This was a HUGE change and rollout and I think tomorrow will be a better judge of how things went. Where Tempe failed, IMHO, was to not warn pax and employees ahead of time and say "this is going to be rough and it is going to suck, but we will do our best to get through it". Insteady they said it will all be OK, which we all should have know was a bunch of crap. Any res migration is an utter cluster f&ck the first 24 hours ... the real test will be what happens for the rest of the week.
Computers fail
- Thread starter LCC_#1
- Start date
allegheny36
Advanced
- Joined
- Nov 9, 2005
- Messages
- 186
- Reaction score
- 0
This is an employees statement posted in Charlotte.com paper
I am a flight attendant with US Airways and we've known for weeks that this was going to happen with the "migration" from one computer system to another. US Airways should have WARNED passengers in advance. Once again this is another example of management from a small airline (America West) trying to run a major carrier like it had run the small one and cutting costs hap-hazardly despite the effects to the operations of the airline. The whole airline is understaffed, over-worked, under-paid. Further, any complaints by us to Tempe (our new headquarters) are met with assurances everything is under control and told that we (the old US Airways) are just resistant to change. Ask any flyer on US Airways--customer service had gone down the toilet. Even the employees of this airline recognize it. The new management of US Airways DOES NOT CARE about customer service--but only about increasing revenue, while cutting costs!! This whole fiasco could have been avoided with advance planning, hiring more agents, WARNIING THE PUBLIC IN ADVANCE, and choosing something other than the cheapest reservations system they could get. Passengers need to flood US Airways with eMail complaints about customer service from the webpage: USAIRWAYS.COM/FEEDBACK. THE EMPLOYEES OF US AIRWAYS FEEL THE PAIN OF OUR CUSTOMERS--PLEASE HELP US MAKE CHANGES BY LETTING US AIRWAYS HERE FROM YOU!!! Thank You
--Name withheld to protect my job
I am a flight attendant with US Airways and we've known for weeks that this was going to happen with the "migration" from one computer system to another. US Airways should have WARNED passengers in advance. Once again this is another example of management from a small airline (America West) trying to run a major carrier like it had run the small one and cutting costs hap-hazardly despite the effects to the operations of the airline. The whole airline is understaffed, over-worked, under-paid. Further, any complaints by us to Tempe (our new headquarters) are met with assurances everything is under control and told that we (the old US Airways) are just resistant to change. Ask any flyer on US Airways--customer service had gone down the toilet. Even the employees of this airline recognize it. The new management of US Airways DOES NOT CARE about customer service--but only about increasing revenue, while cutting costs!! This whole fiasco could have been avoided with advance planning, hiring more agents, WARNIING THE PUBLIC IN ADVANCE, and choosing something other than the cheapest reservations system they could get. Passengers need to flood US Airways with eMail complaints about customer service from the webpage: USAIRWAYS.COM/FEEDBACK. THE EMPLOYEES OF US AIRWAYS FEEL THE PAIN OF OUR CUSTOMERS--PLEASE HELP US MAKE CHANGES BY LETTING US AIRWAYS HERE FROM YOU!!! Thank You
--Name withheld to protect my job
Does this comment include the kios?
Dog Wonder
Veteran
The major problem was kiosks not working. When you replace people with machines you need to make damn sure the machines work.
No amount of training can compensate for the absolute failure of the kiosks, that have replaced so many agents, to work.
Garbage in Garbage out.
Crzipilot
Veteran
- Joined
- Mar 23, 2004
- Messages
- 906
- Reaction score
- 254
posted from the hub......
US Airways’ Reservation Migration Complete
US Airways is pleased to announce that early this morning, the Reservation migration was completed and thus far, by those who have been involved in several other airline migrations, is a resounding success. Drum roll please: The new US SHARES is now up and running!
US Airways is pleased to announce that early this morning, the Reservation migration was completed and thus far, by those who have been involved in several other airline migrations, is a resounding success. Drum roll please: The new US SHARES is now up and running!
System Cutover is a Go
A team of over 150 dedicated professionals, including members of IT, EDS, SHARES, Sabre, reservations, airport operations and just so many more, have worked on the Reservation Migration for over a year. All the hard work, blood, sweat and tears (to borrow the name of an oldie but goodie rock and roll band) came to fruition over the weekend.
The cutover and PNR migration occurred this morning at 12 a.m. EST. It was estimated to be complete by 4 a.m. EST. The two reservations systems, Sabre and SHARES were turned off and brought back on in less than two hours- which was record time and ahead of schedule.
Here are a few other critical tasks that were completed successfully during the migration:
The Employee Travel Center (ETC), which was down for twelve hours, was successfully brought up and is now operating normally.
The interface between FOS and Flight Operations worked smoothly, and the airline operation ran well. As of this evening, there were five cancellations today, and none of those were related to the migration project. That equates to a 99.5% plus completion factor day.
Web Check-in is getting rave reviews from passengers and employees alike; it is running at 57%, which is better than pre-migration rates.
Our Res Centers are also running well; INT, PHX and RNO were operating shortly after the system returned.
Employees were trained and had few issues adapting to the new system.
WorldTracer (baggage tracking) transitioned over and is functioning properly.
Rainy Days and Mondays Got the Carpenters Down But Not US Airways!
Of course no project of this magnitude would be complete without a few challenges and the main one today was the CUSS (common use) kiosks. Of our cities, the most impacted station has been CLT. We are taking steps to ensure a work around for customers is in place while IT continues to work on the kiosk issue. These include:
Reservations and ACS are manually checking and “synchronizing” all passenger records for travel tomorrow in PHL, CLT, and the shuttle cities.
In CLT, we have set up a manual process this afternoon to get customers through security where we can then check them in at the gate. This meant they did not need to check-in at the counter or a kiosk. This will remain in place indefinitely until the kiosk issues are resolved.
Also, we’ll have additional staffing in all of the shuttle and hub airports tomorrow and our anticipated load factor for Monday, March 5 is 69 percent (vs. 78 percent today).
A big thanks to everyone who had a hand in this large milestone. It was a huge undertaking and required work from many people for hours straight. Although the work is not done yet, we are well on our way of creating an even better airline for our customers.
US Airways’ Reservation Migration Complete
US Airways is pleased to announce that early this morning, the Reservation migration was completed and thus far, by those who have been involved in several other airline migrations, is a resounding success. Drum roll please: The new US SHARES is now up and running!
US Airways is pleased to announce that early this morning, the Reservation migration was completed and thus far, by those who have been involved in several other airline migrations, is a resounding success. Drum roll please: The new US SHARES is now up and running!
System Cutover is a Go
A team of over 150 dedicated professionals, including members of IT, EDS, SHARES, Sabre, reservations, airport operations and just so many more, have worked on the Reservation Migration for over a year. All the hard work, blood, sweat and tears (to borrow the name of an oldie but goodie rock and roll band) came to fruition over the weekend.
The cutover and PNR migration occurred this morning at 12 a.m. EST. It was estimated to be complete by 4 a.m. EST. The two reservations systems, Sabre and SHARES were turned off and brought back on in less than two hours- which was record time and ahead of schedule.
Here are a few other critical tasks that were completed successfully during the migration:
The Employee Travel Center (ETC), which was down for twelve hours, was successfully brought up and is now operating normally.
The interface between FOS and Flight Operations worked smoothly, and the airline operation ran well. As of this evening, there were five cancellations today, and none of those were related to the migration project. That equates to a 99.5% plus completion factor day.
Web Check-in is getting rave reviews from passengers and employees alike; it is running at 57%, which is better than pre-migration rates.
Our Res Centers are also running well; INT, PHX and RNO were operating shortly after the system returned.
Employees were trained and had few issues adapting to the new system.
WorldTracer (baggage tracking) transitioned over and is functioning properly.
Rainy Days and Mondays Got the Carpenters Down But Not US Airways!
Of course no project of this magnitude would be complete without a few challenges and the main one today was the CUSS (common use) kiosks. Of our cities, the most impacted station has been CLT. We are taking steps to ensure a work around for customers is in place while IT continues to work on the kiosk issue. These include:
Reservations and ACS are manually checking and “synchronizing” all passenger records for travel tomorrow in PHL, CLT, and the shuttle cities.
In CLT, we have set up a manual process this afternoon to get customers through security where we can then check them in at the gate. This meant they did not need to check-in at the counter or a kiosk. This will remain in place indefinitely until the kiosk issues are resolved.
Also, we’ll have additional staffing in all of the shuttle and hub airports tomorrow and our anticipated load factor for Monday, March 5 is 69 percent (vs. 78 percent today).
A big thanks to everyone who had a hand in this large milestone. It was a huge undertaking and required work from many people for hours straight. Although the work is not done yet, we are well on our way of creating an even better airline for our customers.
phasersonstun2
Veteran
- Joined
- May 1, 2003
- Messages
- 560
- Reaction score
- 4
Knock, knock... Who's there?
SHARES
Dog Wonder
Veteran
This was a resounding success?
==============================================
Yep, declare victory and head out to the Martini Ranch in Snottsdale. Just a day at the beach.
Ok, training was lacking. It was the worst I've seen in my nearly 3 decades. However, dont forget how screwed up things were when we switched to SABRE. Give this thing a chance. I like what I've seen so far, and to me it is more user friendly than SABRE, not quite PACER, but atleast it something that makes sense.
FutureUScapt
Veteran
- Joined
- Dec 1, 2005
- Messages
- 600
- Reaction score
- 13
IMHO, that's some pretty lofty expectations for day 1, except for the friendly service part. In most of the east stations, few people (probably none in CLT) have had any significant experience working in SHARES. Agents were supposed to have been trained to work with this, but up until now they've been using SABRE or some sort of mixed system (SABRE/QIK?). Also, you can test and test how you think things will go, but some things are bound to happen that just don't show up in tests. As a customer, maybe you weren't as well warned as you could have been, and for that you can be upset for.
I agree with Piney on this one. If there is only one day of nightmares, then that's fine. But, if this turns into another website-like ordeal, then we can blame the Sandcastle again. The next few days should be slower travel days, so the agents shouldn't be under as much pressure until the end of the week so we'll see if operations return to normal.
Again with a software switch this size, success or failure is not measured during the first 24 hours. The true test comes during the next 2-3 days. Tempe should have warned everyone including pax and employees that today was going to suck but we will get through it. THAT was there downfall. All the testing in the world simply does not anticipate EVERY single situation that comes up ....
I mean h3ll, when my bank changed its online banking crap it was a full 24 hours before anyone could even hope to get back into the site.....give it 72 hours before making rash judgements.
Any airline, switching res systems goes through a rotten day one sometimes even a rotten day 2. I seem to remember a total cluster f$ck when US switched to Sabre .... it happens. We will get through it.
And, SHARES is a more user friendly system, and, yes, it is more like pacer was. Yes, the learning curve sucks but part of life is learning, we do it every day. I am not defending Tempe but learn the new system ....
This whole merger has sucked big time for all employees since we are forced to change the way we do things (yes, even us westies). But, we can do this!
I mean h3ll, when my bank changed its online banking crap it was a full 24 hours before anyone could even hope to get back into the site.....give it 72 hours before making rash judgements.
Any airline, switching res systems goes through a rotten day one sometimes even a rotten day 2. I seem to remember a total cluster f$ck when US switched to Sabre .... it happens. We will get through it.
And, SHARES is a more user friendly system, and, yes, it is more like pacer was. Yes, the learning curve sucks but part of life is learning, we do it every day. I am not defending Tempe but learn the new system ....
This whole merger has sucked big time for all employees since we are forced to change the way we do things (yes, even us westies). But, we can do this!
songbirdstew
Senior
- Joined
- Sep 10, 2003
- Messages
- 478
- Reaction score
- 51
Just got into my RON 3.5 hours late due to this major NIGHTMARE ! Every agent I talked to said that they were trained months ago and forgot how to even use the system.
The company knew that there would be problems...so they decided to implement this system on a SUNDAY ??? One of the busiest travel days of the week ? They should have at least been smart enough to do this on a Tuesday or Wednesday. (but then what am I thinking ???
)My big laugh of the day was when I read in my crew mail about how F/As will now get the "final report." Then I asked the agent if they had a list of my F/C pax or some type of paperwork....he said "No, we can't even figure out how to print." I just started howling and closed the door.....
We have a four leg day tomorrow....the agent up here in ORD said it will be just as bad then too.....we're full all day. I can't wait --not !
ClueByFour
Veteran
- Joined
- Aug 20, 2002
- Messages
- 3,566
- Reaction score
- 37
How do you figure? Did you miss the total lack of working kiosks in the hubs?
That's a lack of acumen issue on Tempe's part. Not a training issue.
Folks, just as an FYI--the line about "migrations of this magnitude never go right" or the like are simply wrong.
It's a matter of preparation, acumen, and how much you are willing to pay to get things done. This was not "smooth." The fact that the kiosks are shot is the biggest sign of this--it should have been one of the first things on the list (since, as has been mentioned, US uses them as the "default route" by destaffing the ATO to the point where the kiosks have to work, else the operation shuts down).
Any indication that this was a resounding success is a bunch of half-truth-laden, back-slapping hyperbole coming out of the Tempe spin machine. If it was a resounding success, customers would not have noticed.
As for the next few days--they admit they won't have UA codeshares on the website for another two weeks, the website pricing is massively screwed, US flights operated by HP are not showing up in all GDS/online venues (notably Orbitz) and other such things. "Resounding success?"
General McAuliffe said it best: "NUTS!" Don't believe the hype.
OldGuyinPA
Veteran
- Joined
- Aug 20, 2002
- Messages
- 700
- Reaction score
- 8
SLO..Not Qik is like using a Little League team against the Majors.
It's unfortunate that their are people who buy in from Tempe that this was the way to go. I guess it all depends how you measure success.
