Bad Day At Pit

[oldiebutgoody]

Instead of turning this into a bash-management thread (don't we have enough of those), could someone explain:

1) Why checking in at a kiosk with luggage takes ten times as long as checking in without luggage
2) What can be done (besides the obvious throw-out-the-kiosks-and-hire-more-people one) to fix that?

Another thing. Most folks (even those that consider themselves "frequent flyers") do NOT fly enough to get comfortable with the kiosks. There is no "learning curve", because learning never takes place. Therefore, I contend that either the kiosks must be "no brainers" or there MUST be more help available to use them. Note that I said "most folks", as I am quite sure that there are a few technologically saavy people that pick it right up. If UAIR wishes to differentiate itself from the LCC competition they need to examine what it is that brings folks back, and lower ticket prices (or the presumption of them) is only one of the things that do.

 

[funguy2]

Another thing. Most folks (even those that consider themselves "frequent flyers") do NOT fly enough to get comfortable with the kiosks. There is no "learning curve", because learning never takes place. Therefore, I contend that either the kiosks must be "no brainers" or there MUST be more help available to use them. Note that I said "most folks", as I am quite sure that there are a few technologically saavy people that pick it right up. If UAIR wishes to differentiate itself from the LCC competition they need to examine what it is that brings folks back, and lower ticket prices (or the presumption of them) is only one of the things that do.

Look... I don't know what types of people fly US Airways...

But if they are able to use an ATM at the bank, the self-service check-out at Home Depot, the self-service ticket machine at the movies, and the internet to buy their airline ticket, this whole kiosk thing really shouldn't be that hard... What exactly makes the kiosk so hard, supposedly? Does it require a blood sample?

Perhaps there are exceptions for certain groups of people who will never really catch-up to technology (i.e. grandma's who's VCR and microwave still blinks "12:00"). But really, this is not rocket science.

For the record: I have not used a US Airways kiosk, but I've used other airlines kiosks and never had a problem.

The one thing that does seem to get a bit confusing is the bag check-in part, which requires some assistance on the part of airline agents... I am not sure that passengers should ever be allowed to check their bag with no assistance, as agents need to observe what is going on the belt... I would not want to be the Baggage Agent trying to explain to someone with self-sevice bags that they were not carried because of the kerosene, fireworks, and other camping equipment were observed in the bag after they were checked-in....

 

[MrAeroMan]

How fricken pathetic! Uncle Al needs to go! Staffing issues (which they deny) are set by Uncle Al and he has outlived his usefullness.

I disagree!! In order for Uncle Al to outlive his usefulness it would assume that at some point in time he was in fact useful when the fact is he's NEVER been any use to ANYONE!!

 

[Rob]

For the record: I have not used a US Airways kiosk, but I've used other airlines kiosks and never had a problem.

I agree; I've used CAL and AMR kiosks without any problem. I don't know how UAIR handles the baggage issue, but if you press "Check bag" on the CAL machine a CAL CSR magically appears and takes it from there. You don't check it in by yourself.

Maybe UAIR is trying to wring the personnel savings out of PIT before the flights have been cut.

It may be a management miscalculation; but let's face it: they're desperate.

 

[mweiss]

CO was one of the first airlines to adopt the kiosks. They've had many years to get the kinks out of the system. In fact, they're on their second iteration of hardware (running Windows NT; the first iteration ran OS/2).

 

[MrAeroMan]

Instead of turning this into a bash-management thread (don't we have enough of those), could someone explain:

1) Why checking in at a kiosk with luggage takes ten times as long as checking in without luggage
2) What can be done (besides the obvious throw-out-the-kiosks-and-hire-more-people one) to fix that?

I've used the kiosks extensively and I don't have a problem with them and honestly never have. I have seen people have problems but the agent was always right there to help and minimized the frustration level of the pax.
Now there are lots of things that both company and pax can do to move things along more easily.
First would be for the pax to have their information available to them when they approach the kiosk. I can't tell you how many times I've witnessed some nitwit go to the kiosk then spend five minutes looking for their travel information. What the heck were they doing while they were standing in line?
Second would be for some type of instructions posted to those in line at the kiosk line that would tell the pax what they need to do when they get to the kiosk like have your information or flight number available before you get to there. I think if they know a little of what to expect it might ease their fears. I know it's pretty much self explanatory but you'd be surprised how many people are intimidated by that machine. When they're finished they're much more willing to do it again but the first time is always the most difficult. Now I've seen some that are just too damn lazy to do it and don't want to learn how to do it either so they just walk up and immediately look for an agent to help them. Those types you will never teach and are an agents dream for job stability.

That's my take for what it's worth.

 

[mweiss]

I think some management criticism may be in order.

No doubt. But it should be constructive criticism, rather than the usual management bashing that goes on around here.

They should have known about the number of passengers coming to the airport and had proper staffing and technology in place to deal with the influx of people.

I don't think the issue is a particularly high load factor. Rather, the issue is a particularly high load factor combined with a particularly large number of checked bags. When the tickets are sold, they don't ask how many bags will be checked.

 

[MrAeroMan]

I think some management criticism may be in order. Management sells the tickets... They should have known about the number of passengers coming to the airport and had proper staffing and technology in place to deal with the influx of people.

If management cannot do this, they should not sell so many tickets.

I've heard that the company is after the station managers to increase their kiosk use numbers and some stations have pretty much gone to having the agents manning the kiosks to get their numbers up but when they ask the company what makes up their numbers for kiosk use no one can answer the question. Local management is then hamstrung as they are told to get their numbers up by funneling more pax into the kiosk line and when they do their numbers don't increase. You can't funnel more than 100 percent of the pax into the kiosk line and if you can't explain where your numbers are coming from or what areas you are pulling from to get the numbers you set it's obvious that you bent over and pulled a figure from a place where the sun doesn't shine.
Now if they can't tell the manager where they are getting kiosk numbers I'm almost positive no one can tell them what to expect in local boardings for any given day. As a matter of fact I believe it is information that they have asked for and was told that information could not be generated.

 

[funguy2]

I don't think the issue is a particularly high load factor. Rather, the issue is a particularly high load factor combined with a particularly large number of checked bags. When the tickets are sold, they don't ask how many bags will be checked.

No excuse. The airline should be prepared.

If I take my car to Jiffy Lube... and wait for 2 hrs, only for it to be explained that they ran out of oil because all the cars that day needed more oil than usual, I would not be a happy camper. Their management would have screwed up. There would be costs to rectify the situation (both in terms of getting the store the supplies they need and to win back my business).

The same for US Airways at PIT. I wonder how much extra it cost, in money and in agent time, to re-route passengers because they stood in line too long and missed their flight, and how much extra that backed up the line, causing a snow-ball effect... I'll bet by the end of the day it was huge.

 

[funguy2]

Now if they can't tell the manager where they are getting kiosk numbers I'm almost positive no one can tell them what to expect in local boardings for any given day. As a matter of fact I believe it is information that they have asked for and was told that information could not be generated.

So I think what you are saying is that the airline cannot decipher between local boarding and conx at the hub, in advance? (Because obviously they can determine how many people are booked on one individual flight, whether conx or local, otherwise Revenue Management would not even be possible.)

That just seems stupid, although I somehow would not be surprised. Again, this number can be determined. Management must spend money and resources to do it... Again, a management failure. Employees (like staffing dept managers) were not given the tools to make decisions which would have resulted in good customer service.

By the way, other airlines do have this ability... This is not impossible.

 

[MrAeroMan]

So I think what you are saying is that the airline cannot decipher between local boarding and conx at the hub, in advance? (Because obviously they can determine how many people are booked on one individual flight, whether conx or local, otherwise Revenue Management would not even be possible.)

That just seems stupid, although I somehow would not be surprised. Again, this number can be determined. Management must spend money and resources to do it... Again, a management failure. Employees (like staffing dept managers) were not given the tools to make decisions which would have resulted in good customer service.

By the way, other airlines do have this ability... This is not impossible.

I absolutely and fully agree with you. It's a problem somewhere and needs to be addressed.

 

[2clippedwings]

Isn't this a sad reflection of our society? One's first reaction to a company blaming its customers for showing up may be to throw their arms up in total frustration and disbelief. But when the time is taken to reflect on how people in the United States today refuse to accept responsibility when due, it is clear that this statement only points to the uncountable number of like instances that take place daily in both the public and private arenas.

In addition to placing the blame on customers, she asserts that they are lying.

Does anyone know who would have authorized these comments? Do they come from someone at PIT or Crystal City? I heard on TV last night that a CSR would be calling each and every customer to personally apologize for what happened. How does that square with these comments?

I was always taught, in a supervisor-employee relationship, that accountability always rests on the supervisor. I think that the apology that needs to be made is a personal one from management (the top) to the employees for creating a staffing model that would allow this to happen. And then they need to figure out how to do it correctly.

jm

I was on the road 6 days last week with several deadheads included. I have never overheard so many of our passengers complaining before about....you name it, mainly having to do with reliability and service.
My job has never been more difficult trying to provide good service with virtually no tools. Do you think any of these passengers will come back?
To top it off, our mouthpiece BLAMES our bread and butter. Hello! Do we have jobs with no passengers? Once again, the word "accountability" comes up. How 'bout some??? (rant off) :huh:

 

[mweiss]

By the way, other airlines do have this ability... This is not impossible.

Nope, it sure isn't. This is why a good IT department is critical. It seems to be one of the reasons CO is doing better than average.

 

[W:EXCH:INVOL]

I can't speak for PIT in particular, but we had long lines at our station this past weekend, too. A LOT of the travelers were vacationers, not the usual "I can use this stupid thing if I have to" types. There are a lot of issues with the kiosks that management (there's that word again) just will not believe can cause problems. Say a party of 4 checks in, but the Mr. is on an award ticket. He's on a seperate reservation now and his name doesn't come up with the other 3. I can check them in faster. Or maybe it was little Suzie's friend that Dad burned some miles for. Suzie's on a seperate reservation and it's doubtful she has her own credit card. I can do it faster. A party of 4 checks in for an international conx with passports. Do you realize how long it takes for each customer to type in their first name, last name, nationality, date of birth, emergency contact name and phone number? (Why isn't there an option to use the same contact?) It's ridiculous. Then, throw in the fact that I have to take all of your passports, go to a computer, pull up the information that YOU just typed in and verify that it's correct and it just gets stupider. How about a party of 4, 3 with passports, 1 with a birth certificate. Nope. Not on the kiosk. In the time it takes to show Joe and Myrtle Flyonceayear how to type all this stuff in, I could have done it 5 times. In our station, my boss' number one priority seems to be kiosk numbers and now we've been told our international numbers are way too low. This past weekend we said the hell with it and checked in all the internationals manually. This frees up the kiosks for easier (?) check-ins. Another issue that wastes time is seat assignments. If it's done in advance, swell. If not, and there are no seats together, then each customer chooses a seat individually, then back to page 1 for the next one. On top of that, exit rows and handicapped seats require another page of text to read and confirm. May not sound like a lot, but it does waste time. I'm not completly against kiosks, but you have to realize there's a time and a place for them. I know most of you outsiders think they're no big deal, but PLEASE believe me when I say there really are some people out there who do not want to use them. It's like pulling teeth. Someone above mentioned that at CO an agent magically appeared when you hit the bag check button. We do, too. Of course I only have 2 agents working 4 machines and sometimes, depending on the time it's 1. And for the most part this past weekend they weren't just there to check bags. It was ugly at our place, I can only imagine how bad it was in PIT.

 

[mweiss]

I'm not completly against kiosks, but you have to realize there's a time and a place for them.

Absolutely correct. And you have a good laundry list of problems with the kiosks, many of which can be fixed with software upgrades.

• Separate but related records: It should be possible to pull up related records automatically. I don't think that the current res system is able to handle this, even without the kiosks. Is that true?
• International checkin: How about either an optical scanner of the passport like they have at the Immigration station at customs? Or, barring that, how about asking for the information at the time of purchase, instead of at checkin? Of course, if the passport has to be physically inspected at checkin, then dump the kiosks altogether for this purpose; once a human has to be involved, the kiosk just slows things down.
• Changing seat assignments: It should be like NW's system, where you can check multiple people in and coordinate seating. All are assigned on a single screen.
• Irregular ops: When things go wrong, it would be quite useful to allow for rebooking on kiosks. Right now, with reduced staffing, if a flight has a long delay or cancellation, the small number of agents on site have to handle 100-200 unhappy customers with more time-consuming processes. This one isn't trivial to program, but it'd pay huge dividends on several levels.

But ultimately you are right on target. Kiosks cannot for the foreseeable future completely replace human beings.