This past Saturday (12/17) in ORD.....

[NewHampshire Black Bears]

I read "bits and pieces" about a "meltdown" at ORD Ticket counter.

Could someone give MORE detail ?

Thanx,

NH/BB's

 

[Imagolfer]

Long lines, understaffed, downright long waits. Cops had to be called and busses had to be brought in to keep customers who were stuck outside in the cold

In my opinion, this appeard to be an organized CHAOS by the agents.

Not a red letter day for UAL :down:

 

[spacewaitress]

No, not CHAOS, just incompetence by this management to fully staff the airline. You should see the lines at the gates...now that there is, oh, maybe one person to man the gate and even then only 45 minutes before departure. But somehow, the good people who work here get the airline to work.

 

[FWAAA]

I'm gonna disagree with golfer.

Terrible weather at ORD on Thur/Fri caused numerous cancellations, causing a backlog of stranded pax on Saturday morning. Combine that with management failure to recognize that the holiday rush began last weekend - and their failure to schedule lots of extra agents - and a meltdown ensued.

NH/BBs: You know I'm usually a management shill, but in this case, management is to blame.

Part of UA's new model is to run as lean as possible. That works ok on the best of days (not great, but passable). Throw in some irregular operations/bad weather/holiday rush and it is a recipe for disaster.

In my view, UA management is still having trouble deciding what kind of airline it wants to be (as is AA, unfortunately). Does it want to be a full-service carrier catering primarily to those willing to pay a little more or does it want to be part-full service/part Ryanair? That's what it looks like right now, with fatherless TED. IMO, there's room for one or two airlines in the former category, but airlines trying to fit into the latter are doomed to fail. Can't be all things to all people.

 

[ualdriver]

Long lines, understaffed, downright long waits. Cops had to be called and busses had to be brought in to keep customers who were stuck outside in the cold

In my opinion, this appeard to be an organized CHAOS by the agents.

Not a red letter day for UAL :down:

I was working that day and I don't think it was any type of job action by the CSR's nor the ramp. They were busting their a$$es that day, some of them volunteering to work later to fix the mess.

 

[WorldTraveler]

Just in time resource management has been shown to not work at all levels when things go bad. American business doesn't want to keep anything more than the expected average reserves on hand and that means manpower resources. Just look at what happened this summer with US energy supplies - granted a significant deviation from the norm but I can just about guarantee you that it will happen again, perhaps as soon as this coming summer.

Yes, UA management could and should have "called in the cavalry" when they had significant numbers of passengers affected by IROP on top of the already heavy holiday loads. Those types of statistics are available to any airline management; whether they bothered to look and act is the question but the information was certainly available if they wanted it. However, let's not be too harsh on UA since every major airline has had a similar type of snafu in recent memory and there will likely be more of the same in the future.

 

[casual rat]

Management burns people out by being as lean as possible, then they expect people to come in on their day off to save the place. With little to no intrinsic value left to the job anymore, it's unreasonable for Management to expect employees to step up time after time for their continuous faux pas. Management screws up and depends on the people getting the screws put to them to bail them out--it simply doesn't work that way. A wholesale change in Management philosophy is in order--before service levels will improve to better than pathetic levels. JMHO. People aren't numbers, and it's offensive to be treated that way.

 

[formeraa]

Management burns people out by being as lean as possible, then they expect people to come in on their day off to save the place. With little to no intrinsic value left to the job anymore, it's unreasonable for Management to expect employees to step up time after time for their continuous faux pas. Management screws up and depends on the people getting the screws put to them to bail them out--it simply doesn't work that way. A wholesale change in Management philosophy is in order--before service levels will improve to better than pathetic levels. JMHO. People aren't numbers, and it's offensive to be treated that way.

You're right! People aren't numbers. However, how would you have handled this situation -- without letting costs get out of control? We need solutions, not complaints. And we need people who understand the concept of strict cost control -- in this day of $99 fares.

 

[csrgal]

For the past three years, we have been cutting costs in all areas except at "bonus-time" for the mgmt. We work extremely short as CSR's and one little snafu and we are drowning. Mgmt's solution is to force the customer to use the machines. And from the article, it sounds like mgmt staff was called in --- What for???? To make sure the ECU usage percentage was not hurt. We may have to get a task team together to determine priorities.

 

[mrfish3726]

As I re-call UniTED had the same bad press last year for under staffed holiday travel ! And not just at ORD either, they had people standing in lines here in DEN for HOURS! Why hasn't management figured it out yet that when people pay to fly, you need to do whatever possible to make sure that they're travel experience is as pain free as possible. EVEN if it means calling in overtime to make that happen, AMAZING. Great PR for you all though, I can see your well on your way out of BK and on to those real profitable years you've been talking about . Keep up the awesome work and keep making your customer base happy as a clam LOL.

 

[mrfish3726]

formeraa says, "We need solutions, not complaints. And we need people who understand the concept of strict cost control -- in this day of $99 fares."

If your refering to the passenger: This is so fricking funny . Do you think that ANY PASSENGER who payed $99 or $5000 for a ticket cares how much you have to spend to get them from point A to B and back? Man your living in a dream world if you think a customer cares about the airlines cost to do that ! There is ONLY one rule when it comes to the customer service work enviorment and that is "THE CUSTOMER IS ALWAYS RIGHT" They could give two SH*TS about what that costs you PERIOD. :blink:

 

[casual rat]

I think it costs more money paying for missed bags and delays than it does to staff sufficiently. Econ 101, simple as that. How does it make sense to delay departures @ $42.00 per minute, when you can buy a person for $30/hour on double-time (if said staff person would prevent the minute delay)? What does UA do? They hire consultants who figure out how to reduce staffing....Consultants don't do anything to get planes out on-time, yet, we're going to pay them to figure out how to delay them and increase costs even more? I don't get it, please, anyone help me out on this one!

 

[A737lvr]

I think it costs more money paying for missed bags and delays than it does to staff sufficiently. Econ 101, simple as that. How does it make sense to delay departures @ $42.00 per minute, when you can buy a person for $30/hour on double-time (if said staff person would prevent the minute delay)? What does UA do? They hire consultants who figure out how to reduce staffing....Consultants don't do anything to get planes out on-time, yet, we're going to pay them to figure out how to delay them and increase costs even more? I don't get it, please, anyone help me out on this one!

Could it be that they are stuck with out a clue of what to do? Or is it all part of a wisdom we fail to see? Remember, if you will, the people at the top are going to rake in tons of cash before all this boils down.

 

[local 12 proud]

You're right! People aren't numbers. However, how would you have handled this situation -- without letting costs get out of control? We need solutions, not complaints. And we need people who understand the concept of strict cost control -- in this day of $99 fares.

Bushie has a plan, its called "Guest worker program"

 

[whatkindoffreshhell]

May I ask the whereabouts of Glen, Jake et al last weekend?

Didn't the 'consultants' peruse the res system and get an idea of how many guests to expect?

If UA mgmt and union leaders were smart they would write a clause into every white-collar contract that "in emergency situations you will be called into action on the front lines where needed"

You are all in this thing together...