QIK fixes no longer in Migraine Relief

[Dont call me Shirley]

Remember back when Tempe first release the Migration (aka Migraine) relief newsletters; they included an (ever growing) list of fix-its. The last several issues do not include the fix-it/suggestion list. And the last time the QIK fix list in DRS was updated was 8 June.

Someone at the help desk told me that the list is too long to actually publish (even online?) but that the appropriate departments are hard at work.

Well, how do we know what they are working on and when specific improvement are coming.

Sooo... . let's start our own list. For those who have been fortunate enough to get specific answers to your questions/suggestions, please post them. (They never get back to me...with one exception..which hasn't been fixed).

Let's keep it at least a little bit constructive, OK. (In the highest tradition of the USAviation forums.) As much as I would like to srat with "Bring Sabre Back" we all know that aint gonna happen, so let's come up with list of things needed to make QIK more functional.

Here are my suggestions..at least the first two.

1. Let front line users have access to native SHARES. (It's good enough for Tempe.....and CO)
2. Give US the same version of SHARES as CO has. (CO can do a lot of stuff US can't do. One small example: they can check a bag on a four segment conx, say, ALB-EWR-LAX-SYD-CNS, We can't. They can also look up schedules not found in US QIK/SHARES)

I have more suggestions, but would like to see what the group comes up with,

 

[dbcooper]

The 1st order of business is to get rid of it for a real system that works!
After all these months of "migration relief" I am now convinced that all suggestions on "fixes" are just rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic.

 

[gizmo_sc]

You are so correct if CO uses it and they are using NATIVE, why dont we have the option. Simple things like a NRSA changing flights , you go thru the process to ADJUST the ticket and everything you do leaves PNR.....PNR MODIFIED... so you have to build the PNR from scratch. THE THREE LEG bag tags has us all FUSTRATED. Many folks make ONLINE reservations for INTERNATIONAL travel and to get the best fare they make multiple connections. I would have thought this would have been an EARLY FIX. Also when you PULL up availabity and you are doing it at 2PM... QIK displays connections that have already DEPARTED so you have to move thru those to find that is APPLICABLE very very FUSTRATING.
I was told one of the firsts things we heard from the CONSULTANTS was.... FIX THE RESERVATION SYSTEM.....I will say this I was on hand for the replacement of the KIOSK's in my station and they sure do work MUCH BETTER. The 17 in sceens are bright and require a simple TOUCH to make selections. THE installers told me the best thing for ALL STATIONS to do ... on the SCREENS... is clean them often with ALOCHOL swipes, when a person touches the screen they leave BODY OIL and it does build UP...

 

[jimntx]

THE installers told me the best thing for ALL STATIONS to do ... on the SCREENS... is clean them often with ALOCHOL swipes, when a person touches the screen they leave BODY OIL and it does build UP...

Be VERY careful what you use to clean the touch-sensitive screens. If you go to someplace like Fry's or Computer Mart, they have sprays and wipes specifically for video display screens. I'm not suggesting that you buy this and provide it to the company for free. Just be sure that the cleaner you use is approved for the screens you have.

 

[SegmentKing]

Whats amazing is the amount of financial irresponsibility with Shares vs. Sabre. With Sabre, i HIGHLY DOUBT we'd have to have a "quick fix" migration team, spending millions of dollars trying to "fix" this system. I bet all cost savings with EDS are now obliverated.

While Sabre had its issues, I don't think they were nearly as bad as this. I think my biggiest @#*#$( in Sabre was doing a WFR transaction when I'd get to screen 21 and 40 (I believe) (( for Shares users, those are just screen IDs, not meaning you go thru 40 screens - this is where you manually have to input paper ticket values/fare calc lines/thru fares, etc))

and when we'd have storms in Key West that would take out the entire communications systems, we were always up and running before our counterparts at Delta and Continental.. in fact, we (USAirways) and American were the only 2 airlines to operate after the storm... DL and CO would always be a day behind.

 

[Old PSA]

First suggestion above all else, go back to SABRE completely. Of course, Parker and Kirby would have to explain to the BOD about their mistake in going to Shares so I don't think that is going to happen. Heaven forbid that executives could admit to being human and make mistakes. Changing back to SABRE would actually be pretty easy since we already have QIK for SABRE written.

Second suggestion, use BMAS on top of WorldTracer. Since we already are using FOS/DECS and TIPS II from SABRE, adding BMAS shouldn't be that hard. It only has to access basic PNR and FLIFO data from Shares to be used. It would speed up the bag service functions unbelievably. Of course, CBRO might have to use a program that helps the stations instead of CBRO.

Third suggestion, allow access to native Shares.

Fourth suggestion, rebuild QIK to be a hybrid system. Agent should be able to use native entries in QIK window, but call up Qik functions for complicated task.

Fifth suggestion, use the power available in QIK to automate out repetitive tasks. As an example, when doing an involuntary reroute, the agent should only have enter a command and QIK should be able to complete the task without the agent entering anything. There are lots of functions that can be automated out so that the agent doesn't have to lead the computer through each step.

Sixth suggestion, since it appears that on the East side we are going to be spending a lot of time for the foreseeable future rerouting customer, build automated functions to handle the process including rebooking, reticketing, rerouting bags and generated HMTs. I'm talking about the system determining the need and authorization and then offering the agent the option to issue them. The hotel piece could easily be built into the system, so the agent would need to call the hotel.

The list could go on for days. If only the people making the decisions would look beyond simply changing a command line into a keypad and popup, QIK could actually be helpful. Now it's a big hindrance.

 

[tadjr]

Tonights lineup consisted of several QIK induced head banging moments.
1st- SOMEONE TELL MNL REZ ABOUT EVOUCHERS PLEASE!!!! They continue to book reservations in NEW record locators which means rebooking back into the original EVOUCHER record, trying to get the same fare or having to store the fare and then ticketing them. Also, if they have an evoucher and are paying with a credit card THEY DONT HAVE TO COME TO THE AIRPORT!!!! Thats the whole point of an evoucher! Someone please tell your rez sup that this is an ongoing problem and needs to be addressed. I've had one from Winston, but most are of the UFM variety. Anyway, the evoucher was for more than the base fare which means QIK cant figure out what to do and tells you theres a system error- see your supervisor. Um, ok, and what is he going to do? Nothing. Get the pricing travel voucher key to show as a 0.00 dollar amount if the voucher is for more than the ticket price. Even exchange. Done. Instead force discount the ticket with no taxes to be applied. Store the fare, hope it works.
2) PHL sent a lady to TPA who was supposed to be going to SEA. She had arrived from ARN and didnt speak English. Luckily we had a flight to SEA tonight, BUT PHL showed her on the plane so her tkt showed USED. Take out USED status, try to reissue F8 to get coupons to SEA. Ticket would not store a fare. Tried invol reissue, no good. After 3 attempts at this, the supv tried to manually store fare (in SEK with a return from SEA-ARN). Still wouldnt work no matter what we did. Ended up after 15 mins getting a FIM to use TPA-LAS-SEA on US (luckily) and printed the PHL-SEA ticket as backup. Get the international tickets to populate the mask easier. Lots of problems getting them to come across in the fare calc area and still dont know why it wouldnt manual store for us.
3) I dont know what the whole story was on this one, just caught the tail end, but computer would not store govt fare for customer. Booked in wrong class of service, wouldnt manual store fare, yada, yada, yada.... Just dump the system ok, its crap and isnt getting much better in any measure of time.
4) WN ZED fares not faring out. Cant compute the taxes and tells you to check if WN is a ZED carrier or store the fare yourself. We can do that, but it takes TIME. No problem, dont go home for several hours and the rest of the customers will just have to wait in line I guess. (Customer didnt get on WN so came back to void out and ticket on Gulfstream.) 3M Gulfstream is a svc chg ticket. Computer wont ticket 3M tickets as service charge. Doesnt find flight info to computer fare (they run as CO Expr but have a separate agreement) so we get to store a fare all over again.
Enough with having to store the fares ourselves. Just make the da*n computer do what its supposed to ok?
5) TPA-BDL on DL not in the system AGAIN! We've already sent this in as a QIKFIX months ago and it was in there. Now suddenly its GONE AGAIN! Try pulling up SNN-TPA on DL - this market currently not served. Throw in a conx in ATL and there it is. We shouldnt have to check with each "enhancement" that the flights are coming thru like they should each time. Its called OAG.COM guys. Buy a subscription!

 

[Dont call me Shirley]

Folks,

I have developed a new relationship with someone actually it HP IT. I can tell you first hand that US Airways under its current Management Team will NOT!!! As in NOT EVER return to SABRE.

Get over it! The Door has closed, the Jetway pulled back and the A/C has left the gate. Nothing left but to figure out a way to work around and with SHARES.

We know Sabre isn't coming back (neither are a lot of our customers, either)

If only we could use SHARES (the native kind) and not QIK. For the umpteenth time: the problem is QIK, not SHARES. Sure, SHARES isn't as good as Sabre, but CO runs a very good, very big airline with a huge international operation using SHARES.

PB,
Could you ask your contact in IT what the word is on Amadeus? A Sand Castle person has told me that US has chosen not to with Star Alliance's preferred res platform, but did not know the reason why. Perhaps your contact can shed some light? With UA reportedly planning to switch, wouldn't that leave US as the only major *A carrier not going to that system? (And, if it's not pushing the issue, ask your contacts why Tempe is so opposed to returning to Sabre; I know it ain't gonna happend but you love to know the reason(s).

 

[tadjr]

As in NOT EVER return to SABRE.

Get over it! The Door has closed, the Jetway pulled back and the A/C has left the gate. Nothing left but to figure out a way to work around and with SHARES.

Thinking that Sabre is coming back is old news. We all know that isnt going to happen.

However,

Instead of finding a way for the agents to "work around and with" Shares, why dont we concentrate on getting the IT people to actually make IT WORK LIKE THEY SAY IT DOES and is supposed to? That would be a big start. The August "enhancements" for the standby process have been "delayed" due to computer glitch issues. The "enhancement" for flifo says "future enhancement". Almost 6 months after cutover, I'm still waiting for the promised "ENHANCEMENTS" already! :down: :angry:
Like DCMS mentioned in the first post, there are STILL SO MANY.... things wrong with this system that they dont even list them any more. I guess thats one way to get everyones mind off the problems and to think that things are just peachy and wonderful with the computer.
I WANT TO SEE EXACTLY WHAT IS STILL BEING WORKED ON! The first "Migraine Relief" said they were going to show us what they were working on and when it was expected to be completed. Are they so far off schedule and being able to correct things that they dont want to be reminded what a piece of work this system actually is? The helpful hints and reminders are nice, BUT HAVE NOTHING TO DO WITH GETTING THE COMPUTER FIXED AND USEABLE IN ANY MANNER WHATSOEVER.
And for Bryan240.... I DEMAND A BETTER COMPUTER SYSTEM THAN WHAT YOU'RE GIVING ME TO WORK WITH. :blink: :blink: Not holding my breath waiting for it to get better though.

 

[as the prop turns]

Folks,

I have developed a new relationship with someone actually it HP IT. I can tell you first hand that US Airways under its current Management Team will NOT!!! As in NOT EVER return to SABRE.

Get over it! The Door has closed, the Jetway pulled back and the A/C has left the gate. Nothing left but to figure out a way to work around and with SHARES.

Well, Piney, the a/c may have left the gate, but it's going to be sitting there for an eternity before it takes off. It's so bad that even the managers REFUSE to sign in to this computer system and help us (they are allowed to do so one hour per day) because even THEY can't do it. However, they are on our backs pushing to get these planes out on-time. Most of the time the pax list isn't even correct. We have to hold onto e-tickets for 24 hours in the event a plane should go down. That's fine though. I will do as I am instructed, but things will continue to go into the crapper.

 

[Pat]

Tonights lineup consisted of several QIK induced head banging moments.
1st- SOMEONE TELL MNL REZ ABOUT EVOUCHERS PLEASE!!!! They continue to book reservations in NEW record locators which means rebooking back into the original EVOUCHER record, trying to get the same fare or having to store the fare and then ticketing them.

You can always go in a detatch the etkt out of the voucher res and attach it to the new res. I have done this a couple of times and it works just fine.


As bad a rap as Qik has I have not once (using it first as an HPex agent and then now as a US international agent) had a situation which couldn;t somehow be remedied. I'll admitt there are times when it's not until the 3rd or 4th option that you can make something work but that being said there has always been some way to get things done. It may involve manually storing a fare or printing onto paper stock and then reissuing from there... but somehow it always works...

 

[tadjr]

You can always go in a detatch the etkt out of the voucher res and attach it to the new res. I have done this a couple of times and it works just fine.

Tried to do that first and the response was - You do not have a supervisor sine needed for this function.

I've done it before, but I might have been in the sups sine since he was helping me and showing me how to detach. Or, it might have just been a time the computer didnt feel like doing what I was asking it to do. I guess I'll have to try again a couple more times to figure out which it was.
I also know it somehow always works out. I've learned real well how to beat the computer at its own game. My point is, I (and the rest of the agents) shouldnt have to play the computer "to win" against it. It should WORK FOR US not the other way around. I dont want to have to try 3 or 4 things to get it to do what they tell me it will do the first time. Its to the point now (and PHX MAMA is gonna scream) that I really dont care most times what comes out of it as long as something does! h34r:

 

[Pat]

You do not have a supervisor sine needed for this function. h34r:

You are right about that.

I now work at a European station for US and have to say that in my experience I really don't feel the problem is as bad as has been made out to be.
Thats not to say that there aren't a bunch of issues;
Tipps has been disabled for Europe so we have to calculate fare differences by hand,
ZED's usually don't tax out so you get to price those yourself,
Standby list issues cause you to have to process indidually...
and other little gimmics like that....
but I think a considerable part of many of them are due just as much to poor training and misinformation.
There should have been full Qik classes as for all intents and purposes it's a new system for 2/3 of the work force...

Then again I now have the added bias of watching many an Eastern European airline having their computer system just on a whim deciding that their flight doesn;t exist for that day or that the agent's physical location is not where he actually is.

Please don;t interperet my post as belittling the issue, I just feel that with a little patience the system does do what you want it to do, and once you see how it worked the last time, it tends to work for a simmilar situation the next time.

 

[crusher]

The problem is that we should not have to play around with it until it works correctly. If we put the correct info in we should expect the correct response everytime without question. Nearly 6 months after this trash system was dumped into our laps it is barely improved over day 1. Mule' said it should be much better by the end of the year. That is 10 months too late. It should have worked correctly on the first day not the 300th and even that I doubt will happen. The facts are clear to see Shares is and has been an unmitigated failure and to continue with it is sheer stupidity. But I would expect nothing less from Tempe. The group that brought you reconfigured a/c, and the industry's worst performer. Sabre may be gone but at least have the guts to admit the mistake and help mitigate it by giving the airports access to NATIVE just like OCC and the PHX Club/Exec svcs have. Thay all have something in common , they all HATE shares.

 

[tadjr]

I now work at a European station for US and have to say that in my experience I really don't feel the problem is as bad as has been made out to be.

How many flights a day? How many people changing to another flight (canx, rebook, adjust, etc?) How many different conx points available? I'm sure the people who were used to PHX (and maybe a LAS flight here and there) think it works ok too. Try adding conx in up to 5 different cities, lots of business people with multiple flight options (not just 2 flights a day to PHX) and it gets busy at times. How often is your ACO-Host link down or the computer is BUSY, BUSY, BUSY in an 8 hour day? Some days are better than others, but its still unreliable. Ever have a computer decide to drop being able to do an SST? Go to another one, same problem. So reboot them to get it back. Why does it do this? Why do I have to waste time trying to find a computer that works? Try the same entry 3 times and finally the 4th it works? I think its behind the scenes screwups (the mask looks right, but not getting the right response) where the entries dont do what the popups say its supposed to be doing. I've seen the Alt J responses for native and there are lots of error messages that just dont show up on QIK. It just doesnt work and its up to the agent to figure out why it didnt work.

Thats not to say that there aren't a bunch of issues;
Tipps has been disabled for Europe so we have to calculate fare differences by hand,

Tips hasnt been disabled here, but it doesnt work half the time so I dont even bother with it anymore. Just do it the old way and even though it takes longer than a normal tips operation I dont have to wonder whether tips is working today after I've tried the reissue and it didnt work.

ZED's usually don't tax out so you get to price those yourself,

I've had a couple international that wont price out and a couple airlines that dont come up (usually commuter code share airlines that dont have their own schedules in the computer). Most of the time though the ZEDS are a piece of cake. This is actually one of the things that are easier to do in this system than in Sabre.

but I think a considerable part of many of them are due just as much to poor training and misinformation.
There should have been full Qik classes as for all intents and purposes it's a new system for 2/3 of the work force...

There we agree. Maybe its not too late to actually get some classes going to try to see what people are still having problems with (hey maybe its not a computer problem after all, just no one knows what they're doing :blink: ) My station had 2 days of QIK/SABRE training and no official QIK/SHARES training. They said since we had about 15 people already working the HP flights and system and the Qik/Sabre training was done they'd catch on. Well, Qik/Sabre is not the same as Qik/Shares and now we're paying for it. Maybe training needs to do some roadshows for someone other than new hires!

Please don;t interperet my post as belittling the issue, I just feel that with a little patience the system does do what you want it to do, and once you see how it worked the last time, it tends to work for a simmilar situation the next time.

I understand that some people dont have a problem with it. If it works great for you, I'm actually thrilled for you. It may be because this is all they know and dont know that the computer SHOULD be able to do more than it does. It may be that many stations dont have the same "deals" that other stations have or dont have the same volume of people, hence the chance for more issues to pop up. It may be that many people dont have the experience and dont know that they used to be able to correct many issues that now require a supervisor or the (no)help desk to handle. It may be because the agent doesnt understand that the computer isnt doing what it actually should be doing in the first place. I personally do not like calling and being on hold to get a simple issue that I used to be able to handle done for me. I dont like that I cant do many of the things that I used to . I dont like calling the help desk or the ticketing queue and being told THEY cant get the system to work either. That doesnt give me confidence that the system is working like it should. I dont like having to second guess my entries or try to figure out which route I should go to get it to do what I know I want it to do without having to guess if something is going to work right today or not. For anyone that doesnt have major problems with the system, be happy and glad that you dont for whatever reason, but take my word for it, there are many people that have major problems with it (and have been using it for almost 3 years now in my station alone) and we're fed up (after almost 6 months) waiting for the "improvements" to start showing up. I dont like it that management decided to flip the switch without testing knowing that the front line people will "deal with it" and make it work like we always do.
/rant

Sorry, but it just gets me po-d after a day of dealing with "issues" to be told it isnt that bad when I know and everyone I work with knows IT IS THAT BAD!