To celebrate the merger of “Thalys” and “Eurostar” within the framework of the same “Eurostar Group” organization, on November 8, 9 and 10, an online sale of train tickets is organized at very moderate prices. For several days, both sites had multiplied teasers to announce the big news. Consolidating their loyalty programs? Simplifying Eurostar pricing, which is one of the most restrictive in Europe, taking the model of Thalys or SNCF. In short, an operation that makes train travel and user experience easier. No way ! Therefore, there was a big autumn sale of 25,000 tickets, very attractively priced at €29, to the main European destinations served by the companies (Brussels, London, etc.). “Promo” as applied by all transport companies during off-peak periods.
The only problem is that the Eurostar website, which manages only one line, exploded due to a sudden influx of buyers, we noted, in particular, yesterday afternoon, as for the Christmas sale of SNCF’s October opening. The Thalys platform, which offers around fifteen destinations in France, Belgium, Germany and the Netherlands, has not encountered any problems.
However, thousands of passengers did not have the opportunity to take advantage of this promotion due to serial errors, which were not limited to the temporary inability to access the website. For example, days when an ad was offered on the calendar… but not on the train list for that day. Another scenario is passengers who have been denied access to their personal account at the very last stage of their booking. “Sorry, something went wrong. Please try again later.” Those who thought they could get around the problem by logging in as a guest didn’t fare much better; “error 404”. When the bugs were finally fixed, there were only 3 days of promotion left for November and December tickets.
Which IT system has been chosen for the future Thalys-Eurostar merger? The Eurostar, of course. Something to fiercely remind us of the time Air France swallowed up Air inter. A large international company imposes its orders on a small domestic company where everything was clear. It took years for short-haul network Air France to realize that simplicity should be the rule. Years that served as a springboard for… easyJet. We regret that in these groupings, the most complex DNA often wins. So much for passengers.
Source: Le Figaro
