PHL+Weather+Shares

[Aryeh]

For me, one of biggest headaches using QIK/SHARE's is when booking/rebooking passengers. Last night my fingers and wrists were wearing out trying to find space.
With SABRE, modifying an initial string such as
1LASMIA, requires a few simple keystrokes, 1ATL (via Atlanta) or 1#1 for next day - 3 simple keystrokes! Now with QIK, if at first you don't succeed, you have to start all over again, CTRL-A, F1, fill in all the stupid boxes. And you'd better know your geography and be up on who flies where because without helping the computer by telling it which airline to search and a viaable routing, you'll get nothing useful in response. Once done, the availability displays (open booking codes) are totally unreliable! Flights show open but aren't. You book flights that show as open, yet show only PN (pending). Many times, after all your effort, rhe PNR is redisplayed, showing the flights booked as UU (waitisted), UC (unable to confirm), etc. This is why, for even one who know what they're doing, it takes forever to truly assist a passenger. It's not a matter of, as some say here, a "learning curve," or "getting used to." These are the system's limitations and have nothing to do with the agent.

 

[tadjr]

These are the system's limitations and have nothing to do with the agent.

I knew I'd get the rough one tonight. Had someone misconx going to Bangalore, India. Well, CTRL A, F1, TPA, BLR. Stupid response the same as there isnt any service. Try breaking it up. TPA-BOM Same thing. OK, lets try something easier. TPA-EWR, ok its there. EWR-BOM (Wow it actually shows a flight), BOM-BLR same service not supported or some similar hogwash since he has a ticket to go there. Have to call INTL. She gets in Sabreview or something to find a flight, then goes back into Shares to "request" space on a flight. With the old system this could have been done in about 5 mins without having to call someone to help me. Tonight about 20 mins, two agents time, and this was before the ticket was reissued... 😉 yeah, like that happened. 😛h34r: I was off in an hour and wasnt about to get stuck trying to figure that one out (it was the origination and you must reissue the entire ticket now, with a return on Air India and American. Dont even go there. 🙄

Something else interesting tonight. We had a girl with an international ticket to Leipzig, Germany misconx and the agent tried to do a paper ticket reissue even to get the new flights correct. Ended up showing she collected $3000 something in cash in her sales report from the reissue of an even exchange. Anyone care to try to explain that one?

 

[PBI2FLL]

Something else I find very frustrating about SHARES is that you can NOT reissue invol reroute to OTHER AIRLINES...or at least I haven't figured out how to do it..ctrl E F9 option 2c DOES NOT work...the reaccom keypad DOESN'T work...The only way it would work is if at least 1 segment is on US..for instance, I rerouted someone via CLT on US and NW on to MSP. That did work. I think the system was designed to keep the money in house. All my off line reroutes had to be hand written on a FIM. What a pain in the ass...grrrr :angry: Have you entered a FIM in your AOC report yet? 🙄

 

[Crzipilot]

Don't know much on the reroute (as I just fly them) but the other day, we had mtx. on an originator, Pax had their travel agents rebook them, and from there the agent was able to go into shares, and see the rebook, and do a reroute on them, though they were on the phone being told each step to take. All segments were transferred over to DL. Now this only took the agent 10 mins, and I sat there and watched......not a user friendly system at all.

 

[JAFA]

Something else I find very frustrating about SHARES is that you can NOT reissue invol reroute to OTHER AIRLINES...or at least I haven't figured out how to do it..ctrl E F9 option 2c DOES NOT work...the reaccom keypad DOESN'T work

Oh skip the reacom keypad...Cntrl E (e-tkt), F9, (e-tkt sup keypad), F5 (somethin about reacom or reroute options), option 2 and use reason C (always use C). It will work as long as origin AND destination are same. Also if you have properly requested OAL space and have KK segments use Cntrl I, F4 to change KK to HK and F11 it first before you attempt the invol. Last part (yes I hate it too) is that the invol does not automatically print an Itn and receipt, you will need to use Cntrl E, F3 to print those after you complete the invol. Ah, so much QIKer isn't it? 😛

 

[Dont call me Shirley]

A top story on CNN headline just now was about many, many people stuck at CLT airport. Long,long lines. And poor spokesperson Michelle Mohr saying how things were slowly getting back to normal.

Look a bad weather event is always a nightmare. But the horrible, horrible shortcomings of QIK when it comes to reroutes turn the nightmare into something much, much worse.

 

[tadjr]

Something else I find very frustrating about SHARES is that you can NOT reissue invol reroute to OTHER AIRLINES...or at least I haven't figured out how to do it..

Or no one has trained you to..... try this it should work
Press CTRL and F8 at the same time. It will pop up a little box asking about reroute. Its about a 10 step process, but it has been working for us. Its also good if the ticket is on another airline stock (dont know why the different formats just because of who issued the orig tkt), or if they are changing orig/final destination.
I was going to try to type whole thing, but cant remember entire process. Some highlights to help though are Bottom of first or second screen it asks if this is invol, Y. Then it asks which customer, which etkt cpn. Select the first cpn that you are using (not the stuff already flown). You can only select 1 cpn, but remember it reissues everything from there on so if there are etkt segments and not reservation segments, you'll have to direct sell HK to make enough coupons for their other flights. It asks you several times to review fare calc line and segments and flights. (I just enter, screw it). Then somewhere it asks if city pairs are the same. Y or N if orig/dest change, and is this an invol reroute. Y. Then it will ask again, what name and etkt are you reissuing. Hopefully you'll get a new tkt number and fare info on the bottom left screen meaning its been done. You'll have to CTRL E, F1 to verify tkt was reissued. Somewhere in the middle of the reissue, it appears that the system has just quit since nothing pops up, but read the black box and it says if things are right use F1 to continue. Then when you F1, it continues with the reissue.
Try this and see if it does what you need. Maybe since we dont have much support elsewhere, we can use this thread to ask questions and pass on little helpful things we've found. We've been using Shares for over a year in TPA and most agents have enquiring minds so we've played with it and bugged people to get answers so ask and I'll try to help. If I dont know, I'll ask at work and see if anyone does or the old West people on here might know.
We need all the help and support we can get.

+++ Did you know you can check and see if a flight has started boarding by CTRL Z, F8, fill in the flight info and on the first question under where you "on" the seats typing Y. Then choose option 2 and it will show you number of seats reconciled. Its good to know if you're checking to see if the upline city is actually boarding or if you're having ATC and want to see if they are boarding locally.

 

[Dont call me Shirley]

Or no one has trained you to..... try this it should work
Press CTRL and F8 at the same time. It will pop up a little box asking about reroute. Its about a 10 step process, but it has been working for us.

makes you long for the days of W+EXCH+INVOL doesn't it? 😛

 

[tadjr]

Some info from someone somewhere. 😉

Just to give you a little background on the problem….prior to migration we loaded thousands of markets to the new shares, but during the migration process, some were dropped…we are working with EDS to identify the ones that were dropped and get them added back in. we just added back 4000 in Europe yesterday that we had done prior to migration and are working on getting the rest added. If you or anyone in TPA find any that are missing, we can add them right away, just let me know via email or QIK FIX



We couldnt get TPA-RDU/MYR/AVL/AVP/CRW and no flights showed to Odessa, Ukraine (non rev Zed). If you have any city pairs that arent coming up send a quick fix to get it corrected.

 

[JetwayJock]

How about that family of 5 on the later flight who wants to standby on your earlier flight? With Sabre this was a 10 second transaction. But with "QIK" (oxymoron here), when you re-checkin using C-G-F3 (To-From Flt), and type psg info, you get response "Multi party exists - Divide record to continue". You have to divide EACH psg, 1 by 1 from the record, in many cases must add a "PD" segment for the desired flt, then proceed to check in EACH psg individually just to get them on the standby list!
And at this point, we are already boarding, there are another 20 people standing in line, am oversold, have not PRS (on'd) any seats, and am by myself. NEXT !
This really is insane. This is just ONE example of the MANY deficiencies of this system. Oh, and I am suprised that no one has noticed or mentioned the Smoking or Non Smoking displays on the seat maps. (Circa Eastern Airlines - 1980).

 

[phillyphlyer]

just finished 2 days of hell in phl....arrv sat morn(bad enough on a clear sunny day) to find 2,000 pax in the intl ticket counter line!!!!as i clock in in i think what was i thinking coming in today.....because i know sooner or later all those pax will be at the gates.... started working my mco flt at 0630 standy list of 35 and another 35 pax in my line so i start the joy 🙁 of checking in onthe qik system can anybody else divide a record in other stations except in the css sign...cause we cant try to place them on the list have to divide record run to the css office come back and start all over ctrl g.....e tkt out of sync,,,fix that ...start all over again ctrl g 15 freaking minutes to put 1 pax on the list how i long for the days of gl0-name;sb5....please have seat and we will call you....mco leaves at 1100....start checking in aua...same sh## different flight...finally at 100 scarf down my breakfast 9 hours after i started and 2 xanax later i am relesed from the nightmare...this qik has to go ...is anybody in tempe listening ...does anybody care ...HELLO????????? 😱 :down: :angry:

 

[Dont call me Shirley]

News
03/18/2007 14:57:07 EST
US Airways Says Thousands Still Stuck
By MARYCLAIRE DALE
Associated Press Writer

PHILADELPHIA - Thousands of weary travelers faced a third day waiting to reach their destinations Sunday as US Airways struggled to recover from the ice and snow storm that paralyzed airports in the Northeast.

The airline was still trying to find seats for 100,000 passengers systemwide whose flights were grounded by Friday's storm, spokesman Andrew Christie said.

Computer problems, airline staffing rules and other problems slowed US Airways' attempts to clear the backlog. In addition, the airline's flights on Sunday were already nearly sold out with 275,000 passengers booked, the airline said.

"Now we are in the process of repositioning our crew, our planes and I am trying to re-accommodate roughly 100,000 customers who didn't make their final destinations on Friday," Christie said.

"I can tell you the outlook for tonight looks good. We have the flight crews available and the weather is holding up pretty well," Christie said.

Passengers in Philadelphia reported waiting three hours or more to rebook a ticket or reach a reservation agent by phone during the weekend. Automated US Airways kiosks at Philadelphia International Airport were also down at times, they said.

US Airways operates two-thirds of the approximately 1,200 daily flights in Philadelphia.

Many of the travelers waiting for seats were stranded at the airport. Disposable blankets and pillows were handed out to several hundred people Saturday night, down from an estimated 1,000 or more people the night before, a spokeswoman said.

"Once the passengers were rebooked and going through security, they were moving them (through) pretty quickly," airport spokeswoman Phyllis VanIstendal said Sunday.

There were also long lines at US Airways ticket counters in Pittsburgh on Sunday because of cancellations and delays at other airports, said JoAnn Jenny, spokeswoman for the Allegheny County Airport Authority.

"It's just a busy time of year with spring break ... and then with that storm, that really put a wrench in the works for a lot of folks," Jenny said.

The storm had stranded hundreds of passengers at New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport, including hundreds stuck on planes Friday night as aircraft were unable to take off or find space at gates.

By Sunday, there were only scattered delays of up to two hours at New York's Kennedy and LaGuardia airports, with some delays of up five hours at Newark Liberty, said Alan Hicks, spokesman for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.

From Friday to Saturday morning, more than 3,600 commuter and mainline flights were canceled nationwide because of the effects of the storm. JetBlue, US Airways, Delta Air Lines and American Airlines all reported cancellations.



Blame "staffing rules". That's cute.

 

[phillyphlyer]

airline staffing rules my a##...when i clocked in sat morning there was a big sign 4feet by 3feet begging agt to come in on overtime this weekend and i like they way she says she is trying to reaccommodate all those pax i dont remember seeing her at the phl tkt counter this weekend :down:

 

[singh4us]

"Now we are in the process of repositioning our crew, our planes and I am trying to re-accommodate roughly 100,000 customers who didn't make their final destinations on Friday," Christie said.

"I can tell you the outlook for tonight looks good. We have the flight crews available and the weather is holding up pretty well," Christie said.

Amazing how Christie can manage to rebook 100,000 customers all by himself!!!! Isn't he also the same person whom told the press on Friday -- "It's a fine day for flying!""????? :angry:

CNN's headline (same article) 100,000 stuck travelers trying to fly

Check out the bags in DCA's baggage service office.... When will this maddness ever end? :down:

http://www.cnn.com/2007/TRAVEL/03/18/stran...s.ap/index.html

 

[tadjr]

airline staffing rules

This pertains to agents only since we dont have FAA mandated time frames, only contract time frames (which are basically they can work you 16 hours a day and even thats been ignored recently if you want the ot).
Airline staffing rules? Not contract staffing rules. I see no reason airline=management (staffing rules) shouldnt be blamed. I would hope (and maybe I feel an email coming out to someone at CWA) that they would send their letter to Doug to USAToday and other papers around the system from last week that practically BEGGED for more help.
Our local union rep BEGGED our manager to temp upgrade our part timers or at least extend their hours for a couple weeks or months until we got the sytem down and felt comfortable with it. Nope. We're going to use ot. Then keep getting the same old excuse (duh) no one is signed up, we called everyone off the list and no one wants to come in. What freakin planet these guys are on is beyond me. Um, we just canx 8 flights, can you come in and get your a** chewed out?
Finally, was told yesterday he got approval to temp upgrade or extend agents. Problem now is most of them are so pissed that they are talking about not taking it. Too little too late. Thanks management. You were given a suggestion BEFORE any of this sh*t hit the fan and you decided once again to go cheap and now the agents and customers are getting the full effect of your decision. I feel a mental health day coming on. :down: :down: