-
Has BA’s Avios availability got broken recently? I know I’ve had the occasional mismatch between BA and Seatspy, but in my recent searches for MLE, MRU and HKG have all been way off.
Then on BA’s search, the availability calendar has no correlation between what is available in any class and what shows on the calendar as available.
The default view showing a few days before and after has ‘flights available’ highlighted, but that’s always been utterly broken in my experience. I think it just means the route has flights operating.
So did BA screw up their calendar for everyone including themselves?
It has been on and off for a while now. I think it was fixed for a bit but a couple of people have posted about problems recently. The only 100% accurate way to know is to do a dummy booking for your specific date.
A question? Does Seatspy show the increased availability as if you were using/searching with a Voucher?
A question? Does Seatspy show the increased availability as if you were using/searching with a Voucher?
No. The only way to see additional availability is a dummy booking with the voucher
Thanks – Thought not. As I book online with a voucher at midnight, I then book online at midnight 3 /4 weeks later but of course without a voucher. So if there is no availability, I must phone up to see if there is any increased availability! These would normally be CapeTown returns and there seems to be always more availability.
If Seatspy and BA are wrong all the other API consumers like AA and Alaskan will be broken too. How BA IT can let this break more than once is a complete mystery. Heads would roll in any competent organisation.
Oh yeah… competent.
If Seatspy and BA are wrong all the other API consumers like AA and Alaskan will be broken too. How BA IT can let this break more than once is a complete mystery. Heads would roll in any competent organisation.
Oh yeah… competent.
If BA is as incompetent as you suggest, why is it so profitable vs other European legacy carriers that enjoy similarly dominant positions at their home bases?
Outside the US, a great many airlines (including Amadeus founders and much newer airlines) have rubbish IT for a variety of reasons which demonstrates how difficult it is to fix.
If Seatspy and BA are wrong all the other API consumers like AA and Alaskan will be broken too. How BA IT can let this break more than once is a complete mystery. Heads would roll in any competent organisation.
Oh yeah… competent.
If BA is as incompetent as you suggest, why is it so profitable vs other European legacy carriers that enjoy similarly dominant positions at their home bases?
Outside the US, a great many airlines (including Amadeus founders and much newer airlines) have rubbish IT for a variety of reasons which demonstrates how difficult it is to fix.
I’m on a trip at the moment some of which uses the Vamoos app. When we departed LHR-HND, Vamoos knew the gate number at 06:09 BA didn’t know the gate number until 07:30. Jeez.
If Seatspy and BA are wrong all the other API consumers like AA and Alaskan will be broken too. How BA IT can let this break more than once is a complete mystery. Heads would roll in any competent organisation.
Oh yeah… competent.
If BA is as incompetent as you suggest, why is it so profitable vs other European legacy carriers that enjoy similarly dominant positions at their home bases?
Outside the US, a great many airlines (including Amadeus founders and much newer airlines) have rubbish IT for a variety of reasons which demonstrates how difficult it is to fix.
More profitable because they clean their planes less?
I’m on a trip at the moment some of which uses the Vamoos app. When we departed LHR-HND, Vamoos knew the gate number at 06:09 BA didn’t know the gate number until 07:30. Jeez.
BA clearly would have know the gate but chose not to publicise that information.
That’s not the same as not knowing.
If Seatspy and BA are wrong all the other API consumers like AA and Alaskan will be broken too. How BA IT can let this break more than once is a complete mystery. Heads would roll in any competent organisation.
Oh yeah… competent.
I see more of an issue with Seatspy than BAEC, when looking for BA metal it’s pretty consistent but can be an issue on other carriers.
Not sure why you would blame BA for a Seatspy issue?
If you check Qatar PC redemption chart v what’s actually available at the advertised price you’ll find it’s wildly different.
If Seatspy and BA are wrong all the other API consumers like AA and Alaskan will be broken too. How BA IT can let this break more than once is a complete mystery. Heads would roll in any competent organisation.
Oh yeah… competent.
Did it not occur to you that the issue with BA not being able to display AA or AS etc availabiluty might be down to the provider of the data and not BA as the receiver?
If Seatspy and BA are wrong all the other API consumers like AA and Alaskan will be broken too. How BA IT can let this break more than once is a complete mystery. Heads would roll in any competent organisation.
Oh yeah… competent.
Did it not occur to you that the issue with BA not being able to display AA or AS etc availabiluty might be down to the provider of the data and not BA as the receiver?
Huh? I’m looking for BA flights on either Seatspy or ba.com. And the data is often wrong on each.
The only way I think to fix problems like this is rebuild from scratch with a world class (as in expensive) team who are invested in the outcome. Outsourcing to a KPI-driven body shop gets you what you measure rather than a quality codebase. It takes years but eventually it’s a win.
If Seatspy and BA are wrong all the other API consumers like AA and Alaskan will be broken too. How BA IT can let this break more than once is a complete mystery. Heads would roll in any competent organisation.
Oh yeah… competent.
If BA is as incompetent as you suggest, why is it so profitable vs other European legacy carriers that enjoy similarly dominant positions at their home bases?
Outside the US, a great many airlines (including Amadeus founders and much newer airlines) have rubbish IT for a variety of reasons which demonstrates how difficult it is to fix.
As somebody who works in tech, ‘as crap as everyone else’ has never been something that motivates me. I believe in IAG enough to remain a shareholder but that doesn’t mean I can’t despair about their IT.
@masaccio – I agree that “as crap as everyone else” is terrible, but it’s the reality in the industry and if you or anybody else in the IT industry had a solution, these airlines would jump at it. It’s not even about money or the will to change. The investment would very quickly pay for itself.
Many traditional banks face very similar issues to airlines with lots of legacy systems from acquisitions and a terror of any ‘big bang’ solution after the TSB fiasco.
If Seatspy and BA are wrong all the other API consumers like AA and Alaskan will be broken too. How BA IT can let this break more than once is a complete mystery. Heads would roll in any competent organisation.
Oh yeah… competent.
If BA is as incompetent as you suggest, why is it so profitable vs other European legacy carriers that enjoy similarly dominant positions at their home bases?
Outside the US, a great many airlines (including Amadeus founders and much newer airlines) have rubbish IT for a variety of reasons which demonstrates how difficult it is to fix.
I can’t speak for the inefficiencies of other carriers.
How much more profitable would BA be if customers could consistently login, make searches and make bookings without IT issues stopping them?
Having worked for a GDS linked travel company, I can tell you they’re losing a bucket load of bookings. Far less significant issues than BA regularly suffer would noticeably affect our conversion rate. And thats just looking at it transactionally – the loss of goodwill (NPR) is a multiplier on those losses.
If Seatspy and BA are wrong all the other API consumers like AA and Alaskan will be broken too. How BA IT can let this break more than once is a complete mystery. Heads would roll in any competent organisation.
Oh yeah… competent.
If BA is as incompetent as you suggest, why is it so profitable vs other European legacy carriers that enjoy similarly dominant positions at their home bases?.
I would never equate making money with competence! In BAs case they are based in what was one of the most affluent corners of Europe, they have stranglehold on Heathrow, no domestic competition, dominate the credit card market and ffqtv schemes in the U.K. they have and some of the most dated and third rate products out there. They set the pace with fees and charges which everyone else then follows, they have commercial agreements with other airlines that allow them to coordinate schedules fares and routes as well as share revenue, much of which is not in the consumers interests. They have driven down staff costs issued primark style uniforms which scream cheap!
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.
Popular articles this week:
