Computer nudges: not always a big success

I tend to avoid business class even when entitled to it except for overnight flights, but being entitled to business class travel on a government board the computer always requires me to explain myself. And though it has an option where you can say that you’re entitled to fly at a higher class, it doesn’t have an option to allow you to explain that you’re happy enough with a lower class fare. So much so that the computer decided to take a couple of hours out of my life and nearly three times as much off the government in order to send me business class. So I had to tell the system that I was overriding it, though, since none of the pull down reasons were the reason I was doing what I was doing, I picked “LPF/IBF ACCEPTED “. No doubt a reader can tell me what that means, but I had no idea. At least I wasn’t telling a lie as I would have been by choosing any of the other options which I knew were wrong. Seemed to do the trick.
Flight (MELBOURNE to CANBERRA): Wed 21 Mar 2012
Airline Depart Arrival Flight No. Stops Fare Type Price
19:00 20:05 QF822 0 FULLY FLEXIBLE *P AUD $333.83
Best Available Fare In Policy
Airline Depart Arrival Flight No. Stops Fare Type Price
Sector 1 – MELBOURNE to SYDNEY
19:00 20:25 QF462 0 BUSINESS  *P  AUD$1,031.00
Sector 2 – SYDNEY to CANBERRA
21:10 22:05 QF807 0
Cheaper fare selected outside of policy.
Change flight to Best Fare:
Please select reason for not choosing best fare:                                       Please select a reason…                                                                      LPF/IBF ACCEPTED                                                                      APPROVAL/ENTITLEMENT TO TRAVEL AT HIGHER FARE CLASS                                                                      REQUIRE FLEXIBILITY TO CHANGE BOOKING                                                                      HEALTH AND SAFETY ISSUES – PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITIES                                                                      UNSUITABLE DUE TO TIME ROUTING OR CONNECTIONS
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m
m
12 years ago

LPF – Lowest Practical Fare
IBF – International Best Fare
http://www.finance.gov.au/procurement/travel-and-related-services/docs/July_2010-Question_and_Answers_on_Whole-of-Australian-Government_Travel_Arrangements.pdf

It goes on to say over 10,000 fares have been pre-negotiated so presumably getting bums on seats for melbourne -> sydney -> canberra on a wednesday night was worth some token discount from Qantas and thus a computer decided a discount is more important that absolute value of the tickets.

Tom N.
Tom N.
12 years ago

Probably not saving the taxpayer quite as much as you, Nick, but I always take the Skybus into Melbourne, rather than catching a cab.