Monday, November 14, 2011

Difficulty with booking an air ticket


I booked a ticket with JetStar. Their website is slow and buggy, so it was quite a hassle to make a booking. They offer many complicated and unnecessary choices - which are meant to give additional marketing revenue, but increased the difficulty of using the website.

After going through the hassle of selecting the itinery and the seats, I had to make payment. I painfully entered the details of my credit card (as MAS refused to allow the airline to store the credit card details) and confirmed the payment. I had next to wait to receive a verification code sent to the mobile phone. When it arrived (after some delay), I entered the verification code. There was a long wait and finally the website went blank. I clicked on another webpage and found that the payment was not processed - as the verification code had expired.

I went through the pain of making another booking. This time, it was rejected as it was a "duplicate booking". I am unable to recall the previous booking, so I deleted the original booking and make a new booking.
My third booking was  rejected as a "duplicate booking". So, I am now caught in limbo and don't know what to do. I searched for the hotline of Jetstar and could not find it.

I draw this conclusion - the website designers try to put in too many options, which made the process complicated. MAS comes in to impose requirements in the name of security, but no one looks at the whole process and think about simplifying the process for the consumer.

12 comments:

Anonymous said...

My advice to you when you are booking jetstar, please do not pay extra for seats as the airline has small print that the seats are not guaranteed. Once I paid $8 extra for the seat only to find out when check it that they have given the seat to someone else. Well to get back your refund, you have to write in physically as they do not entertain e mail. I think the whole purpose is to make it very hard so that you will likely give up on s small sum.

Once I found the loophole, on my way back, I make sure I was the first one at the check in counter and I asked for the seat that I paid in the last trip. I was given the seat so I am sure someone else is frustrated. So I did not file for refund since I got it the second time but I never pay for seat confirmation any more but just arrive a bit earlier for check in.

Anonymous said...

About one and half years ago, I had similiar experience with AirAsia. I visit the downtown sales office and was told unsuccrssful transaction. After some feedbacks, they upgrade the system 2 to 3 times. Why SG being first world can not do a better job?

Anonymous said...

The paradigm has shifted away from a customer focus.

It's now CHEAP & FAST & NO CHOICE. That's the value proposition for the customer.

Quality & satisfaction is secondary. If you get it, you are lucky. A process aberration.

Anonymous said...

It's true that you have one chance in booking air ticket. There is no second chance until you find someone to reset your earlier unsuccessful entry.

Anonymous said...

Mr.Tan, I suggests you do the online booking after mid-night or morning, the traffic is less busy and you might also receive the security code from the bank faster, it is indeed a bit troublesome but it is better to spend a lot of time to call the help line for verification. You also mentioned your frustrated experience of the OpenNet hotline. I m not using OpenNet, my experience is when I called the telco hotline during normal hours (9am - 9pm), I have to wait very very long, therefore I choose to call at late nite too.

daniel ng said...

I think the other easy way is to print out the booking statment and paid it at post office.

Tan Choon Hong said...

Their biggest mistake is not allowing one to start over. This puts the customer in a loop. A slow online facility is a quick way to lose a customer.

Tan Kin Lian said...

It is better for the airline to simplify their website and remove the unnecessary options - so that customers can make their online booking more easily, rather than expect the customers to make the transactions late in the night.

I have given feedback to Jetstar on many occasions that each time I make an online booking, it is a painful experience. But, so sad, they are not able to improve their website.

Tan Kin Lian said...

I gave up after the third booking that was rejected due to "duplicate entry". I do not know what to do - how to cancel the uncompleted booking and book a ticket. A few minutes later, I received the booking in my mailbox. Apparently, it went through - contrary to the confusing state of affairs mentioned in the webpages. I had similar problems in the past on the online booking - so I had come to expect unpredictable results. The morale of the story is to simplify the process and reduce the strain on the website by giving too many unnecesary options. (And that is why I like the website of Sri Lanka Airlines).

Anonymous said...

The add-ons is to confuse you, they include, meal, seat selection, extra baggage, insurance, VIP queue etc. They hope that you overlook and do not opt out. Airlines now depend on this to make profit. They even charge for using credit card.

Anonymous said...

website designers don't have the liberty to customise web logics to their liking. if given the choice, they rather simplify it than to complicate it.

policy-makers & corporate customers are the one who like to make things complicated.

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