Saturday Morning In Pit

[ClueByFour]

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/05163/520329.stm

Several quotes are priceless:

Only four or five US Airways employees were staffing the baggage and boarding pass counters during most of the morning, travelers said.

ClueByFour comments: I've seen this: two people behind the kiosks, one for coach pax, one for preferred/first.

Also, customers who still had a chance of catching flights were put in the same queue as those who had missed flights and were trying to re-book, thus causing even more missed flights.

Brilliant operational concept. Kudos to the process folks (hah!) at CCY. I guess we never got past, say, the p"ink" belt in Six Sigma (and yeah, I know the real belts--it's sarcasm).

Sieber said US Airways was "normally staffed" for a heavy travel day and he was unaware of any extra staff called out because of the morning crush. He said Friday's weather delays affected US Airways more than other airlines because it operates the most flights.

ClueByFour comments: much like Christmas. Claiming "normally staffed," "operates more flights," etc. Fix the staffing shortage.

The Allegheny County Airport Authority issued a travel advisory on Friday after seeing an unusually heavy number of bookings from all airlines.

The agency expected the security gates to jam up, especially yesterday morning and late today. But the security lines moved well, according to airport spokeswoman JoAnn Jenny.

ClueByFour comments: if the ACAA knew about it on Friday, so did US management. Yet, it appears that nothing was done.

Try again Hawk. You guys screwed it. PHL style. Again. And they wonder why the average US VFF won't check a bag or show up without an OLCI boarding pass on a dare......

 

[phllax]

Actually the PHL C checkpoint has no shoe carnival, but you are right about B. If you want to see a shoe carnival, got to PBI and FLL!

 

[Dog Wonder]

"Benaman was traveling to a charity golf outing at Ferris State University in Big Rapids, Mich. When he arrived at 10 a.m. for a noon flight to Detroit, the ticketing area was filled to capacity.

"I travel 15 times a year and I've never been through this before."

Around 2 p.m., with four hours in line, he reached the counter and was booked on Northwest Airlines for 3:15 p.m.

Kim Minnotte, 14, of Mt. Lebanon, spent more than six hours in line. She arrived at 7 a.m. for an 8:55 flight to Orlando, re-booked by cell phone to a 3:50 p.m. flight and got to the baggage check-in counter after 1 p.m."

Those silly customers should be getting to the airport five to seven hours before their flight. Especially if it rains the night before.

 

[MarkMyWords]

Weather last night resulted in about 150 misconnects. This morning they returned for ticket reissue. On top of that, problems were compounded by a TSA CTX machine going down early. Fixed and back online approx 0930, but it caused backups at all check-in points- tkt ctr, kiosks and skycap. TSA went to manual but volumes were very heavy.

All ticket counter positions were staffed and agts pulled from the gates to move people in front of counter. Seven flts delayed to accomodated misconx and xld pax. Took until approx 2pm to move all pax due to heavy loads and lack of space.

[post="276647"][/post]​

Sorry Hawk, but I don't buy the excuses above.

150 misconnects from Friday shouldn't cause that much of a burden on the morning ticket counter operation. Those customers should have been rebooked and had their tickets reissued the night before. All 150 wouldn't be showing up all at once since they would have been rerouted for various times throughout the morning.

The TSA CTX machine being out of service would have minimal impact on Customer check-in at the counter and would have been cause for higher PAWOBs, not lengthy delays at check-in.

I received a PM from someone that explained that a full flight to PHL (757) was canceled and that 200 additional customers had to be rerouted and have tickets reissued. That excuse doesn't fly with me either. The flight from PIT to PHL canceled at 8:30pm Friday. The customers would have been contacted by reservations, rerouted and tickets reissued PRIOR to airport arrival. While there would have been some customers that RES was unable to contact, there is no way 200 people showed up at the ATO for a canceled flight.

Personally, my view is that someone dropped the ball and failed to plan for a full Saturday morning. With the higher volume of Caribbean bound customers on a Saturday morning, Kiosk check-in time time is greatly elevated as customers need to input their passport information. Kiosk check-in transactions that would normally take 1-2 minutes for a domestic flight could take 10-15 for an international flight once you hunt and peck your way through inputting passport information. Agent intervention would have been necessary for anyone who failed Kiosk check-in, had less then 30 minutes to check their bags or missed their flight. As the ball started to roll down hill, it just gained momentum and finally was out of control. But the root cause of the problem was not being prepared for the number of local customers checking in. If there were 150 customer that misconnected the night before, then call in additional help in the morning. If a flight of 200 customers canceled the night before, and presented an issue for check-in in the morning, then call in additional help.

Art is right, someone failed to plan, so the plan failed. Let's not make excuses, admitt we screwed up and make sure it doesnt' happen again and again, and again and again.

 

[700UW]

Too many kiosks machines called in sick.

 

[delldude]

Too many kiosks machines called in sick.

[post="276725"][/post]​

they better have a note from a service repairman......

 

[speedbird86]

Not really. If the station manager was thinking, they'd have done the reissues last night.

[post="276677"][/post]​

I agree and add that boarding passes could have been issued.

There must be more to it than misconxs.

 

[The Truth]

I find it interesting that at WN's locations (BWI,PHX,LAS, MCO) they have lines that are generally long every day but the media never reports this to the public.

Markmywords, Of course WN had no lines in PIT. They only have a handful of flights while we have several hundred. You are starting to sound a lot like 700 with his gross misinformation- "don't let the facts get in your way." He still can't admit that his union failed its membership by not negotiating with the company when it had a chance. Glass held all of the cards and even knew your union's hand. You really showed the company with that union mentality. At least Pitbull has seen the light and is now playing ball. It took her some time but she is finally coming around.

Clue, you are always negative towards our company- I am suprised that you have not chosen another airline that meets your satisfaction. Saturday was not perfect but many factors contributed to the situation and it was not a management "screw up" as some have portrayed on this website.

 

[700UW]

I find it interesting that at WN's locations (BWI,PHX,LAS, MCO) they have lines that are generally long every day but the media never reports this to the public.

At least Pitbull has seen the light and is now playing ball. It took her some time but she is finally coming around.

[post="276740"][/post]​

Jerry is in for it now.

I feel the wrath of Pitbull coming down today.

I have never seen on the news or in the papers of the DOT investigate WN for stranding passengers, gee which airline does that?

Oh yes, US Airways does, and its "top notch" management cant accept blame for anything that goes wrong, look at Regional Carrier Comair where a top executive accepted blame and resigned, at US you all reward yourself with bonues.

 

[Finish or Ignore]

Let's hope CCY doesn't "Blame" anyone! Let's instead hope that CCY uses this as an opportunity to fix the structural problems within US Airways that drain much needed resources away from the company.

These kinds of "Mini Meltdowns" are one of the reasons profitability is so elusive for US. If the business processes aren't streamlined US can merge with whomever it chooses and the outcome will be unchanged.

[post="276583"][/post]​

You can BET that a threatening memo from Donna or Al is already in the works. Do better or else............

 

[BoeingBoy]

Saturday was not perfect

[post="276740"][/post]​

Apparently far from it.

but many factors contributed to the situation and it was not a management "screw up" as some have portrayed on this website.

[post="276740"][/post]​

It never is management's fault, is it......

Maybe we should just get rid of all the non-management employees. Those "perfect" managers would be able to run a perfect operation then. Every flight would operate, every flight would be on time, and every passenger would have their bags on arrival....

Jim

 

[firstamendment]

Regardless who is to blame...if there is any reason to..I agree with a few others that WN has consistantly longlines anywhere they fly. Name it and I will promise you there are lines from check-in to the lines to wait to get into the jetway. These lines created by WN have created such danger in LA that 2 airport employees must stand at the top of the escalators to make sure there is no spillage at he top.

Where is the bad press there? There is and has ALWAYS been a double standard where WN is concerned. They are percieved as the savior to the industry, yet the SAME thing critics LOVE to criticize about US are tolerated with WN. I am not putting down WN, but having been out and about the various airports, this APPEARS to be the case.

AND, what a real "SHOCKER" that a Pittsburgh paper would present such an artical. :down: :blink: 🙄

 

[Art at ISP]

Hertz has a system called Never Lost...I guess CCY has a system called NeverWrong.....

Too bad only one of them is truly productive......

 

[mga707]

I find it interesting that at WN's locations (BWI,PHX,LAS, MCO) they have lines that are generally long every day but the media never reports this to the public.

They may well be long but at least they usually are MOVING. From the reports here that was not the case for US at PIT on Sat. Makes a difference...
<_<

 

[markkus757]

I find it very disappointing to say the least, regardless of which side of the fence you sit on at US. I was always told that if you don't like criticism, don't give anyone a reason to criticize.