Virgin outdated booking technology has lost me...

So i gain a lot of airmiles using the VS Credit Card for Business which allows me in excess of 200K miles a year - and I am tired of the terrible technology virgin use to attempt to book these online so am now switching over to BA where their system just seems to be leagues ahead. I know VS recently signed a new deal with a tech firm to improve this functionality for them but if this is going to be another 2 years down the line (which I expect) I for one dont want to wait. The increased availablity and destinations BA seem to offer will just be an added bonus for me, its a shame as I really like VS but they need to start investing - as their online booking system for miles is a joke.

[Nottingham Nick]

This has been commented on many, many times clayts, as has the very poor telephone response times (especially when phoning from the US ). The archaic booking systems and flaky main website must lose them millions in revenue every month.

It is a real shame, but IMHO they only have themselves to blame.

It is ironic that they appear to have invested money in other websites around the airline -

https://www.buy-beforeyoufly.com/
http://www.vtravelled.com

are two examples, the interactive site for the Upper Class wing at T3 being another - but they can't get the site that generates all of their income right!! v(

Nick

They can't really win though, if they were to push through a new site without a decent development timeline they would be slated for a buggy system and most probably face a chunk of lost revenue (or lost points in the case of the new skywards site). If they do it properly giving the stated two year programme and release something good it won't be soon enough. It's like most things in the aviation industry - costly, disjointed during development and short lived before another competitor passes the finish line trumping you.

I suppose on the flip side the more people fed up of the system, the more seats for those who aren't.

[Nottingham Nick]

I don't disagree that the present system is better than a new one that doesn't work properly, but I would seriously question a two year programme to come up with a new one. :0

Surely, there are systems out there that VS could adapt in a much shorter time scale?

Nick

I suppose on the flip side the more people fed up of the system, the more seats for those who aren't.

Thats definately one way of looking at it.

IMHO I would rather pay more miles for a flight where I could use a decent interactive online booking system which involved no call to a call centre, and if I paid more miles then I would assume there would be more availablity as less people will be booking. This is the main reason why I have decided to move over to BA for miles earning and spending purposes their rate of miles to spend isnt as good, but I just want a simple life and VS complicates that side of it for me.

So you will have the increased availablity from my lack of booking, but I will have the ease I desire so everyones happy.