Customers complaining. 250-300 calls on hold in Reservations common

[Reservation Agent]

Almost evey call I get in Reservations is from a customer complaining that they waited 20-30 minutes to get thru to buy a ticket...Our average calls on hold is running 250-300 with everyone already on a call...I think a big mistake was made closing Orlando reservations office...The is a quick need to call back agents furloughed at airport locations to save these sales calls or new hiring at the last 2 Res centers we have left now... Pax complaining that they can''t book online...it is down alot, get error messages, etc...

 

[Severed-N-Happy]

fuggetaboutit..1-I have been adamantly informed in the past by most folks here that the wait time is under 5 minutes, or they get right through... people love to exaggerate.2- Siegel can''t afford more employees, he is busy lining his own pockets. Read this if you want nausea........
[url="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A10697-2003Apr11.html"]http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/artic...-2003Apr11.html[/URL]

 

[AtlanticBeach]

I called 4 times today between 10AM and 1PM EDT for both new reservations and reissues. Did not wait at all.

The website, however, remains virtually unusable for reservations.

 

[SalesGuyCCY]

Why do you think the website is "virtually unsuable for reservations." It provides hundreds of millions of $ in revenue annually...that would be hard to believe.

 

[Severed-N-Happy]

Hey!!!!! no bashing the website, remember those 2 Dust Bowl Midwest colleges awarded the website top kudos a few years back and also just awarded US top kudos in cus svc for 2002.......doesn't that just say it all?

 

[AtlanticBeach]

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On 4/13/2003 9:07:55 PM SalesGuyCCY wrote:

Why do you think the website is "virtually unsuable for reservations." It provides hundreds of millions of $ in revenue annually...that would be hard to believe.

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The inability to use the back button is a major impediment. In addition to Bob''s comments, there have been many other problems. A few of the ones that I have found include;

1. Using the pricing option often results in acceptance of certain dates until the user attempts to select flights. A nice little red box appears indicated that the date specified and previously accepted is not available.
2. Multiple charges for the same ticket. The record in our family is being charged FIVE TIMES for the same transaction.
3. Inability to be properly placed in the upgrade queue.
4. If the computer does not like the connection that it previously offered, the itinerary will be changed later without the passengers consent. This creates an additional problem of preventing the passenger from using a kiosk for check-in.

These problems (and others) are becoming more frequent. Two years ago, I used usairways.com for most of my tickets. Currently, I use it less than 10% of the time.

 

[REACC1]

We probably just need a couple more VP''s of something or another. That''ll fix it.

 

[MCORORES]

The fact of the matter is yes we have being getting slammed especially at night with the average of 130 calls when I start and when I go home 250 calls on hold. It is getting kinda bad when you here Silver and Gold preferred telling you that they have never had to wait that long. One wonders how much $$$$$ we are losing, but heard from the talk in the break room that people who are ready to purchase their tkts will be placed at the head of the line as U tries a test program for 4 weeks if I heard correct. That addresses the lost revenue, but does not address the long wait for others. IMO it was a mistake closing another res office. But we all know that when you are in BK and the office is owned by the company, well the writing is on the wall. But as Isaac''s theory states "Every action causes a reaction" that is what we are dealing with here. Other situations that have increased the call volume is the new TIPS 3 for reissue which I am sorry...takes longer to do and the system is not the quickest and the UA awards. Peace of mind is not really a player as it was the previous weeks. The website has always been a problem and as the previous poster stated that dual reservations have become commonplace and I at least once a day refund due to dual purchase. The bottom line is that there are more calls coming in no matter what the reason and not enough people to answer the phone. Day time seems to be just a little better covered than the afternoon shifts. Another thing I would like to address is the poster on a previous thread stating that they have heard that BNA was going to reopen. Nothing more than a pipe dream IMO. SAN, IND, SYR, UCA, DAY, RNO, BNA and my old office MCO are things of the past. These offices will not reopen and at least for the short term, there will be no new res offices.

 

[KCFlyer]

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On 4/13/2003 9:07:55 PM SalesGuyCCY wrote:

Why do you think the website is "virtually unsuable for reservations." It provides hundreds of millions of $ in revenue annually...that would be hard to believe.

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The web site is "pretty". It's just not terribly functional or user friendly. Remember - a lot of folks trying out your website are not C++ developers - they are just slightly higher than "computer illiterate". Any other airline website accepts the use of the "back" button without complaint. Not only does the "back" button not work, but in order to get it to do anything, you've pretty much got to rekey the URL.

I think it's fantastic if U's website is bringing in "hundreds of millions" in revenues. Southwests less "pretty" but much easier to navigate web site is bringing in billions. Something to think about.​

 

[RowUnderDCA]

Gosh, I keep saying this, but I think that USAirways.com is the best and easiest website around, putting aside other agendas regarding getting pricing in the airline industry. I can understand that folks that are high frequency users may wish that specific tasks be easier.

I am a low-time frequent flier that doesn't have a particular point of view or agenda regarding use of the website or ticketing or pricing.

Again, I can understand the folks that wish that U would allow them more ability to get what they want. I don't think that's U's policy. The policy needs to change, then the website will.

I mean to say, I never have any of these technical problems, and I'm willing to accept U's policy regarding pricing transparency. Generally, I think more transparency is better, but that's a higher grade decision than USAirways.com gets to make, I'd think.

 

[geo1004]

I must chime in about the website. I used to book 90% of my tickets thru the website. Now it''s down to about 50%.

I get knocked out of the system ("system error'') about 60% of the time and have never been able to book on the first try. It always requires me to close the browser (the only way to ensure a fresh start as often simply going to the home page won''t clear the cobwebs) and log back in....

 

[KCFlyer]

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On 4/14/2003 10:33:03 AM RowUnderDCA wrote:

Gosh, I keep saying this, but I think that USAirways.com is the best and easiest website around, putting aside other agendas regarding getting pricing in the airline industry. I can understand that folks that are high frequency users may wish that specific tasks be easier.

I am a low-time frequent flier that doesn't have a particular point of view or agenda regarding use of the website or ticketing or pricing.

Again, I can understand the folks that wish that U would allow them more ability to get what they want. I don't think that's U's policy. The policy needs to change, then the website will.

I mean to say, I never have any of these technical problems, and I'm willing to accept U's policy regarding pricing transparency. Generally, I think more transparency is better, but that's a higher grade decision than USAirways.com gets to make, I'd think.

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Here's an example (and I'll avoid using SWA to keep from getting folks pissed off):

I want to book a flight on American (or United or Continental). I check their website and it displays the flights for the times I have entered...but I realize that I accidently put in 5/10 instead of 5/11. So I click back, change the date, and continue on. The correct flights are displayed.

On U, I do the same thing. Now, I have finally realized that there is a place on the screen that displays flights that allows me to change dates, but it took me a few times to even notice it. I have clicked the "back" button and am greeted with a message that an error has occured. So, I click refresh. That still isn't good enough, so I type in www.usairways.com again. I consider myself fairly adept at using a computer, but I have never recieved as many errors on any website as I do on the U website. That's not asking them to show me anything extra... I'm not an "elite" anything...all I want is to book a flight. The website makes it a chore. Make it easier to use, so that even if a person uses the "back" button, they can still get the information they are looking for. If someone gets fed upwith the web site, then calls the reservation number and sits on hold for 10 minutes...there is a damn good chance that they will hang up and book someone else. And I don't think that there are any ready made "stats" to reflect lost revenue from a difficult to use website combined with a bare bones reservations department.

And a final thought...how willing is someone going to be to trust entering a credit card number into a system that kicked them out umpteen times??​

 

[geo1004]

I just tried to book a ticket online to BWI. I picked my dates and it showed me my options. I picked my flights and hit "continue" and it showed the flights I''d picked and the price. I clicked "continue" and it asked me for my password (as a return customer). I typed in my password and hit "continue". I clicked the "bypass seat maps" option (because you have zero access to Preferred seating on the website so I always just let it assign me seats based on my preferences and then call the Chairman''s desk to change them later). Then I click the "buy ticket" option. That''s when the system bumps me out and says there was an "error" for any one of three or four reasons (system busy, my session "timed out", etc. etc.).

Completely useless.