SHARES or RES?

[PhxMama]

Native or QIK?

QIK-ok, Im not that smart!

 

[USCREW]

I have been away from my glamourous job as a flight attendant for two whole weeks.

SABRE sucks! I can't get a manifest so I have no idea who or what is on the plane. Forget asking an agent anything--his or her head will pop right off. I've had several delays on the tarmac b/c we couldn't get the weight and balance d/t the flight not being properly closed out. It's been comical.

 

[Whatnow?]

I have been away from my glamourous job as a flight attendant for two whole weeks.

SABRE sucks!

You do mean SHARES right? :huh: SABRE was awesome compared to this archaeic system!

 

[USCREW]

You do mean SHARES right? :huh: SABRE was awesome compared to this archaeic system!

You know what I mean...
I don't even know what it's called, but it's stupid.

 

[N965VJ]

You do mean SHARES right? :huh: SABRE was awesome compared to this archaeic system!

USCREW was using an old PACER cheat-sheet.

 

[USCREW]

USCREW was using an old PACER cheat-sheet.

Thank-you. No wonder my codes don't work anymore...how long has that been gone? :blink:

 

[Whatnow?]

What's really nice is being handed that ream of paperwork from the Agents when you close the door....yeah, that will save some money!

 

[Dont call me Shirley]

Native or QIK?

Speaking of native SHARES or QIK, I took a few moments to visit my friendly local CO folks. They showed me a few native entries. As I suspected, they made a lot more sense to my old school sensibilities than QIK.
FLIFO: 2(flt nbr), not Ctrl G, F8, (flt nbr)
AVAIL: A EWR, not ctrl G, F1, etc
Very similar to native Sabre, in many respects.
Also showed me their GUI (gooey?) overlay, I forgot the name. Slow, (SLO?), just like QIK. But some of their people (i.e. the new hires, or "yunnins") like it. Their experienced SHARES users prefer native. Goes to show the point that has been mentioned by me and others, that if you really know what you are doing in a native res system, be it Apollo, SHARES, or Sabre, it is faster than and easier than fancy "gooey": overlays, like FASTAIR, QIK, and whatever CO calls theirs.

The point is that CO gives their people a choice to use what they prefer. Instead of forcing the overlay on everyone. Someone who learned QIK from the start might very prefer it. But for us old school native Sabre people, let us have the choice as well. I really think I could learn native SHARES more easily than QIK.

I did not have a chance to see CO's native SHARES try some of the troubled areas of US QIK, like international or off-line availability, but hope to try that out soon.


As far as QIK went today in one station, SSTs were not working. Again. Help desk said it's being worked on. More change fees waived. (But, hey, it's cheaper. Especially for the folks whose money QIK won't take)

 

[olivia]

Just a note to phx mama....

I understand you are very good at your job
and can easily use your QIK system.

I too am a proud competent employee and like
to be able to help my customers in the best
and most efficient way. Prior to coming to
usairways I had been a travel agent trained
on Apollo, Sabre and then Pacer, then back to
our version of Sabre and now QIK. I have over 20 years just with this airline. I can learn any reservation computer you put in front of me. So it is not a training issue!

I can tell you with absolute certainty that
our east coast US1s profiles are not prepopulating. The west coast numbers do populate an address, phone and sometimes the email address.

Our biggest problems are "availability"...just try booking an international itinerary like the ones we struggle with daily. Today it was
phx lax bkk dps sin lax phx. Some of the cities are not even loaded and available for sale.

Another problem. FLIFO . Our CHP are used
to getting information on where their planes are currently. Using your ship system is
unwieldy. And guess what...yes....no east
coast flights/ships are loaded. So once
again, we are looking stupid. On the east coast, we have lots of ATC delays and a lot of weather you do not get in PHX, LAS, etc.
We need to be able to rebook our passengers QUICKLY... Even if we have to book another airline, we do it for a CHP who is paying top dollar and needs to get to his next meeting.

This computer doesn't even give us any accurate information if seats are even available, so we could wind
up calling several airlines and waiting on hold ten min for each airline.

The other night, all of our computer responses were "timing out" so each entry would take 15 to 30 seconds or more, which doesn't sound like much but it really slowed us down, and it is just embarrassing to say ....oh wait my computer says "busy" ...i'll know in a few minutes.


Also, in answer to your previous comments, the reason I don't use the notepad is that I already had carpal tunnel from too much typing and I use a type of shorthand to give my hands a rest. Whatever works for you! Anyway, we all want to work together and make this airline the best it can be. So please don't think we are being harsh with our west coast partners. I'm sure they will try to fix some of these things in the days to come, and we are all hoping for the best.

 

[tadjr]

Our biggest problems are "availability"...just try booking an international itinerary

It doesnt even have to be international. Tried to book several people tonight who missed a flight. Wow, we no longer have conx on our late CLT flight from TPA to RDU or MYR unless you check them point to point. For TPA-RDU it pulled up, yep WN h34r: and DL . For someone who DIDNT KNOW that we actually SERVE THIS MARKET and HAVE FLIGHTS, their response would be sorry, try WN or I can book you for tomorrow morning. I dont want to hear one word about the agents needing to be more productive like our WN counterparts next time we have a contract issue to discuss. You guys (management) have taken all hope of us ever being productive out of the picture with the current system. :down:

 

[john john]

Speaking of native SHARES or QIK, I took a few moments to visit my friendly local CO folks. They showed me a few native entries. As I suspected, they made a lot more sense to my old school sensibilities than QIK.
FLIFO: 2(flt nbr), not Ctrl G, F8, (flt nbr)
AVAIL: A EWR, not ctrl G, F1, etc
Very similar to native Sabre, in many respects.
Also showed me their GUI (gooey?) overlay, I forgot the name. Slow, (SLO?), just like QIK. But some of their people (i.e. the new hires, or "yunnins") like it. Their experienced SHARES users prefer native. Goes to show the point that has been mentioned by me and others, that if you really know what you are doing in a native res system, be it Apollo, SHARES, or Sabre, it is faster than and easier than fancy "gooey": overlays, like FASTAIR, QIK, and whatever CO calls theirs.

The point is that CO gives their people a choice to use what they prefer. Instead of forcing the overlay on everyone. Someone who learned QIK from the start might very prefer it. But for us old school native Sabre people, let us have the choice as well. I really think I could learn native SHARES more easily than QIK.

I did not have a chance to see CO's native SHARES try some of the troubled areas of US QIK, like international or off-line availability, but hope to try that out soon.
As far as QIK went today in one station, SSTs were not working. Again. Help desk said it's being worked on. More change fees waived. (But, hey, it's cheaper. Especially for the folks whose money QIK won't take)

I couldn’t agree more I to went and checked out CO and talk to some old CO/EA buddies. They like there pop ups but when the going gets rough or they have complex issue they go to native SHARES without interruption

 

[jerseyfinn]

Assuming you get a confirmation email, I believe you have 24 hours to call back for corrections if it was incorrectly booked. Check your email and make sure you have the correct class of service, dates of travel, and city pairs booked. If it is $400 too low, one of the above being incorrect could account for the problem.

I book a last minute long-weekend trip PHL-PBI for next week. Because we're purchasing tickets so late for PBI, it's only $50 more for an F seat so I decide to purchase F tickets. First, I try the web site but that chokes half way through the transaction. So I call the CP line.

The first hint I get that the reservation system functions differently begins after I key in my DM # and a new message comes up to " hit # 1 if your DM number has both numbers and letters ". Hmmm . . . OK a minor change . . .

Likewise I was puzzled as to why the extra questions about my phone number and e-mail address etc., all information that I assume you have before you. Of course comments in this thread now clear that up.

As usual, the CP rep is helpful, pleasant and efficient, even with the added questions and procedures. We get our F seats and the deal is done.

Yet a little later, when I look at our e-mail confirmations, they list our fare basis as coach ( but no seat assignments ). Once again, I can see that there remain issues with the entire reservation process whether you use the web or call in.

Fortunately keying in a confirmation code on the US web site brings up our reservations with F seats correctly noted in the record.

I don't doubt that the frontline folks are trying their best. But I'm very surprised to see the breadth scope of this IT failure. Obviously Tempe does not think the whole thing through and now everyone is stuck with a mess.

From a customer perspective I'll say this. I hope things get better, and soon. Otherwise, I've got real doubts about whether US can get the job done right. And the last thing I want is a SNAFU on any of our flights. This is the sort of issue that if the mistake is big enough, I'm out the door for good ( not a threat to you guys, but just my sentiment plain and simple ).

Perhaps the bigwigs in Tempe will occassionally pull their head out of their ass to come up for air and listen to how disconcerting all of this is to pax and employees. All I as is that an airline gets the job done on time and correctly. I'll pay extra for real service that works.

Barry

PS

Are SHARES record locaters all letters or a mixture of numbers and letters? My locater was all letters while my wife's locater had a number in it as well.

 

[PhxMama]

I didnt want to touch this thread(again) but the posts warrantd at least a response. I truly understand that the system is not working and is not as efficient as SABRE was for you. That was never my point as I dont have the experience to make that point. Hp did have an international dept at one time and I know making those international connections was NOT easy. The system was never set up for that IMO, and my first thought when I heard it would be QIK was wondering how that could even work. We all know it doesnt work. I have always marveled at how loyal your customer base has been even thru 2 bankrupcies. A group like FFOCUS that really went out of their way to support employees. WOW, hp agents never had that. A few years ago I saw the pictures from the GreenTree closing and that customers would trvl to say Thank You to employees whose job it was to help them, I was very moved and humbled and then REALLY understood the dedicated professionals that work for this company. Never think that I dont know that I dont have the experience that many of you have. This past week has shown the real backbone of its frontline employees and I mean right now anyone dealing customers at any east airport has my utmost respect. Our prayers and thoughts have been with you as we received calls from customers waiting on lines and heard just a fraction of what was happening. As much as we heard about the problems with Manilla we didnt have a freaking clue about how clueless they are. Not only is there a culture difference, a language barrier and a new system, they are either unable to or too afraid to ask questions. They blind xfer to the west after misadvising and screwing things up. My week had been full of resolving problems that never should have arisen. I guess my point as been the west side has some really good employees too. I am NOT referring to myself. Our DM agents that worked the hp elite line are still really good even though they dont handle these calls any more. They were disappointed and like many of you that have your favorite CP angel many of them feel like they have lost contact with good friends. I have been defensive because these are my co workers and my friends. Many of them have worked for other airlines in the past and so have more industry experience than their HP years of seniority let on. We were very excited about this emrger when it was first announced and knew it would not be without alot of rough patches. The decision on which system to use was not ours to make but one we have to learn to deal with so I hope we can maybe help each other rather than bash each other. With all the contract issues I think we need to think about coming together in solidarity to not only help each other but in turn help our customers and I mean HELP some of the most loyal customers any company could ever hope to win. With lots of respect and good wishes, Mama

 

[tadjr]

The record locators can be mixed or all letters. No rhyme or reason.

Also, since availability issues were mentioned earlier, maybe someone from West can help me here? How come I cant find any flights to Odessa, Ukraine in the system? I know there are flights there because the customer looked it up himself online, yet I dont see it in our system to sell.
Why does the computer not pull up the next flight to the city requested? Asked for TPA-AVP today and the first screen showed a flight that had already left (real helpful, entry number 1), next page showed two flights to CLT at 3pm and 5pm arriving at 11pm (real helpful, entry number 2), finally entry number 3 shows a 210pm flight via PHL arriving at 7pm. Hallelujah, we have a winner after how many keystrokes? Sorry, after hitting so many F- (N) keys? I dont care that WN has flights unless I ask for WN, why bother to even have that in the system unless asked for? The productivity factor just keeps getting better and better as the lines grow and grow.
Also, our late flight to CLT wasnt showing conx to RDU (heard from IT that its been corrected) and tonight couldnt get conx to AVL or MYR to show. Why do the agents have to do a "seek and find" mission to get OUR flight to show up in OUR computer system? Why arent ALL of our flight offerings showing up? How many people are we not selling seats to because Shares says there is no flight when there is? I was advised to let IT know if there were any more city pairs that arent coming up in availability. NOT MY JOB! If I have to do the IT/ Schedulings job to make sure the flights are showing, then I WANT THE MONEY IN MY PAYCHECK THESE PEOPLE ARE SUPPOSED TO BE GETTING PAID TO DO THEIR JOB, WHEN ITS MAKING MY JOB HARDER! :down: :down:

 

[Dont call me Shirley]

Well, I wanted to go over to CO today and have them show me some native SHARES availability displays. But we had a cxld flight and I had to deal with joys of invol reroutes in QIK. I got very tired of "adjusting" e-tks. But at least I was lucky enough not have a customer need to be rerouted from a two segment trip to a four segment reroute, as one of my colleagues did. With one leg on another carrier. As many of you know, the wizards that came up with the QIK reroute package never envisioned anyone having to change planes more than once. (Probably true if you only have to go ELP-RNO). She had to do two separate invol reissues. Each specifying, leg by leg, the "old" and "new" cities. Gimme W:EXCH:INVOL"S1/2/3/4" anytime over this junk.