Virgin Blue computer glitch delays flights around Australia

[Karl M]

Is this not the second time in recent past this has happend to Virgin?

[Robert S]

I've tried a Google, can't find any hits for a previous computer failure in the recent past. The most recent event I can find was on 15 Dec 2009 when a Telstra failure prevented them from doing normal check-in in Melbourne.

http://www.theage.com.au/travel/travel-news/checkin-meltdown-strands-4000-passengers-20091216-kuyt.html

The most recent Australian failure of a computerised reservation system, preventing normal check-in nationally appears to be that of Qantas 3 Jan 2010.

http://www.smh.com.au/travel/travel-news/holiday-horrors-as-angry-passengers-tweet-up-a-storm-20100103-lnbd.html
http://www.yssyforum.net/board/showthread.php?t=4639

EDIT: Found DJ did have a brief outage in June, shortly after New Skies was installed. I was out of the country at the time, hence don't remember it.

http://spectrum.ieee.org/riskfactor/aerospace/aviation/virgin-blues-brand-new-airline-reservations-system-crashes
http://www.smh.com.au/travel/travel-news/expect-delays-virgin-blue-warns-customers-20100618-ymdr.html
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2010/06/18/2931248.htm?section=business

[Bob C]

Gee, I feel sorry for all those passengers stranded around Australia and whose travel arrangements have been thrown into chaos. It could not have happened at a worse time - AFL Grand Final weekend in Victoria and a long weekend and the beginning of school holidays in several states.

I've been stranded or delayed on several occasions ; caused by strikes in the 80s and 90s and a delay by the massive gas explosion in Victoria some years ago. A strike by Ansett hosties in April 1981 saw me stranded in Sydney for nearly a week after Easter and I only got back to Darwin when the Government allowed domestic passengers to be carried by QANTAS. So I flew back from Sydney on B747-238, VH-EBK, via Brisbane.

And I also feel very sorry for the hard pressed Virgin Blue counter staff who will be working tirelessly to get people moving but who will be on the wrong end of abuse from some very frazzled and angry passengers. Some people will just not understand that the problem is beyond the control of counter staff.

And no, I don't work for VB or any other airline but did have a long career in a customer service based industry.

I sincerely hope the problem gets solved quickly.

[Jayden Laing]

As of 4:45am this morning, the computer system is now back up & running.

[Debra Rettie]

A work colleague of mine went down to Melbourne for the weekend and was due to fly back with Virgin Blue last night. When she was on her way to the airport to fly back to Sydney she heard about the problem. She ran from one end of the terminal to the Qantas one and stood in the queue. It ended up costing her $600 for a business class seat so she get home in time for work today. Apparently business class was totally full.

[Adam.S]

Looks like the airline has leased VH-YQA to cope with the backlog.
Operated an afternoon flight from BNE-SYD.
Not sure if Strategic Airlines were planning a positioning move which then turned into a revenue flight between the two cities or if its hired to will fly multiple legs on behalf of DJ.

[D Chan]

have a thought for those frontline customer service staff who have to cop the abuse dealing with all of these passengers - and passengers these days often have short fuses as well... from stories I've heard it appears communication wasn't very clear and the lack of directions and information caused a huge amount of damage to the brand. Though as you would expect in such a situation it was so busy I am sure it wouldve been impossible to provide clear information whilst staff were dealing with passengers and trying to find out what's happening in HQ.

Compared to previous check-in system glitches this one probably had the worst possible timing given it was the start of the NSW school holidays. I'd say Navitare will have to pay up big time in compo to Virgin Blue..

[Tim Bowrey]

or if its hired to will fly multiple legs on behalf of DJ.

It flew DJ966 and DJ977. A bit of a shock to see a white Virgin A320 rolling in to passengers I bet. Im sure they don't care and just wanted to get home.

[Robert S]

Customer can claim back the cost of the accommodation in return for 'Virgin flight credits' only - no monetary claim...

That seems very highly unlikely to me somehow and sounds like a misunderstanding between the offers of flight credits and reimbursement.

Their website and media releases appear to clearly indicate that anyone delayed over four hours will get a flight credit and those delayed over four hours who are or were not in their home town can claim up to $220/night for accomodation, as well as transport to/from the airport.

[Daniel M]

A friend got caught up in MEL heading back to SYD. DJ offered accommodation, but with the following conditions; customer must pay for the accommodation. Customer can claim back the cost of the accommodation in return for 'Virgin flight credits' only - no monetary claim...

That's awesome Andrew!

Now explain to me what other airlines like Tiger (if you can call them an airline) and Jetstar would do in a situation such as this? Provide free hotel accomodation of the passengers choice as well as free transport and a refund of their flights?

Hardly...

If I remember correctly, the last disrupt Jetstar had in MEL, they made pax sleep in the terminal

:confused:

[Adam.S]

What if these passengers book an expensive penthouse suite at a hotel??
......I doubt any airline would compensate that kind of price?

I assume there is restrictions/guidelines for this procedure?

[Nathan Bartlett]

In Roberts's post it says up to $220, which is not too bad.

[Radi K]

To suggest that VB asked guests to pay for their own accom is false.

VB never has asked guests to pay for their own accom. Not sure why comments like these are coming out or from who but it did not happen like this.

YQA did another BNE/SYD/BNE rotation today too.

Zero Cancelled Flights today too.

[Grant Smith]

VB never has asked guests to pay for their own accom. Not sure why comments like these are coming out or from who but it did not happen like this.

Indeed, IIRC don't they contract this kind of thing to some company called 'Nationwide Hospitality' or something similar?

[Brad Myer]

The system crashed again this morning at 5:00am, it was fixed soon after only resulting in a "few" delays.

[Adam.S]

YQA did another BNE/SYD/BNE rotation today too.

I was at BNE yesterday afternoon and VH-YQB was boarding at the Virgin terminal approx 17:15pm.
Would this be the flights suggested or was it a charter of some sort?
(Passengers were boarding in drabs periodically, as was luggage being loaded)

A few photos of the aircraft here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/29513280@N05/sets/72157624932919297/

[Robert S]

The system crashed again this morning at 5:00am, it was fixed soon after only resulting in a "few" delays.

According to their media release (http://www.virginblue.com.au/AboutUs/Media/NewsandPressReleases/P_013641.htm):

The Virgin Blue Group of Airlines this morning experienced a slowdown of its network at the start of the day which caused some consequential delays.

We apologise to our Guests for any delay or inconvenience they experienced. We have experienced some delays of up to two hours at Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne Airports. These delays will be recovered by the close of business today.

Two flights were cancelled this morning due to two separate engineering issues and we have re-accommodated those guests on other services, which have since departed.

[Robert S]

Radi - on SUN in MEL, DJ staff were advising 'guests' whose flights were cancelled to come back tomorrow. They were advising to pay for your accommodation and Virgin would reimbursed you with 'Virgin dollars'...

I'm still not buying this - it simply sounds like confusion over what was being offered, and it literally comes from the heat of the moment, where it's equally possible that someone said the wrong thing, or what was said was not understood correctly or a combination of both.

The reports have been that customers delayed over four hours will get flight credits and that those stuck overnight away from their home cities can additionally claim expenses up to $220/night for accomodation, plus transport to/from the airport. This sounds a whole lot more plausible than what you're suggesting.

[Robert S]

Robert - that was the information (they) received at that time by the agent and there was more then one person in the group of three who understood it - there is no reason for them to say otherwise. This information drove their decision on what action to take next which equated to a switch of airlines in-order to fly that day.

I'm not disputing that that was the message they received, but if this turns out to be a true representation of VB's approach, it will come out and the media will be all over it like a pack of wolves.

It quite simply is not consistant with VB's various public comments and media releases, which I choose to place more weight on, over a report of an incident in an airport in the thick of it.

[Radi K]

I can't obviously vouch for the information they got but I can tell you that VB policy is for that not to occur but I do very much doubt this happened. I have seen the statistics about guests being put in hotels in all ports and I don't believe any of these people were expected to pay out of their own pocket.

Every hotel requires a credit card inprint for incidentals but that is normal.

VB has an account with nationwide and they now take care of booking hotels/transport etc.

Another Strategic Charter today, YQA BNE-SYD-BNE DJ986/999
Alliance FKA did BNE-TSV-BNE-MKY-BNE

[Mark Grima]

http://www.smh.com.au/travel/travel-news/the-secret-life-of-airlines-20100929-15xh2.html#poll

Cheers

M

[Robert S]

.

[Jayden Laing]

VH-FKA operated another charter for Virgin tonight. Came in from BNE

[Guy W]

http://www.smh.com.au/travel/travel-news/the-secret-life-of-airlines-20100929-15xh2.html#poll

Cheers

M

What a bunch of crap. :mad: Ground handlers have been around for ages. I don't think people would expect QF have their own reservations/check in/baggage/boarding staff at every city they fly to! :mad:

[Darren Butterworth]

I'm flying to Melbourne on DJ818 on Tuesday morning and received two emails, one to my work address for which the booking was made and one to my home address which is linked to my Velocity account. Details below;

Important service message about your upcoming Virgin Blue flight

"Dear Guest,

The Virgin Blue Group of Airlines recently experienced flight delays and cancellations due to an IT system failure at our external supplier. We have identified the underlying issue with our primary operating system and this has now been resolved.

Following extensive planning we are scheduling to transition back to our primary IT system, starting at 10pm on Tuesday, 5 October (AEST). We intend to resume operating on our primary system from the first flight on Thursday 7 October.

A flight you have booked is scheduled during this period and will operate as planned. There is no need to reconfirm your flight arrangements with us. In the event of any changes to your flight we will contact you.

There may be some unavoidable changes to the usual level of service we provide, including possible longer check-in wait times.

To ensure you are there with plenty of time to make your flight, please arrive at the airport 2 hours before your scheduled departure, when Check-in for your flight will open.

If you are not travelling with checked baggage you can skip the queue if you use our Web Check-in service online within 24 hours prior to departure. This service is available until 8pm Tuesday, 5 October (AEST).

Please be aware that our Guest Contact Centre agents will be unable to make any changes or cancellations to your booking from 9pm Tuesday, 5 October (AEST), until the system is fully operational.

For more information and latest updates please visit virginblue.com.au.

We apologise for any inconvenience.

The team at Virgin Blue"

I'd say the daylight savings changeover will cause some issues.

Darren

[Philip Argy]

To roll back to an inhouse system suggests that the cloud solution has been given the flick - big call!

[Adam P.]

I don't read it as that Philip - they say 'primary' system, not 'in-house'. There's no reason a primary system couldn't be provided by an external supplier.

[Andrew P]

I read the press release as they are putting the current system in the bin, and an old mothballed system is being turned back on

[Mark B]

Their primary system failed last week, and they have been on a DR system for the last week. They are now ready to go back to the primary system.

[Robert S]

http://www.asx.com.au/asxpdf/20101011/pdf/31t17vm835mtj4.pdf

BRISBANE, 11 October 2010: On Sunday, 26 September Virgin Blue Group experienced a complete outage of its Navitaire/Accenture hosted reservations, check-in and related operating systems, resulting in a severe interruption to its business for 11 days. The systems were restored to the normal production environment on Wednesday, 6 October.

An initial assessment of this interruption shows an estimated pre tax profit impact of $15-20 million. Virgin Blue will be actively pursuing all avenues to recover this cost.

Prior to the outage the Group had seen an improvement in general trading conditions when compared to the corresponding period last year.

[Sarah C]

http://www.smh.com.au/travel/travel-news/new-meltdown-at-virgin-checkin-20110215-1auxw.html

"Thousands of Virgin Blue passengers faced delays at airports around the country after the airline’s reservations and baggage system crashed this afternoon.

Angry passengers fired heated messages through social networking site Twitter about a failure of the check-in and boarding systems and the lack of communication from the airline about the problem."

[Erik H. Bakke]

This caused quite an impressive lineup of Virgin Blue jets along Golf this afternoon...

[Zac M]

I think that it might be time for Virgin Blue to find a stable system, since they switched there has been many major problems and they are the ones copping it, not the software company who is fully to blame by the sounds of it.

[Adrian B]

From the Herald Sun quoting VB spokesperson "We were doing an upgrade on the network but the glitch did not cause any major worries"

WhoTF does a network upgrade during the day?