now moving to a different booking module from a different vendor for rendering fares and availability. The app and browser view reflect the new module, this module does not have direct access to the seat map, but is significantly more efficient in using the backend system. App changes alone can't resolve the direct access to the seat map, I'm afraid.

I'm not sure how much technical detail members of this forum want to hear about the intricacies and limitations of airline reservation systems, but I can say that very little of the booking components are resident in the app itself, most of the functions are dependent on middleware modules implemented on several hundred servers that are built as clusters for specific functionality such as identity & profile, fare caching, directory services, portal, rewards system, web check-in, mobile gateway services, booking services, etc. These modules that the guest app or browser interact with then have integration interfaces (often via an enterprise service bus) into a myriad of databases, the backend reservation systems and other 3rd parties (government agencies, financial institutions, other airlines, GDSs, operational systems, etc - about 200 interfaces in total).

I'm sorry that there are changes that are counter-intuitive to our business focused guests, but I can assure you that the end result over the next few releases will be positive for business users overall.

robsaw

I'm a project manager in SW development so I get it.

I rarely use WestJet for business (because we are mandated to use our contracted discount arrangement with your friends at AC). What seat I get is actually more important for leisure travel on WestJet because I'm not going to get upgrades to business class like I can often snag on AC.

Anyway, have fun with the upgrades - legacy systems are great.

Sopwith

Sopwith

gcashin

This is pretty bad that WS still can't offer a seat preview before booking without a cumbersome workaround of doing a dummy booking. One of the reasons why I'm less likely to book WS. AC's IT may be terrible, but at least I can see what seats are available before booking. Time to get your act together on this, WS.