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On 4/14/2003 10:33:03 AM RowUnderDCA wrote:
Gosh, I keep saying this, but I think that USAirways.com is the best and easiest website around, putting aside other agendas regarding getting pricing in the airline industry. I can understand that folks that are high frequency users may wish that specific tasks be easier.
I am a low-time frequent flier that doesn't have a particular point of view or agenda regarding use of the website or ticketing or pricing.
Again, I can understand the folks that wish that U would allow them more ability to get what they want. I don't think that's U's policy. The policy needs to change, then the website will.
I mean to say, I never have any of these technical problems, and I'm willing to accept U's policy regarding pricing transparency. Generally, I think more transparency is better, but that's a higher grade decision than USAirways.com gets to make, I'd think.
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Here's an example (and I'll avoid using SWA to keep from getting folks pissed off):
I want to book a flight on American (or United or Continental). I check their website and it displays the flights for the times I have entered...but I realize that I accidently put in 5/10 instead of 5/11. So I click back, change the date, and continue on. The correct flights are displayed.
On U, I do the same thing. Now, I have finally realized that there is a place on the screen that displays flights that allows me to change dates, but it took me a few times to even notice it. I have clicked the "back" button and am greeted with a message that an error has occured. So, I click refresh. That still isn't good enough, so I type in
www.usairways.com again. I consider myself fairly adept at using a computer, but I have never recieved as many errors on any website as I do on the U website. That's not asking them to show me anything extra... I'm not an "elite" anything...all I want is to book a flight. The website makes it a chore. Make it easier to use, so that even if a person uses the "back" button, they can still get the information they are looking for. If someone gets fed upwith the web site, then calls the reservation number and sits on hold for 10 minutes...there is a damn good chance that they will hang up and book someone else. And I don't think that there are any ready made "stats" to reflect lost revenue from a difficult to use website combined with a bare bones reservations department.
And a final thought...how willing is someone going to be to trust entering a credit card number into a system that kicked them out umpteen times??