About time DJ bought a new computer

[Andrew P]

Last night I flew DJ 889 MEL-SYD with a scheduled departure time of 19.45, we eventually left at 21.50 and made the curfew at Sydney with 3 minutes to spare.

As I had Web Check-in at the office in Sydney the day before, I had my return boarding pass with me. Arrived at the airport at 7.00pm, only to find masses of people waiting in lines for check-in, so by-passed them.

Then the announcement saying check-in computers had failed, and will be back online shortly. Never came back again last night.

Therefore, in the end, everyone had to be manually processed on handwritten boarding passes

To board the plane , all manual were called first and marked off, then anyone with a pre-printed were boarded and given what seats were left over, took 60 minutes just to board the plane. Crew must have counted the passengers about 15 times.

By the time DJ had finished loading, pilot announced necessary to re-fuel again, as may miss Sydney curfew and thus return top MEL.

Flight was at 28,000 feet so he could get down in Sydney by 11.00pm

Crew left SKY TV on free for whole flight, and gave out free cups of water. (whoopee)

Hope the DJ’s IT director is sacked this morning :mad:

What no Disaster Recovery Plan, or even a back-up system??

Banjo

PS my colleague who was on the 6.00pm arrived SYD at 7.10pm but did not get off the plane until 8.40pm as no gates were available, because the system was down nationwide.

PPS on the flight down in the morning, same colleague seat was already occupied by another gentlemen, (Co-incidentally both of Indian heritage), computer has allocated the same seat to 2 guests. That took 10 minutes for ground staff to sort out.

PPPS Fortunately my next flight is on QF flight, next week.

[Michael Morrison]

From memory QF have had similar failures and I dont think their CIO got sacked.... Do DJ outosurce these things like QF?

[Andrew P]

http://www.smh.com.au/news/news/virgin-blue-in-checkin-meltdown/2008/04/17/1208025331474.html


Airline passengers faced major delays last night after a glitch in Virgin Blue's computer system threw travel plans into chaos.
The IT meltdown in the airline's nationwide reservations system affected passengers at airports around the country.
Passengers were delayed by up to 90 minutes, with the biggest delays felt in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane, a Virgin Blue spokeswoman said........


Banjo

[Andrew M]

Systems crash with any airline simple as that

Loved seeing the whinging people on the news this morning "We had to wait 90 mins for this blah blah blah"

Seriously mis-haps like this happen, get over it.

[Andrew P]

Andrew M

no mishaps (as you call them) should not happen

obviously you have no been involved in major IT projects

a computer failure should have been predicatable when IT planinng took place, and a back-up system put in place to take over when the main system failed.

it did not last night and DJ deserves all the criticism it is getting for it

Banjo

[Andrew McLaughlin]

I was on DJ363 BNE-SYD which was scheduled to depart at 1900. They'd just called us up for boarding when the system crashed.

One idiot started abusing the desk crew and then went off swearing and carrying on - he was heard to be still carrying on in a nearby bar and was getting more agitated, so the police came over and spoke to him - turns out he wasn't even flying and was just there to see someone off! :rolleyes:

Anyway, the desk crew just sat there looking lost, occasional announcements came over telling us to be patient etc. At about 2030 they decided to go manual and started calling everyone up in their sequence number order (I was 128...), but by the time they'd got to about 40 (1/2 an hour later!), the computers had come back, so we were all able to be boarded the conventional way.

The people at the desk themselves were very pleasant but they just looked lost, so I can only assume there was little direction coming from middle management. After working in hotels for 15+ years, I know $h1t happens with computer systems, but surely a manual system shouldn't take 90+ minutes to get started and then another 60+ to board an aircraft!?!?!

Unfortunately, for whatever reason, about 1/2 a dozen people didn't make the flight, so ofcourse their luggage had to be offloaded which took another 1/2 an hour. We finally took off at 2140, and landed in SYD at 2250. The head F/A also gave us free live-2-air but all I wanted to do was sleep after a very long day.

Then there was the 30 minute wait for the long term parking bus, but that's another story...

[Phil M]

I must have happened about 7pm. When I left work at 8pm, there were 6 Virgin aircraft waiting for a bay as they were all full and I imagine couldn't be loaded (or in the process of manual loading). It must have been frustrating sitting in the first one that landed at 7:06pm from memory and still did not have a bay almost a hour later (if not more).

[Nigel C]

It was quite a sight seeing 5 or 6 Virgin aircraft lined up facing east on Rwy 07 while all the bays were full. Even Aeropelican asked if they were lined up like that just for a photo shoot...:p

[Andrew M]

Andrew M

no mishaps (as you call them) should not happen

obviously you have no been involved in major IT projects


Obviously you know my background....... :rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes:

Okay so lets put in a backup system and raise all airfares by $10 each way to cover the costs then. What about when the Telstra mobile systems crash ? Likewise for Optus, Three ? Vodafone ? Systems crash all the time, and backup systems don't always work as well.

You expect the "IT Director" to be sacked over one computer crash ?

What about the LAX debacle ?

http://www.news.com.au/travel/story/0,23483,22236120-27977,00.html

What about the Qantas ADL check in system ?
http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,23456279-661,00.html

I could go on...Sack everyone everytime a system crashes perhaps ? :eek:

[Daniel M]

whinge whinge whinge...cry me a river gentlemen...

[Andrew M]

Thanks for your insight Daniel :p:p

I am simply saying that systems crash with many companies, while most do have backup systems, the cost of such systems can outweigh the benefits.

As Andrew P has said he is flying QF next week, so hopefully there are no system glitches because QF has perfect systems...;) Much like their website which has been shocking over the past week.

[Daniel M]

Thanks for your insight Daniel :p:p

I am simply saying that systems crash with many companies, while most do have backup systems, the cost of such systems can outweigh the benefits.

As Andrew P has said he is flying QF next week, so hopefully there are no system glitches because QF has perfect systems...;) Much like their website which has been shocking over the past week.

My post was aimed at those above, not yourself. Backup systems can cost a fortune, in saying that though, I'm sure DJ have a backup system in place, and there was something that took a little longer than normal to fix. Quite common in this day and age when technology issuch a crucial part of any business. It's not going to work 100% of the time...look forward to the threads when JQ and QF have computer systems failures...oh hang on, is it only because you were flying on DJ Andrew P...?

[Brenden S]

Don't worry my partner ended up being rather late into Perth, only to be told that her bag had been left in Sydney, not to mention the 60min delay in getting our other item we had! For A aircraft arriving scheduled at 2250 and finally getting home at 0300!!! Well **** just happens!

[Greg F]

thank goodness it wasn't JQ
it would be national headlines.......end of the world....

But I agree, as good as technology is, it does fail but life goes on :cool:

[Marty H]

thank goodness it wasn't JQ
it would be national headlines.......end of the world....

But I agree, as good as technology is, it does fail but life goes on :cool:

Isnt the reason we have a new yssy board due to 'technology' failing?

Build a bridge Andrew P..................:rolleyes:

[Beau Chenery]

DJ's resilency in their network is excellent. Dual Routers at sites and the list goes on. They don't stinge on going without tested backups from the network to the servers. Pure speculation but did you think it could have been a security breach to the network from an outsider??

[Greg F]

Reading over this reminds me of when DJ & TT lost all Computers in Hobart.
DJ and TT are catered for by AeroCare in Hobart

However they lost their computers because someone nearby the Airport dug up the main cable (not sure if fiber optic or copper) killing ALL forms of Internet and phone.

However QF & JQ have a secondary (back up) line that is fed in the complete opposite direction to another exchange.

So Technology is still a pain in the backside at times! and isn't always fool proof.
And to say it shouldn't happen [failures & crashes] is exactly right 'Should Not'... but it does :(

[Beau Chenery]

However QF & JQ have a secondary (back up) line that is fed in the complete opposite direction to another exchange.


True redundancy there Greg the only way to do it or lay your own fibre instead of using carrier services.

[D Chan]

The people at the desk themselves were very pleasant but they just looked lost, so I can only assume there was little direction coming from middle management. After working in hotels for 15+ years, I know $h1t happens with computer systems, but surely a manual system shouldn't take 90+ minutes to get started and then another 60+ to board an aircraft!?!?!

wouldn't be surprised if they looked lost because they wouldnt have encountered such a situation before. But goes to show how important computers are nowadays and how reliant we are on them.