VS Website: Forcing a fare bucket

Hi collective,

I'm sure this has been answered before, but I can't find it to save my life. Is there a way of forcing a specific fare bucket (e.g. an S) on the booking engine on http://www.virgin-atlantic.com?

I'm planning a trip where I don't want restrictive K, I'd like to upgrade with miles if I can, and be able to change my reservation (but don't mind paying a change fee) - i.e. I know that I definitely want an S fare!

It would be great if there was some option of requesting an "expert mode" in your FC profile .

Cheers,
Mike

[preiffer]

Hi Mike,

Yup, it's been answered with similar annoyed responses before. Basically, no you can't.

The only way for va.com to display an S is if you select "Premium Lowest" and there are no K fares left. (Premium flexible displaying W only).

Since it's very difficult (near impossible) to know if it's displaying a K instead of an S without guessing at the costs, the short answer is no.


...but lots of people seem to want an "Advanced Mode"...

Originally posted by preiffer
Hi Mike,

Yup, it's been answered with similar annoyed responses before. Basically, no you can't.

The only way for va.com to display an S is if you select "Premium Lowest" and there are no K fares left. (Premium flexible displaying W only).

Actually, premium flexible will show you S if the S fare is fully flexible (which does exist for one way scenarios).

In March I booked a fully flexible ticket one way SFO-LHR premium and I got a S. I even phoned up and verified that it was a fully fare.

(I guess it is the same way a Z can be fully flex from certain destinations).

Cheers
sky

[Nottingham Nick]

Once again I stand to be corrected, but if the reason you are booking online is to get the discount / FC miles bonus, but you can't get the fare class you want online, then I think if you ring the FC, the agent has the power to give the bonus / discount.

They obviously do have an 'advanced mode' on their computers and can specify a particular class of ticket.

Nick

I had difficulty booking a flight online and had to book through FC. I asked for the bonus but was denied despite the problem being acknowledged as a VS website problem.

Maybe a case of if they like you they do it (and most people don't like me:D)

Paul

No I tried this and they wouldnt do it for me either [B)]

Originally posted by Nottingham Nick
Once again I stand to be corrected, but if the reason you are booking online is to get the discount / FC miles bonus, but you can't get the fare class you want online, then I think if you ring the FC, the agent has the power to give the bonus / discount.

They obviously do have an 'advanced mode' on their computers and can specify a particular class of ticket.

Nick

FC doesn't necessarily have an advanced option, they just tell the computer what class to book when they long sell the segment. I'm not sure which system VS uses, but an entry to sell segment at the airline I work for would look something like this:

>05751Y01SEPCVGCLTNN1*

5751 Represents the flight number
Y Represents the fare class
01SEP Represents the Date
CVG Represents the Departure City
CLT Represents the Arrival City
NN1 Represents that there is one passenger

Most of the time for airline workers it is nowhere near as nice and graphical as the website, it is usually ugly coding, but we can be much more specific...

Originally posted by webdes03
Most of the time for airline workers it is nowhere near as nice and graphical as the website, it is usually ugly coding, but we can be much more specific...

It's probably much quicker than fighting with a gui too, once you know the common commands you regularly to use on the command line!

Cheers,
Mike

The booking itself is much easier than a GUI... but it'd be nice if there was a GUI for taking payment. For example when someone asks you to pay with a check, there are about 8 entries/templates you must complete to take the payment, as you have to get an approval code for the check and everything.

But as you said, its not exactly hard, since we use the entries all the time and know them, its just time consuming. It'd be nice if more of it was automated.

The trouble is I guess that joe public wants the cheapest available fare and bus pax the flexability. I think the VS website really caters for these two types of pax.

It's probably easier not to give pax too many confusing options
Do BA.com allow you to book fare buckets - I know they never used to.

An advanced option would be great though and would save a lot of FC's time booking our S's etc!!:D

Originally posted by preiffer
...but lots of people seem to want an "Advanced Mode"...

Yes they do! If you're trying to encourage folks to use online services, then you need to be looking at replicating the phone service in your website functionality. IMHO, VS should have at least the following available online: fare class selection, upgrade with miles, reward availability search (i.e. the ability to search a few months at a time), and the ability to pre-order Retail Therapy too.

Now, I'm sure VS class these as "nice to have" features, so they'll probably be on a project list somewhere with some internally calculated priority. I'm also sure that if enough people request this sort of functionality, then it would get more focus - so, everytime you have to speak to VS for something you could've done online, ask them to pass on your feedback to the website developers

Cheers

Michael