QIK /SHARES migration

[mousetrap]

I have been reading alot of these posts now for about a year now and I have posted once before. I really have gotten tired of hearing all the complaining about the computer system that we have here at US Airways. I have worked with both sabre and shares and I know they are different, but they both let you get the job done. Yes, I know it might not be the same work flow that you have been doing for years, but they both have the entries needed to get the flight out.

I keep hearing that shares does not have all these functions that sabre has. What things in sabre were you able to do that you can't in shares...please provide specifics - I am tired this generic complaint that shares is a sub-par reservation system and that sabre is the "end all be all" of reservation systems. Is that why even AA is shopping for a new system? (yes I know this to be true).

Also, even the title of this thread says that we are just one year into the use of this system as a new airline...when pre-merger US Airways migrated from pacer to sabre, was sabre ready to go and everything complete the day of migration? Sorry, dont think so...couldn't do manual fare quotes and didnt even have TIPS complete and done for three years - let me repeat that - THREE YEARS! So as far as I am concerned, we still have a good two years to see where the shares system is before we start comparing it to the "end all be all" reservation system.

the other thing I like to hear is that in sabre you were able to do all the native entries you wanted...right - dont think so. Sabre did the same thing that QIK does, but in sabre they were called "masks." Yeah, you were not able to do any native entries to reissue a ticket, issue SSTs, hotel/meal vouchers, OSDB...need I go on? It is the same thing.

So because agents dont know how to use the system and say "this Shares system is horrible," you are going to blame IT for all your problems? I personally know many of the IT personal here at US Airways, including the QIK Development team, and I know they they are working their tails off to get QIK and Shares working at a level that every agent can be happy. I know that QIK has projects complete and ready to go (Standby Lists enhancements, 2nd Bag, new format lists, Upline flight), but are waiting on many other factors before they can be fully released to the agents (Shares, ACS, Training, etc). It will take time - it took sabre 3 years, so why dont you give our IT team that same amount of time? Stop complaining and start taking care of the customers!

 

[700UW]

Uh Oh, Open Season, watch out!

 

[crusher]

Oh where to begin

1) Availability
2) Standby list
3) Inability to list NRSA by DATE of Hire , not just year
4) Having to reenter time and time again until it finally gets it
5) Obtaining fare quotes easily
6) Easy flifo instead of having to sign in and them ctrl this /f this then flight number


These are just basic things not to mention passport info and almost anything international. Shares Sucks and always will. If it was so great more than 2 other airlines would use it and neither one uses the garbage qik overlays. If we must keep this garbage system at least give us access to Native and give us the option of whether to use it or not. This system is meant for those short time employees, quick learn but don't really know anything else . If they quit so what there is another low pay applicant right behind them. This is a system for amateurs where Sabre is a system for PROFESSIONALS. Since merger there has been nothing but a loss of profeesionalism and an increase in amateurism and it started with Tempe. Ma and Pa Kettle are more inportant than Gold/Silver who actually pay the fares. Jam people on the planes and take out closets. Degrade F/C service. This company is run by amateurs and it shows in everything we do and redo, and redo again. Why can't they get it right the first time? Poor Decision making. It becomes hard to take care of the passenegers with such a 3rd world system that has such a difficult time completing basic functions.

 

[CLT CS AGENT]

1. When entering city pairs and it says "no service available"
2. The ability to find international connections after irregular opps
3. Sabre would let you check in up to 10 pax at one time
4. Checking bags with more than 2 connection points, now we have to write out manual bag tags. How classy.
5. Reroute and adjust ticket in a matter of seconds with limited entries...AND IT WOULD WORK
6. Busy Busy Busy.....TIME OUT!
7. The ability to do command pricing without having to call the help desk and sitting on hold for more than 25 mins and then having to answer to a help desk agent for why I am doing this.
8. If it is sooooo great then why did the company have to hire over 100 extra employees in CLT alone to deal with the slow down caused by this WONDERFUL system!

While I will give them credit for making some changes to QIK, it just reflects the way this company does business...always playing catch up and scrambling around to fix something instead of being prepared and ready in advance.

 

[Harry Callahan]

Hey you can always use orbitz.com

 

[mousetrap]

In response to Crusher -

1) Availability - what are your specific problems with availability? There is an automated system that will add any city pair that is reported
2) Standby list - what about it? what specifically is not there?
3) Inability to list NRSA by DATE of Hire , not just year - why should it do this at this time? policy is YEAR of hire, not DATE of hire.
4) Having to reenter time and time again until it finally gets it - this is pretty generic...what function are you specifically talking about?
5) Obtaining fare quotes easily - again, pretty generic - what fares can you not obtain easily?
6) Easy flifo instead of having to sign in and them ctrl this /f this then flight number - yes, shares requires you to sine in for FLIFO. so because it is different than sabre, it sucks?
7) "passport info" - what passport info? again, looking for specific issues
8) "almost anything international" - again can you be specific?
9) "If it was so great more than 2 other airlines would use it" - there are more than 2 – CO, VS, MX, AM are some majors and VK, BE, CP, P5, CS, WP are some smaller carriers
10) "neither one uses the garbage qik overlays" - umm...sorry to say, but no one else uses the QIK overlays because we are the only carrier to develop QIK on our own...everyone one else is required to pay sabre to do the work - their version of QIK is expensive and not good.
11) "This system is meant for those short time employees, quick learn but don't really know anything else. If they quit so what there is another low pay applicant right behind them" - this seems like you are not happy about your pay - I am wondering about the system - yes, QIK makes it easier for agents to learn. Are you saying that new hires can learn it and do the job, but more experienced agents can’t? what is it about the system that makes it hard for experienced agents to learn?
12) “This is a system for amateurs where Sabre is a system for PROFESSIONALS.†- not every employee that works for this company is unhappy with this system…are you calling all of them amateurs because they can adapt and get the job done with the tools they have.
13) “Since merger there has been nothing but a loss of profeesionalism and an increase in amateurism and it started with Tempe†- sorry to say, but in my opinion, most of the complaining and unprofessional comments about other employees and hoping for the demise of this company do not seem to be coming from Tempe.
14) “Jam people on the planes and take out closets. Degrade F/C service†– are we the only airline doing this? Every airline is trying to maximize revenue.
15) “This company is run by amateurs and it shows in everything we do and redo, and redo again. Why can't they get it right the first time? Poor Decision making.†– I am happy that I work for a company that is willing to try things and if it doesn’t work right try again instead of continuing down the path of destruction. That is why many companies fail and thousands of employees loose their jobs.
16) “It becomes hard to take care of the passenegers with such a 3rd world system that has such a difficult time completing basic functions.†– again with the “sub-par†res system comments…if it is sub-par why are there some very successful airlines using shares?

You keep complaining about this company, but where would all the “pre-merger†US Airways employees be without this merger? If you don’t like the job, there is always the option of quitting and letting the employees that do like it and want this company to succeed be.

 

[JetguyCLT]

Here we go mousetrap. I am thinking your one of these IT people in PHX.

1. Clear by line. Let me not have to take an extra step to reorder the standby list to get line #10 a seat when he/she comes up.
2. Clear Specific seat, this would be great cause then I wouldn't have to do two entires to get the passenger the window seat he/she wanted. QIK puts people in random seats for weight and balance or so that is what we are told.
3. Better Availabilty. I don't want to have to go point to point to try to retoute someone traveling to somewhere in Africa because FRA is late and they are going to misconnect and I shouldn't have to report where someone else flies to anyone, this should be known.
4. Auto Adjust. Why is this so hard? Yes, SABRE did it, ok. Why can't shares be programed to do it? Is it a money issue or what? Its and extra step that we really shouldn't have to worry about.

Those are my biggest complaints. Seriously, SABRE was not perfect but it was A LOT better that what we are working with now. Yes, I know that the IT team is working hard to get this fixed but had the sandcastle listened to us when we said this is what we would like prior to us changing over, perhaps this topic would not exist. Oh, not to mention the 2 day crash course we got on QIK and then were thrown to the world. I am very dissappointed in how the company trained us on QIK. I still learn something new every day and I am one of the agents in CLT that knows how to use it pretty well. Anyway, at least it is getting better, for me at least.

Midday yesterday, they had the April 2nd update working.

 

[mousetrap]

response to CLT CS AGENT

1. When entering city pairs and it says "no service available" – see my response to crusher – there is an automated system that automatically adds all city pairs reported
2. The ability to find international connections after irregular opps – see #1
3. Sabre would let you check in up to 10 pax at one time – QIK will allow 6, go to Ctrl+G, F10, opt 8 or Ctrl+C, F10, F9, opt 4.
4. Checking bags with more than 2 connection points, now we have to write out manual bag tags. How classy. – we have this activated in shares now and I have been told the updates to the print server is in progress. I didn’t know that having to handwrite something was the definition of being not classy
5. Reroute and adjust ticket in a matter of seconds with limited entries...AND IT WOULD WORK – funny thing about this – we currently use sabre’s product (TIPS) for reissues – HAHA – we are finally migrating away from TIPS and the 10-15 masks you would have to fill out and going to a new reissue tool. It is the same tool that the web uses for the fare shopping experience.
6. Busy Busy Busy.....TIME OUT! – and sabre never did this? I don’t think so.
7. The ability to do command pricing without having to call the help desk and sitting on hold for more than 25 mins and then having to answer to a help desk agent for why I am doing this. – what type of pricing do you need?
8. If it is sooooo great then why did the company have to hire over 100 extra employees in CLT alone to deal with the slow down caused by this WONDERFUL system! – so you are blaming the system for training issues and the agents not knowing (and in some cases, unwilling to learn) the system?

While I will give them credit for making some changes to QIK, it just reflects the way this company does business...always playing catch up and scrambling around to fix something instead of being prepared and ready in advance. – again, I would like to point out the THREE YEARS it took sabre to catch up when “pre-mergerâ€￾ US Airways migrated to sabre.

 

[crusher]

Exactly 2 other major airlines use shares CO and VS. We complain on the east because we are used to better.. The tools that Tempe has given us are 3rd rate and Dougie as much has said so. The IT people who were involved with the migration said we were taking a step back of 10- 15 years in technology by going to shares. As for decision making , if Tempe actually fully thought out some of their decisions , they might have realized that their initial choices were bad. Then we wouldn't have to go back and do it again and again. The ac seating reconfig comes to mind. Lets complain that there are too seats out there , so what do we do , we add seats seats to the larger side of the fleet (east) , take out coat closets storages space and mess up they weight and balance and effective flight distances of the aircraft. Lets take one of the most confortable long range ac presently in use and turn it into a sardine can. The company was told by Airbus not to do it as problems with the entertainment system , weight and balance and ac range would be happen and guess what , Airbus was right. Why didn't we keep east ac configurations? It certainly would have been cheaper to change west ac. We have the smallest seat pitch of any domestic airline , is that a good thing? We treat our elite flyers like trash and cater to the 2x a year Kettles and the Elites are and have been leaving in droves regardless of what the liars in Tempe say. They think they can bolster the elite ranks by having people pay for it. They might pay once but never again. Tempe choose to everything on the cheap rather than choose to strive for excellence. Oh and Sabre worked fine from day one and only got better , That's more than can be said about shares which caused chaos and lost revenue for months.

 

[InternationalShannon]

I have been reading alot of these posts now for about a year now and I have posted once before. I really have gotten tired of hearing all the complaining about the computer system that we have here at US Airways. I have worked with both sabre and shares and I know they are different, but they both let you get the job done. Yes, I know it might not be the same work flow that you have been doing for years, but they both have the entries needed to get the flight out.

Sure, but let me put this in perspective for you. Let's name two pax SABRE and QIK/SHARES

SABRE wants to go from CLT to FRA and was able to do so directly, albeit more expensively
QIK/SHARES wants the same routing but found a dirt cheap ticket taking him CLT LAS PHL FRA PHL LAS CLT

They both got where they needed to go, but QIK/SHARES picked the cheap route and now he's got 45 vomit bags, a headache and who the F knows where his bag went???

I'm just saying....

 

[InternationalShannon]

response to CLT CS AGENT
*snip*
8. If it is sooooo great then why did the company have to hire over 100 extra employees in CLT alone to deal with the slow down caused by this WONDERFUL system! – so you are blaming the system for training issues and the agents not knowing (and in some cases, unwilling to learn) the system?

While I will give them credit for making some changes to QIK, it just reflects the way this company does business...always playing catch up and scrambling around to fix something instead of being prepared and ready in advance. – again, I would like to point out the THREE YEARS it took sabre to catch up when “pre-mergerâ€￾ US Airways migrated to sabre.

I am really not trying to be the Ahole here, but they had to hire new hires like it was going out of style because of the rediculous amount of agents tossing their badges at shift mgrs by day two of cutover.

I know not all of them were, but I guarantee you a good chunk was to replace the people took the "screw you guys, I'm going home" approach.

 

[crusher]

Most changes done to sabre were enhancements on functions that already worked fine , but needed to do alittle more. Enhancements to shares are just things to get it to function at all. Where is the enhancement for flifo that was promise a year ago? It shouldn't be too hard , sabre had that done in a matter of a few weeks once we requested it. Or is our IT dept really that lame?

 

[crusher]

Most changes done to sabre were enhancements on functions that already worked fine , but needed to do alittle more. Enhancements to shares are just things to get it to function at all. Where is the enhancement for flifo that was promise a year ago? It shouldn't be too hard , sabre had that done in a matter of a few weeks once we requested it. Or is our IT dept really that lame? Why hasn't availability been corrected yet. Why does it show OA and code share flights before our own? How come it still show no service when everyone know there is ? Why does it show flights that have already left and not in time order. If I want flights from DCA don't show me flights from IAD and BWI , I didn't ask for those. International is even worse, If you happen to know OA hubs in Europe you might be okand get yourself through a problem , but unfortunately a large number of of recently hired agents don't yet know that Puerto Rico is not a foreign country . let alone any of the finer points of the airline industry and sadly they show no inclination to learn.

 

[N965VJ]

<SNIP> Also, even the title of this thread says that we are just one year into the use of this system as a new airline...when pre-merger US Airways migrated from pacer to sabre, was sabre ready to go and everything complete the day of migration? Sorry, dont think so...

I don’t seem to recall any problems even close to the SHARES debacle when US switched from PACER to Sabre.

Did you work for US during that period? Your avatar suggests otherwise.

 

[Ima B. Yotch]

Sure, but let me put this in perspective for you. Let's name two pax SABRE and QIK/SHARES

SABRE wants to go from CLT to FRA and was able to do so directly, albeit more expensively
QIK/SHARES wants the same routing but found a dirt cheap ticket taking him CLT LAS PHL FRA PHL LAS CLT

They both got where they needed to go, but QIK/SHARES picked the cheap route and now he's got 45 vomit bags, a headache and who the F knows where his bag went???

I'm just saying....

That is the funniest comparison in the history of this jacked-up merger.