Dear Mr. Parker - So do you really want to fix Mishandled Bags ?

[OTslave]

No. 1 - Too Many Express Carriers
-Reduce the number of Express Carriers under the US Banner.7 or 8 of them is way too many. Get a grip. It's hard enough to run 1 airline, without depending on 7 to get the job done.
-Poor Express on time performance. If the planes don't show on time, the bags nor the passengers can connect.
-Increase connecting times from Express to Mainline. Hell it takes no genius to realize that 25 minutes in some cases isn't enough. Not when their OT performance is so poor.
-Reduce the express frequencies and increase mainline in markets where there is demand. At least the passengers and bags have a chance of making it.

No.2 - United Code Share
The code share is now a shambles. Continuous overbooking issues, from the UA side which no one seems to be able to solve. United E tickets that are never get moved to the US side. So you can bet that if the tickets aren't getting through, neither are the bags. The passengers do show up eventually.

No.3 - The New Workforce
Let's face it Doug, part of the synergy of the merger was the Early Out Program. Well the Early outs are almost all out and believe me some of the new crop at the airports are sad. Very Sad. Putting the quality aside; if they had some decent training, then it may be just a bit better. Hell now they don't even have to learn city codes. If they don't know city codes (a very basic first week requirement prior) how are the passengers and bags going to get to where they have to ? I know that the new US Airways is all touchy feely, warm and fuzzy, and friendliness towards the passenger, but I think we could use with less touchy feely and warm and fuzzy and a little more technical training and more efficiency.

So folks, you who are out there everyday can pipe in and add your two cents to the mix, and maybe Doug and the boys in Tempe will read this, hold less conference calls and actually fix the real problems of MISHANDLED BAGS

 

[john john]

Mod note- please do not quote an entire post to add a couple of lines. It makes the followup reading hard. Thanks.

You just about said it all spoken like a true day-to-day front line worker unlike the office sitters. Good luck in the trenches

 

[PQAKnow-It-All]

Why not send this in directly to the company via the suggestions area on the employee site? I agree with nearly everything up there, but to 'hope' that someone at the top sees it here is not being very pro-active.

 

[roadtrip]

My 2 cents,

The Company is getting what they wanted cheap labor.Fine they got it! Now for heavens sake they want good help as well Good luck! You get what you pay for. You think some 9 buck an hour kid and I mean kid gives a sh_t about missed bags or anything else? The company is lucky to get these kids to clock in on time and mabe show up to park a plane.

Blame does not fall on the workers it falls right into the laps of the Execs who are ripping off the airlines stuffing millions of dollars in there pockets after dragging the companys into BK from failed business plans.

 

[buckeyefan]

You just about said it all spoken like a true day-to-day front line worker unlike the office sitters. Good luck in the trenches

Maybe some of us "office sitters" ought to stay home next week instead of processing your paycheck

 

[john john]

Maybe some of us "office sitters" ought to stay home next week instead of processing your paycheck

You better not you may get outsourced

 

[Geek]

Maybe some of us "office sitters" ought to stay home next week instead of processing your paycheck

Great idea! Or maybe I can just stay home and see how long your computer systems stay up! Then you can work the "old fashioned" way you used to do it!
It takes every single one of us to run this airline, no single person front line or back office is any less important to the airline. This attitude is what needs to change, us vs them. No matter what side you are on...east v west, frontline vs office....ect.
Geek

 

[john john]

http://www.airportbusiness.com/article/art...4&siteSection=3
Last year, mishandled luggage cost world airlines US$2.5 billion. Greater airport congestion, tight connection times, increased transfers among airlines and stricter security are all contributing to more late or missing bags, Other bags were temporarily lost because of airport personnel failing to properly load baggage, ticketing errors, problems with loading or unloading, and weight or size restrictions. Only 3 percent of all misdirection of baggage occurred due to tagging errors.

 

[buckeyefan]

Great idea! Or maybe I can just stay home and see how long your computer systems stay up! Then you can work the "old fashioned" way you used to do it!
It takes every single one of us to run this airline, no single person front line or back office is any less important to the airline. This attitude is what needs to change, us vs them. No matter what side you are on...east v west, frontline vs office....ect.
Geek

Amen to that! By the way, I was a frontline employee for 5 years and I have a great deal of respect for the hard work they do. But we all deserve the same amount of respect!

 

[Geek]

You better not you may get outsourced

The US IT dept was outsourced premerger. Which is why they are bringing it back in house.
The costs incured were absolutly crazy! I can't believe some of the numbers I have heard. Like charging $18.75 a month to perform "maintenance" on a $5 part!
I don't think they will outsource us again when they can put us on salary and work us 50+ hours a week! B)
My job isn't going anywhere!
Geek

 

[john john]

Great idea! Or maybe I can just stay home and see how long your computer systems stay up! Then you can work the "old fashioned" way you used to do it!
It takes every single one of us to run this airline, no single person front line or back office is any less important to the airline. This attitude is what needs to change, us vs them. No matter what side you are on...east v west, frontline vs office....ect.
Geek

Thank you for keeping my computer system working. My the way how is the integration going if I had to guess you have not been sitting in a office much lately

The US IT dept was outsourced premerger. Which is why they are bringing it back in house.
The costs incured were absolutly crazy! I can't believe some of the numbers I have heard. Like charging $18.75 a month to perform "maintenance" on a $5 part!
I don't think they will outsource us again when they can put us on salary and work us 50+ hours a week! B)
My job isn't going anywhere!
Geek

Bad contract

 

[Dog Wonder]

Management is only as good as the people they manage. Unfortunately the people being managed are much less experienced than they were a year ago.

The savings from outsourcing and other cost savings will continue to be eaten up when each department operates separately, and considers only the costs in their area when making decisions.

This thread was started by some one offering valid suggestions. Maybe it can stay on topic. No one denies this is a problem begging for solutions.

 

[EricLv2Fish]

Why not send this in directly to the company via the suggestions area on the employee site? I agree with nearly everything up there, but to 'hope' that someone at the top sees it here is not being very pro-active.

PQ...in all reality putting it on this board may actually result in a higher up actually reading it. Course it couldn't hurt to go thru proper channels either.

 

[tadjr]

I'll second the added connection time, but not just from mainline to express, but everywhere. I know we dont want planes sitting around waiting all day for conx, but should a 5 minute delay really result in misconx? We are getting that on quite a few flights. There is no way that 5-15 minutes should result in as many misconx reroutes that we are getting, especially on the last bank of flights of the night. Some schedule tweaking is in order again.
Also, we have been advised by management, no more being nice and trying to sneak in a VS bag at 27-29 minutes before flight time. If its past the 30 minute cutoff, its too late. No more checking bags for later flight and then changing at the gate and claiming bag later either. If it doesnt have time to make it, you dont go.

 

[barbeetantrums]

PHX ramp director had a meeting yesterday and he stated that ramp workers will be held responsible for missed bags, written up, and fired if they fail to get bags to their flight. So what if we are now counting Mesa in our MBR? So what if TSA is sending MBR through the roof. So what if we are jamming thousands upon thousands of bags on a belt system built in the early '90 for a regional carrier? It's the fault of the lowest rank-and-file worker and he or she will get a pink slip. PHX Ramp Director DS needs a pink slip of his own and should join his predecessor KF at Frontier. :rant: