orbitmic

Your post makes me think more of the "I hate auto-check in" thread I created a while ago!

bodory

Story continues :
- check-in agent at counter is not able to access available Seat Plus because the system blocks them
- I am asked to go to ticketing office to pay the 0 EUR fee
- being curious by nature, I opted for the experience, hopefully successful !

Moral of the story : EasyJet must laugh out loud

orbitmic

Kafka, get out of that ticket!

bodory

Definitely !

Some might think I am crazy but I really wanted to go through the whole of that messy experience. Honestly, I do care much about empty seat next to me than extra space for my legs on this 2-hour flight.

At the end, I got my Seat Plus but that was a long battle the friendly AF/KL staff and I won against their crappy IT : it took almost 5 minutes to the KL agent at ticketing office to bypass the system.

Interestingly, among the 6 seat of row 10 on that 70% loaded flight we ended with this situation :
- the 2 window seats (A and F), not flagged as Seat Plus, were occupied
- the two aisle seats (C and D), flagged as Seat Plus, were also occupied ; I did not bother the gentleman seated on the other side of the aisle by asking him how he managed to get his seat
- the two middle seats (B and E), flagged as Seat Plus, were not occupied

San Gottardo

When I quit my current job I shall apply to Air France for a position of "random IT nuisance creator". It must be very creative, one has endless possibilities to play around with. Asking people to go to the ticket counter to pay zero EUR fee is already fantastic. But I'd try hard to come up with something even better, such as requiring people to confirm their request for a child meal on a sucre-sale flight to get the Seat Plus, but then refusing that choice because the pax is more than 12 years old and then to link that to a payment screen. Unless AF already do this, we just don't know about it yet because the pax was sent to am asylum when he lost his mind the 17th time the payment screen came up in Cyrillic.

I really think AF random IT nuisance creator is even more fulfilling than what used to be my dream job previously, name inventor for IKEA furniture (why is a sofa called Bamplads and a bed Snörlaud?)

bodory

I believe in conspiracy therory here : AF asked its IT to generate an error message and completely block the system when Gold/Plat want to book a Seat Plus so they can sell it for more than 0 EUR to other pax.

orbitmic

brunos

You mean "random IT enhancement creator"?

San Gottardo

Actually it all sounds too trivial, too obivous, too descriptive for (Air) France. The title reveals what it actually is. Why not something like "Twist editor in the virtual space", or "Ambassadeur virtuel de surprises client". Something fancy, that makes you think of Concorde and 7 course meals, when all you want to do is bang your PC on the wall and choke that imbecile who programmed Air France's IT.

brunos

My take is that the typical AF IT guy is probably not that bad. Simply that management keeps popping up brilliant ideas with "ya qua mettre en place demain" ("if BA did it why can't AF do it quickly"). I do not know if they subcontract a lot of IT developments, but their IT team must be quite disheartened too. IT needs long-term overall and coherent planning while the impression given is that AF keeps implementing bits and pieces as ideas popup in various parts of the organization.

I might be wrong, but there is no doubt that the end result is catastrophic and that AF must be losing customers who do not have to bear the repeated and unexpected inconveniences.

bodory

I think I have just been appointed "not-that-random IT victim" : http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/22774010-post75.html