{"id":501,"date":"2007-01-11T00:25:54","date_gmt":"2007-01-10T23:25:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.craigmurphy.com\/blog\/?p=501"},"modified":"2007-01-11T00:35:25","modified_gmt":"2007-01-10T23:35:25","slug":"yet-another-instance-of-software-that-sucks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.craigmurphy.com\/blog\/?p=501","title":{"rendered":"Yet another instance of software that sucks…"},"content":{"rendered":"

Last year I lamented<\/a> about how BT expected me to contact my administrator to solve their problem.<\/p>\n

Tonight, whilst trying to book some flights via AirMiles<\/a>, I stumbled upon this unbelievable error message:<\/p>\n

airmiles.gif<\/p>\n

Amazingly, I had used the drop-down menu<\/em> to select London Heathrow. Even when using the “type destination” option that forces the correct destination airport to be selected, this error still appeared. And hey, where’s the magnifying glass icon on this page<\/em>?<\/p>\n

Frankly, this isn’t the first problem I’ve endured with this particular web-site. It’s virtually impossible to book British Airways flights through it. I ended up buying flights through BA.com<\/a> because it was easier. Here’s the kind of nonsense it presents us with when we endeavour to pay for a flight:<\/p>\n

airmiles1.gif<\/p>\n

I wouldn’t mind, but there are no items “highlighted below in red”. Clicking on “Get available flights” and changing any or all of the flight combinations makes no difference. Personally, I don’t believe that “the system” should allow us to get this far if there are problems with availability – in fact, I’m sure there’s a conspiracy theory behind this.<\/p>\n

Now, you might be thinking that I’m perhaps being a little harsh with this posting. Perhaps you’re right. However, since I went to the effort of writing to this particular flight vendor back in July 2006 when I endured my first failed booking, I got back a pretty nondescript response. Now that I’ve gone through the same pain again tonight, I’m going to be taking the matter up with them once again. However this time, I’ll bypass customer services and write to their top man. Be afraid.<\/p>\n

Technorati Tags: AirMiles<\/a>, This Software Sucks Award<\/a>, Why Software Sucks<\/a>, David S. Platt<\/a><\/p>\n