I'm constantly disappointed by airline websites, but Asiana's has got to be one of the worst in the world.
1) If I put 'flyasiana.com' in my address bar, a totally blank page loads.
No error. No content. (Firefox 3.5.x)
If I go to
www.flyasiana.com, I'm hit with a giant, humungous, irrelevant Flash movie that must load before I can SKIP. Not pretty. Not nice. Forget about dial-up speeds and using the website at all.
2) After I skip, I'm presented with a Korean site. I haven't learned Korean yet, but thankfully there is an ENGLISH link. Which I click. And I'm taken to a page with title 'For Foreigners residing in Korea' which does have ability to search for flights near top/center of page, and defaults to Domestic - which is what I want.
3) After I select my cities and dates, I'm presented with an unnecessary dialog that I must acknowledge - "For domestic internet ticket purchase,
the reservation and purchase must be made at the same time." For some city pairs, there are TWO of these dialogs (that interrupt ability to do anything in any tab of the browser)!!!
3a) While they've got flash and javascript and all sorts of unnecessary code, they haven't put in the simple code required to change the RETURN date's month to one that isn't impossible: the screen defaults to showing the current month for depart and return, and if you change depart to a later month, the return stays at an impossible before-you leave date.
3b) If you return to the flight search screen in any way (link, back button, etc) it doesn't remember your departure/arrival cities and changes them back to the initial defaults. Great.
4) THEN, there's a login screen. Only now do you find out that to even search for or price flights, you must be an Asiana Club member???!!!! Outrageous!!!
4a) The login has a radio-button box to enter either User ID or Member ID. Well Firefox can remember the UserID/Password, but fills it in for the default (UserID) when it is the member ID, and selecting the member ID radio button causes the filled-in remembered id/password to blank out. Great!
5) Then, the flight results with weird html - both IE and Firefox display near the top:
Code:
<%@ //include file="../common/avail/FIDomAvail003.jsp"%>
6) Then, the flights scheduled for the day appear whether or not they can be purchased. And it's not clear (if all flights are sold out) that you can't buy a ticket as the page has this nebulous statement:
The number of available seats is updated instantly, and seats are confirmed only after passenger information is entered.
7) Then if flights can be selected and you continue on, I get text that includes:
Passenger and fare information
Infant science training course
Infant science training course??????????????
8) Pay with a foreign issued credit card - they have this obscure info:
Please mind the following when using a foreign-issued credit card.
Online Transaction System
We can only accept the Visa and Mastercard for foreign-issued credit cards.
For safe online transaction, the Visa/Mastercard online transaction system is used. When the card issuer does not offer the system, the transaction cannot be completed.
In the case that the transaction cannot be completed through the online transaction system, payment cannot be completed online. Please use a Korean-issued credit card or contact an Asiana Airlines branch for assistance.
(Online discounts cannot be applied to tickets purchased in braches)
Using Foreign-issued credit cards
When a popup window does not appear for password input after the credit card number has been input, please check the popup block program on your computer.
Credit cards that do not use a Visa/Mastercard Online Transaction System cannot be used for online payment. In this case, please contact the card issuer.
The ticket purchase is complete when the credit card purchase is confirmed.
The purchase is confirmed based on the ownership of the card and the credit limit.
Even if there is no problem regarding ownership or limit, if the credit card is not registered with an online transaction system, the credit card cannot be used for transaction.
A credit card may be rejected for other reasons as well.
Any problem will appear on the screen.
Please add this site as trusted site on your Internet Explorer
1. From the Internet Explorer Tools menu, click Internet Options.
2. Click Security.
3. Click Trusted Sites.
4. In the Security level for this zone box, check your security level. You may need to do one of the following.
- If it is set to High, use the slider to change it to a Medium or lower security level.
- If it is set to Custom, click Default Level, and then use the slider to change it to a Medium or lower security level.
5. Click the Sites button.
6. In the Add this Web site to the zone field, type the URL for the trusted Web site.
7. De-select Require server verification for all sites in this zone.
8. Click Close.
9. On the Internet Options window, click OK.
What the heck is a Visa/Mastercard Online Transaction System? (They probably are referring to 'Verified by Visa' or MasterCard's SecureCode - I guess)....
Truly unbelievably horrible website!!!