vancb

i've always wondered what would happen if there was a power surge or failure of computers. how would any airline be able to go to manual check in with electronic tickets? would the receipt of the ticket be sufficient if this were the case? i've been thru the ringer first with the opening of chep lap kok airport in hong kong, the power failure in toronto and the opening week jitters in denver. luckily all 3 times i had a paper ticket.

SchmeckFlyer

Bealine... question. I assume that if in the booking "Third Party" is inserted, then there is no requirement to show the credit card used to purchase the ticket? Tickets are bought for me sometimes, which necessitates that I travel without the paying card, and I have never had a problem. Once at SFO when they asked for the credit card (the first time), they almost refused me boarding, but soon they found "Third Party Booking" and suddenly everything was peachy.

BA or bust

Any reason why there cannot be an electronic link to one's photo associated with a booking? I wouldn't mind BA having my mug on file if it saves time and hassle. There is after all so much info held electronically anyway. Would at least cut down on some of the possible fraud.

lorkers

Anyone remember BA's massive computer crash of March 2001? Every passenger worldwide had to be checked in manually for two days! Perhaps some kind soul will remember some more details, but I do remember spending 5 hours in the line at Tokyo while every passenger was checked in by hand - I've still got my hand written boarding card. Then to make things happier, the two flights back to LHR were compacted into one... cue chaos at the gate, and much "you're sitting in my seat".

SchmeckFlyer

About a year ago, I had a LHR-AMS flight cancelled due to "worldwide computer failure" or something like that. Quite strange. Was a mess though.

ojs555

Ah, the great RTZ pool expansion failure of 2001! How I remember it well. And just at the time at BA were about to outsource their TPF operations to Amadeus.

I think at the time it was estimated to have cost approx Ł50M. Then there was foot and mouth. Then BA fell out of the FTSE 100. Then they were about to get back in and there was another major network switch failure over the weekend. Believe BA missed getting back into the 100 at that reshuffle too. It really wasn't the best time to be working at BA!

Interesting to hear about StevieJ's thread about problems with LH too. Of course they're all Amadeus at the back end, so not surprising there are similar problems.

These days I think it's highly unlikely there would be a worldwide outage given the level of redundancy built into the Erding pipes. More likely to have a localised comms failure instead. Remember too that BA splits its TPF systems into check-in (DCS) and Res - so that provides additional resiliency.

(Although maybe we should all go back to the charter flight model of check-in where all passengers are norec'd onto the flight!)

og

It's not just BA. AY had a problem with an e-ticket I bought over their web site SIN-BKK 2 yrs ago. Got a PNR, had seats allocated (by phone to AY SYD), got a print out of my reservation. Always wondered why my CC had not been charged. Didn't appreciate (then) the importance of a ticket number - which I didn't have. Come fronting the desk to check in and the blank looks started. I refused to leave the counter until it was sorted out - 45 min later. Phone calls from SIN to HEL, several staff wandering in and out of an office with frustrated looks, a lengthening queue behind me. Airport staff then said "do you still want it charged to the same CC Sir? Your ticket has not been issued buy you're going to be OK...." Boarding passes handed to me and then to the lounge to get over it with a beer.

MarkUK

Similar thing happened to someone I know.

They had flown out on BA to the British Virgin Islands (EIS) via ANU from LGW and had a return ticket for 10 months ahead.

However partway through their stay in the BVI they saw an offer to the UK from St Thomas (US Virgin Islands), a 20 minute ferry ride away. So they booked and came back to visit the UK for 2 weeks, taking the ferry from the BVI to the USVI (St Thomas) then flying STT-EWR-BHX on Continental. On returning to BHX for the trip to EWR for the onward flight to SJU and then ferry back to the BVI, the queue comber came round and asked the same questions, including "do you have a return ticket". "This is the return part of the ticket" was the reply, which duly confused the queue comber. "Do you have a US visa?" No. "Then how can you be returning to the US?". The queue comber just couldn't grasp that you might have transited THROUGH the US to get to the UK, especially by a boat/plane combination, especially as the flight itinerary ended in US territory (STT).

Of course, they did have a return ticket, from ANU to LGW, but their BA ticket details were all in a printout in their desk drawer in the BVI. They eventually persuaded the staff member by retrieving their ferry boarding cards out of their luggage-to-be-checked. The ferry boarding cards are just laser printed cards which are laminated to make them waterproof and reusable! They don't have any passenger name printed on them. But they did the job in convincing the queue comber that there was no intention to stay in the US!

Any future trips will no doubt be via ANU on BA or VS, via the US is so much hassle!

Frequentflyer99

Any trip with EIS as the ultimate destination is a nightmare, however routed and ticketed !

MarkUK

Gorgeous place though!

ojs555

And Finnair uses what as the backend?It's Amadeus again...

(Sorry about the link being a bit old, but it makes the point!..

Frequentflyer99

Scenically yes. As for the rest ....