No Ticket Agent - Only Kiosk

[diogenes]

Management is determined to see how much s&*t you will stand still for.

Case in point - RJ's.

According to the Palace, they operate so cheaply they are the only was to 'save' the airline. Assuming that's true, did they pass any of the savings on to you?

Noticed an increased frequency in missing bags on RJ trips? Sat at the window and watched them drive away? Rj's can't carry you, the bags AND fuel in 'weather', and something has to give.

Howzabout the watusi you go thru at CLT E Con you go thru to get your carryon bag (that you couldn't actually carry on - somewhere Orwell is laughing his a$$ off)? Wait, with 30 other passengers, in a narrow jetway, while the bags are brought up? Convenient, that is. And that's assuming you even GET a jetway.

From what I see, this crap has been accepted. Why shouldn't management make another land grab? It's working well for the on the labor side.

 

[Severed-N-Happy]

My daily observations of the kiosks over the past few months, as well as accompanying distributed station kiosk stats, indicate the kiosks function properly and efficiently 70 to 80 percent of the time for domestic and roughly 40-50pct for international. That's a helluva lot of passengers (in my book) and there are few excuses not to use them when prudent. Despite this high pctg, failures will occur due to 1-name on card not matching name on reservation, even if off by a just letter or two, especially with JOE JUNIORS and the THIRDS. OR 2-when two people have same first and last name not differentiated by an extra middle initial. Also 3-failure if etkt is not reissued before airport chkin when previous changes are made. Or 4-paper tickets issued on OA or paper intl tkts..Most of these 1st 3 situations can be corrected with extra time and effort and care in the booking and ticketing and reissuing process.The CHANGE FLIGHT/STANDBY (with or without fees) process works well unless the flight chosen is very full. All this said, there is still plenty of "human" work to be done for UMNRS, PETS, REROUTES, GATE PASSES and FCU's.

 

[Seatacus]

Here's a suggestion. Fiddle around the kiosk like you have no idea what your doing or your having all kinds of trouble trying to figure out how to work the thing. You'll have an agent rushing to help you just to get you through the line to make way for the next user.

[post="243491"][/post]​

Great idea..........Also try this, push a different language button and checkin in another language. :huh:

 

[ISP]

JS,

I think we are both sorta correct on the travel agent thing. Consumer travel agents (think small) do have to call SWA. I think larger ones like the one I use for corporate travel (in house Travel agency) do have access to SWA.

As for Fly I and Jet Blue, I think I said "Profitable" airlines. Fly I is in the toilet and correct me if I'm wrong but didn't Jet Blue report a losing quarter?

Truth be told I never paid the 2 you mention any mind because they fly from PHL, ABE or ACY. Sorry for the oversight.

[post="243521"][/post]​

You've been corrected. JetBlue posted a profit of 12 million, even amid forecasts of losses.

 

[ELP_WN_Psgr]

Correction: JetBlue's profit was 2.4 Mil for Q4. Still, a profit = a profit = a profit.

I said this a while back, but it probably bears repeating:

if you want folks to use kiosks, or the website.....you don't penalize them. You don't tell them they can't have an agent or speak to a reservationist. That's punitive. This is a customer service industry.

If you wan't to modify folks' behavior, you make it appealing for them to do what you want. You reward them with extra miles or credits for booking on line. You get your kiosk to spit out a free drink coupon when people use it.

A good question is how can WN pay their personnel better wages, charge low walk-up fares and give away virtually unrestricted FF tickets?

There are several reasons (their management is stupid or greedy, they strive to do smart things, etc etc) Going back to their management not being stupid.....look at what they did to get folks to their website:

Double RR credits (until about 55 or 60% of their psgrs were booking there) and then it went to a 50% premium (you get 1.5 RR credits for each trip booked on line).

The best thing they've done is allow on line check in. What's the incentive? Do it at midnight the day of your trip and get a guaranteed boarding group A. Now, you all denigrate the idea of unassigned seats, but being in group A is absolutely positively a guarantee of being able to pick a good place to sit.

Using a kiosk? Same deal. The sooner you get boarding pass, the better your chance of getting the much coveted boarding card "A". Why wait to talk to an agent when the machine will give you an A card now?

They don't charge you to call res and book, they don't pitch a fit if you wait to check in and see an agent. They just make it desirable for you to use the automation. I would suggest U do likewise.

 

[deltawatch]

How do you guys like the new ticketing policy ..... walk up to a ticket counter to pay for your ticket and there's a $10.00 service fee. Call reservations and pay over the phone and there's a $5.00 fee. Do it yourself online and .... wala! No fee!

 

[ALCARLOS]

We need to establish as a long term objective - no USAirways employees at any airport. The people are wonderful and work hard, but the value they add continues to decline.

There are a number of ways to get to this point and current punitative measures are certainly not the best. Howeve, we must keep in mind that the elimination of airport labor costs is an important strategic objective in order to meet the competition.

 

[JS]

How do you guys like the new ticketing policy ..... walk up to a ticket counter to pay for your ticket and there's a $10.00 service fee. Call reservations and pay over the phone and there's a $5.00 fee. Do it yourself online and .... wala! No fee!

[post="243684"][/post]​

That's OK with me if the charge is only levied on tickets that could be purchased on-line.

I exchanged a $-off voucher for a ticket with US Airways and was not charged a $5 fee to set up the reservation by phone nor a $10 fee for turning over the piece of paper at the airport.

With UA, on the other hand, they charge you the ten bucks to exchange a paper certificate for a ticket, and they charge you $15 for booking an award ticket by phone, yet you cannot book non-UA flights on a UA award ticket at united.com, and obviously you can't exchange a paper certificate for a ticket at united.com either. Boo hiss UA for charging people like this when there is no other option. :down:

 

[Winglet]

Lakefield's been successful and getting rid of lazy, greedy employees.

Now he's working on getting rid of those pesky customers.

 

[usairways_vote_NO]

Now he's working on getting rid of those pesky customers.

[post="243740"][/post]​

Yep taking after Bronner who did it with mouth

 

[MarkMyWords]

You can Thank Uncle AL for the push to use Kiosks. Every week the managers are on a conference call that is called the Weekly Quality Review. Any station not making their numbers are humiliated on the Kiosk usage slide. Most all of these Customer Unfriendly policies have to pass his desk before implimentation. (or come from him directly)

For people like Al, it is all about those stats and screw the customer.

 

[Hawk]

You can Thank Uncle AL for the push to use Kiosks. 

I thank Al Crellin for doing his job and saving the company money. MMW, are we the only airline that are utilizing Kiosks? I didn't think so... We must embrace change as it develops.

Kiosks are a win-win situation for both the customers and airlines. The processing of a number of passengers can be de-centralized, leading to a better use of staff resources and reduced bottlenecks.

A self-service check-in costs an airline about 20 cents per passenger, compared with between $3-4 dollars for one involving an agent.

The bottom line is that Kiosks allows passengers to find more time to relax before takeoff and enables them to have a wonderful flying experience.

 

[calibrator]

We must embrace change as it develops.

[post="243916"][/post]​

Embrace mutilation of employees is what you hatchet men accomplish and nothing more...LOVE CURT

 

[Kev3188]

The bottom line is that Kiosks allows passengers to find more time to relax before takeoff and enables them to have a wonderful flying experience.

[post="243916"][/post]​

This sounds like something straight out of Joseph Goebbels' playbook. Hawk, surely even you could have come up with a stronger rationale that that. :down:

 

[ClueByFour]

I thank Al Crellin for doing his job and saving the company money. MMW, are we the only airline that are utilizing Kiosks? I didn't think so... We must embrace change as it develops.

You guys cannot operate a toaster, much less a kiosk or airline. Send Al over to the LUV checkin area at PHL with a notepad.

Kiosks are a win-win situation for both the customers and airlines. The processing of a number of passengers can be de-centralized, leading to a better use of staff resources and reduced bottlenecks.

It only works when the kiosks work. The US kiosks are light years behind in the areas of usability, and if anything (and I do mean anything) has changed in a record, they don't work. Do you care to address the functionality gaps that have been addressed in this thread, or are you going to pull a propogandist hit and run posting again?

A self-service check-in costs an airline about 20 cents per passenger, compared with between $3-4 dollars for one involving an agent.

I'd love to see which business analyst cooked up that figure. I guess it (once again, and in error) assumes perfect operation of the kiosk for every function. Alas, your BA must have been absent the day they tought gap analysis and identification at business school, since US' kiosks simply don't work all that well most of the time.

The bottom line is that Kiosks allows passengers to find more time to relax before takeoff and enables them to have a wonderful flying experience.

[post="243916"][/post]​

I triple-dog-dare you to head out to one of the stations that has no "real" line at all and confirm that supposition.