New Frontier website
Mar 19, 2011, 3:07 pm
#4
Join Date: Feb 2008
Location: Nashville, TN
Programs: WN Nothing and spending the half million points from too many flights, Hilton Diamond
Posts: 8,043
You guys better hope it beats the WN roll out. 
That is part of why I am over here lurking. If you have some time, head over to the Rapid Rewards forum and read about the wonderful new web site.
That is part of why I am over here lurking. If you have some time, head over to the Rapid Rewards forum and read about the wonderful new web site.
Mar 19, 2011, 7:09 pm
#5
Join Date: Oct 2004
Posts: 2,653
Not to get off the F9 topic, but the performance of the WN site is stunningly frustrating IMHO and I second the motion that Frontier (hopefully) will not have a similar fiasco.
For an airline that essentially forces you to only use the website or call center, the website needs to be a Cadillac, not a Vega. The current Frontier site definitely has some significant functionality shortcomings (high among them is working with resevations you've already made), but at least it is generally quite useable for shopping and purchasing.
For an airline that essentially forces you to only use the website or call center, the website needs to be a Cadillac, not a Vega. The current Frontier site definitely has some significant functionality shortcomings (high among them is working with resevations you've already made), but at least it is generally quite useable for shopping and purchasing.
Apr 1, 2011, 9:19 am
#7
Original Poster
Join Date: Jan 2008
Posts: 3,638
Will this be like the originally announced roll-out of Wi-Fi, which was supposed to have occurred by end of 2010, and is now scheduled for sometime this quarter?
When the new site is good to go, will there be a notice that there may be some temporary loss of functionality during the switchover?
Last edited by mke9499; Apr 1, 2011 at 11:04 am
Apr 1, 2011, 10:12 am
#8
Join Date: Oct 2004
Posts: 2,653
Either wishful thinking on someone's part or just taking longer than anticipated.
Will this be like the originally announced roll-out of Wi-Fi, which was supposed to have occurred by end of 2010, and is now scheduled for sometime this quarter?
When the new site is good to go, I wonder if there will be a notice that there may be some temporary loss of functionality during the switchover?
Will this be like the originally announced roll-out of Wi-Fi, which was supposed to have occurred by end of 2010, and is now scheduled for sometime this quarter?
When the new site is good to go, I wonder if there will be a notice that there may be some temporary loss of functionality during the switchover?
I do cut them slack with the website because (unless I'm mistaken) they didn't make a public statement that 4/1 was the new website rollout date. They may have simply missed an internal date which someone communicated to the outside world. And other than people like us who follow things as closely as we do, nobody notices or especially cares. And it's much better to fix issues before rollout than put your customer through a disasterous rollout.
There are other things, like the wifi, that I don't think they deserve any slack on. Doesn't matter what your business is nor what the new circumstances are...when you make a clear representation in public, you've either got to hit the date or publicly modify the expectation. It's not just the wi-fi either, but that's a big one because it was communicated multiple times and places.
Certainly we're probably among the most critical because we watch so closely. How many people noticed Bedford's comment awhile back that in March there would be a whole new Frontier rolled out to Milwaukee? And how many remember that now? Probably not too many. Well, March has passed and there's nothing new yet. But for those of us who noticed and remember, it's a black mark against them.
They need to do a better job about not making public statements (especially with dates) if they're not committed to hitting them. And when they do make something public, they must do a better job at resetting those expectations when they know something's going to miss.
I don't think the website falls into this realm because they didn't promise it. But we're months past on the wifi and there's not a peep about it.
Maybe I'll ask on Twitter -- they are usually good about cutting through BS.
Apr 1, 2011, 11:59 am
#9
Original Poster
Join Date: Jan 2008
Posts: 3,638
Wondering the same thing myself.
I do cut them slack with the website because (unless I'm mistaken) they didn't make a public statement that 4/1 was the new website rollout date. They may have simply missed an internal date which someone communicated to the outside world. And other than people like us who follow things as closely as we do, nobody notices or especially cares. And it's much better to fix issues before rollout than put your customer through a disasterous rollout.
I do cut them slack with the website because (unless I'm mistaken) they didn't make a public statement that 4/1 was the new website rollout date. They may have simply missed an internal date which someone communicated to the outside world. And other than people like us who follow things as closely as we do, nobody notices or especially cares. And it's much better to fix issues before rollout than put your customer through a disasterous rollout.
I am happy to hear you love our service. We are launching an all new website on April 1 with a new booking UI.
9:07 PM Mar 16th via Twitter for iPad in reply to persinge
9:07 PM Mar 16th via Twitter for iPad in reply to persinge
They need to do a better job about not making public statements (especially with dates) if they're not committed to hitting them. And when they do make something public, they must do a better job at resetting those expectations when they know something's going to miss.
I don't think the website falls into this realm because they didn't promise it. But we're months past on the wifi and there's not a peep about it.
Maybe I'll ask on Twitter -- they are usually good about cutting through BS.
I don't think the website falls into this realm because they didn't promise it. But we're months past on the wifi and there's not a peep about it.
Maybe I'll ask on Twitter -- they are usually good about cutting through BS.
Apr 1, 2011, 12:53 pm
#10
Join Date: Oct 2004
Posts: 2,653
Ahh...I didn't know where it came from. Then I hope it's close...
Uh oh...I didn't think it was that bad, but now I'm thinking I was too crabby. I shouldn't tweet from work where everything is crabby as of late.
I didn't look to see if there was a reply yet.
Apr 1, 2011, 1:23 pm
#11
Original Poster
Join Date: Jan 2008
Posts: 3,638
Could this recent issue be one of the reasons Wi-Fi inauguration is running late? Though not Boeing aircraft, could this be a Gogo problem?
http://bit.ly/ia4JuF
The last I heard was that the system was going through government testing for approval.
Knope, I don't see any reply, yet. But, I do see that they will have a presence at Miller Park on Tuesday...giveaways, perhaps?
http://bit.ly/ia4JuF
The last I heard was that the system was going through government testing for approval.
Knope, I don't see any reply, yet. But, I do see that they will have a presence at Miller Park on Tuesday...giveaways, perhaps?
Apr 5, 2011, 11:15 am
#12
Original Poster
Join Date: Jan 2008
Posts: 3,638
Update, per tweet from @FrontierCare:
They really seem to be having problems meeting project schedules.
I agree with knope; they really should post updates, if they are clearly not close to meeting announced dates for upcoming changes that have been promoted. It would provide some sort of credibility.
We're hoping the new website will be up and running mid-year.
I agree with knope; they really should post updates, if they are clearly not close to meeting announced dates for upcoming changes that have been promoted. It would provide some sort of credibility.
Apr 5, 2011, 12:35 pm
#13
Join Date: Dec 2009
Location: MKE
Programs: Delta Skymiles, Frontier EarlyReturns Summit
Posts: 766
Yikes. I write software for a living and I can see missing a few weeks here and there if things came up but mid-year could mean July/August. A 3 month delay means something major went wrong (really bad estimates, changing vendors midway through, maybe really cool new features?). I realize it is a complicated site and all but managing reservations should not be a big deal.
Apr 5, 2011, 2:51 pm
#14
Join Date: Oct 2004
Posts: 2,653
I really do like what I've seen in terms of the social media people at F9, and hopefully this particular event leads them to (a) be careful about being unnecessarily specific (b) be wary about information they get, and (c) keep their followers update on things which are not happening as once thought. I *do* think they generally do a great job and am very glad they are there. I view this as some honing of skills to be even better.
As for the website delay...well...a delay is much better than putting a train wreck website out there. But there are some notable deficiencies that should be cleaned up sooner rather than later. I'll live with having to call to change a seat assignment for now if the alternative is a new website which is a step backwards. If they had not publicized a rollout date, the delay wouldn't look as bad, but it is good to know that improvements are on the way. Maybe a happy medium would be to tweet that "a new website with increased functionality is in the works...stay tuned for more" or something similar?
I hope the people responsible for the new F9 website are paying attention to the customer wrath being unleashed at Southwest. Some of it is in conjunction with Rapid Rewards II unhappiness, but the site is being trashed heavily, too.
As for the website delay...well...a delay is much better than putting a train wreck website out there. But there are some notable deficiencies that should be cleaned up sooner rather than later. I'll live with having to call to change a seat assignment for now if the alternative is a new website which is a step backwards. If they had not publicized a rollout date, the delay wouldn't look as bad, but it is good to know that improvements are on the way. Maybe a happy medium would be to tweet that "a new website with increased functionality is in the works...stay tuned for more" or something similar?
I hope the people responsible for the new F9 website are paying attention to the customer wrath being unleashed at Southwest. Some of it is in conjunction with Rapid Rewards II unhappiness, but the site is being trashed heavily, too.
Apr 6, 2011, 5:13 pm
#15
Join Date: Oct 2009
Location: Chicago
Posts: 344
Ok. Just have to step in a little bit here to bring down some expectations with the new site and ruin some rumors. 
First of all, with the new site, and with the amount of time that is given to work on it there won't be many changes to major functionality, like introducing the ability to modify your seat assignment. That would take a lot of time and resources which an airline like Frontier doesn't have. Also, we wouldn't call it a "new" site, its considered to be more of a "refresh" to the homepage and a couple of other things. Most of the changes were on the homepage which will look totally different.
Second, the "refresh" went live on the date it was supposed to...on plan. But was only broadcast to a certain percentage of visitors, so there are people out there that have used the new homepage and seen the new look. Right now it's down now and we're looking at the information we collected. We're just doing some live testing. We don't want to release a new look to 100% of the population right away. That's how you get slaughtered. We're trying to do this the right way.
As for the wifi, I don't think there are any issues with installing the wifi or the wifi in the general. I think it has more to do with other people cutting in line. I'll do my best for you guys to see what kind of announcement or things that I would be able to say in relation to that. We definitely need to improve on the bad news communication front to help with expectation.
Also, I think I saw something about painting planes in this thread. I believe a couple of things relate to this, limited fleet, limited money and not knowing if the plane is going to be sold soon, these situations make it hard to paint planes or know if they should paint them. I would love it if they all got painted before summer. Especially with some of those spares floating around. I also would love to see a E35 get painted. The E90s were moving pretty fast through at one point where we had about 5 painted in a month?
http://www.flickr.com/photos/40168621@N07/5503558262/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/planes/5526964390/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/rrichard38/5455761163/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/twinflight/5526328633/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/twinflight/5551145069/
That's most of what I have to say, hope I didn't spill anyone's coffee.
J
First of all, with the new site, and with the amount of time that is given to work on it there won't be many changes to major functionality, like introducing the ability to modify your seat assignment. That would take a lot of time and resources which an airline like Frontier doesn't have. Also, we wouldn't call it a "new" site, its considered to be more of a "refresh" to the homepage and a couple of other things. Most of the changes were on the homepage which will look totally different.
Second, the "refresh" went live on the date it was supposed to...on plan. But was only broadcast to a certain percentage of visitors, so there are people out there that have used the new homepage and seen the new look. Right now it's down now and we're looking at the information we collected. We're just doing some live testing. We don't want to release a new look to 100% of the population right away. That's how you get slaughtered. We're trying to do this the right way.
As for the wifi, I don't think there are any issues with installing the wifi or the wifi in the general. I think it has more to do with other people cutting in line. I'll do my best for you guys to see what kind of announcement or things that I would be able to say in relation to that. We definitely need to improve on the bad news communication front to help with expectation.
Also, I think I saw something about painting planes in this thread. I believe a couple of things relate to this, limited fleet, limited money and not knowing if the plane is going to be sold soon, these situations make it hard to paint planes or know if they should paint them. I would love it if they all got painted before summer. Especially with some of those spares floating around. I also would love to see a E35 get painted. The E90s were moving pretty fast through at one point where we had about 5 painted in a month?
http://www.flickr.com/photos/40168621@N07/5503558262/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/planes/5526964390/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/rrichard38/5455761163/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/twinflight/5526328633/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/twinflight/5551145069/
That's most of what I have to say, hope I didn't spill anyone's coffee.
J