"new and improved" usairways.com

[Dont call me Shirley]

It is yet another weather day in the NE and lot of flights - US and others - affected. Many people are going to want to check flight status. So, boys and girls, let's do an experiment.
Your assignment is to rate the easy of use and timeliness of usairways.com and jetblue.com.

Uncle Bill and Aunt Martha are visiting from upstate for a day in the Big Apple and you want know when their flight arrives. Let's pick ROC-LGA for US and ROC-JFK for B6...find flight info for this AM, not using a flight number - just the city pair.


How easy is each site to use, and how long does it take to get in the info?
Is the info on the first screen or do you have to click to other screens?

 

[Harry Callahan]

Right now it's working fine using Google Chrome .

 

[Dont call me Shirley]

Right now it's working fine using Google Chrome .

Yes, it does work. But, IMHO, not as well as websites of other carriers. Hence, my idea for a simple comparison of a primary feature.

 

[OTslave]

It is yet another weather day in the NE and lot of flights - US and others - affected. Many people are going to want to check flight status. So, boys and girls, let's do an experiment.
Your assignment is to rate the easy of use and timeliness of usairways.com and jetblue.com.

Uncle Bill and Aunt Martha are visiting from upstate for a day in the Big Apple and you want know when their flight arrives. Let's pick ROC-LGA for US and ROC-JFK for B6...find flight info for this AM, not using a flight number - just the city pair.


How easy is each site to use, and how long does it take to get in the info?
Is the info on the first screen or do you have to click to other screens?

You're right. It's quite annoying that you have through scroll through to find what you need.
Another annoyance is why there is no operational update on the home screen. Considering the airports that US has a large presence in, in the east, where delays are a normal occurrence, one would think it would be a good feature to have for passengers.
IE
Philadelphia - Runways closed all operations cancelled until 1400 EST
LaGuardia - Extensive arrival delays to 4 hours

 

[HP2USFA]

While I agree that would be nice information to have... I challenge you to find a major airline that posts delay information on their front page. No airline wants to advertise that their product is delayed - regardless of the reasons. Considering the majority of the flying public is not able to differentiate the CAUSES for delays when formulating their opines about a carrier when delayed.

 

[OTslave]

While I agree that would be nice information to have... I challenge you to find a major airline that posts delay information on their front page. No airline wants to advertise that their product is delayed - regardless of the reasons. Considering the majority of the flying public is not able to differentiate the CAUSES for delays when formulating their opines about a carrier when delayed.

Continental (link from their home page)
http://www.continental.com/web/en-US/apps/...Operations.aspx

 

[OTslave]

While I agree that would be nice information to have... I challenge you to find a major airline that posts delay information on their front page. No airline wants to advertise that their product is delayed - regardless of the reasons. Considering the majority of the flying public is not able to differentiate the CAUSES for delays when formulating their opines about a carrier when delayed.

JetBlue (Link from their home page)
http://jetblue.com/JetblueAlerts/WeatherUpdate.aspx

 

[OTslave]

While I agree that would be nice information to have... I challenge you to find a major airline that posts delay information on their front page. No airline wants to advertise that their product is delayed - regardless of the reasons. Considering the majority of the flying public is not able to differentiate the CAUSES for delays when formulating their opines about a carrier when delayed.

Southwest (link from their home page)
http://www.southwest.com/html/travel_cente...sory_feb25.html

 

[N965VJ]

No airline wants to advertise that their product is delayed - regardless of the reasons.

 

[tadjr]

While I agree that would be nice information to have... I challenge you to find a major airline that posts delay information on their front page. No airline wants to advertise that their product is delayed - regardless of the reasons. Considering the majority of the flying public is not able to differentiate the CAUSES for delays when formulating their opines about a carrier when delayed.

US Airways (link from their homepage)
LINK

Not exactly what HP2USFA was talking about, but similar to what B6 and WN have linked here. The CO page is more in line with what would be nice from the website instead of a blanket advisory for several days. Although, given what the IT dept has produced in the past, simple is probably the way to go so as to not create more issues with inaccurate updates and broken links. :blink: :unsure:

 

[HP2USFA]

Well Continental's was the only page that gave any information at all. And that was mostly weather information, nothing on flight delays, Southwest's didn't work (the link gave a page not found error) and B6's had no information either. In any case it is nice to see that some are providing information even if it is basic.

But the OP asked about having this information available on the front page which is why I responded. None of those airlines have delay information on their front page. Links to it yes, but not that information up front.

Providing a clearer link might be a doable thing, but we're never going to get that information up front and center - for the reasons I stated. Delay info as the first thing you see when you browse to an airline webpage = bad 🙂

 

[SparrowHawk]

Well Continental's was the only page that gave any information at all. And that was mostly weather information, nothing on flight delays, Southwest's didn't work (the link gave a page not found error) and B6's had no information either. In any case it is nice to see that some are providing information even if it is basic.

But the OP asked about having this information available on the front page which is why I responded. None of those airlines have delay information on their front page. Links to it yes, but not that information up front.

Providing a clearer link might be a doable thing, but we're never going to get that information up front and center - for the reasons I stated. Delay info as the first thing you see when you browse to an airline webpage = bad 🙂

I do think that for as long as we have the "Monkey See, Monkey Do" mentality across the executive suites of our airlines your points will be right more times then they are wrong.

An airline is a unique enterprise in many ways. For exacmple show me another industry where a 20% failure rate will get you a JD Power award! I'm referring of course to On Time performance, where if you're consistently on time 80% or better somebody s going to name a street after you!

What if an airline broke tradition and was very very up front about delays and proactive in getting that information to the flying public. There is a part of me that says they will increase market share as some people appreciate not having smoke blown up their tailpipe on a minute by minute basis by airlines. Then I go to an airport and I witness gross stupidity that makes me question the native intelligence of the entire species.

How many times have we seen a Gate Agent being berated by a customer over a weather delay? Thinkaboudit, you got someone working a gate making under $10/hr and you think she can control the weather? Do people check their brains along with their bags? If that's the case then maybe the bag fees are worth it in order to keep brains and bags stored in the overheads where they can be accessed in flight.

So given the abject stupidity of our society, coupled with the "Monkey See, Monkey Do" attitude in the board room it is highly likely that my colleague here on US Aviation, HP2USFA is correct although I wish he/she wasn't.

 

[HP2USFA]

I've always been a proponent of proactive behavior in the industry.... but we all know how that works 🙂

I'm sure one of the smaller LLCs (Jetblue, Frontier, Southwest, AirTran, etc.) will be instrumental in heralding any changes. They usually do quite well with Out of the Box thinking and implementing new ideas. At least compared to US 🙂

 

[Dog Wonder]

'Out of the box' has been in the box for over 10 years.

 

[Dont call me Shirley]

Other airline sites have problems, too. Can you get OS's route map to work?