Usairways.com Sets Record

[Phoenix]

these numbers could be very misleading.....
......

[post="185762"][/post]​

ResAgent,

I appreciate your insight. May I offer another tidbit fot those who think the website is the end-all-be-all of the woes of USAirways.

My parents recently wanted to buy a ticket on USAirways and jumped on the web to purchase it. The website hickuped so they called res to purchase the ticket. But of course there was a 30 minute wait. Then while on hold they jumped over to the Southwest website and saw a flight that would maybe work for them....

While on hold with USAir, they decided to call SouthWest with their cell phone to ask a couple of questions. Would you know it, SoutWest Mgt has enough people working that the res agent at SouthWest picked up the phone in less than two rings.

The credit card was ready... and so was SouthWest.

The reason the website is doing so well is that mgt has furloughed all the res agents... it is the same way with the KIOSKs, they furloughed all the ticket agents.

But the costs are going down...

 

[hadEnuff]

Very good post Phoenix.... The passengers are going to get lots of low fares and lots of automation. They are not willing to pay for service and they will not get any because the industry is NO longer a service industry but simply a transportation industry. Thats what they wanted and thats what they are getting. So next time they want to actually talk to someone do not complain about having to wait or if the person isn't very experienced because they haven't paid for that. This entire industry will basically be the old PeopleExpress model!!!!!

 

[ClueByFour]

Two things:

the website was dragging last week in a rather large fashion for the first 48 hours of the sale.

Secondly, it's not a great thing: given the fare levels in question, all this really did was demonstrate that the .com portion can burn the furniture at a rather impressive clip.

 

[tadjr]

Are you people ever happy? There is positive news for a channel of distribution and all that you can do is be negative. The company should have expelled workers like you years ago...that is one reason this company is shot.

[post="185769"][/post]​

Well from my personal perspective I think that some of the changes are good. I dont have a problem with the automation, etc, its the lack of support thats the problem. They keep cutting people because of automation, yet the automation they give us in some instances is more labor intensive than just letting us do it the old way so now with less people we are having to do more to correct the problem of having the automation thats going to make things easier in the first place. Understand?
Fewer agents because of kiosks, yet everyone this week who was rerouted due to the hurricane couldnt use the kiosk because the tickets had to be reissued or were reissued. Kiosk doesnt understand that and checkin fails meaning- see an agent. Well we have all these kiosks just sitting there now not checking people in while 2 of us are working the entire line of reroutes. If the kiosk actually worked the reroutes then I wouldnt have a problem with it, but to put the kiosks in to make things easier and then cut people only to have to do double the work because the kiosks dont work is where I have a problem with the automation.
*I do admit not having to use a credit card on them HAS improved the checkin failure rate though so THAT was a good thing.
Same thing goes with the new gate readers. I dont know why they went with this system ($cheap would be my guess), but its sorely lacking. They are giving us something to make our jobs "easier" with only 1 agent working a flight, yet the system sucks. The beep is the same whether it took the info or not so you basically have to double check everything anyway. Many of the tickets we did the other day beeped, but the count was off so we ended up doing it all again by hand. Also there is a lag time between scanning and the computer accepting so it actually slows the boarding down (at least when I've tried it). Also several of the kiosks and printers bar codes werent lined up properly which means the system cant read them. We have to do them by hand anyway. I just dont see the value in the system we bought if there are so many failure possibilites. Just do it this way and shut up seems to be the mantra around here. If the da*n thing worked, I wouldnt have a problem using it. Its the fact that someone thinks its fantastic and the solution to all of our problems while making my job HARDER than it is now is where I have the problem.
I'm sure this is the sentiment of most of the rez agents who have to clean up the mess from .com. It isnt the fact that many of their fellow agents have been laid off, its the fact that not only have more people been laid off, but the "replacements, .com" is more problems than the old way. If .com (and its support staff) were working, most of the agents wouldnt even know .com was there and they could deal with the people who actually needed to speak to an agent for their problems. Its the fact that they are being required to deal with people they HAVE to deal with IN ADDITION to the .com screwups thats the problem.
(Kind of like training your replacement before the boss fires you! )
Just MOPO

 

[nycbusdriver]

Very good post Phoenix.... The passengers are going to get lots of low fares and lots of automation. They are not willing to pay for service and they will not get any because the industry is NO longer a service industry but simply a transportation industry. Thats what they wanted and thats what they are getting. So next time they want to actually talk to someone do not complain about having to wait or if the person isn't very experienced because they haven't paid for that. This entire industry will basically be the old PeopleExpress model!!!!!

[post="185991"][/post]​

Good observation. PeopleExpress might still be here if they had third millenium automation and communications infrastructure available to them.

 

[hadEnuff]

Attn tadjr....... the kisok will reroute if resv has not protected the flight. If the flight is canx it will show that on the screen but if you then touch confirm it will give you reroute possibilities, all on line of course, and the psgr can select the reoute of choice and touch confirm and the kisok will invol reissue the ticket and then check them in. However if the psgr has been protected with new flts but the ticket has not been reissued then they must check in with an agent. I will bet there are lots of other kisok capabilities we haven't been made aware of. In fact, I strongly feel the kisok will soon be contracted out as part of the curb side check contract and after Thursday, Oct 7 it shouldn't take the company too many months to get that in place. Most average airports with 20 or less flights will probably have two ticketing agents and that's it and if a passenger wants to check in with a person instead of attempting to use the kisok they will probably have to pay a fee. Just my thoughts but I can see that is where this group is headed. We will no longer be a service industry but only a transportation industry!!

 

[tadjr]

Attn tadjr....... the kisok will reroute if resv has not protected the flight.

[post="186063"][/post]​

I am aware of that, however when you have people on Tuesday who are connecting via CLT who WERE supposed to fly out on Sunday (when there were NO flights at all the entire day) and connect via PHL, the kiosk will not work. Imagine EVERYONE who was supposed to fly Sunday now flying on Monday (except for the originators that were cancelled and rebooked as well) now flying out Monday afternoon or Tuesday, or Wednesday. All of those people HAD to wait in line to get their tickets reissued/printed. Cant check in curbside either if the tkt hadnt been reissued right. Of course the skycaps would come in and get the ticket taken care of for them, but that still required an agent to stop checking in the line and assist them as well. At 8am Monday when we showed up (4 of us made it in to work) there were probably about 150-200 people in line already and it didnt go down to a reasonable number for most of the day. Same on Tuesday when the cruise ship showed up. Almost everyone had to see an agent since their original flights were on Sunday.

 

[Atlantic]

The "Amen Crowd" can't stand any good news, anything positive. Rather they aproach Anything to do with AAA with a negitive, must be a lie, etc.

 

[hadEnuff]

Attn tadjr.... sorry I misunderstood your problems or should that be nightmares. Unfortunately that is the product management has created and as I have stated before, we are fast becoming a transportation industry and not a service industry. You reap what you sow!!!! All the glory belongs to our Exective Vice President of Operations, Al Crellin!!!!

 

[Phoenix]

Very good post Phoenix.... The passengers are going to get lots of low fares and lots of automation. They are not willing to pay for service and they will not get any because the industry is NO longer a service industry but simply a transportation industry. Thats what they wanted and thats what they are getting. So next time they want to actually talk to someone do not complain about having to wait or if the person isn't very experienced because they haven't paid for that. This entire industry will basically be the old PeopleExpress model!!!!!

[post="185991"][/post]​

Maybe I didn't make the point clearly. SouthWest did provide the service, and because they did provide the service they got the money. (Well then again, Soutwest's service on the plane is a little limited! HA! But at least they provided the service at the point were the wallet was open!)

 

[CynicalResAgent]

First, I want to say thank you to the passengers whom appreciate the excellent service that Res can provide....

Second, I think some people missed my point, although I see some also agree.

The Website support is horrible. When someone has a question about the website Res cannot help them, we do not have access to it. We have only recently been given access to sending out etickets via email, but that makes some people think that we have the internet at our desks, we don't but thats another topic.....

We cannot see what you all see at home and if the website hiccups then we have to fix it, which can sometimes be more work than if you had of just called res to begin with.

Third, my contention with the website news release of record sales was not to complain about the fact that it apparently did well....I just resent that upper, upper management seems to forget the sales records that res has broken (yet they do not make a press release about it), all while contending with the various problems we have dealt with recently one of which is a Chairman of the board who goes on the news and scares people into calling us asking us "what-if" scenarios about the doomsday scenarios he poses to the media....not to menton the ungodly number of calls that are on hold...

Yes the website did well, yeah, we ran a crazy 48 (72) hour sale with dirt cheap fares in some markets so why wouldn't it? Congrats that people are still booking....

What bothers me is the fact that some people think .com can replace us. Yeah, it could replace us for sales, but never for service and think some people have forgotten that and live under the illusion that if they could rid themselves of us that they could make more money...

*meanwhile, I spend my time skimming Popular Science waiting to see the article that hopefully will one day appear about a tech company that has made a CEO-replacing Kiosk....

 

[NeedForSpeedNFS]

Very good post Phoenix.... The passengers are going to get lots of low fares and lots of automation. They are not willing to pay for service and they will not get any because the industry is NO longer a service industry but simply a transportation industry. Thats what they wanted and thats what they are getting. So next time they want to actually talk to someone do not complain about having to wait or if the person isn't very experienced because they haven't paid for that. This entire industry will basically be the old PeopleExpress model!!!!!

[post="185991"][/post]​

WHAT????? Look at the first part of your post!!! You answered your own question!!!! We ARE The TRANSPORTATION industry!!! People want to fly for the CHEAPEST fare!!!.....PERIOD!!!! Travelers don't want service....They want CHEAP fares to get from point A to point B!!! This industry has forever changed!! The union mentality of some posters' here will NEVER bring back the good paying, rewarding career the airline industry used to provide!!!! If you STILL love your job, stay.....If not.....MOVE ON!! Remember, THERE IS LIFE AFTER USAIRWAYS!!!! GOOD DAY!!!!

 

[hadEnuff]

I intend to that's why I'm hadEnuff!!!!!!!!!!!11

 

[thepoohbear]

Unfortunately for the passengers, if the company does stay in business,They will be getting what they paid for. You might get a cheap fare.But heaven forbid anything out of the ordinary happens.We never experience air traffic delays or wex delays. Are the armies of kiosks, which will be connected to a Delhi call center be able to get granny to her destination.Is Miami close to Dallas. It looks close on my map.
How long will the $7.00 employees stay when they get a week straight of bad wex?

 

[Finish or Ignore]

All the glory belongs to our Exective Vice President of Operations, Al Crellin!!!!

[post="186074"][/post]​

One of the glaring reasons even if we give the company everything they ask for, this ain't gona work. I believe Bruce can be trusted but, he needs to clean house.