100,000 LCC travelers stuck...

[PA18]

Correct me if I am wrong, but towards the end, when there were Hub Trackers, weren't they forbidden from making pages and calls in the crew rooms? The theory was that the crew room was a place for crew members to rest and relax and the constant pages on a "bad day" were an annoyance. This prohibited hub trackers from doing what they were supposed to be doing.

I don't remember that restriction on the hub trackers (but then again, I don't remember a lot of things).

As for the crew rooms, they have never been a place to "rest and relax". With crewmembers coming and going, talking to each other, bitching, yakking on cell phones, cell phones ringing, televisions blaring, etc., they have never had any kind of a relaxing ambience.

A couple of bases had what were supposed to be "quiet areas" with lounge chairs, but they were "quiet" in name only. In fact, some were only separated from the noisy din by folding partitions, which were very ineffective.

And I'd love to see the spreadsheet that proves that you lose more money flying a passenger non-stop from the northeast to Florida than you do making that person go through a hub. Especially since that person probably passed on the non-stop on another carrier because the US Airways fare was the cheapest -- read: lowest yielding -- on the internet.

Of course, this is before they mis-connect; or volunteer to get bumped for more free tickets; or have to have their lost bags delivered to them for more cost than they paid for the ticket originally (agents tell me this happens quite often); or need to be put up in a hotel and fed, etc.

All of which begs the obvious question: if you know you're going to lose money on tickets to Florida, then why in the hell to you even bother to offer them?

Let everybody go non-stop to Florida on JetBlue, Southwest, American, AirTran, and Delta -- and let them lose all that money.

 

[JAMAKE1]

Which is another good reason for you to bail out and quit the public bashing. Leave already, your precious dollars are not that valuable, since your criticism drives others away.

Nope. USAirways' incompetence drives others away. Quit making making excuses for what has become a shoddy airline operation. The customer isn't interested in excuses...

 

[AstroLounge]

sky high states: I will NEVER get the image of seeing hundreds and hundreds of passengers lined up OUTSIDE THE TERMINAL in Philly IN THE COLD out of my mind. People were freezing out there!!!!! I watched woman huddle together to stay warm. OLD and YOUNG people, both suffering in the elements. The terminal INSIDE was too crowded for additional people.

WHERE WAS THE ADDITIONAL STAFF? WHERE WAS THE INCENTIVE FOR EMPLOYEES TO COME IN AND HELP OUT ($$)ON THEIR DAYS OFF? :down: :down: :down:

DOUG, remember how long you spent in that JAIL CELL? Your customers did the same, in line, on the aircraft, on the floor sleeping in the airport OVERNIGHT. You think THEY ever want a repeat of that experience? They'll be emailing you. I hope you are humbled by now.
only stating opinions.

HOPEFULLY the EMPLOYEES IN THE WEST CAN VISUALIZE HOW BAD THE SITUATION WAS LAST WEEKEND! There is a world outside of The Desert and this is REAL TIME FACTS. Parker and his Team owe the public a FORMAL APOLOGY and compensation for a MESS that made Jetblue's situation seem a shadow of this event. Customers were gravely mishandled and yet this Management Team tries to put a SPIN on things where "NOTHING IS THEIR FAULT". Terrible situation for EVERYONE that was thrown into this mess!

 

[aredeeyou22]

I swear I remember hearing that they couldn't page, but maybe it was soliciting volunteers to board airplanes or something like that.

Nope, never. Until the very end, they used to page OPR's all the time, they used to page FA's and Pilots that had not checked in, and they used to constantly page offers to trade Europe trips ("anyone FA who has London that wants Amsterdam, please check the desk...") over and over and over...... :wacko:

I usually spend about 30-45 seconds in the crew room when I check in; and that includes checkin my mail file..... too many rodents (and no, I am not referring to Pilots...)

 

[BoeingBoy]

too many rodents (and no, I am not referring to Pilots...)

Careful - you'll offend the rodents.

Jim

 

[aredeeyou22]

Careful - you'll offend the rodents.

Jim

All in fun, Jim.......

 

[BoeingBoy]

I know. I always thought the joke about F/A's and scum of the earth was funny too.

Jim

 

[DesertFA66]

I know. I always thought the joke about F/A's and scum of the earth was funny too.

Jim

What is interesting about this, is there was very, very little fallout in the west during this storm. Perhaps, because we have shares and have had it for quite some time. Isn't it reasonable that the east agents are just not up to speed (literally) on the new system and it takes them much longer????? and thats why there are such long lines? I mean after all, they have been using the same system for so many years now, maybe a changeover is too much with storms, spring break, full flights bad company stuff and all?? Just wondering.

 

[aredeeyou22]

What is interesting about this, is there was very, very little fallout in the west during this storm. Perhaps, because we have shares and have had it for quite some time. Isn't it reasonable that the east agents are just not up to speed (literally) on the new system and it takes them much longer????? and thats why there are such long lines? I mean after all, they have been using the same system for so many years now, maybe a changeover is too much with storms, spring break, full flights bad company stuff and all?? Just wondering.

Am I missing something here? I have read this post several times, and am still confused. Why would there be any type of fallout on the west? The West had no bad weather, is proficient with Shares, and has precious few aircraft in the Northeast at any given time. Again, what am I missing??????

 

[BoeingBoy]

You also have to remember that East agent staffing is based on something like 60-80% of passengers using kiosks to check in. Those kiosks are still not working well with Shares, so the agents were not only having to check in over twice as many originating passengers, but reroute them as well. Add in the very large number of reroutes from misconnects/cancellations affecting connecting passengers and you have the nightmare that ensued.

Jim

 

[phillyphlyer]

yes desertfaa...blame the east agent I kenw it would just be a matter of time...Even tho we have more experienced agts in phl than you have in your entire co(hp)..this is my fourth system....and its the worst ive ever seen....THE SYSTEM DOESNT WORK FOR A BIG AIRLINE!!!!!!!!PERIOD...... three weeks later and we still are having trouble closing out flts...and i know there must be some statistic somewhere from when we switched from pacer to sabre before thanksgiving...iwas there it was nowhere near this disaster

 

[tadjr]

What is interesting about this, is there was very, very little fallout in the west during this storm. Perhaps, because we have shares and have had it for quite some time. Isn't it reasonable that the east agents are just not up to speed (literally) on the new system and it takes them much longer????? and thats why there are such long lines? I mean after all, they have been using the same system for so many years now, maybe a changeover is too much with storms, spring break, full flights bad company stuff and all?? Just wondering.

Could it also be that the training consisted of a couple days of training only? We were still training for QIK/SABRE in Jan, yet only 2 months until we switched systems. The entries may have been the same for the most part, but the responses and look were totally different. Also, many of the things we were used to be able to do in Sabre, you cant do in Shares. What good did it do to teach the "old" way and then have a 2 day update class a month later? One of the gate agents told me she still doesnt know how to do oversales because it wasnt taught. The RSW agents in our class on Feb 27th ( 1 week before cutover) were freaking out because the standby list was so different. They went up to work an HP flight and couldnt believe HOW DIFFERENT IT WAS, yet the company decided a 2 day class was enough to get everyone "up to speed". Even now, its almost impossible to get questions answered. We've been working the system for a year and a half in TPA since we did HP flights, and still have problems. Some of us went to PHX last year to see what we could do to get "up to speed" and were amazed that even though we didnt know that much, we still knew more than some of the agents they let us work with. Again, lack of training. I guess the company doesnt want to invest time in having agents who actually know their job. This is another difference of East and West training. Why bother spending the money to train someone who probably is only going to be here a year or so? Let them do basic checkin and if they have anything more difficult than that, make them call someone else to get it done. Most of us on the East are not used to doing this. We knew our system, what to do and didnt have to call "mommy and daddy" to get something done except in the most extreme cases. Now I feel like the company doesnt trust me enough to train me to do my job up to my ability so we spend hours on the phone (while the line builds out the door) to get even the most simpleist task done at times. But, hey, if you want to blame us, we're used to that by now. Just dont expect us to sit by quietly while we get the cr&p dumped on us again.

 

[REACC1]

It is like I work for a bunch of hari krishners or something. :unsure:

 

[UWCactus]

Desert made some good points on this. I don't think you can blame the agents, but everyone really loves to blame "shares" for this, when Sharese is used by other large airlines and works fine. Continental uses Shares. I think the agents don't know the system well enough yet and that adds to the mess. The problem isn't SHARES, its more of the migration problem.

 

[700UW]

Apparently you have comprehension problems also.

CO uses a differant version of SHARES, they use the full version, and HP/US uses a bare boned version.