QIK /SHARES migration

[wildirishrose]

First off welcome to the boards. Now, lets get to the good parts...
So, you admit you do not work in programming QIK and you are not an agent? So, other than knowing the people who do program QIK and supposedly being "A" programmer yourself, what first hand experience do you have with either working 40 hours a week with the system or actually knowing the programming issues associated with QIK yourself? If the answer is none, then perhaps you'd like to rethink telling us who do have experience that we dont know what we're talking about and are a bunch of crybabies. Your wife teaching a bunch of new people that CTRL A F1 is the best of the system and so easy to learn does not count. Granted, the things taught in new hire class do work fantastic (when the computers in class actually work as well), but unfortunately those of us who have been around a while need to be able to do a little bit more than those fresh faces out of training. I can CTRL C F1 all day long and be thrilled that the system works, but we both know that isnt the extent of what we're talking about here.

Now, as far as this comment...."Everyone is so bull headed to change, to accept something new and to just get on with your job. Do you love your job? Do you like working for THIS airline? If YES, then you need to accept the change the way they are and do the best job you can do. If NO, then we really do not want you as an employee with US Air and PLEASE find reemployment somewhere you will be happy and there is no change.

You maybe able to tell, I'm sick of people complaining, not accepting and not doing their job. I hear you, "I need the tools to do my job right." Use the tools you are given, serve the customer to the best of your ability with those tools and it will work out. "



WELL SAID TAD, I for one think you've hit the nail on the head. USAirways needs agents like you. You care, you question and you try to make it better.

I sir, personally find this comment insulting. Those of us who do care are the ones complaining here. I can guarantee to you that those who no longer care have given up on the system in its current state and are no longer complaining and are doing what they can to do their job with the tools they've been given per your request. Of course, this means that those of us who do care must now clean up the mess left behind by those who no longer care and are doing their job just using the tools they have been given. If you are in the company, you can check out "some specifics" of what we're talking about by CTRL D QIKFIX. There is about 10000 lines of QIKFIX problems and remarks that you can read about since the beginning of the year alone. Also, many of us have already been through 4 computer systems of our own, not to mention the computer systems of some of the other carriers we've handled in the past so we are well accustomed to change. Since your wife thinks that the "connection between the keyboard and the passenger" is the main issue with the system, perhaps TRAINING would like to do something to train the agents other than those just walking in the door off the street (and no more memos please, some real training). Many of the East agents only got 2 days of QIK/SABRE training which did almost NO GOOD since at cutover last March, all the formats and responses that they saw were QIK/SHARES and looked and responded nothing like the responses they had been seeing in their QIK/SABRE world. Even new hires get 3 weeks of training, yet most agents got 2 days (and 2 days of training on a system that THEY ARE NOT CURRENTLY USING!). I have been using QIK for about 4 years now and I HATE not being able to do my job so I've personally found ways to make things work or question (both here and with IT people and through the QIKFIX) whats going on. Unfortunately, you are probably correct that many agents have given up and dont care. If the company didnt care for them to have any training on the system and isnt willing to offer any more training (other than the coffee table memos) then they will probably continue to do just what it takes to do the job with the tools they've been instructed to use and nothing more.

I realize that QIK is miles ahead of where it was just a short year ago when we cut over and kudos to IT for that. The problem I personally have with this is that many of the things we were promised last year are still being discussed and worked on. The standby list improvements (Keeping fingers crossed that it actually gets released and works in a couple of weeks) is just one item. Once again, there are so many and if I feel energetic, I'll try to post some of the QIKFIX problems and problems with the entire computer system overall that when lumped together enhances the entire working experience at US. Maybe part of the problem is the entire QIK Enhancement Committee and their progress on approving and moving forward with items that have been suggested (some close to a year ago?).

I would like to return the invitation to you sir. I am with (Customer Service) and when you have a clue what your taking (sic) about come over and do some (Ticketing, reissues, gate work, etc) for us. I'm eagerly awaiting your phone call.

PS- You dont happen to work in KIOSK IT do you? If so, I got some more "issues" to talk to you about.

 

[nx_class]

Thanks, but no need to lecture me, my man. I hail from Pollyannaville.

My analogy of a "grunt" has to do with the necessary glue that holds something/anything together, sometimes, unrecognized, unappreciated and disparaged.

I see this company for what it now is. Because I have values, I do the best job that I can everytime I come to work. The difference now is that in order to keep my sanity, I LET GO of the bu11sh** that I cannot control.
You appear to be new at posting on this board so I'll give you a brief rundown on the personality of it.
We complain because we care. We get involved in positive change and we vent so we don't do something we'll regret later.
Welcome to boards anyway.

I apologize to ALL ! I am very passionate about my job and OUR company. I want to see it flourish and be one of the airlines left standing after all these mergers.

I am looking for answers for all your questions on QIK. I will check will all my cohorts about the issues you have brought up here. My main group that I take care of is M&E and if they were having legitimate issues that you all are having there would be heads rolling!

 

[jimcfs]

I apologize to ALL ! I am very passionate about my job and OUR company. I want to see it flourish and be one of the airlines left standing after all these mergers.

I am looking for answers for all your questions on QIK. I will check will all my cohorts about the issues you have brought up here. My main group that I take care of is M&E and if they were having legitimate issues that you all are having there would be heads rolling!

nx, let me add my welcome to you on Aviation. I am on the other side of the fence here, a customer, and an associate of PineyBob's via FFOCUS. I have also been involved in IT, including teaching of CS, for well over the last 25 years now, so I think I can say a few intelligent things about IT. Now, I don't know how high you are in the Tempe IT food chain, but let me give you some of our issues to ponder and hopefully give us your insight.

The issue, at least on this side of the counter, isn't necessarily about SHARES vs SABRE, but about bringing things online that weren't ready to come online... the "new" website and the rez migration being the two main issues. I was one of the first to witness the new website when it came online that Sunday afternoon two years ago, and frankly I was appalled at what I saw (what I didn't see is probably a better way to put things). Cities in the US system weren't recognized, people couldn't log into their DM accounts, reservations couldn't be accessed, OLCI was hit and miss... you get the idea. The new site was late alpha at best, definitely not beta quality yet someone in Tempe decided this was release ready.

The res migration wasn't any better. Still, if there were known problems with the kiosks, why was this rolled out when it was (and not until after there was a some way to minimize the hit to the system)? Worse, it was brought out on one of the busiest weekends on the East Coast during Spring Break. Were these issues even addressed in the planning stages?

WRT SHARES vs SABRE, all we've heard is it was based on cost, plain and simple. Has anyone there done a cost analysis, after the fact, to see how much this has cost the company in the rebookings, vouchers given, refunds processed, hotel/food vouchers given and lost future revenue because of all of this? Wait, the Tempe way is that we're still making money, so who cares. Can you imagine how much more $$ in pax revenue US would have if customers weren't subject to the abuse by all of this (and how many high-yield pax who have left for greener pastures would have stayed as loyal US customers)? Do the folks working in IT get out and talk to the people who really do the work... the tadjr's and Int'l Shannon's and the CoachRowsey's of the US system? They are as much "customers" in your world as PineyBob and I are... and they were subjected to much more painful abuse than any customer inconvenienced by these screw-ups ever were. You should be offended when you hear front liners are taking their own laptops to work to assist customers in finding alternative bookings because your own system can't give them the information they require.

nx, you need to take a step outside the SandCastle and look at the rest of the world through our glasses and tell us, are the people in charge of IT (and of the SandCastle in general) really worthy of the praise that they are getting in the press (the CIO articles that Joe Beery has had written about him come to mind first)?

FWIW, in the IT courses that I teach, I'm already using these screwups as a case study in how NOT to run IT. I have my students research (through the media accounts and in first hand experiences through other boards) what happened, make them look at the CIO articles about Beery, and have them draw their own conclusions. You should see these 21 year olds shake their heads in disbelieve at what incompetent boobs Beery and the others come off looking like. The students learned how NOT to run IT very quickly and can give a very clear list of things that should have been done the first time around.

What insight, nx, can you give us to the outside perceptions we all have? Feel free to PM me if you don't want to continue this discussion on forum.

 

[vantheman63]

nx, you need to take a step outside the SandCastle and look at the rest of the world through our glasses and tell us, are the people in charge of IT (and of the SandCastle in general) really worthy of the praise that they are getting in the press (the CIO articles that Joe Beery has had written about him come to mind first)?

EXCELLENT post Jim...and I know precious little about programing and IT, so I'll limit my comments to the paragraph above.

I think what bugs most of us pax is the arrogance with which how the Sand Castle/Clay Pot handles things. They send out all this puff stuff about how great everything is....when it's not. The one thing we haven't seen is W. Douglas Parker and Scott Kirby telling the world about hwo great they are and the company is....maybe the message has gotten through? "You guys aren't that great and certainly not that cool in terms of creating a "wonderful" product."

There are a NUMBER of statements and public comments I'll never forget...but one of my faves (what am I say, I probably had dozens of faves) was how "we don't need e-savers 'cause we're so full already" and "we don't need corporate contracts 'cause our fares are already low wnough." It's just one "over-promise, under-deliver" statement after another there in Tempe.

The product, on the east side, is so stripped out now, I've moved on...but I have to admit, I've always wondered why the "puff piece specialists" are out there breaking their own arms patting themselves on the back...when it ain't that great.

And back to IT...I'll never forget when I was trying to be the CP that I was and would call, who knows how many times, for silly things...like trying to pay $1,400 a piece for a couple of F tix PVD-BGI....or when you had to, for like 3 months, do a search to get a field to populate with an airport code. God, I put up with a bunch of crap...and finally moved on. But hey! What's better then all the wonderful stuff US Airways brought to the aviation world??? LOL

It is what it is.....very sad, really. GUARANTEE, there is a text book being created for college, even high school level classes...."how not to run an airline." And lets start with ditching "Business Casual" which I've lovingly named "Business Crapual."

 

[phillyrules]

nx,if you do not work in the IT dept or as an agent you do not know of what you speak.....unless you are in the trenches everyday like we are you cant begin to understand the frustration that we feel...and thats what you are hearing........frustration


First to your love or leave it commemt.....thats the standard response these days......well youre not getting rid of me that easy...I am going to a thorn in your side until this mgmt group gets a clue. I dont care how long it takes.....Do you really want all of us experienced agents to leave . The new hires we have are dropping like flies. They are not putting up with the nonsense for 9.72 and hour.


Now to the POS QIK.....tell me which is more efficient since we put such thought into to change in systems......to change a non rev listing to F class and assign a seat....in Sabre seven characters....GA5#F/4A .......in QIK Step 1 pull up res...step 2 ctrl i I f1 sell in F class .....step 3 resync tkt....step 4 ctrlG F1 checkin pax.....step 5 ctrl Z F3 opt 6 to assign a seat.....this is why I have stock in the company that makes Advil....this is why I cry and complain.....this is why I have gray hair...from one simple entry to a 5 step process.....

And they did much research and planning??????I never saw one IT person in PHL before they decided to change systems....this is your transatlantic hub......noone asked us how the operation ran....what we needed a res system to do for an intl operation....I dont know if it was arrogance or sheer stupidity but whatever it was it was stunning.

When I asked in the joke of training class how do we do this for intl the answer was....We're working on it....and it works in PHX so it will work here???????

Just like TADJR I am issuing a standing invitation to anyone in IT....come and wokr side by side with me for a week and then I 'll sell you some of my shares in the Advil company cause you'll need them.

 

[tadjr]

Another thing that everyone needs to understand is that to most agents IT means ANYTHING AND EVERYTHING computer related. Most dont care if you are only kiosk, only QIK, only hardware, etc. all they know is "the computer(s) dont work. It might not be everything today is broken and some days we have really good days, but its the overall "computer" issues that are causing everyone to be so frustrated.
Today the printer is out (they changed our repair contract so since its Friday afternoon, that means we can shut down this position until at least Monday now), today this computer stopped doing SSTs, (you know Tempe, this is how you have us collect money for change fees, move ups, baggage, etc and IT JUST STOPPED WORKING and no one can tell us why?), the kiosk today isnt asking people if they want to move up, wait, this one is, but this one isnt. Just go to the ticketing line and stand there since we cant honestly tell you if you will be able to move up on the kiosk you've chosen.
No one can seem to give us answers as to why these things are screwing up. To the agent having to deal with ALL OF THIS combined on any given day, you can hopefully see why we're so frustrated. Today I'm at kiosk and its not working, tomorrow I'm at ticketing and something down there isnt working (while kiosk might be fine today.) To the agent, TEMPE doesnt give a *&^% if this is what they expect us to work with day in and day out. We want answers and to know why things arent working (I'm tired of being told to just reboot to fix it, it shouldnt be doing this in the first place as much as it is occuring). The tired mantra of "give us time, we're working on fixing it" is worn way beyond its value too. I understand that things must go through a committee and be programmed and fixed, but throw us some bones now and then (and I mean BIG ones, not QIKFIXes that are "we corrected the spelling of Ft Myers" BS, which btw isnt a real one because they cant control the spelling on certain things either.)

To give you a short example of an hour or so of one of my days last week, I was working kiosk. We have 12 kiosks and 6 backside computers there. Three of the computers decided that they didnt want to do SSTs for the day (No clue why, they just didnt). So, do you reboot them (meaning no bag tags from those machines while they reboot rendering them useless for 5 minutes during push) or do you just continue to walk from computer to computer hoping to find one that will do SSTs. Of course, you must pull up the reservation, CTRL C F10, option 11, option 0, type in cc number to find out that this one isnt going to do an SST for you. Multilpy that X4 to get one that works and now you have bagtags out of every machine and people waiting for you to help them for other issues.
A gentleman was leaving at 7pm to CLT and wanted to go earlier. I advised him to try the kiosk since I was working with someone else. We had a 135, 330, 515 flight earlier which all had seats. The kiosk decided that it would offer the 330pm flight which the customer accepted. Only after the fact did he realize that we also had a 135 that he could catch. Guess who gets to now go back and redo the tickets AGAIN anyway? Why didnt the kiosk offer the 135 to begin with? I seriously cant get definite answers as to why the kiosk does this and how its programmed to offer move ups. The 135 HAD seats, what was the problem? Was it booking code, if so CHANGE THE PROGRAM to offer it if there are ANY seats left since this is what the agent would do.
A little later had a customer on the 700p to CLT with a conx. The ONLY conx from CLT was at 1030 so moving earlier really didnt help this man. He didnt read the times and selected yes, he was thrilled he could leave earlier (incorrectly assuming that our kiosk would actually GET HIM HOME EARLIER AS WELL and not just charge him $25 to go sit in CLT for 2 hours longer.) I asked the kiosk dept about this and was advised that they (kiosk rep) would love to get out earlier to their conx city. Well yea, you're probably nonreving and are thrilled to just get a seat. Heck, I've sat in airports for hours, but I didnt pay $25 for the pleasure of doing it. Its BAD CUSTOMER SERVICE. Now he wants his money back. Another 5 minutes of my time wasted to clean up the mess from "tools I've been given to work with" shortfalls. Multiply this times 8 hours a day 5 days a week and it gets old really QIK. (Now imagine over a year of this every day!)
I could go on and on, but I'm off today and really dont want to spend any more of my off time today explaining this. Hopefully, you understand a little better some of the "issues" many of us have. I'm sure most of the IT people do care, and have no doubt that many probably have their hands tied "due to cost", but when you (meaning IT, not YOU) make my job harder than it really has to be, you're (meaning IT, not YOU) are going to continue hearing about it until it gets fixed.

 

[2clippedwings]

Tadjr,
OMG, I need a drink.

I guess what really rubs me the wrong way is the way some say, "What? What specifically is the problem with our version of Shares?"
I'm still shaking my head about the most basic city codes not recognized. This is an airline! Others have come before, we're not breaking new ground here.

What rubs me wrong the other way are the comments,
"If you don't like it, leave."

Yea, that's the way to encourage, motivate and reward the initiative of the employees still left that want to make things better.

So, I wonder, if our computer reservation system is so lacking after all of this time, what kind of record keeping do we keep on maintenance etc? NOT questioning the capability of my co-horts out on the line, just where Tempe draws the line on what they find an acceptable way to conduct business?

To nx_class,
You get credit in my book for sticking in on this board after having tomatos thrown at you.
I hope you have a better understanding now of the response to your "just leave" type of comments.
We all look forward to what kind of responses you get from IT.

 

[InternationalShannon]

Tadjr,
OMG, I need a drink.

I just went through a whole bag of popcorn reading this.

I'm pretty proud of myself for what sanity I've managed to hold onto via all of this GUI mess. However, the day control F8-F8 quits working will be the day my tolerance takes a one way ticket outta here.

 

[REACC1]

Look for that in the next update, they want us long timers outta here!

Quote 2clippedwings:
"So, I wonder, if our computer reservation system is so lacking after all of this time, what kind of record keeping do we keep on maintenance etc? NOT questioning the capability of my co-horts out on the line, just where Tempe draws the line on what they find an acceptable way to conduct business?i

I have wondered the same things, I often wonder if the AA fiasco will happen to LCC. They seem inept(not cohorts), from experience.
God help us!
Someone please convince me that the powers that be truly know what they are doing. Are they not just in it for the money? Do they really care about any one but themselves.

 

[2clippedwings]

Look for that in the next update, they want us long timers outta here!


I have wondered the same things, I often wonder if the AA fiasco will happen to LCC. They seem inept(not cohorts), from experience.
God help us!
Someone please convince me that the powers that be truly know what they are doing. Are they not just in it for the money? Do they really care about any one but themselves.

oops, guess that was unclear..... cohorts=mechanics Tempe=fill in the blank

 

[REACC1]

You were clear, I was just trying to do the same. Not questioning the ability of our Mechs.

 

[tadjr]

Aint that new standby list great!
Oh well, theres always next months release date to aim for.....

 

[Dont call me Shirley]

Aint that new standby list great!
Oh well, theres always next months release date to aim for.....

and the next one, and the next one, and the next one....

BTW, has anyone noticed how the QIX fix questions sometimes get edited to look stupid, or at least over simplify the question?

 

[phx___it]

Just found this site and it is an eye opener. I'm with IT and can understand your frustration.

Let me shed some light on why one kiosk reacts differently from another.
We have 2 different versions of the Kiosks, one is the Common use (KUSS) kiosk that the airport supplies the hardware for us. It's still our software though. The other is our own hardware with our own software. This one is better and more mature.
We have 1 programmer working our inhouse kiosk. He not only has enhancements, but also supports and keeps them running. This is bit much for 1 person but it is only in the interest of keeping cost down. I suppose if we spent money on IT like AA does, we'd have lost 20 million more than we did.

I just try to do the best I can and IT in general does the best it can with the limited resources.

Yes QIK is bad. I wouldn't call people calling it a POS as having a bad attitude.
I would hang on until we find out if the merge will happen and if QIK gets trashed and replaced either with UAs system or we build a better system from scratch.

Currently we are changing the charges for the 2nd and 3rd bags. This includes the testing. I think this was stated as adding 45 milliion to the bottom line.
We are doing the best we can and trust me in that we have some very intelligent people in IT. It's just a lot of work to do.

 

[N965VJ]

<SNIP> one is the Common use (KUSS) kiosk that the airport supplies the hardware for us. It's still our software though.

One thing that does work is that acronym.

We have 1 programmer working our inhouse kiosk. He not only has enhancements, but also supports and keeps them running. This is bit much for 1 person but it is only in the interest of keeping cost down.

I’m not an IT person, but my gut tells me this is woefully inadequate.

BTW, welcome to USAviation!