BMIbaby Website Down?

[Shed-on-a-Pole]

I have been trying to access the BMI Baby website at regular intervals since about midday yesterday. Nothing loads. All other websites which I regularly use - including PPRUNE - are working normally. Has anybody else noticed problems with the BMI Baby site? Is it off for scheduled maintenance or something? Thanks for any answers,

Regards, SHED.

[CentreFix25]

working fine for me.

[Shed-on-a-Pole]

Thanks for that, CentreFix25.

I'm still getting: 'DIRECTORY LISTING DENIED' ...

'The Virtual Directory does not allow contents to be listed.'

Ideas, anyone?

Thanks, SHED.

[WHBM]

New reorganised website from 1 July. If you had saved a link direct to one of the old pages that is no longer there, you will get errors. Try just typing in www.bmibaby.com manually.

[Shed-on-a-Pole]

Thanks, WHBM.

Unfortunately, manual typing didn't work for me either. BMI Baby site won't load. It looks as though the July 1st "upgrade" is one of those fancy flashing-light jobs which excludes all potential customers with a computer more than a month old. Most galling.

When will online retailers learn rule number one?

KEEP YOUR RETAIL/BOOKING ENGINE SIMPLE !!!!! Flashy websites win design awards but lock out customers at the sharp end.

(If you're reading BMI Baby I've now booked with another carrier instead).

[WHBM]

Another shot

Try typing in

http://www.bmibaby.com/bmibaby/en/index.aspx

And see if that works. There is a lot of fancy redirecting going on as the home page opens, and myself I get an Internet Explorer 404 error Page Forbidden about 25% of the time on first entry. The home page is fractionally too large for the 1024 x 768 standard screen size so the footer menus have to be scrolled down for, and the Technical Support page says: "If you are still experiencing problems, click on the 'bmibaby bookings' link from the top navigation menu", but there is no link titled such on the menu. There are a whole string of other minor issues too. Looks like their technical QA on the website is similar to that of their fleet at the moment ! :rolleyes:

If you want to complain to the webmaster it's

[email protected]

[alterego]

Website works on my old Computer!

Sorry you've gone elsewhere.

[Daysleeper]

Just tried to book on line and get "Sorry.
There has been a communications problem.
Data lines may be congested right now, or
another issue may exist. Please try again
later or contact Reservations."

tried to phone the call centre and get "all lines to this number are busy please try later."


Bmi not paying their phone bill or something?

[jetstream7]

Daysleeper

It's the 'or something' part of your answer.

Think about it logically.

Website doesn't work for whatever reason, so those who wish to book flights (as requested) contact the reservations centre via phone

Result, phone lines to reservations centre so busy, no one else can get through....


The comment 'Bmi not paying their phone bill' is simply fatuous...

[Shed-on-a-Pole]

Firstly, thanks to those who offered advice on accessing the BMI Baby website. Unfortunately, my computer is still not having any of it - and neither is the computer at work (different make & vintage) which just keeps bringing up "Javascript Error" messages.

As BMI Baby now has a seat-sale in progress I decided to try accessing the site again. I had to go elsewhere for the short-notice trip as I mentioned before, but was still interested in a bargain Autumn jaunt. Having downloaded Flash Player 7.4, my Machine now gets as far as white clouds on a blue backgound and a BMI Baby logo, but nothing else. No text. The computer at work got as far as displaying headline fares (before tax) but descended into error messages after that. But at least I could access the 'Contact Us' phone number on that one.

Consequently, I telephoned the BMI Baby call-centre later this morning. A very nice lady told me that many people have been struggling with the new website, and consequently sales staff are temporarily authorised to sell seats over the phone at the internet rate. Thus I have booked a very agreeable Autumn break. However, this experience does seem to confirm the suggestion earlier in this thread that the call-centre is deluged with 'internet refugees.'

As a non tech-head, I don't know how practical the following suggestion is but I'll put it forward anyway. How feasible is it for BMI Baby (and other airlines with fancy sites) to provide a link to the original basic booking software running in parallel with the new all-singing all-dancing version? Short of this, a significant minority of potential customers will be forced elsewhere (as I was myself only recently), especially when the telephone booking surcharge is slapped back on.

Whatever the merits of the upgraded website, the ultimate priority must be to retain existing customers. Anything which locks them out is detrimental to the company bottom line. I hope that BMI Baby - and all other airlines which go through this process - will give serious thought to options which enable their regulars to remain as active customers. But credit where it's due: the policy of not penalising telephone bookings in the short -term shows very welcome positive initiative. Well done whoever you are.