Us Airways Aligns Policiies With Amw

[EyeInTheSky]

Well, the 'new US Airways' is certainly starting to live up to the 'LCC' stock symbol. With that being said, a lot of our business just went to other airlines. In the East (hello PHX) people like to bring their animals with them. As for UNACs, well, I guess one half of the company can't be trusted to get Junior connected home to Mom & Pop. Guess this is the dumbing down to a level that, quite frankly, behooves the low pay these days.

 

[barbeetantrums]

Doing away w/conx UMs was a good thing.
Its really hard to keep track of ten kids and their parents at a time, and try to get the conx to their proper flight, or the PAC counter.
The volume of conx UMs was TREMENDOUS at times.
Then there was UM conx on nite flites (cheaper fares) that misconnect in LAS and you have to keep them overnight.
And they delay the flgihts if they show up late in the boarding process.

[post="289020"][/post]​

Let's not forget the parents that arrive to pick up their kids hours after he or she arrives.

 

[thepoohbear]

It's Mirror Image all over again.Thank G*D I won't be here to deal with it.Full service , I don't think so. :rant:

 

[osunut]

There goes the U employees getting their panties in a wad over pets, kids and O2.

The cost of doing these and the revenue generated from it does not make financial or business sense for who the new U is aiming for.

Think folks, think deeper than what is on the face. The average temp for PHX above 75 degrees, the cut off for embargoing pets, is from March to November. ummmmmmmm that leave 3 months?? Please.

UM's: HP did not see a major loss of revenue due to the change. O2 on board. Too many regulatory issues and problems associated with it, why deal with it?

Anyway sorry all, but I am getting tired of people complaining about everything little detail. If you don't like working here, go away. Your making the ones who are excited about change and this merger bummed out. No wonder some are miserable, the company didn't make them that way, they just seem to be miserable all on their own.

Get "Who Moved My Cheese" and read it, ya might learn something.

 

[tadjr]

How many of the people saying this is a bad move actually have to deal with the situations this will eliminate us having to deal with?
Any agents out there saying this is bad or is everyone from other departments who dont see the reality in how these two things hamper the overall job, especially with the cuts we've taken at the airport?
Personally from an agents standpoint, I say dump the kids and dogs.
You can "tell" the kids til you're blue in the face to stay somewhere, but they know best and do what they want. With only 1 agent to work flights now, I dont have time to sit and babysit many kids because mom or dad is late picking them up. I know we'll still have some, but the number will be dramatically reduced. Try after camp week sometime trying to watch 3-4 kids until mom can come pick them up while trying to work an oversold flight. When kiddie runs off because I didnt "watch" them while my attention was distracted getting a full flight out, and the little one didnt pay attention to my instructions to stay until I see and get their parents to sign for them, I say adios to ums. No love lost here.
Dogs are another problem. Have any of you had someone with a dog crammed into a kennel too small for shipping? Try to convince them of the health requirements (in German) needed to ship a dog to Frankfurt? Have to take the time to get the kennel security screened while the customer is there when you are one of two people checking in the full service line? Its another p-i-t-a procedure that I say hallelujah its done. Make me more productive like my counterparts at WN. They dont have to mess with any of this stuff. Now, if I can just get the international award reissue to work right......

 

[barbeetantrums]

.
You can "tell" the kids til you're blue in the face to stay somewhere, but they know best and do what they want. With only 1 agent to work flights now, I dont have time to sit and babysit many kids because mom or dad is late picking them up. I know we'll still have some, but the number will be dramatically reduced. Try after camp week sometime trying to watch 3-4 kids until mom can come pick them up while trying to work an oversold flight. When kiddie runs off because I didnt "watch" them while my attention was distracted getting a full flight out, and the little one didnt pay attention to my instructions to stay until I see and get their parents to sign for them, I say adios to ums. No love lost here.

[post="289044"][/post]​

At one AWA hub, there was a room set aside for abandoned UMs. It had toys, television, VCR, and video games. There was a CSR that sat there with the kiddies and babysat. Most of the time the parents figured the kids would be cared for until they eventually got there. Okay, you have one CSR babysitting instead of taking care of passengers. You have a room full of kids running around like monkeys on acid. Yeah, that's a great program.

 

[SpinDoc]

Well, the 'new US Airways' is certainly starting to live up to the 'LCC' stock symbol. With that being said, a lot of our business just went to other airlines. In the East (hello PHX) people like to bring their animals with them. As for UNACs, well, I guess one half of the company can't be trusted to get Junior connected home to Mom & Pop. Guess this is the dumbing down to a level that, quite frankly, behooves the low pay these days.

[post="289027"][/post]​

HUH?
Are you kidding? Bet we don't lose more
than 2% of our customers because of these
new policies, but we gain savings that
are much needed. AVIH regulations with
the DOT have recently changed, and airlines
are a lot more accountable for animals in the
hold than ever before. Litigation for a dead
pet costs real dollars and results in bad
publicity. The risk is no longer worth the
incremental revenue.

Same goes for connecting UMNRs. There
is a real cost and a real liability associated
with being babysitters to the world,
especially when irregular operations occur.
We are electing not to continue taking that
risk, which is a sound business decision.

Lastly, there is a huge administrative cost
with providing oxygen to a very small
segment of the population that travels on
US Airways. It's about time we let someone
else absorb that cost and the liability that
goes along with it.

Kudos to HP and US management on their
decision to simplify and reduce the cost
of doing business, while not appreciably
decreasing revenue.

 

[JAXPax]

Anybody who complains, I've got a message for you!

Take your pet and your connecting UM to Southwest!

Oh wait, precious savior Southwest won't take pets nor UMs needing connections!



If people demand LCC prices, they get to that point by cutting service to LCC levels.

 

[Robc98]

I applaud the decision. With the paycuts that we have endured in the mainline/express arena, the less we have to do or worry about the better. I have a list of other things we should dump also....

 

[PHX-F/A]

Unaccompanied minors ages 5 to 14 will be accepted only on nonstop flights. Does this mean unaccompanied minors can no longer fly through a hub for a connection flight?

No more live animals as checked baggage or cargo. Does this mean only seeing-eye dogs are acceptable?

Interesting

http://biz.yahoo.com/bizj/050817/1151159.html?.v=1

[post="288965"][/post]​

HP accepts service animals and typically places animal and owner in a bulkhead row.

 

[tadjr]

Okay, you have one CSR babysitting instead of taking care of passengers. You have a room full of kids running around like monkeys on acid. Yeah, that's a great program.

[post="289049"][/post]​

US has the same things at CLT and PHL, but there are a lot of other stations that dont have the luxury of someone to watch the little ones until mom and dad show up. Where do we stick them? The secretary got to babysit some days. The breakroom was nice with a tv. Baggage had a back holding room where they couldnt escape, but it still took time and effort to keep track and coordinate someone watching them and tracking them down when someone decided to pick them up. I remember even getting a kid one time that had flown down from upstate New York and no one came to get them. When we called the parent to come and get them, they said they didnt know anything about them coming down and wouldnt be coming to get them. DCF was called and they took the kid. We need to be limiting this type of liabilites as much as possible, especially if the $ added to the bottom line isnt worth the time and energy involved to administer the product. IMO, much more time, effort and energy expended than the $ paid to watch them brought in. I am very pleased with this policy change. Keep the streamlining coming. Short, sweet and to the point.

 

[PHX-F/A]

Usairways did not have a problem with connx um
and usairways have a policy not to have um on last flight of the day

[post="289021"][/post]​

So did HP, but when an agent mistakenly accepts and then an F/A mistakenly accepts a UM outside of policy, the company is obligated to follow through. Then setting a precedent. You can't stop the transport at the hub because two groups dropped the ball.

I saw that happen several times at HP in the 80's and 90's.

Then in '00 we had a rash of UM errors. Mostly because we had teenager employees that used to run them from Passenger Assistance to their next flight. These teens were in a summer work program. Most of them had parents that already worked for HP.

Really bad publicity from that.

 

[barbeetantrums]

HP accepts service animals and typically places animal and owner in a bulkhead row.

[post="289065"][/post]​

If I was a quadrapelegic and had a service monkey, I would teach him to keep hitting the F/A call button.

 

[UPNAWAY]

I recall a particulary bad east coast storm that shut down PHX about 2pm one July day. We had 20-30 URMS. We cannot put them in a Hotel? So we had 4 employees, 2 female 2 male and split the kids up boys on 1 concourse girls on another ordered 20 pizzas and stayed with them all night.
Keep in mind these arn't all the sweet 8-10 years old crowed. Mostly teens. The boys totaly trashed their areas. We had girls that where 14/15 but looked 20 trying to go smoke or get PAX to buy them booze. It was not a good thing. Why even go there if the risk/return is not woth it???

 

[barbeetantrums]

Keep in mind these arn't all the sweet 8-10 years old crowed. Mostly teens. The boys totaly trashed their areas. We had girls that where 14/15 but looked 20 trying to go smoke or get PAX to buy them booze. It was not a good thing.

[post="289074"][/post]​

My landlord's daughter recently flew as a UM on US connecting in PHL and PIT. She is 14, looks like a college age woman, and dresses like a member of Future Pornstars of America (FPA). She is as naïve as a retarded child and could have been led away on a string by any number of perverts. I didn't say anything. Just mind my on beeswax.