Author Archives: meanie

SAS Development Blog – sad excuse for new website?

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Ever since SAS has released their new web page design for Denmark, Sweden and Norway, it has received amazing amount of hate. And I say hate, because there is literally no other word that could explain what SAS customers experience trying to use updated version.

FlyerTalk has 70 unhappy comments users, but that is in English. Swedish forum BusinessClass.se soon will reach 500 comments, and oh boy, they are definitely not positive.

What happened briefly:

  1. SAS decided to update their webpage to something more modern, useful, up to date and iPhone looking
  2. SAS hired some Indian development company to do it
  3. SAS tested beta version for almost a year in 2016
  4. SAS released new version to Denmark, Sweden and Norway early 2017
  5. All SAS customers started to get endless headaches, as new web page is just not making sense and does not work in 80% of the cases
  6. SAS started to roll the new version back, out, back and out again between 3 major markets
  7. SAS customers anger and hate turned simply into laughter and ignorance of new website (you still can use www.flysas.com with old version)

Rumours are saying that SAS management was completely ignorant about the quality of new site and was ignoring endless complaints from everyone who tried to book a flight or access EuroBonus account with new design.

Instead of firing whoever was in charge of this project, claiming money back from Indian developers and rolling back old version, which did not look fancy, but was at least working, SAS decided to open a Development Blog…

SAS Development Blog – where we share our releases and milestones

What the hell have you been doing for the past years, while website was in beta?

Who took a decision to release something barely working towards end users?

My main question, why the hell I shall care as SAS customer what are the milestones and releases? I simply want a web page that works! Where I can book a ticket, see my status, make a change, book a reward, find my reservation and select a seat/meal.

I don’t give a rat’s ass about your milestones, and to be honest, your milestones should have been all met right before you released that idiotic design and functionality, not 3 months after.

Here comes the worst part:

In the past six months, we’ve collected feedback from our Beta site, conducted user testing and made data-driven changes accordingly. Right now, we are in a state where we can call the site to be a minimum viable product (“MVP”).

In agile software development an MVP has just enough core features to deploy it. In other words, it has very basic functionality. Releasing an MVP accelerates learning and maximizes time spent on relevant development with the right focus. It differs from the conventional strategy of investing time and money to implement whole product before verifying whether customers want the product or not.

This quite popular image below represents the agile way a limited yet functional product is evolving. Thank you Henrik Kniberg for allowing us to share this great illustration with our travelers.

And here is a picture they attached in the blog

Well, let me tell you something. Elon Musk has not released skate on batteries, bike with self navigation and eco-friendly scooter. He released Tesla car, which he aimed for from the very beginning.

It is a pathetic excuse to justify extremely poor development of new SAS web site.

Leave your comments what you think about new page and development blog 🙂

The worst airports in 2017 by eDreams, no surprise?

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eDreams just released a list of the worst 10 airports in the world. According to the official page, their judgement is:

After analyzing all the comments that were submitted it was also possible to generate the ranking about the worst airports in the world. In 2016 the Schönefeld airport in Berlin is ranked first with a rating of 3.17 / 5 and in second place it’s the London Luton airport. There are other airports in major cities in this top 10 list such as the two main airports in Paris and LaGuardia and JFK in New York.

And here is eDreams best worst airports in the world

1 Berlin Schönefeld airport (SXF) Germany 3,17/5
2 London Luton airport (LTN) UK 3,25/5
3 New York LaGuardia airport (LGA) United States 3,30/5
4 New York J. F. Kennedy airport (JFK) United States 3,40/5
5 Brussels South Charleroi airport (CRL) Belgium 3,40/5
6 Lima J. Chávez International airport (LIM) Peru 3,40/5
7 Rome Ciampino International airport (CIA) Italy 3,47/5
8 Berlin Tegel airport (TXL) Germany 3,49/5
9 Paris Charles De Gaulle airport (CDG) France 3,54/5
10 Paris Orly airport (ORY) France 3,56/5

Surely, all ratings are subjective and depends on participants, reviews and interviews.

But can we just all agree on one thing, the first top 100 of the shittiest airports in the world, top 1000 for the worst airport design and top 10000 for the crappiest service inside the airport belongs to only one airport in the world…

CDG – Charles de Gaulle Airport

It is officially the most hated airport by entire Europe. It is so bad, that it is actually better just to crash land 100 miles before it, rather than experience being in CDG. Charles de Gaulle immigration lines are so long, that arriving 8 hours before departure means you still will miss your plane. It’s overall so bad, on so many level, with so many things. that CDG is officially a reason to be ashamed to be European.

And as Trump would say, can we just agree that CDG is the first in the worst, and Berlin SXF is second?

YQ fuel surcharges in Brazil now allowed

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Caralho gente…

Starting from today, Brazilian government has allowed all airlines to start charging hideous YQ surcharges, better knows as fuel surcharges. Every traveller knows those pesky charges imposed by airlines, which makes any sort of cheap airfare skyrocket in price. Even more, YQ surcharges are usually accounted for most of the price of award tickets with any airline.

New regulation is available in Brazilian Portuguese, in case you are fluent in it.

As it is a fresh new regulation, so far only TAP Portugal Airlines introduced fuel surcharges on their flights from Brazil (charges flying TO Brazil were always there). YQ charge for flying Economy from Sao Paulo to Lisbon is approx. 90 EUR and Business class is almost 200 EUR.

YQ-charges-brazil-tap

TAP Portugal YQ fuel surcharges

All other major airlines flying from Brazil, including Lufthansa, United, Turkish, British Airways, LATAM, Air France, KLM and etc etc etc, have not introduced YQ fuel surcharges yet, but it does feel like it’s only a question of time.

Airline prices in Latin America have been always ridiculous, and now we can expect one more bump up, as soon as other airlines catch up with speedy TAP Portugal.

KLM promotion: win sneakers?!

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Most countries in Europe have a strong stereotype image. Germans drink beers, Italians eat pizza and wave their hands, French eat crispy baguette.

And Dutch people do drugs. And in case of new KLM Royal Dutch Airlines promotion, they do some heavy stuff in KLM marketing department.

Simply put, anyone who already has or will make a reservation to Amsterdam with KLM airlines has a chance of winning a pair of sneakers. And here is what they look like:

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New SAS destinations for 2017 within Europe

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SAS (Scandinavian Airlines) just announced its new regular and summer 2017 routes from Scandinavia

Denmark:

All year routes
Copenhagen-Faroe Islands: First departure 26 March 2017, daily
Copenhagen-Riga: First departure 26 March 2017, twice daily except Saturdays
Aalborg-Oslo: First departure 26 March, daily except Mondays and Saturdays

Summer high season routes
Copenhagen-Malta: from 25 June – 13 August, departures Tuesdays, Fridays and Sundays.
Copenhagen-Olbia: From 24 June – 5 August, departures Wednesdays and Saturdays.
Aarhus-Malaga: From 2 July – 6 August, departures Sundays.

Sweden:

All year routes
Stockholm-Munich: First departure 26 March 2017, daily except Fridays
Stockholm-Krakow: First departure 26 March 2017, departures Thursdays and Sundays

Summer routes
Stockholm-Lisbon: 25 June–06 August 2017, departures Thursdays and Sundays
Stockholm-Shannon: 1 August –7 October  2017, departures Tuesdays and Saturdays
Stockholm-Pristina: 1 August –26 August 2017, eight roundtrips on selective dates

Norway:

All year routes
Oslo-Aalborg: first departure 26 March 2017, daily except Mondays and Saturdays
Bergen-Gdansk, first departure 29 March, departures Mondays, Tuesdays and Fridays

Summer routes
Oslo-Pristina: 4 August – 2 September, 10 roundtrips on selective dates
Stavanger-Nice: 24 June 17 – 5 Aug 17, departures Saturdays
Kristiansand-Malaga: 05 july – 9 August, departures Wednesday

It’s always great when airlines is expanding route network.

The only downside is that some of the regular and summer destinations will not have any lounge that is accessible with EuroBonus membership.

EuroBonus 3.0, what to expect from SAS?

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One of SAS’s big boys, Eivind Roald (yeap, that typical scandinavian from the photo, who also happened to be Executive Vice President Commercial. Member of SAS Group Management) briefly mentioned during one of interviews about SAS project “Loyalty 3.0”, which gained wide popularity among EuroBonus frequent flyers as SAS EuroBonus 3.0 program.

There was no official release date announced, but was expected to kick in somewhere around end of 2016, or beginning of 2017. It’s almost mid March of 2017 and there has not been any news related to EuroBonus 3.0.

What are the possible changes to SAS EuroBonus 3.0?

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ANA new A380 route and livery from Haneda to Hawaii

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ANA (All Nippon Airlines) has just revealed its order for 3 new Airbus A380, which will be operated on ANA’s most popular vacation route from Tokyo Haneda airport to Hawaii Honolulu.

Look at this A380 beauty!

ANA-A380 Haneda Honolulu

ANA-A380 Haneda Honolulu

And the best part is, it will be equipped with ANA First Class cabin. This means, in 2019 (expected start of operating A380 for HND-HNL route) we all will be able to try fresh ANA First Class cabin on the way to amazing Hawaii.

Surely, the availability of the seats is always a question when it comes to ANA first class flights. Let’s hope they will be releasing at least 2 seats at a time and will not exclude Star Alliance partners from booking First Class flights on A380, as Singapore Airlines does it.

And to make the most of this unforgettable journey, consider enhancing your Hawaiian experience by indulging in the convenience of scooter rentals. Thanks to services like scooterrentalhawaii.com, you can effortlessly roam the charming streets of Honolulu, discovering hidden treasures and immersing yourself in the island’s vibrant culture. Picture yourself cruising along the scenic coastline, the Hawaiian sun warming your skin as you embark on adventures made effortless by the flexibility of a scooter. This perfect blend of luxury in the skies and freedom on the roads is sure to create cherished memories of your Hawaiian escapade, making your trip an unforgettable, seamless experience from start to finish.

Aeroflot Bonus program improvements

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Aeroflot Russian Airlines just announced some nice improvements to Aeroflot Bonus loyalty program.

Starting from 1.03.2017 new rules allow to:

  • Book an award flight cabin upgrade only on one-way, instead of previously requiring it to be return ticket
  • One-way award tickets are requiring 50% of the bonus miles, instead of previous 60%
  • Possibility of booking one-way ticket using Aeroflot bonus miles on SkyTeam partner airlines (FINALLY!)

Overall, it is great improvements for anyone who is accumulating Aeroflot Bonus miles.

However, Aeroflot is still stuck somewhere in stone age when it comes to booking award flight for another person, it involves bureaucracy with being present in their office with photo copies of passport.

No point transfer from one member of Aeroflot Bonus to another, even if they are relatives. No family pooling and let’s not forget complete lack of tools to search for SkyTeam partner airlines availability.