I have to agree with
Scott's post earlier, I think this "upgrade" to the website and other IT systems is an utter disgrace. VS should be ashamed of themselves. The new navigation is poor and non-intuitive when trying to buy flights - which must surely be the main purpose of any airline's website. The fact that so many other things are wrong adds to the pain of their customers. And because of the FC cock-ups the most loyal FC members are the worst affected.
Like many others, I am a very loyal VS flyer and have kept my AU for 8 years, despite nearly all my co-workers being BA loyal and berating me for flying with the "Beardy bloke"
On the plus side, I am one of the lucky ones, I was able to log into my account using my old number. It has the right miles and tier points. I was able to get to MMB and check my seats for a DXB trip last week. Although the PNR had changed, the seats were still the ones I had requested.
There are a few problems..... Like many others, I am greeted on the Flying Club web page with:
"Hello, Martin! 1 years consecutive Gold member" [sic], whereas I should be 8 years. (I think they put the exclamation mark there because they were amazed when someone managed to log in!)
My new digital card is blank and navigating the account activity section is a shambles.
I got sent a birthday card with a balloon inside with my 2000 birthday bonus miles, but they never appeared in my account.
Many other people have commented on the poor execution of the reward flight searches, which I think is a retrograde step.
I could go on, but there has been enough said already .......
On the positive side..... My flights this week LHR-DXB-LHR (in PE) were great and the crew were friendly, engaging and efficient as I have come to expect.
I still love the lounges (both Heathrow and the new DXB lounge were excellent as usual) and all the ground staff do a really good job.
The flights were on-time or early, so really have no complaints about the product/service from VS.
Up until now, I have resisted calling the FC AU hotline to see where my points and miles are (nothing has appeared now one week after my first flight) so I called them this afternoon. My call was answered quickly and politely and I was assured that the points will be on by Friday.
So my plea to Oli (if you are still reading this thread) is get the website and surrouding IT systems sorted, and do it quickly. Then we can all move on and stay with the airline that many of us love (wrinkles and all). I fear from reading this thread that VS have already lost both money and customers and that can't be good.
Finally, I read the comments and responses over the last few pages and I even saw the word "argumentative" if I recall correctly. In all this let's not lose sight of the fact that this forum is generally very cooperative and measured - we respect that other people have differing views, even if we don't agree with them.
Martin