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-   -   is the website down? (https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/cathay-pacific-cathay/2184326-website-down.html)

percysmith Jan 22, 2025 10:28 pm


Originally Posted by PaulC852 (Post 36837806)
Given that other airline (and similar real-time, critical) websites seem to function pretty well, I would argue that there clearly isn't a lack of good talent generally, just within CX. It's perhaps not fair to blame the recruiter for one stuff up, but when CX's IT has been so bad for so long through what must be multiple changes of management then there must be something wrong with the selection process for the people.

You’ve obviously not been over to BA land https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/brit...ease-keep.html

wadia13 Jan 22, 2025 10:59 pm


Originally Posted by percysmith (Post 36837843)
You’ve obviously not been over to BA land https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/brit...ease-keep.html

Agree. I've also encountered website problems with Lufthansa & Swiss on several occasions. I don't find CX website to be particularly error prone compared to other airline websites.

Cambo Jan 23, 2025 1:49 am


Originally Posted by PaulC852 (Post 36837806)
Given that other airline (and similar real-time, critical) websites seem to function pretty well, I would argue that there clearly isn't a lack of good talent generally, just within CX. It's perhaps not fair to blame the recruiter for one stuff up, but when CX's IT has been so bad for so long through what must be multiple changes of management then there must be something wrong with the selection process for the people.

When the main selection criteria has become "compliance with the government", one may miss out on excellence (people with excellence skills do seldom fit into the category "follow what is being told", on the contrary). When the main selection criteria has become DEI, you may miss on excellence, etc.

That said, the IT isn't that bad, the problem is the exception handling isn't implemented properly and errors tend to cascade through the rest of the IT, instead of being isolated. IE, when seat allocation/review isn't working, don't let that break down the other functionality of the website.

The whole problem is that websites are nowadays based on "call-backs", IE have a static website framework and the factual dynamic info is requested subsequently by the web browser. And when the call-back processing engine gets stuck in requests which can not be processed, the whole starts running out of resources and nothing moves any longer. Add to that, that the communication/exception/timeout handling in browsers for the JavaScript/CSS call-backs is far less robust than the basic browser communication and disaster is built in from the very beginning. The "website being down" like the screenshot is typically a symptom of this.

CX860 Jan 23, 2025 7:28 am


Originally Posted by wadia13 (Post 36837882)
Agree. I've also encountered website problems with Lufthansa & Swiss on several occasions. I don't find CX website to be particularly error prone compared to other airline websites.

I find the US airlines generally have decent/much better IT. Alaska and United being the best in my experience.

percysmith Jan 23, 2025 7:51 am


Originally Posted by CX860 (Post 36838646)
I find the US airlines generally have decent/much better IT. Alaska and United being the best in my experience.

Better IT offset by worse soft product of course

CX860 Jan 23, 2025 7:59 am


Originally Posted by percysmith (Post 36838692)
Better IT offset by worse soft product of course

Depends on who and what. He is talking about LX and LH which I don't find any better than the Americans.

I actually find Alaska ground (as in reservations, FF etc.) to be significantly better than CX in terms of trying to think outside the box to solve unusual problems, responsiveness etc. In the air and at the airport, of course Asian carriers are better.

bobbinbrisco May 24, 2025 11:13 am

down again

tfung May 24, 2025 8:12 pm

I've noticed the last few weeks.. every time the website api seems to be down.. I end up clearing my cookies and cache, and it immediately starts working again... Seems to be a google chrome problem, as it happens on my mobile as well as desktop...


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