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Naim

My Latest MAS Booking Engine Experience

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By the way, blaming aside, a question for Suhaimi... I have a hunch that MH does not use Amadeus as their booking system as it only has 5 digits booking reference number? Amadeus uses 6 digit reference number, IIRC?

 

Yes, the res system is by SITA.

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Don't need to go far, they do that in Singapore... literally told you off like a dog. This is some culture I do not enjoy.

 

By the way, blaming aside, a question for Suhaimi... I have a hunch that MH does not use Amadeus as their booking system as it only has 5 digits booking reference number? Amadeus uses 6 digit reference number, IIRC?

 

Just that when I entered MH's reference number, my trips with MH are not displayed at all. Bookings with Royal Brunei, Singapore Airlines and Thai Airways all showed up on this Check my trip (powered by Amadeus) thing!

 

https://www.checkmytrip.com/

 

Guys, just to be fair... remember when SQ lauched their new website and booking engine... there were glitches back then?? I couldn't even booked my flights with SQ and I went with QF instead which turned out to be a disaster!

 

Oh dear, I was thinking about doing SIN-BNE with QF, maybe it's not a good idea?!

 

SQ booking engine may be ok now but it is nowhere as user friendly as the older version! :( The website is very temperamental - I had 2 future bookings(not booked directly with SQ), was able to access my bookings to select seats, view and book stopover package etc. but since their last upgrade a few months ago they were no longer retrievable. I had to go to the Lufthansa website to view the booking and change my seats, haha!

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Oh dear, I was thinking about doing SIN-BNE with QF, maybe it's not a good idea?!

 

SQ booking engine may be ok now but it is nowhere as user friendly as the older version! :( The website is very temperamental - I had 2 future bookings(not booked directly with SQ), was able to access my bookings to select seats, view and book stopover package etc. but since their last upgrade a few months ago they were no longer retrievable. I had to go to the Lufthansa website to view the booking and change my seats, haha!

 

Yep agreed, the old SQ booking engine was much better and I loved it. They have replaced with something that does not work as well.

 

Definitely give QF a try if you haven't been flying with them before, so you can share your opinion on it with us. My first international trip and domestic trips in the past were all good. Just my recent experience with them (QF) was pretty awful. Inflight service was okay though.

 

I had an infant travelling with me and QF assured me that the infant was linked to my booking (as it was booked separately). When I checked in my flights, it wasn't the case and I told the Melbourne airport check-in lady I have an infant travelling with me and she was day-dreaming at her job I gave her all the passports on my hand and she failed to check in the infant. So I went back to them with asked her why she didn't check my baby in. She maintained that I didn't give her the infant's iitinerary and passport and her supervisor even blamed me for screwing up the itineraries. When asked if I do really have access to their system to screw up my itineraries as a travelling public and they went all silent. They are very non-apologetic and I told her that I will never fly with QF again the lady supervisor said "That's fine". While I was having a showdown with the three QF staffers, this other couple were having another show down on the other counter too! According to this other Aussie couple, they lost their seats after booking with QF! This goes to show how effective QF's booking engine really is. I mean I have made a few phone calls and received a few phone calls about my infant traveller and still the itineraries did not show up upon internet check in NOR in their system!

 

Funny enough, I learnt from my friend that the staffers who were involved have been fired in the last round of firing exercise by Qantas. Not sure if that was a coincidence after my complaint with QF but some people need to lose something in order to realize something!

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Problem is, the system is tested out a lot before the launch and those problem didn't crop up at all. I know, I spent hours testing it myself. I don't think it's fair to blame them solely.

 

Given the various permutations, and things to click, there are probably lots more which you or the tech team are not aware of.

Here's some:

- Using M'sia as the homepage, tried to do some booking, leave it uncompleted, time expired, click to home and I always get sent to the Phlippines page. Although one instance, I get sent to the UK home page. Note that the M'sian flag is still shown at top right corner in both situations.

- After logging in, tried to access my reserved future travels - they are all gone! No longer there.

- Tried to retrieve booking manually by entering PNR, the stupid website then says booking not located and asked to contact a human being.

- Tried to update profile, not able to save. Generic error message shown.

 

Did you encounter or did the above in your tests?

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Faced same problem as you - redirected to UK site with Malaysia flag, lost booking, inability to retrieve booking, booking charged but no confirmation email sent, had to call up to have the email sent... I could only offer that our testing was more extensive than that of MH.

Edited by V Wong

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The fact that we - the customers - face very similar set of obvious issues suggests that the tech team was trying to get rid of the cockroaches and ants in the room, but missed the elephant and the buffalo in the same room.

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Problem is, the system is tested out a lot before the launch and those problem didn't crop up at all. I know, I spent hours testing it myself. I don't think it's fair to blame them solely.

 

Well I don't think Engineering or Catering has a say in it, so who should share the blame with IT ? :help:

 

 

The fact that we - the customers - face very similar set of obvious issues suggests that the tech team was trying to get rid of the cockroaches and ants in the room, but missed the elephant and the buffalo in the same room.

 

What's worse is that other parts of MH seem oblivious to the problem caused by this new booking engine. Call centre said "tiada masalah lehhh" when told I could not book KCH-SIN for end of Nov and instead had to do KCH-KUL-SIN due to company policy of flying MH. After explaining I had just flew this flight yesterday, the receptionist came out with all sort of excuses, ie: codeshare might not show, ataupun its not a daily flight. :bad: :aggressive:

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Timothy - the call centre folks are usually not the sharpest knife in the drawer. Try asking questions on Enrich mileage earning possibilities on code share flights, Firefly-operated flights, ...and those folks manning the lines dont know details.

 

Back on the website issues, one can book FY-operated flights but;

- fare rules of these flights are stated as "flight rules cannot be found", and yet one has to agree to this non-existent rules prior to purchasing! So, basically, one can argue that one is buying a super flexible ticket as there are no effectively no rules;

- the equipment shown is "ATR-7.", though I'm very sure it is ATR-72 or the abbreviated form is AT7. If MH can state "Boeing 737-400" as equipment type, surely adding a "2" after "ATR-7" is not difficult.

- How about showing seats for selection on FY flights? There is money to be earned there.

- On the display of a reservation - why cant the ticket number be given prominence, just like the PNR? The ticket number is either in the tiniest fonts available as well as hidden where one has to click and it's somewhere there in between some lines of text. This is very consumer unfriendly as the OLCI and self-chkin machines at the airport prefer Tkt numbers and not PNRs. Again, this is a case of the tech team not thinking from the customer's perspective.

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With all these issues keep cropping up, I think we should back to pre 60s era up till 90s...book through travel agent or airline office themselves. Pen and papers still work best. Amadeus and SITA booking systems are very confusing and unreliable (i.e. BI, TG, MH, SQ) Gosh, why do all these biggies airlines go for such unreliable system. Should have gone for PARS or Navitaire, if not reverse back to Abacus.

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Given the various permutations, and things to click, there are probably lots more which you or the tech team are not aware of.

Here's some:

- Using M'sia as the homepage, tried to do some booking, leave it uncompleted, time expired, click to home and I always get sent to the Phlippines page. Although one instance, I get sent to the UK home page. Note that the M'sian flag is still shown at top right corner in both situations.

- After logging in, tried to access my reserved future travels - they are all gone! No longer there.

- Tried to retrieve booking manually by entering PNR, the stupid website then says booking not located and asked to contact a human being.

- Tried to update profile, not able to save. Generic error message shown.

 

Did you encounter or did the above in your tests?

 

Issue 1 - already logged and is being rectified

Issue 2,3 & 4 - not an error per se, because the Booking Information is currently undergoing upgrading as well so no access is available. But, you can retrieve the booking via PNR on MHmobile as it's on a different platform.

 

With all these issues keep cropping up, I think we should back to pre 60s era up till 90s...book through travel agent or airline office themselves. Pen and papers still work best. Amadeus and SITA booking systems are very confusing and unreliable (i.e. BI, TG, MH, SQ) Gosh, why do all these biggies airlines go for such unreliable system. Should have gone for PARS or Navitaire, if not reverse back to Abacus.

 

Same reason why a lot of people stick to Windows for their OS. Also, I don't think the system is unreliable, but when you mess around with something as complex as booking systems, there will be niggles.

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Same reason why a lot of people stick to Windows for their OS. Also, I don't think the system is unreliable, but when you mess around with something as complex as booking systems, there will be niggles.

 

The other airline rolled out a new website (plus changes to the booking system) that was going to make booking easier (as claimed). Within 4 hours, they switched back to the old layout when they realised that there is just too much to handle and would mean loss of genuine transactions. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out an alternative rather than keeping something that would cost you in terms of revenue.

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Within 4 hours, they switched back to the old layout when they realised that there is just too much to handle and would mean loss of genuine transactions. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out an alternative rather than keeping something that would cost you in terms of revenue.

Yes, taking a step backwards to afford oneself breating space to assess situation in totality

Probably means someone losing face along the way, but if it keeps the business ticking along, so be it

Really begs the question whether MH tech team or 3rd party service provider had any plan B in mind ?!

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How many booking engines changes has MH introduce over the past few years? I think it is too many??

 

Everytime I wanted to fly home to Sabah for a trip, it seems they have always upgraded to another new booking engine!?

Edited by S V Choong

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She maintained that I didn't give her the infant's iitinerary and passport and her supervisor even blamed me for screwing up the itineraries. When asked if I do really have access to their system to screw up my itineraries as a travelling public and they went all silent. They are very non-apologetic and I told her that I will never fly with QF again the lady supervisor said "That's fine".

 

Oh dear, that's pretty poor customer service!

 

How many booking engines changes has MH introduce over the past few years? I think it is too many??

 

Everytime I wanted to fly home to Sabah for a trip, it seems they have always upgraded to another new booking engine!?

 

I wouldn't mind if they upgrade the booking engine to make it better. Unfortunately this is not always the case. It's not just MH, it happens to other websites too.

 

You know I still find the old CheckMyTrip so much more user friendly than the new one. :) Thankfully the classic version is still there.

Edited by H C Chai

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Tried to make a credit card payment for a flight from Malaysia for 2013. Both MHbuddy and MHmobile could not process the transaction, checked my bank account and the fare was deducted and deposited at the same time, bank personnel I was speaking to on the phone did not know why either.

 

I did not use malaysiaairlines.com because I was quoted a different, and much higher fare and given the new booking system, I'd rather give it some time to clear any new bugs. I'm suspecting the payment couldn't go through because it was an Australian issued credit card and the flight is booked in Malaysia and in MYR. Sounds ridiculous but I could not think of any other reason.

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Yep agreed, the old SQ booking engine was much better and I loved it. They have replaced with something that does not work as well.

 

Definitely give QF a try if you haven't been flying with them before, so you can share your opinion on it with us. My first international trip and domestic trips in the past were all good. Just my recent experience with them (QF) was pretty awful. Inflight service was okay though.

 

I had an infant travelling with me and QF assured me that the infant was linked to my booking (as it was booked separately). When I checked in my flights, it wasn't the case and I told the Melbourne airport check-in lady I have an infant travelling with me and she was day-dreaming at her job I gave her all the passports on my hand and she failed to check in the infant. So I went back to them with asked her why she didn't check my baby in. She maintained that I didn't give her the infant's iitinerary and passport and her supervisor even blamed me for screwing up the itineraries. When asked if I do really have access to their system to screw up my itineraries as a travelling public and they went all silent. They are very non-apologetic and I told her that I will never fly with QF again the lady supervisor said "That's fine". While I was having a showdown with the three QF staffers, this other couple were having another show down on the other counter too! According to this other Aussie couple, they lost their seats after booking with QF! This goes to show how effective QF's booking engine really is. I mean I have made a few phone calls and received a few phone calls about my infant traveller and still the itineraries did not show up upon internet check in NOR in their system!

 

Funny enough, I learnt from my friend that the staffers who were involved have been fired in the last round of firing exercise by Qantas. Not sure if that was a coincidence after my complaint with QF but some people need to lose something in order to realize something!

 

Serve her right. Customer service is really important and with such lousy service, she should go somewhere else.

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I notice I got the "Passenger type error" when I tried to book using my login profile.

 

Didn't get the error when I book using "guest"

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I notice I got the "Passenger type error" when I tried to book using my login profile.

 

Didn't get the error when I book using "guest"

 

This issue will be rectified by tomorrow.

 

Apparently, if you leave the page idle for more than 15 mins that error occurs.

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This issue will be rectified by tomorrow.

 

Apparently, if you leave the page idle for more than 15 mins that error occurs.

 

In my case, it didn't take 15 mins for that to happen. Interestingly only happen when I login with my account.

 

Anyway, hope it will be fixed soon.

 

BTW, I like the multicity booking but it doesn't give me the options of the various fare.

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The obsession with abbreviation, albeit incorrect, is so prevalent that MH is not spared. Cgu Ken, hw do u deal w sts who use txt n twit lingo?

 

hahaha....draw a BIG THICK RED LINE UNDER THE WORDS!!!!!

 

 

I hope this is not as bad as SQ, they have been trying to fix their website for more than a year now.

 

 

 

That is shocking! KCH is getting more international flights! :)

 

You mean the ONLY International connection in KCH right? Hahahaha! Ya KCH-SIN doing rather well for AK, TR and apparently MH...only MI seem...erm...well...what's the proverb..."hidup segan, mati tak mahu"...with only 3X weekly...

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MHmobile is wonky: tried to make a transaction on MHmobile. Said 'credit card unable to be processed' or 'server time out' but my card was deducted. Bank confirmed the deduction, and now on the 1-300 line. It's like 'pass the parcel' with them now, being transferred from one operator to the other,with a very long queue in between. As if they don't know what to do and hope they can ignore me by transferring calls.

 

Thought they rectified it last week when they did that maintenance work on Sunday? Very frustrating. The last time this happened, it was deducted then redeposited. Wonder what's going on.

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I tried to make a booking using AMEX. The card's security code is 3 digit, but the website insists it's a 4 digit code, and I can't proceed with the booking. WTF?

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