Why was Shares chosen of Sabre?

[TravelDude]

Ok, I am not up to speed on this one, from the board I can tell a lot of people are upset about choosing Shares, not Sabre.

I have heard Sabre is an expensive product and dangerous to get your IT locked into as Sabre has had some significant price increases in recent years. But then again, that could be a bad rumor.

Why did the company say they chose Shares? What other airlines use Shares?

 

[lithuanian]

This is a great question. Everyone whats to fix problems, but no one wants to take the responsibility for the problem in the first place.
And, to add, why is NCR replacing all the kiosks?

 

[as the prop turns]

From what I understand, as was explained by Parker at a Town Hall Meeting in CLT, they could have gone either way with the system. Apparently, they still had a contract with EDS (Shares) that they say the could not get out of. Oh really, what about the high paid attorneys that break contract all day long. So, they opted to go from a Big Airline Computer System to Play School. They also tried to convince us that they could make any adjustments they needed to on this system. Once again, thinking like a regional airline. They have yet to get we are a freaking global carrier.

Sabre can be expensive, however, over 200 MAJOR airlines in the world use it, along with rental cars, cruise ships, travel agents. One is able to service our pax and for the most part, with very few mistakes hence no lost revenue. Sabre very rarely went off line. The money we would have to shell out for Sabre is NOTHING compared with the money and pax we have lost because of SHARES.

 

[BuffaloJoe]

From what I understand, as was explained by Parker at a Town Hall Meeting in CLT, they could have gone either way with the system. Apparently, they still had a contract with EDS (Shares) that they say the could not get out of. Oh really, what about the high paid attorneys that break contract all day long. So, they opted to go from a Big Airline Computer System to Play School. They also tried to convince us that they could make any adjustments they needed to on this system. Once again, thinking like a regional airline. They have yet to get we are a freaking global carrier.

I think you answered it yourself. Why would they pay a high paid attorney?

 

[crusher]

DP says shares was chosen because US east had a SABRE contract we could get out of because of BK, where HP could not get out of the shares contract with EDS. It is not that shares is any cheaper. plus HP owns the overlay part QIK. Unfortunately Qik/shares is pure garbage and can do 1/10th of what SABRE is capable of. The IT (Idiot Team) in Tempe is of the delusion that they can through qik make shares the equivilant of SABRE. It is never going to happen since they have neither the talent or the intellect to do it. Shares has been and continues be an embarrassment to anyone working in customer service. The system is cumbersome and keystroke intensive and even when you do everything right the system doesn't work. Shares is pure crap. EDS is a second tier airline res company offering a second tier product. SABRE on the other hand is the leader in airline res systems and the leading system worldwide. Over 200 airlines use SABRE , 2 airlines (US and CO) use shares and CO uses native shares which is completly different than qik/shares.

 

[as the prop turns]

Ok, I am not up to speed on this one, from the board I can tell a lot of people are upset about choosing Shares, not Sabre.

I have heard Sabre is an expensive product and dangerous to get your IT locked into as Sabre has had some significant price increases in recent years. But then again, that could be a bad rumor.

Why did the company say they chose Shares? What other airlines use Shares?

CO uses Shares, however it is the A+ version of it. We were handed the ghetto version. Sabre is a fabulous computer system. Very pax and employee friendly. We can communicate with other airlines with speed and accuracy, with Shares you make phone calls to the other airlines because the system cannot be trusted. Just a few things, I could write a book.

 

[crusher]

Shares is just one more thing that the regional mentality of HP has brought to US
1) Reconfigure the 320/321 ac to increase coach seating and reduce First class, remove F/C coat closets, reduce range of above ac due to new weight restrictions,
2) Reduce seat pitch to the worst in the industry and brag that 31 inches really is "generous"
3) Reconfigure A330 ac and reduce envoy by 12 seats but increase coach by 39 and put boeing seats with a seat pitch that would make Tom Thumb cringe.
4) Change service and amenity levels to embarrassing low class standards

Who knows what else these clowns will come up with. The first step to redoing this airline is to get SABRE back and fix all the above mistakes.

 

[Piedmont1984]

Ok, I am not up to speed on this one, from the board I can tell a lot of people are upset about choosing Shares, not Sabre.


Why did the company say they chose Shares? What other airlines use Shares?

1 Because they are idiots.

2 Northeast Mongolian Regional Airlines
Central Amazon Rainforest Airlink
Sumatra Mountain Express....and
Kazhakstan Air (CEO Borat)

I have forgotten some of the others.

 

[gizmo_sc]

In addition to CO, Air China and Asiana use SHARES.. why I have no IDEA. I read something while back that a few companies were working on a COMPLETE AIRLINE RESERVATIONS system, one that does everything. Since Sabre is part of AMR... it has to be very expensive to use the system.

 

[BuffaloJoe]

IT Head for Implementing SHARES is Jeff Spicoli! Party On Dudes!

 

[Dont call me Shirley]

In addition to CO, Air China and Asiana use SHARES.. why I have no IDEA. I read something while back that a few companies were working on a COMPLETE AIRLINE RESERVATIONS system, one that does everything. Since Sabre is part of AMR... it has to be very expensive to use the system.

Sabre was actually spun off from AMR several years ago.

I had no idea that anyone other than US and CO uses SHARES. Frontier (F9, not the orignal one) once used it, but switched to Sabre.

Although it has already been mentioned, it cannot be emphasized enough: US uses (the oxymoronically named) QIK, a GUI "gooey" overlay of SHARES. And therein lies most of the problem! CO does have its own "gooey" overlay, but gives its employees the choice of using that system or (CO) native SHARES. CO agents, for the most part, use native; CO runs a pretty big international operation with it. US reportedly has no plans to lets its frontline staff use the native system. (A fact that does not keep many offices in Tempe from doing so.)

When the decision to go with SHARES instead of Sabre, the supposed lower cost of the former was cited as a primary reason. Being able to break the Sabre contract more easily was not mentioned until very recently.

 

[tadjr]

And, to add, why is NCR replacing all the kiosks?

Are you asking why the kiosks are being replaced or why is NCR the one replacing the kiosks?

Answer to the first question is, because they dont work right most of the time in their current state. If its the second question, dont know why NCR was chosen.

Something new today on the kiosks. Checking in family traveling international. Kiosk wants to know how many kids (for weight and balance purposes) add 1. "We're sorry. There might be special requirements for children traveling international, please see an agent to complete your check-in".
Great, now another whole group of people who CANT use the kiosk and must wait in the regular line. If you guys are going to make it almost impossible for ANYONE to use the freakin kiosk, just get rid of them altogether and just have agents again. Unbelieveable. :down: :blink:

 

[crusher]

Just more proof that shares is a second rate res system and that no matter what we spend or how much time is "invested " in upgrading this piece of garbage it will always be a piece of garbage. Tempe just doesn't seem to learn from their mistakes. All it will take is one major storm along the east coast and shares worthlessness will again rear it's ugly head and destroy the operation once again , only this time during the peak summer season , with nothing to put the passengers on, messing up more vacations than we did in March.

 

[ussnark]

Just more proof that shares is a second rate res system and that no matter what we spend or how much time is "invested " in upgrading this piece of garbage it will always be a piece of garbage. Tempe just doesn't seem to learn from their mistakes. All it will take is one major storm along the east coast and shares worthlessness will again rear it's ugly head and destroy the operation once again , only this time during the peak summer season , with nothing to put the passengers on, messing up more vacations than we did in March.

I am making quite a few assumptions but I believe the issue is QIK and not Shares. QIK was supposed to make Shares more "user friendly". Unfortunately, HP went cheap and US got a tool that made a small percent of possible Shares tasks easy but effectively locked out the full power of Shares to the agent. This is aside from QIK actually delivering that which was not requested or worse, something else entirely.

US could, as quickly as possible, go back to Sabre, or, transition to native Shares (more difficult). Simultaneously, US could devote a part of employee concessions into maturing QIK.

 

[crusher]

A SABRE reconversion would be the quickest and the one that would create the fewest, if any problems. It would also put our operation back on solid footing. It is true that QIK is indeed the main problem , not necessarily Shares, but if qik is the problem let us turn it off and work in NATIVE shares . We know how to do our job it is qik/shares that prevents us from doing it. What used to take from 1-2 minutes to seconds now take 10-15 mins per passenger simply because qik seems to think it knows better than the agent dealing with the issue. Popups and fillins will never be an alternative to a command entry ,but that is what qik has inflicted on us. Give us SABRE back or at least access to Native Shares. Why is it that Tempe and OCC don't use qik? They use native shares. Do you see a problem here? They have access but the front line does not!!!!!!!!!!!!!!