[FDOS_UK]

Perhaps a bunch of enraged Nigerians have invested in some wirecutters and taken revenge? 😉

I’m getting this error message, when I try to check my booking for Monday:

Sorry

Sorry, there seems to be a technical problem. Please try again in a few minutes, and please contact us if it still doesn’t work.

We apologise for the inconvenience.

BA, so sorry they said it twice 🙂

[FDOS_UK]

I just managed to get to my BAEC page and then got this pearl of wisdom

Error

We’re sorry, but ba.com is very busy at the moment, and couldn’t deal with your request. Please do try again – if it still doesn’t work, it may be better to try again at another time.

Sweet.

Perhaps it’s not wirecutters, but a DDoS attack? (and not by Nigerians).

[FDOS_UK]

I think that BA IT should get together with Ryanair HR and design a system for managing pilot leave – what could go wrong?

[CathayLoyalist2]

According to a spokesman at LGW it is an airline issue not an airport issue as the affected airlines all use the same check in software. Apparently the problem was resolved quickly after 2/3 mins the spokesman said

[FDOS_UK]

Maybe that’s a different problem at Gatwick?

I’m still finding this message, when I try to check my booking.

Error

We’re sorry, but ba.com is very busy at the moment, and couldn’t deal with your request. Please do try again – if it still doesn’t work, it may be better to try again at another time.

[capetonianm]

Most media report that it was a ‘momentary’ glitch with Altea (Amadeus) check-in systems. It seems odd that ‘momentary’ should cause such chaos, even if one allows for the inevitable exaggeration by the media.

The problem with all the front-end systems used by airlines is that they have been dumbed down/simplified for use by untrained and inexperienced airline staff of the intellectual and educational level of Joanne Wickenden (the ex-BA stewardess who made the ‘Nigerian’ video). All fine until something goes wrong and then they have no idea how to cope, and things escalate.

The software and interfaces are written by geeks who, as I’ve said before in a different context, don’t know the difference between Laos and Lagos, and this is all in the interest of saving money by not training people properly.

Somebody far more prescient than I said : “If you think training is expensive, consider the cost of ignorance.”

[FDOS_UK]

Peter Drucker said that, I believe.

I’m still getting the error message when I try to chek my flight – fortunately, it’s not time sensitive, so I can wait until it’s fixed.

[FDOS_UK]

captonianm

Would Altea affect data such as seat reservations on a flight on Monday lunchtime (-96 hours) , access via ‘Manage My Booking’?

Seems a little too far out for airport control, but I’m not as familiar with these systems as you are.

[CathayLoyalist2]

I think it was Drucker who said ” If you think hiring a professional is expensive try hiring an amateur”. Still after Jeremy Corben’s insufferable speech yesterday is to be believed, if he gains power, there will be no more low paid workers!!.

[FDOS_UK]

[quote quote=828858]If you think hiring a professional is expensive try hiring an amateur[/quote]

Wasn’t that ‘Red’ Adair? He certainly had the track record to say that.

[FDOS_UK]

Just tried to check a booking on Norwegian.com and was able to update passport details, however the site was showing this message on the home page

Due to problems with one of our suppliers you might experience some instability when booking flights. It might also take some time before the travel document will be sent by e-mail, and the flight is listed under “My Reservations”

It may be the same problem is affecting multiple airlines (as capetonianm posted earlier), in which case Norwegian’s systems may be a little more resilient that BA’s, as I cannot get into MMB after over an hour from my first attempt.

[capetonianm]

FDOS_UK : Yes, it could do. The Altea system consists of three principal components, Plan (inventory and hosting), Sell (distribution, reservations, pricing, ticketing), and Fly (departure control, flight management, customer management).

Some airlines use the entire suite, others use parts of it alongside other systems. There is obviously an inter-dependence between components and for seating, the distribution systems and the departure control systems need to ‘talk’ to the inventory system. So regardless of whether the flight is under airport control or not, and that is typically 24 hours, a failure in one component could leave you unable to select a seat.

I wish I could find that wonderful Jimmy Connolly sketch where he’s at Glasgow Airport trying to catch a flight and he says :

“In the old days, they had a cardboard cut out of a ‘plane and there was a sticker for each seat. You told the lassie which one you wanted and they took it off the chart and stuck it on your boarding pass. It was that simple. They could’na give it to anyone else because it wasn’a f***ing there! PERFECT …….. but now you get some wee lassie who’s trying to check you in and she says : “Mr Connolly, do you want the 2.15 flight …… and I say :
“Ay, that’s the one I’m booked on”
and she sits there doing that thing where they press the enter key again and again, and she turns to a wee lad who’s about 15 and she says :
“What’s the entry to change the seat?” and he goes :
” 7/*51XX/B51Y-72* ………. noo, there’s an R in the month so it’s 7/*51ZZ/B51Y-78* .”

It used to be on Youtube and I used to use it for light relief in some of my seminars and trainings but it seems to have disappeared.

[ThomasCox]

Snr Cruz will no doubt be donning a hi-vis tabard and heading down to the data centre with a camera team in tow to fix the problem himself. Looking forward to the technically plausible reason for this outage 🙂

[navnov11]

We are beating up BA too much about this, I think! It is a worldwide outage affecting multiple airlines and multiple airports.

[capetonianm]

That’s true, but BA are should be responsible for the quality of service provided by entities to whom they outsource.

[Author]

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