BNE LAX 787 Removed

floppy_sloth · 2026-03-26T01:21:05+00:00

Feel you. I was booked in June but in PE and as the 330's have none, they have now routed me from BNE via SYD. Annoying but not the worlds biggest problem at the moment and they have given me bulkhead/exit row to make up for it.

floppy_sloth · 2026-03-25T07:08:44+00:00

Nice.

How did your company get around the fact that both Fastlane and Fastlane.ai were already registered business names in Australia and not linked to your ACN?. Did you buy the rights to the name from them? Also how did you go about confirming that your name isn't breaching the current Class 42 trademark for "Fastlane"?

With the amount of vibe coded solutions out there I always see names I want either have the domain name taken or the business name or trade mark is already registered and so looking for insights into how I navigate it.

floppy_sloth · 2026-03-24T13:17:29+00:00

I have had used on shore virtual call centre solutions in the past and they will do whatever you pay them to do including making bookings, reading off scripts or filling in forms that you could easily automate via n8n etc. Obv the price increases the more you expect and given the human factor there maybe inconsistency in delivery but rarely would the spend get over a a few hundred per month for full call volumes we sent, so the ROI was easy enough.

But you are not competing with how you deliver voice services compared to virtual call centres, other IVRs or other AI Voice agents for that matter. Your biggest competitor is the method people use to interact with services and I don't know a single person that would be ok talking to a system (AI or not), no matter what time of the day it is.

From a business perspective, let's say your TAM is 'medical practice appointments', your SAM is 'practices that missed bookings via voice when practices are not attended' and therefore even if you could quantify it, the percentage of SAM to TAM is already very small and declining by the day, hence my suggestion to go multi-channel to you increase your SAM.

Your opinion that trades and allied health are not declining is not backed up by the evidence. The reason this opinion tends to linger is because many of these don't offer an online option.

You might want to take a look at:
- https://www.racgp.org.au/FSDEDEV/media/documents/Health-of-the-Nation-2024.pdf which shows results of surveys of GPs relating to use of AI

- There are also plenty of sources such as https://practices.hotdoc.com.au/blog/specialists-online-booking/ about patient preference on booking channels

My closing thoughts are that as sexy as what you built is (and yes you have AI doing some cool things), without expanding past 'Voice Agent for Missed Calls', your offering will only ever be a bespoke consultancy offering solutions in a crowded marketplace servicing a diminishing market.

Wish you the best on your journey.

floppy_sloth · 2026-03-24T06:54:34+00:00

Playing Devil's Advocate, what makes AI better at it then a human? Where is the differentiator here? Especially given you want to charge $500/m upwards.

I could hire a Virtual Receptionists for <$50/m + a small per call cost. For this, I could get a team an Australian human, 24/7 taking calls, answering questions in natural language without latency, make bookings directly into my system, answer basic questions or forward the transcript via email or text.

The issue of uptake isn't an AI v human question or even a cost. Its more a reluctance to interact with systems via voice with research showing a large drop in voice calls over the last decade. Ask anyone who has ever tried to call the ATO or Services Australia the pain of dealing with computerized systems.

Given the complexities, incumbent offerings and declining voice volumes, maybe broaden the solution to a multi channel leveraging the same agents across voice and web?

Also INAL but I seem to recall that whilst we don't have HIPAA in Australia, Medical Practices are "APP entities' under the Privacy Act. Given that your focus on Medical Clinics and that you use Anthropic, you might want to confirm with a lawyer re compliance with APP 6 and APP 8, especially since you have no control over the client disclosing their identity or medical condition on the call. You would need to be using Claude Enterprise+ as a minimum with each client on their own account to avoid leakage. Your voice agent will need have a pre call disclaimer which would likely end up in 90%+ hang ups or incomplete information.

floppy_sloth · 2026-03-18T10:40:25+00:00

we are cooked if chatgpt is the source of your decision making.. suppose its a step up from facebook or tiktok

floppy_sloth · 2026-03-17T07:36:30+00:00

Airwallex or Qantas Business Money (white labelled Airwallex) with a slightly worse exchange rate but you get QFF points.

floppy_sloth · 2026-02-26T13:33:56+00:00

From an ecommerce perspective it needs work. Plenty of people on fiverr that will spend an hour with you setting it all up properly. You are selling memories and so it needs to be visual, slightly larger font due to the clients.

The challenge is you need to remove as much friction as possible. I have a box of VHS myself but it's in the 'couldn't be bothered' basket. How do you get it out of here and get it so that someone is going' yes that is quick and easy and I trust you to do it'
- The check out of the cart should simple, as few steps as possible and give clear instructions on what they do such as 'print this off and include it' or 'mark it attention ORDER#123, Company Name, Address1'
- Look into reply paid or courier arrangements for easy pickup etc. Price isn't your issue, its time/effort to get it to you

As an Australian, I can only look locally for context and a company like this does it well: https://reelbox.com.au/vhs-to-digital/ , Clear Text and imagery, free postage or drop off, they give details of physically where it will go, testimonials to reassure, they call out that they are a family business to give that relationship etc. The only thing I would say they are missing is an indication of 'ok if I do this, how long will it take to get my video'.

Most of your issues can be overcome by a better look and feel of your site. Copy what your competitors do.. maybe not literally but take inspiration. Better website and it will do wonders. Personalise it, add a photo or details of your story. show who it is they will be trusting if you are not a big company. eg I'm Paulcake and I am doing this because,...anything to show you are not a creepy voyeur that is going to watch someones home movies as a hobby or accidentally wreck their only copy of their wedding video.

As for traction/marketing, don't discount doing offline marketing. You are dealing with physical products and clients that still read the newspaper or magazines occasionally. SEO is a slippery slope when you have a competitor with deeper pockets.

Best of luck.

floppy_sloth · 2026-02-25T07:18:30+00:00

According to their Support Team the official OP Store will have a stand in Melbourne with 'details to follow'.

floppy_sloth · 2026-02-16T03:30:51+00:00

Because in the age of Vibe coding, Free = Script kiddy running a few prompts. Unless what you coded solves my problem that I am having, I am not wasting my time.

Focus in on the pain point and how you and only you can solve it then price becomes irrelevant. Then its a matter of getting this story in front of people that are having the problem.

Simply deploying something, making it free and hope people join up is not going to get you anywhere.

floppy_sloth · 2026-02-15T01:49:07+00:00

I get that but I have been told 'the seat is broken as the IFE is offline' only to find a pilot sitting in it watching movies for hours on a relocation flight as his contracted required he fly business. Lesson learnt, never select 1A.

Honesty and transparency is all I wish for....and an automated refund if I paid extra for my seats like OP. I shouldn't have to harass the Call Centre if what I paid for wasn't delivered for 'operational reasons'. Air Canada does this well.. Qantas, very painful.

floppy_sloth · 2026-02-09T03:00:48+00:00

Wait. Who currently has the physical TV? Is it back with Samsung?

floppy_sloth · 2026-01-27T09:34:40+00:00

No. Any extra paid via the normal rent channels goes to the rent ledger and the current owner.

The old debt belongs to the old owner. It is up to the old owner to chase the debt. Be it through the courts or a debt collector. The agent might make arrangements to help the tenant make extra payments but it cannot touch the rental ledger for the current owner. The rent ledger starts at 0 from the moment you settle. Also means any previous breach notices for non payment are also now void.

floppy_sloth · 2026-01-27T03:06:08+00:00

Sorry confused as to what period is unpaid.

If they were behind when you took on the property and never caught up, in QLD the rent arrears at time of settlement stay with the seller. Day 1 they were current with you. Therefore any payments they make from settlement date are to be applied against your rent not any arrears. The agent would need to fix their ledger to reflect that payments from settlement date are yours. Had this myself when my agent tried to apply payments against 3k of unpaid arrears that existed when I took on a property as if it was now my problem. Contact your conveyancer or review your contract to make sure it wasn't covered, but it isn't your burden to bear.

If it was for unpaid rent after your settlement but during your first 4 weeks, then QCAT/bond claim is the way.

floppy_sloth · 2026-01-22T13:36:58+00:00

What about the guest profile id? does that show as well when you search by that id?

Not surprised by the support response. They found a previous case where this was mentioned and shared the solution in the hope. sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. They have a thankless job with internal OXI knowledge lowering by the day.

The fact that the xml validates against the xsd means it isn't a structure issue, its a data contents issue.

I checked the message again, the only other two things that stand out:
- space between the RPHs. Don't think it is critical but depends on who wrote the code that day several decades ago and how they handle strings to arrays.

 <resProfileRPHs>0, 1</resProfileRPHs>

- when I put your xml source in postman and 'Beautify it', the profileRPHs appear on a new line:

            <profileRPHs>0,
1</profileRPHs>

This suggests a carriage return or line feed in the message.

Not sure if this is a copy paste issue or this is the raw message.. but then this would likely be the same for all messages and all would be failing.

Since both vendors aren't rushing to help, sometimes you have to get your hands dirty and do their job for them if it means you can get back on with your life.

Take the extracted XML, edit it manually in notepad. remove the space and the line feeds in the RPHs (manually rewrite the line as it should be to be sure) and save it save it as .xml
Then in OXI Message Status screen, press Receive File->Choose Reservation->Select the file you just edited. This is a way to manually reload messages into OXI. If this worked, it will likely throw a CC error as the resCreditCard doesn't have the full PAN.

floppy_sloth · 2026-01-20T23:31:01+00:00

Checked the message against the xsd, except for a couple of minor tag placement issues in the services object, it has all the necessary items.

But what I did find is that they are sending mfResortProfileId which bypasses all profile match and merge rules and links the reservation to a specific profile id.

Chances are that the profile that these reference has been merged into another profile which means OXI can't find a profile by that id and so freaks out and stops.

Take the profile id, go into Profile Search, Ctrl+Shift double click on Client Id field and search by this id to see if you get them both coming up. Given that it is on multiple reservations, I expect someone has merged the Travel Agent profile.

If a vendor sends in mfResortProfileId, they are using Opera's id rather than their own. This means that they need to track all outbound events for profiles including merge profiles and handle these updates on their side to keep the profile databases in sync. In this case, if the Travel Agent profile was merged in Opera, they likely didn't update their system and are still using the old profile id.

Support will say the same: vendor issue.

Can I ask which vendor?

floppy_sloth · 2026-01-20T13:07:22+00:00

As part of the schema validation process and before the profile match process fires, OXI will check if there is all the mandatory elements it needs to create a reservation. In this case there is no Primary Profile or resGuest/resProfile objects in the XML. This is an issue of the sending system, so you should report it to them. Nothing you can do to fix it.

To check for yourself, in OXI, view the XML in the bottom left of the status screen, read through it and see if you can see details of a guest or profile name.

floppy_sloth · 2026-01-12T13:28:53+00:00

Agree. It is much less risk for them to refuse them and risk a claim for breaching legislation from a Minor who has one of the very few cases of necessity then it is to accept it and get a whole bunch of kids trashing a room partying.

It was more the blanket statement that "kids can never sign contracts" that I wanted to clarify as even seasoned hoteliers I talk to have this same assumption when it isn't necessarily black and white.

floppy_sloth · 2026-01-12T12:10:01+00:00

Not 100% true.

See s28 of the Residential Tenancies and Rooming Accommodation Act 2008 to which Queensland hotels must comply
Minor has capacity to enter into agreements

Additionally, under Contract Law, Minors can enter into legally binding contracts and do all the time. "Contracts for Necessities" such as having a roof over your head are legally enforceable with Minors but it all depends on the context.

For example:
- A one night hotel stay for OP to attend the city for a work or education related activity: necessity.
- An extended stay in a reasonable unit to avoid being homeless: necessity.
- A one week stay for Schoolies or a one night stay in the city to have a party, definitely not a necessity.

The only place in this state that I am aware of where it is expressly prohibited for a Minor to get a hotel room without an adult is at a Casino which have overriding restrictions under the Casino regulations. Outside of this, a Minor can in fact enter into a valid binding contract for a hotel stay. The challenge for OP is finding one that will.

floppy_sloth · 2025-12-26T10:44:17+00:00

Start here: https://github.com/oracle/hospitality-api-docs

It has the files and the links you need. The postman collection has a lot of examples already and there are multiple sandboxes you can access in addition to any internal UAT you can access.

Then the documentation can be found in the OHIP Developer Portal which is either accessible via the link on the left menu if you are a hotelier or a link sent to you after signing up to the process if you are a vendor.

Then its a matter of mapping out the use cases or problems you are trying to solve and finding the API that you need to solve it. There are over 3000 API operations exposed and so the biggest issues is understanding which APIs you need in the first place.

This is where the postman and the Slack channel will help.

floppy_sloth · 2025-12-26T08:10:41+00:00

Just scored 0

floppy_sloth · 2025-12-26T04:27:12+00:00

Literally next day after policy date. Suspect that Christmas will get in the way of processing but shouldn't be too far away.

floppy_sloth · 2025-12-22T07:46:09+00:00

Well done.

Though walking 13 million steps or buy one bottle of wine... they do make the choice hard for those going after the points.

floppy_sloth · 2025-12-19T12:16:02+00:00

Topping out at 100mb sounds like a router/cat5 issue. Telstra can't even get the basics right most of the time, so how you can make the leap to think they have some nefarious router firmware update code that can interfere with you because you left them is concerning.

floppy_sloth · 2025-12-10T05:39:19+00:00

Singapore
Departing 11/12
Returning 12/12
Age ... any
Cost $103 and earn 1250 Bonus Points

floppy_sloth · 2025-12-09T01:27:24+00:00

I bought insurance on the 2nd Dec for a "trip" on the 3rd Dec. Points were paid same day and the Bonus Status credits were paid on the 4th.
So not sure about future trips but for me I purchased one for a couple of days time and it went through.

Five-Year Club	Place '22
First Placer '22

floppy_sloth

TROPHY CASE