America West Stupidity in Philly

[sentrido]

WTF? Missed my flight this morning due to not enough agents and no america west kiosks. The supervisor informed us (us being the 30 or so pax who missed our flights) that they have been asking for kiosks but managment wont give them any, and that they cant add agents cause they are only allowed to have so many. :angry:

 

[madders]

maybe the ticket agents needs to check passengers a little faster and also passengers need to show up on time for check in

 

[EyeInTheSky]

maybe the ticket agents needs to check passengers a little faster and also passengers need to show up on time for check in

If 30 people can't be checked-in for a flight the company is hosed. Let's be real here, what do you expect in Philly for $7 an hour? Sadly, many of the new agents in PHL have such a 'tude that it doesn't matter what you pay them -- it' not going to change.

 

[sentrido]

I just want to say that everybody who missed the flight were there early enough and that the supervisor admitted as much and took full responability, My problem wasnt with the agents who were actually USAir and did the best with what they had. The problem was there wasnt just 30 pax, there were over a hundred, America west had like 5 morning flights and 2 agents. At one point the line didnt move for 45 min. Apparently they also are newly trained on the sofware so they were on the phone to the help desk a ton too. Did they dump the America west agents?

 

[PQAKnow-It-All]

I just want to say that everybody who missed the flight were there early enough and that the supervisor admitted as much and took full responability, My problem wasnt with the agents who were actually USAir and did the best with what they had. The problem was there wasnt just 30 pax, there were over a hundred, America west had like 5 morning flights and 2 agents. At one point the line didnt move for 45 min. Apparently they also are newly trained on the sofware so they were on the phone to the help desk a ton too. Did they dump the America west agents?

HP never had any employees in Philly. CO ran our counter for years, and less than 1yr ago AA took over ground Ops for HP. After the merger, we jumped over to USair immediately.

I have a hard time accepting the statement that they are not allowed to add more agents...That is a supervisor trying to pawn off the problem as someone elses fault, instead of getting in and helping him/herself!

least, that is my conspiracy theory!

 

[sentrido]

I dont know if it was a lie, and the supervisor said they didnt know how to use the software when someone "politely" asked them to help check people in....

 

[tadjr]

I see its not just a TPA problem then. There are only certain agents who went to a 2 week class who are qualified to check in the HP flights since they use a different computer system.
Our station sent 10 (count them 10) agents to train to cover 3 flights a day, 7 days a week (725am, 451pm, 840pm). Manager SAID this was all he was authorized to send (?) Anyway, some days we only have 2 agents (1 counter, 1 gate) to check in the flight so I wouldnt be surprised if PHL is in the same boat staffing wise. Oh, did I forget to mention that the manager says the 2 (well 1) HP agent is to help the 1 US agent also check in their flights? Sat am and 1 agent at US, 2 agents at HP (sup met the inbound plane),US flt to CLT canx. Oops. Which line gets worked now? The canx US line with 1 agent or drag someone over to help the US line and only have 1 check in HP? Both flights were full btw with about 150 people (and 2 other full US flights leaving within the hour). Someone still loves that staffing model that works so well. :down:

I would have just delayed the flight and checked in if everyone was in line in time. I'm not taking the hit anymore (having to deal with 30 people) when someone else cant see there is a problem. Taking delays is the ONLY way its going to get someones attention.

(This is a no yelling zone, thank you. Everyone will make the flight.)

 

[PQAKnow-It-All]

Taking delays is the ONLY way its going to get someones attention.

You got that right. Nothing will change till our A14 is impacted!

 

[Geek]

Unfortunally as we are running 2 different computer systems and people are not cross trained on both systems this is happening in a number of cities.
Doug has announced we are converting all systems over to QIK/SHARES system.
This is a very user friendly and fast checkin system.
But alot of people don't like change after many years. So many people don't want to learn it until they are forced to. Also being under pressure with a new system is hard.
We have training people on hand for a week or so after a city is converted perhaps they should be scheduled to stay longer. I will bring this up to my manager.
More and more people are being trained in all the cities as quickly as we can get to train them. Everyone will be trained on the QIK system. There are training pc's in PHL, CLT and PHX.
We are changing over the cities as fast as we can. But it does take time.
At present we are just putting the two systems side by side.
Starting next year we are going back to all the cities and pulling out the older US systems and installing new pc's with QIK on them in all cities.
All agents and supervisors should be trained before we get to their city.
We just did this 2 years ago going from terminals to pc's through out the HP system, so we have a great template to work with.
I do know that PHL is one city that our upper management is looking at very closly. They know there are problems there and are trying to get to the root of those issues and address them. Rather than just throwing money at the city and not really addressing what is going wrong at the core.
Doug and his team really have done amazing things with America West and I know they can do the same with US East. But attitude of all the employees on both the East and West side is what is going to get us through this. This is the main thing people are going to look at and take their opinion of the NEW US Airways from.
Thanks,
Geek

 

[OldGuyinPA]

Qik might be good. Sabre was, and is, user unfriendly........

 

[sentrido]

I think tadjr hit the nail on the head. When you do a transition like that you should want to overcompensate, not just get by. That, said If there was even just one kiosk It might not have been a problem, Half the people weren't checking bags anyway. I know this cause the super asked everyone to raise thier hands. It is kind of frustrating to look over at all the empty US kiosks and all the US agents sitting by doing nothing while you line never moves, considering they are "merged" airlines, right?

 

[hulagirl]

That's the West way. In PHX, there are only 1 or 2 agents at each gate. We have a mighty lean machine here. I hate to say it, but get used to it. They HAVE managed to get blood out of that turnip!

 

[Geek]

I think tadjr hit the nail on the head. When you do a transition like that you should want to overcompensate, not just get by. That, said If there was even just one kiosk It might not have been a problem, Half the people weren't checking bags anyway. I know this cause the super asked everyone to raise thier hands. It is kind of frustrating to look over at all the empty US kiosks and all the US agents sitting by doing nothing while you line never moves, considering they are "merged" airlines, right?

I do know that kiosk are going to be in the picture for PHL. I do not know the exact # or time frame. I think because there were not any to be moved in PHL that is why there are none at this time.
Thanks,
Geek

 

[crushed]

But alot of people don't like change after many years. So many people don't want to learn it until they are forced to. Also being under pressure with a new system is hard.

Why do the "West" people keep using this example?
The "East" has only had Sabre since 1999 when we had to switch from Pacer due to the year "2000" glitch.
AND we switched right before the Thanksgiving holiday travel season....like the week before!
So please, quit saying we are afraid of change (this isn't our first merger) or that we can't handle the pressure.....been there, done that!

 

[hula-flyguy]

Why do the "West" people keep using this example?
The "East" has only had Sabre since 1999 when we had to switch from Pacer due to the year "2000" glitch.
AND we switched right before the Thanksgiving holiday travel season....like the week before!
So please, quit saying we are afraid of change (this isn't our first merger) or that we can't handle the pressure.....been there, done that!

It's true, and it's not just an east thing. It's an age thing, and with east having a bunch of old foggies, we are reluctant when it comes to change. Be honest, how accepting were you when you were training on SABRE? SABRE sucked then, and it sucks now...not user friendly at all. We adapted to the garbage because we HAD to adapt, not because we wanted to.


Oh, and I didnt see anywhere that it said we "cant handle the pressure"