Virgin America's Web Meltdown: Four Weeks and Counting

As a technologist my sympathy goes out to Virgin. Airline reservation systems are some of the most complicated beasts we've ever created. The risks of migrating are enormous and with the busiest travel days ahead you can bet that David Cush has every resource available trying to fix the issues.<p>That said it is never easy. The changes may amount to just a handful of lines but understanding such systems is key. My most recent encounter with bugs was that the system couldn't find a reservation for me even though I made one while authenticated. I just plugged in the confirmation number manually and that seemed to work. I didn't think too much of it though...maybe because I am use to mediocrity in the airline industry as a whole.

It's their entire system, not just the customer-facing site. "The woes stem from Virgin’s switchover from its old reservation system, iFly, to the industry’s 800-pound gorilla, Sabre." As stated in the article, "...modern businesses, of all sorts, don’t have Web sites. To a remarkable degree, they are Web sites."<p>Even at the airport if you go to a kiosk to check-in with a bag, you won't be able to print out a boarding pass. You'll have to go stand in line.

Ah, happy memories of making a big mistake: providing an online airline reservation system with an email address containing a “+”.<p><a href="http://weblog.raganwald.com/2007/09/you-suck.html" rel="nofollow">http://weblog.raganwald.com/2007/09/you-suck.html</a>

Thanks for the link; I was wondering what the hell has been going on. I've been flying Virgina for a while, and I flew on the weekend of the transition. I think I slipped my online ticket sale in just in time, but check-in, seat selection, frequent flyer info: all screwed.<p>I'm sure this is a tough job, but I wish they would have disabled the features rather than let them fail. The first several times I tried and failed, I assumed it was a fluke. That these thing sometimes worked and sometimes didn't led me to believe that these were ephemeral problems, and I must have wasted hours retrying things. If that had been the case, I would have just arrived early and done it the old-fashioned. Ultimately, that's what I did, although their internal systems are just as screwed (and I don't think hand-written passenger manifests cut the muster anymore).<p>Anyway, on my second pass through this mess, I just skipped the website entirely and did everything at the airport. Took a little longer, but it was pretty stress-free. I'd recommend doing so if you're flying with them soon.<p>To their credit, they did give us miles and candy, and the staff is still the best in the biz. And, if you're flying through SFO, you can make the best of your residual time with a solid burger and a decent drink at Lark Creek Grill.

It seems to me that Sabre et al are all overly complex, left over from the days when you had to physically go to a travel agent's office to watch them clatter incantations into a monochrome terminal as they manually assembled your itinerary...<p>The amount of complexity and arbitrage that goes on in selling plane tickets today is just nuts. I don't like actually flying Southwest, but I think they have the right idea with regards to booking - always, and only, on their website. Ensures a consistent, branded experience and saves them the headache of listing in a GDS.

Been back and forth to DFW and SFO about 6 times in the last few weeks all on virgin ... for those flights I have probably spent a combined 5 hours on hold for one small change or a misbooked flight etc. but their $139 first class upgrades and friendly staff almost always make it all better for me. I'll be glad when they get this all worked out thats for sure

Why would Virgin migrate <i>to</i> SABRE??