THE SPIN ZONE

lgwcalling

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Jan 1, 2007
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This was emailed to all Dividend Miles Members today.

___________________________________________________________

Dear Dividend Miles Member,

Here we go, possibly the most important Merger Update we've sent so far. There's a lot going on, so let's get right to it.

First, the Reservations Migration — moving millions of America West and US Airways reservations to a single system. Now that it’s over, I’ll tell you the good, the bad and answer the popular, "why move to this Reservations system?"

And as if it wasn’t enough to be completing one of the biggest IT projects in aviation history, March gave us a surprise ice storm that socked our Philadelphia hub and caused problems throughout the East Coast. I'll give you a brief explanation and an apology for some mistakes we made as part of that storm.

Res Migration

Where to begin with the Res Migration? This was a major change in computer systems, and while it didn't go as well as we would have liked in some regards, it went better than expected in others. To give you some perspective on this type of project, airlines in the past have had to take out full page ads to apologize for complete meltdowns.

The Good

Please indulge me while I quickly rattle off some of the accomplishments made by a group of several hundred employees after 18 months of planning:

Our whole team is now on the same system. No more transfers when you call Reservations.
Combined ticket counters and queues at airports. Just tell the taxi driver "US Airways." No more America West.
Combined kiosks for all flights. No more figuring out if you’re on an "East" or "West" flight.
Faster Web Check-in at usairways.com where you can pull up your reservation using your confirmation number or Dividend Miles number.
A whole lot of back-end systems that you don't want to know about (like the back room of a sausage factory) just got a lot cleaner.
A great big thanks to all of you who asked for these improvements and stuck with us as we slogged our way through the merger process. As we've said before, this is the stuff that makes airline mergers hard. If it was easy, everybody would be doing it.

The Bad

As with any change this big, we hit a few bumps and sinkholes along the way, and there are some important issues to tell you. We took care of most of the trouble early on, but there are still some lingering issues.

For those of you who like the details, here's the real "inside baseball" on Res Migration. When we transferred the seven million reservations from one system to the other, approximately 1.5 million of them didn't "sync up" correctly and our agents had to hand-process each reservation. Many systems that were otherwise ready to go became bogged down with these reservations. We've since whittled the number of "out of sync" reservations to a very small number.

The great news is that any new reservations you’ve made since Res Migration (March 4) won't be affected.

A few other issues (many of which were caused by the out–of-sync problem):

If your reservation is out of sync, you may have trouble checking in online or at the kiosk. If you Web Check-in doesn’t work with your reservation number, try using your Dividend Miles number. If that doesn't work, call Reservations. We should be able to get your reservation back in sync on the phone so you can check in through our automated systems.
Kiosks in Charlotte, Philadelphia, Boston, Las Vegas and several other eastern cities did not convert smoothly during the migration. By now kiosk problems are down to a minimum, but we won't rest until they're back to their previous levels of reliability.
"This all sounds very clunky. Why didn’t you convert to a more modern system?"

Ugh. How much time do you have? The short version is this:

Most airlines were built on “legacy†mainframe systems from the 60's and 70's. These systems are deeply embedded in everything from reservations, to flight operations, to airport operations, to accounting. They are very reliable, but very inflexible. As our business changes, it’s as though we’re fighting with one hand tied behind our back.

You might respond: "So dummy, convert it to a 21st century system." We would like to do that and eventually will. Several technology companies are building more modern platforms, and we are in contact with them. In an industry where we lose money more often than we turn a profit, it's not easy to justify replacing a system that works with one that’s very expensive, untried and carries additional risk. But stay tuned; we'll get there.

East Coast Ice Storm

On a different but equally impactful note, I wanted to close with a quick discussion of this month's operational difficulties. As you likely know, every airline — including US Airways — was forced to cancel and delay flights due to East Coast airport closures over the St. Patrick's Day weekend. Ice and snow were the culprits, but that was no consolation to many delayed, misconnected and stranded US Airways passengers. As we go to press, the operation is back on track, meaning we're looking back at what we can do different and better next time (because, with weather, there will always be a "next time"). In the meantime, please accept my personal apology to those of you whose travel was interrupted by the storm. We are applying many lessons learned to ensure that this doesn’t happen again.

Thank you again for your patience as we refine the new Reservations system, especially if you were further inconvenienced by our weather-related delays and cancelations. In spite of these troubles, we've made great progress and there is more come. 37,000 professionals are working hard every day to earn your business and build a strong and vibrant airline. It takes time, but with Res Migration behind us, it's full-steam ahead. With many of our people and resources now able to spend more time focused on the future, we look forward to bringing you the consistent and reliable service that we know you expect from US Airways.

With Warm Regards,

H. Travis Christ
Vice President, Sales and Marketing


___________________________________________________________


I'm looking forward to everyone's opinion after deconstructing this letter. I'm going to the pharmacy to get some blood pressure medication and nerve pills! :shock:


lgwcalling
 
I wonder if what they saved not getting a new system was worth the loss the existing one cost us.
And yes weather does happen,but it was in the forcast wed night for thurs,it actually didnt hit till fri giving a good break on the time window to prep.But sleet is hard to deal with.
When we started getting new comp's in phl I said thank you oh thank you somebody is listening,I guess its still garbage in garbage out.
 
:wacko:


QIK/Sabre would have made more sense. QIK doesn't cut the mustard in an airport environment, period...! No fixes or patches will ever put it in the same league with a system like Sabre...period!

Sabre would have cut the wait for our customers during the storm by at least half. It isn't the learning curve, its the application software.

Sorry don't feed the bulldog...
 
Here's a few excerpts from Mr. Christ's letter that are troubling.

"To give you some perspective on this type of project, airlines in the past have had to take out full page ads to apologize for complete meltdowns."

I guess stranding 100,000 pax is acceptable losses and does not warrant an apology. I guess this was not a complete meltdown. Huh?

"Please indulge me while I quickly rattle off some accomplishments made by a group of several hundred employees after 18 months of planning:"

Yes, be quick about it because we don't have the attention span for anything too indepth.

It took several hundred employees 18 months of planning - that was not money well spent. I also found it very telling that he did not say, "It's taken us (management taking ownership) 18 months of planning." It was very subtlely a shift of blame onto the employees.

"As we've said before, this is the stuff that makes airline mergers hard."

Sound familiar?

"This is hard work." "I make hard decisions." "I'm the decider." "Presidentin' is hard." - G.W.B.


"If that doesn't work, call Reservations."

Yeah, right. Good luck getting through. Tempe Management 101 - NEVER ANSWER YOUR PHONE!

"With many of our people and resources now able to spend more time focused on the future, we look forward to bringing you the consistent and reliable service that we know you expect from US Airways."

Does he really think that people expect consistent and reliable service from US Airways anymore? Forget what you know - "I am the great and powerful Oz!"
 
I think that Mr. Christ was Superman last Halloween. So much for truth, justice and the American way.

21 days later and markets that have been served BY OUR AIRLINE for decades are not yet loaded. But we are working on it.

18 months later and the online checkin and Employee travel site works on a random basis and the touch-tone telephone system is disconnected. But we are working on it.

One must ask a simple question. What type of work is being done after all of this time if these problems persist?

Remember this is our ca$h register. This group has effected the method by which we fund ALL of our jobs. Grade D minus, and I am being generous.
 
How many letters of apology have been sent out now to all of our Dividend Miles members? And how many more to follow? Geez, are these guys for real? :huh: Are they gonna be able to get their act together before it's too late? Do they even realize how much damage they are causing not only to our customers but to all the employees who are just beaten down and exhausted for cleaning up their poorly planned decisions over and over again! I personally don't think this is the end of the "meltdowns" just hope in the future they aren't as big! OR better yet one "FINAL" huge meltdown is needed to show everybody that the guys in Tempe have no clue as to what they are doing! B)
 
Unfortunately, one final meltdown is probably what it is going to take. There is no reaching, reasoning with or convincing these people in Tempe. That letter read like it was a seventh grade writing-class assignment. You do not use words like "ugh" in professional corrispondence. You don't pose questions that make you appear to be a "smart ass." Isn't the purpose of this letter to regain some respect and try and create some understanding for what has happened. The only message that letter sent was: we think we did a pretty good job, all things considered. So, just get over it. This management is pittiful and embarrassing. By the way, has anyone noticed that most if not all public appearances, media events, etc. have all been handled by Scott Kirby since Jan. In the past these events have always been handled by Doug himself. Scott has always been behind the scenes while Doug did all of the PR. Now it seems to bed Scott. Where is Doug?
 
I'm taking a vacation from actually flying US Airways. With the stress of actually having to deal with US to get someplace out of the way I have more time to devote to helping grow FFOCUS and further develop media contacts for the coming months as surely we will need them.


[/quote]


Bob, God bless you. I scratch my head all of the time wondering why you haven't done this sooner. Thank you for being a loyal customer. Maybe someday we'll be able to win you and the many others back. I just don't see it happening in the short term.
 
H. Travis Christ is drinking the juice with the other "Mormon Usairways Executives"! Either that or he was hit with too many "ice pellets"!
 
This was emailed to all Dividend Miles Members today.

___________________________________________________________

Dear Dividend Miles Member,

Here we go, possibly the most important Merger Update we've sent so far. There's a lot going on, so let's get right to it.

First, the Reservations Migration — moving millions of America West and US Airways reservations to a single system. Now that it’s over, I’ll tell you the good, the bad and answer the popular, "why move to this Reservations system?"

And as if it wasn’t enough to be completing one of the biggest IT projects in aviation history, March gave us a surprise ice storm that socked our Philadelphia hub and caused problems throughout the East Coast. I'll give you a brief explanation and an apology for some mistakes we made as part of that storm.

Res Migration

Where to begin with the Res Migration? This was a major change in computer systems, and while it didn't go as well as we would have liked in some regards, it went better than expected in others. To give you some perspective on this type of project, airlines in the past have had to take out full page ads to apologize for complete meltdowns.

The Good

Please indulge me while I quickly rattle off some of the accomplishments made by a group of several hundred employees after 18 months of planning:

Our whole team is now on the same system. No more transfers when you call Reservations.
Combined ticket counters and queues at airports. Just tell the taxi driver "US Airways." No more America West.
Combined kiosks for all flights. No more figuring out if you’re on an "East" or "West" flight.
Faster Web Check-in at usairways.com where you can pull up your reservation using your confirmation number or Dividend Miles number.
A whole lot of back-end systems that you don't want to know about (like the back room of a sausage factory) just got a lot cleaner.
A great big thanks to all of you who asked for these improvements and stuck with us as we slogged our way through the merger process. As we've said before, this is the stuff that makes airline mergers hard. If it was easy, everybody would be doing it.

The Bad

As with any change this big, we hit a few bumps and sinkholes along the way, and there are some important issues to tell you. We took care of most of the trouble early on, but there are still some lingering issues.

For those of you who like the details, here's the real "inside baseball" on Res Migration. When we transferred the seven million reservations from one system to the other, approximately 1.5 million of them didn't "sync up" correctly and our agents had to hand-process each reservation. Many systems that were otherwise ready to go became bogged down with these reservations. We've since whittled the number of "out of sync" reservations to a very small number.

The great news is that any new reservations you’ve made since Res Migration (March 4) won't be affected.

A few other issues (many of which were caused by the out–of-sync problem):

If your reservation is out of sync, you may have trouble checking in online or at the kiosk. If you Web Check-in doesn’t work with your reservation number, try using your Dividend Miles number. If that doesn't work, call Reservations. We should be able to get your reservation back in sync on the phone so you can check in through our automated systems.
Kiosks in Charlotte, Philadelphia, Boston, Las Vegas and several other eastern cities did not convert smoothly during the migration. By now kiosk problems are down to a minimum, but we won't rest until they're back to their previous levels of reliability.
"This all sounds very clunky. Why didn’t you convert to a more modern system?"

Ugh. How much time do you have? The short version is this:

Most airlines were built on “legacy†mainframe systems from the 60's and 70's. These systems are deeply embedded in everything from reservations, to flight operations, to airport operations, to accounting. They are very reliable, but very inflexible. As our business changes, it’s as though we’re fighting with one hand tied behind our back.

You might respond: "So dummy, convert it to a 21st century system." We would like to do that and eventually will. Several technology companies are building more modern platforms, and we are in contact with them. In an industry where we lose money more often than we turn a profit, it's not easy to justify replacing a system that works with one that’s very expensive, untried and carries additional risk. But stay tuned; we'll get there.

East Coast Ice Storm

On a different but equally impactful note, I wanted to close with a quick discussion of this month's operational difficulties. As you likely know, every airline — including US Airways — was forced to cancel and delay flights due to East Coast airport closures over the St. Patrick's Day weekend. Ice and snow were the culprits, but that was no consolation to many delayed, misconnected and stranded US Airways passengers. As we go to press, the operation is back on track, meaning we're looking back at what we can do different and better next time (because, with weather, there will always be a "next time"). In the meantime, please accept my personal apology to those of you whose travel was interrupted by the storm. We are applying many lessons learned to ensure that this doesn’t happen again.

Thank you again for your patience as we refine the new Reservations system, especially if you were further inconvenienced by our weather-related delays and cancelations. In spite of these troubles, we've made great progress and there is more come. 37,000 professionals are working hard every day to earn your business and build a strong and vibrant airline. It takes time, but with Res Migration behind us, it's full-steam ahead. With many of our people and resources now able to spend more time focused on the future, we look forward to bringing you the consistent and reliable service that we know you expect from US Airways.

With Warm Regards,

H. Travis Christ
Vice President, Sales and Marketing
___________________________________________________________
I'm looking forward to everyone's opinion after deconstructing this letter. I'm going to the pharmacy to get some blood pressure medication and nerve pills! :shock:
lgwcalling
 
This guy Christ is out of his mind. In all my years with USAir, never heard such spin!

Mr. Christ.....this #%^$%# computer systems is NEVER going to work for a carrier this size. You stayed with that ^&*$%%$ Shares system to save a couple of bucks and in the meantime have lost more passenger revenue that would have paid for Sabre 20 times over. Please do not try to do any damage control on this. It is what it is. Sabre is used by most major airlines throughout the world. We are now forced to use a computer systems that is for a small regional carrier....when are you guys going to realize that your are now playing with the big boys!!! United drops our alliance...Star Alliance is about to throw us out on our $%^^%^$ because of the boys in Tempe's arrogance! I love the part about an unexpected ice/snow storm! Do you not look at the weather channel and your management in the northeast the local news. You steal our pax FF mileage from their accounts because it has been inactive for a time....no wonder...look what you are doing to our most precious commodity. From my understanding, Sabre gave you a deal you couldn't refuse...but of course you did. This airline does not just run out of Arizona where the weather is beautiful most of the time with no ATC delays. This is the northeast corridor for God's sake..the most busy in the country. We original USAirways employees are used to taking care of our pax. Now with this #$%^^%^ system we cannot even rebook our pax fast enough to accomodate them. With Sabre we could accomodate our pax within 2 minutes. What is wrong with you people. You better think long and hard about what you have done by switching computer systems which we told you and begged you not to change because it would destroy the USAirways systems. If you are truly concerned about customer service, which obviously you are not, you have to change back to the computer system that communicates with all major carriers and best suits the needs of our pax. Please do not throw BS at our employees but most of all our pax. It was not a snow storm or computer glitch that brought this company to it's knees. It was your bad corporate decision that caused this. The media is starting to see through your crap. Do not insult the employees or the pax with your spin..we are a lot smarter than that!