Interline baggage question

[Dont call me Shirley]

Hello, Airtran people:
Some issues about interline baggage being checked from FL to another carrier -

A US station in the Northeast sees fair amount of interline traffic - inbound and outbound - via LGA. (Quite often, the PNRs are booked through third party sites i.e. Orbits or Expedia). When customers orginate on US and connect to FL, US generates a printed bag tags for the FL segment(s) as long as the FL segements are in SABRE. When customers are inbound to US from FL, there are two consistent and vexing problems: short checked bags on printed bag tags and mischecked bags on handwritten tags.

It seems that if the bags are on printed (generated ) tags they are checked only to LGA; if checked through to the US Station (let's call it XXX) the bags are usually, if not always, on handwritten tags. These tags are often made out for the UA codeshare flight LGA-XXX, not the "live" US metal flight number. Result: the bag goes to UA at LGA instead of US and misses the flight.

Question: are FL bag tag printers capable of generating an inteline tag? (I cannot remember having see one, but could be mistaken). If they cannot, it would account for the interline tag being handwritten. Probably because of the way many of the PNRs in question are booked, the UA flight number is the one shown on the PNR.

Sidenote: if an interline bag tag is generated in SABRE for another carrier's codeshare flight, it will print the carrier and number of the "metal" even if US only interlines with the "marketing" carrier. Example: ATA/Southwest. US can print a bag tag for a TZ flight operated by WN, but could not print a bag tag if the marketing airline were WN.
Then again, SABRE is a pretty good system. What does Airtran use?


(Sometimes the people with the short checked bags had their bags interlined US to FL outbound from XXX via LGA to YYY, but FL did not to check the bags back to XXX on the return.)

 

[QA4Jet-A]

Hello, Airtran people:
Some issues about interline baggage being checked from FL to another carrier -

A US station in the Northeast sees fair amount of interline traffic - inbound and outbound - via LGA. (Quite often, the PNRs are booked through third party sites i.e. Orbits or Expedia). When customers orginate on US and connect to FL, US generates a printed bag tags for the FL segment(s) as long as the FL segements are in SABRE. When customers are inbound to US from FL, there are two consistent and vexing problems: short checked bags on printed bag tags and mischecked bags on handwritten tags.

It seems that if the bags are on printed (generated ) tags they are checked only to LGA; if checked through to the US Station (let's call it XXX) the bags are usually, if not always, on handwritten tags. These tags are often made out for the UA codeshare flight LGA-XXX, not the "live" US metal flight number. Result: the bag goes to UA at LGA instead of US and misses the flight.

Question: are FL bag tag printers capable of generating an inteline tag? (I cannot remember having see one, but could be mistaken). If they cannot, it would account for the interline tag being handwritten. Probably because of the way many of the PNRs in question are booked, the UA flight number is the one shown on the PNR.

Sidenote: if an interline bag tag is generated in SABRE for another carrier's codeshare flight, it will print the carrier and number of the "metal" even if US only interlines with the "marketing" carrier. Example: ATA/Southwest. US can print a bag tag for a TZ flight operated by WN, but could not print a bag tag if the marketing airline were WN.
Then again, SABRE is a pretty good system. What does Airtran use?
(Sometimes the people with the short checked bags had their bags interlined US to FL outbound from XXX via LGA to YYY, but FL did not to check the bags back to XXX on the return.)

I can't answer your question as I am not on that side of the house. Perhaps another FL person can, but if no one does by tomorrow night, I will inquire on Monday for you. B)

 

[QA4Jet-A]

I can't answer your question as I am not on that side of the house. Perhaps another FL person can, but if no one does by tomorrow night, I will inquire on Monday for you. B)

Here is what I found out. Per a Station Manager....

Bag tag printers cannot print interline codes. Our res/check-in system etc.is basically FL only. Open Skies will be changed to SkyPort soon, which is just a newer version of it. If a multi-dest. PNR is booked through SABRE or Orbitz or a travel agency etc. we can see the 'non-AirTran' routing only in the history of the PNR, not when we are checking the pax in. We rely on the pax to tell us what the final destination is and if it is 'non-AirTran' we go from there handwrite the tags, they are entered manually into our system for record purposes but cannot be printed.All crewmembers are trained on how to do it but at times you end up with short checks b/c they see a routing in the system such as TPA-ATL-LGA and check the bag to LGA on AirTran stock. Meanwhile the customer has booked another leg on his own over the internet from LGA-BUF on USAIR. A lot of customers just assume we read their minds/or have all of this info in front of us when we do not. Hope that helps.

Here is what I found out. Per a Station Manager....

Bag tag printers cannot print interline codes. Our res/check-in system etc.is basically FL only. Open Skies will be changed to SkyPort soon, which is just a newer version of it. If a multi-dest. PNR is booked through SABRE or Orbitz or a travel agency etc. we can see the 'non-AirTran' routing only in the history of the PNR, not when we are checking the pax in. We rely on the pax to tell us what the final destination is and if it is 'non-AirTran' we go from there and handwrite the tags, they are entered manually into our system for record purposes but cannot be printed.All crewmembers are trained on how to do it but at times you end up with short checks b/c they see a routing in the system such as TPA-ATL-LGA and check the bag to LGA on AirTran stock. Meanwhile the customer has booked another leg on his own over the internet from LGA-BUF on USAIR. A lot of customers just assume we read their minds/or have all of this info in front of us when we do not. Hope that helps.

Sorry about the double entry, my edit messed up.

 

[Dont call me Shirley]

Here is what I found out. Per a Station Manager....

We rely on the pax to tell us what the final destination is and if it is 'non-AirTran' we go from there handwrite the tags, they are entered manually into our system for record purposes but cannot be printed................................ Meanwhile the customer has booked another leg on his own over the internet from LGA-BUF on USAIR. A lot of customers just assume we read their minds/or have all of this info in front of us when we do not. Hope that helps.

Thanks for info - it explains a lot!
In a perfect world, the customer would tell the agent about the final dest. And the agent would always recap the bag check info to the customer.


Kiosks don't help things either.

 

[QA4Jet-A]

[/quote]... and now our new Super Duper Computer system is causing havoc. :angry:

 

[Dont call me Shirley]

... and now our new Super Duper Computer system is causing havoc. :angry:

what kind of havoc???

 

[QA4Jet-A]

what kind of havoc???

Well, FL cranked up a new Rev and Ticketing software program Tuesday that failed miserably. Delays up the kazoo and pi$$ed off pax. :angry: It is finally about smoothed out but what a nightmare. I just hope the public is somewhat forgiving if a Computer Problem ruins their day. It's not like we meant for it to happen. B)

 

[Dont call me Shirley]

. I just hope the public is somewhat forgiving if a Computer Problem ruins their day. It's not like we meant for it to happen. B)

now I'm starting to think what it will be like when US East switches to SHARES...

Good luck with the new system.

 

[USCREW]

now I'm starting to think what it will be like when US East switches to SHARES...

Good luck with the new system.

Many have not learned SABRE!