Lying, hopeless airline apps

[Gibon2]

Like many other SLF, I have downloaded and occasionally use the smartphone apps made by various airlines. They vary widely in quality and usability, but can be handy.

Last night I was travelling back to Geneva from Stockholm, on Swiss via Zurich. Scheduled departure time from Stockholm was 19:35 - and I was hoping for an on-time departure as I had only 35 mins for the connection in ZRH to the last flight to GVA. I had some time to kill at the airport, so had dinner and looked around the shops - keeping an eye on the flight status on the Swiss app on my phone. This consistently said the estimated time of departure was 19:35. All good. At around 19:00 I went to gate lounge. The app (and airport monitors) at this point said "go to gate", and still gave ETD as 19:35. But there was clearly no aircraft at the gate. At 19:15, with the jet bridge still forlornly hanging empty over the ramp, the app said "boarding", with ETD still 19:35. :hmm:

This was obviously total fantasy. What kind of data is driving this thing? Is it pre-programmed or just made up on the spot? It must have been known long before that a 19:35 departure would not be possible. It must also be known - even to the deluded fantasists who run ops at Swiss - that you cannot board an aircraft that has not yet arrived. What can possibly be the point of providing such "information" to passengers, except to irritate them and diminish their confidence in your company?

The plane did arrive shortly afterwards, and eventually left. With some sprinting, I made the connection in Zurich, and we landed in Geneva around 23:30. After arriving home, my phone beeped: an alert from the Swiss app! "Your flight to Geneva: gate change to B43". Yes, an hour after landing (two hours after departure) the app helpfully tells you the departure gate has changed.

Why so hopeless? I know it's trivial in the scheme of things, but if you're going to have an app, is it really so hard to make it work properly?

[RevMan2]

Someone else has the same problem...
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/sep/21/missed-flight-easyjet-apple-icalendar
Just don't trust data that's been massaged by multiple software apps, none of which speak to each other, let alone perform validation checks.

[Out Of Trim]

When the App said boarding, it probably meant going through the gate into the gate lounge in preparation for boarding the aircraft .

So not really a problem. It got you there on time for when the aircraft arrived!

[PAXboy]

I extend my sympathy. Do tell us what their customer service says :hmm:

Had the same problem before 'apps'. The airline changed the time of departure - bringing it forward - and despite having my email address and mobile phone number, I got no information. Fortunately, on both occaisions, I was there in good time and able to get the flights.

Once it happened with a low cost carrier, fortunately I had no checked baggage ,and the other time with a full service international carrier.

So I don't trust anyone.

[Hotel Tango]

They are a complete waste of time. Even providing the airline with your mobile number results in SMS texts arriving long after they needed to. If away from the airline's base, I use the FR24 app to track the progress of the inbound flight.

[750XL]

In my experience, apps, airport screens, websites and the like are all generally fed from both the airports internal systems and also the airlines system.

Both of these are generally fed automatically by movement messages sent from departure airports, which can be questionable at best. It's not unusual for outstations to get the flight time wrong by +1/-1hr so if an incorrect movement is sent, everyone's expecting an aircraft to arrive (and subsequently depart) at the wrong time.

Of course these days with the likes of FR24 etc it's easier to see accurate arrivals time, but it depends how busy the airports/airlines ops department is to keep track of all the flights this way.

With the increasing use of ACARS MVT messages things seem to be getting better.

[wiggy]

What kind of data is driving this thing?

That's the problem, as has been commented on in some outfits/airports there are multitude of sources - you'd hope it wasn't the case but operations may be looking at one system (which you'd hope was accurate, but more of that later) customer service another source that might be out of date.

The comments about FR24 is spot on, if you can work out the aircraft rotation... for example:

A certain captain waiting to operate a flight out of a much loved London airport during a major snow event a handful of winters ago, needless to say all is not going well and systems are creaking as ETAs are somewhat fluid. Crew have (stupidly, should have known better etc,) gone airside early and are now in loiter/coffee shop mode.

Ops phone captain on his mobile:

" captain, could you round your team up and get the crew to gate xx, ASAP, we show the flight arriving in 5 minutes and we need a quick turn".

Captain: " that's impressive, at the moment according to Flightradar the aircraft is holding over Brecon......."

Ops :"Errr.... we'll ring you back"

[Davef68]

Interesting. I find the Easyjet app is usually much more accurate for delays than the airport information, which often doesn't tell you of delays until you hit boarding time.

On one occasion at BHX, a Flybe flight was 'on time' until 'go to gate' time arrived, then suddenly a two hour delay appeared. As this was an internal flight, they would have known hours before then. A sternly worded letter at produced some compensation though!

[baselb]

Yeah, the Easyjet app is pretty good, and often (though not always, it seems) has a cut down FR24 with the incoming flight.

Its "Time to go" messages, when the gates are announced, are a bit hit and miss though.

[750XL]

On one occasion at BHX, a Flybe flight was 'on time' until 'go to gate' time arrived, then suddenly a two hour delay appeared. As this was an internal flight, they would have known hours before then. A sternly worded letter at produced some compensation though!

Could be down to a last minute aircraft change to protect the departure time of another flight. Often see airlines deciding to take the hit on one flight to protect another (usually down to crew hours, airport curfews etc)

[Hartington]

I've begun to wonder if some aircraft changes are to protect against Eu261 costs.

[Capot]

On the subject of airline lies, so not a total thread drift......

Easyjet list, among the benefits of their Flexifare, "unlimited date changes". No qualification, just "unlimited date changes".

This is a lie; right down in the small print you find that date changes can only be made within a 4 week window starting 7 days before the original booking, which sounds to me and most English speakers very like a quite severe limitation.

[PAXboy]

Capot. I'd say that's worthy of a note to the Advertising Standards Authority https://www.asa.org.uk/

Even for starters that sounds like 3 weeks.

[The late XV105]

LHR-BOS last year.
Travelling WT+.
Stood at the gate with two pax in front of me, I pressed the widget ready to show the barcode - and as the page loaded watched it switch to a Club World upgrade.
Thank you very much :)