Nonrev Alert For Tpa Express Flights

[RowUnderDCA]

Wow, I guess things have changed. I can remember being treated with unexpected kindness when travelling alone as a young ADULT on Piedmont as a dependent passrider in college. In fact, I recall feeling guilty at being treated so kindly. Hmmm, maybe that's why I have a loyalty to U now that I"m spending my own money. I guess that's kind of missplaced, huh? I don't think I ever did fly as a passrider on a U flight. Oh, I guess buddy-passes count, so yes I have.

 

[Oliver Twist]

Sorry to have interupted this thread and gotten it off track a bit, but I just had to say something. If we can not as agents be decent to our own freinds and family members traveling on a pass, what chance have we got with fare paying passengers?

Agents: Think long and hard BEFORE you open your mouth to nonrevs and say some snide or cruel remark. The tables WILL someday be turned against you. It will one day be your Mom/Dad, child or wife getting rude and reprehensible treatment from a gate/counter agent when they try to check in or get onboard a flight. How shameful! It embarrasses me to hear such tales from others.

If a NRSA is late to the gate, check what time the inbound flight got to the gate before you pounce on them. It is more than likely that the inbound flight WAS late and they ran full steam to the connecting gate only to be belittled by a gate agent who didn't think before speaking.

All they want to do is go home or start a vacation. Maybe a relative was in a accident or died. How would you feel then knowing you popped off some cruel remark about their dress or tardiness? NON-Revs know whats expected of them, trust me. All they ask for is some decent treatment and a chance to ask about alternatives if they are bumped. YOU as the agent get in your car and drive home, they are at your mercy. Don't step on them. Tell them what the next flight is and how it looks. Don't make them beg for the information. Would it really hurt you to be kind?

Are all agents lousy to NON-Revs? Of course not. If I sound as though they are, you misread me. I am a customer service agent myself. If I was ever rude to some traveling on a pass, please accept my humble apologies. I make it a point to help out non-revs - It could be my family member one day asking for help or a ride on an airplane.

I have been wanting to get that out for a long time. Thanks for the forum.

 

[tadjr]

(Copied and pasted from another thread) usramperTPA said:
On a totally different topic, seeing as you are throwing stones at me and I'd like to throw one back at you, are you the sales dept genius that continues to sell our B-P
1900 aircraft here in FL to 19 seats or even oversell them? Because maybe you should take a little W and B training for the B-1900, Did you folks in sales know that when you put 19 passengers on a B-1900 on a longer than average leg, such as TPA-PNS or TPA-VPS/PFN, you cannot take the passengers baggage due to W and B. I know that mgmt's answer is to ask for volunteers, but more times than not, no one wants to give up their seat. This forces us to expedite their baggage thruogh CLT to PNS or even worse to ATL for a connection to VPS/PFN on Delta! This is ludicrous! Yesterday I had expedite a CP's baggage tp PNS through CLT. Do you know how pissed this guy probably was when he got to PNS and his bags didn't? When I was writing the expedite tag for this guys bags, all I could do was cringe! Is there anything we can do to correct this at the sales level? Can't we cap these flights at maybe 16, and oversell to 18? It always seems to be the last passenger's weight that makes or breaks the load on these flights.


usramperTPA



Just thought I'd add this to the thread I had started a few weeks ago. Glad to see we're on the same page with this. Too bad no one above the level of AGENT can grasp what type of service we're giving our customers with these flights. Maybe someone from Express Ops would like to come down one day during a busy day and work the flights to see what exactly goes on and how much it is actually costing us in bag claims, reroutes to other carriers or people who are just fed up with the service standards....

 

[wench]

My spouse flew thru the crown jewel this past sat-and YES THE XPRESS AGT
DID NOT LET HIM BOARD 15 min prior to dep..

This happened in PHL>>

Her rmk"you should have been here earlier'!
BTW he was ibd from BOS>>>

NASTY<NASTY<NASTY>>>> :down: :down:

 

[DLFlyer31]

Anyone know why they pulled the Dash8's off routes like PNS-TPA? I'm not familiar with the situation of U's regionals and all the politics between them. However, I do know that the loads on PNS-TPA were always good on the Dash 8 and the yields were pretty solid too. So why transition to a Beech1900 other than to piss off your customers? I guess since U has a monopoly on the route, they don't care.

 

[phllax]

Mesa pulled their Dash 8's off the Florida routes earlier this summer when they got the contract for UA Express out of Denver. They replaced them with Air Midwest B1900's that were not equipped to fly to the Bahamas. As a result, Gulfstream was "sub-contracted" to fly the Bahamas routes for a certain period of time in their B1900's.

 

[Phoenix]

I'm pretty sure you can't blame CCY for the problems with the Beech1900s. None of the US Group (ALG, PSA, Piedmont) fly 1900's. Therefore we don't dispatch them or plan them in any way. (other than RES filling the seats).

Fact is if USAirways puts their bastardized US Flag Logo on the side of a plane, they have to retain responsibility for the service. As the saying goes, you can delegate authority but you can’t delegate responsibility.

Passenger who put their VISA numer into USAirways.com do not buy the argument that it isn't USAirways fault when things go amuck. They have the choice to use SOUTHWEST.COM next time or Exon.com in Florida. I never fly intra-state in Florida. My car is much more reliable and a much more efficient use of my time.

bas·tard·ize -- To lower in quality or character; debase.

 

[tadjr]

Another wonderful Express night tonight. 5 flights tonight out of 8 anywhere from 1 1/2 to 3 1/2 hours late due to crew problems. Oversales due to weight and crew problems (booking must ride crews on already checked in full flights). And a cartload of bags (about 12 or so) left over at the end of the night with no way to get them to their owners until tomorrow (and all flights tomorrow are full so good luck, we're already behind the curve, but you dont need clothes in EYW right?)
At least several of the customers had the thought to ask for Consumer Affairs address to express their feelings to someone other than the agents. Wonder how many letters they have to get before they attempt to take action?

 

[OldpropGuy]

Don't worry, we won't be bothered with these customers again. Eventually we won't have enough passengers remaining to create these problems!

Wake up CCY! :angry:

 

[tadjr]

And a cartload of bags (about 12 or so) left over at the end of the night with no way to get them to their owners until tomorrow (and all flights tomorrow are full so good luck, we're already behind the curve, but you dont need clothes in EYW right?)

As a followup, I checked EYW bag files today and 7 claims, 12 bags showing didnt arrive. TPA sent the bags to MIA on AA and then TRUCKED them to EYW for delivery since all flights full. They made it to EYW today about 4pm (from 2pm and 5pm flights yesterday). Also in the incedentals they have authorized over $650 to be spent. So, we're looking at close to $800 bucks (depending on van charges) AND at least 2 of the people were going to the same wedding that 2 of the people I spoke to on the delayed flight last night were on so that should be a good topic to discuss at the reception (and who doesnt think they wont tell about their wonderful US experience?)

What's the price to get this corrected? I hear the same thing from everyone except those in charge who can correct the problem. Manager, fellow agents, even the crews say the same thing. Limit the au's and only book 17. With the new weights each passenger is now 200 lbs. Each checked bag is 30 lbs. So leave off booking 2 customers and you can take 13 extra checked bags a flight. How many did we leave off last night? And what was the cost out of pocket and in bad PR?

I apologize to those who are getting sick of this thread, but the incompetence is mindboggling and the only way it's going to get corrected is when someone finally gets sick of listening to it.

 

[firstamendment]

Anyone know why they pulled the Dash8's off routes like PNS-TPA? I'm not familiar with the situation of U's regionals and all the politics between them. However, I do know that the loads on PNS-TPA were always good on the Dash 8 and the yields were pretty solid too. So why transition to a Beech1900 other than to piss off your customers? I guess since U has a monopoly on the route, they don't care.

We actually have a monopoly on a FL market?