I called last night to reservations to change a seat, and I spoke to a very nice representative who told me they are thinking about trimming the number of reps from 2000 to 900. (Everyday the rep comes in may be the last) They also want to close another reservation desk (right now they have 3, orlando, PIT and Winston-Salem out of the original 7) They also want to take away their medical benefits. They also said they may strike, as their salaries are amongst the lowest of any USair union.

I spoke with the rep for almost 30 minutes (I was the last call of the night before the rep was off, so I guess it was cool). They don't trust Siegel yet, as he was over 30 minutes late meeting with the unions, and didn't apologize. Honestly, is firing a low-paid rep and taking away their medical benefits really the long-term solution for this airline? That means longer call hold times, crappier service overall. I don't know about any of you, but when I call res, if I'm on hold for more than a minute, it sucks. Southwest has never given any paycuts or furloughs. The rep said they had an opportunity to work for SW last year, but didn't and decided to stick it out. Needless to say, the rep wishes they did.

(edited to remove rep's gender)

[This message has been edited by nawlinsdoc (edited 08-22-2002).]

As far as number of agents needed and such, all I can say for sure is I can count the minutes I've spent on hold waiting for a rep to pick up on one hand over the last year, and one instance was less than two minutes the night the bankruptcy was announced (I'm sure the call centers were deluged with calls that night, but they seem to take care of us Golds none-the-less).

Honestly, from a pragmatic point of view, if this agent has 30 minutes to spend complaining about US with you on the phone, maybe they are a little over-staffed, don't you think?

Finally, CWA, which is her union, has been pretty vocal about US's proposed changes, and I'd take anything coming from them about their negotiations with US (which it sounded like you were getting) with a grain of salt, just like I'd take anything from US about their negatiations with CWA with a grain of salt.

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by nawlinsdoc:
They also said they may strike, as their salaries are amongst the lowest of any USair union.</font>

BTW, I kind of missed this the first time ...

What a load of crap that is ... I must be missing something, but their salaries should be "among the lowest" of the unions. I should hope they don't expect to make more than pilots, F/A's, or mechanics, all of whom are typically paid more by all the airlines to begin with for various reasons (training, time away from home, safety responsibilities, etc.).

The only union they maybe should arguably be making more money than would be the workers on the ramp ... I assume they're unionized at US, right?

i generally agree with beckles on this. i've NEVER held for more than 30 seconds...

however, i think the hold times are very different when using the general number. i have friends routinely complain to me about how long they hold on the phone for an agent on usairways and how much worse it is than any other airline.

Hey Beckles,
I know I didn't get the whole story, but come on - asking a sub-30,000 dollar year employee to pay $600 a month for health benefits?

Also, I did say that I was the last call of the shift, so the rep could speak with me on their own time for a while as well.

Hold time thusfar has been great, you are correct. But, do you think that will continue by slashing half of thir jobs?

I guess I feel that the airline isn't having big time problems because of their reps and their salaries.

I know I rely heavily on reps for tons of things. I don't upgrade much, but I know lots of you do.

Anyway, Beckles, not trying to start a fight or flame USair, just making a point that things aren't too great when the employess talk like that, that's all.

I'll be laying over in CLT on Labor day for a little while. Does that count? http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif


[This message has been edited by nawlinsdoc (edited 08-22-2002).]

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by kv99:
however, i think the hold times are very different when using the general number. i have friends routinely complain to me about how long they hold on the phone for an agent on usairways and how much worse it is than any other airline.</font>

I think you're probably right, which is why I made sure to specifically mention the fact that I was Gold and they seem to treat us well ... but like I said, that's all I have to go by (guess I could call the general number if I wanted ... nah!).

The place is in Bankruptcy, and most of the equity is going into the hands of guys who buy low and SELL high (percentages may not look that big, but 5 Board seats is the real yardstick). It's hard to imagine a more dysfunctional situation. In this scenario, the customer probably ends up being an afterthought. In the next few months, as service levels continue to drop, scheduled flights you have get dumped, and they try to squeeze you in baby jets for trips that really call for a bigger plane, it will be a real time for reflection. They are sizing the airline to their costs, e.g. if you are paying too much for pilots, rather than attack the cost issue, you simply put the customer in a smaller plane that you pay people less to fly. I'd like to be able to do that in my business, but unfortunately I actually have to manage it.

nawlinsdoc ~ Regardless of the exact situation of the phone call, it was totally inappropriate on the agent's part to undertake the discussion they did with you.

I'm not trying to take sides either, I hope CWA and US can work it out, but I will admit CWA seems to be much more stubborn than US on this, then you hear about stuff like this, and it really doesn't improve CWA's image in my mind ...

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by nawlinsdoc:
I called last night to reservations to change a seat, and I spoke to a very nice representative who told me they are thinking about trimming the number of reps from 2000 to 900. (Everyday the rep comes in may be the last) They also want to close another reservation desk (right now they have 3, orlando, PIT and Winston-Salem out of the original 7) They also want to take away their medical benefits. They also said they may strike, as their salaries are amongst the lowest of any USair union.
</font>

This is pretty unprofessional...

All of this information is readily available over at usaviation.com. There are quite a few "hotheads" within the CWA that vent regularly there. But to take it up with a customer on a call -- that's over the line.

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by TomBascom:

This is pretty unprofessional...

All of this information is readily available over at usaviation.com. There are quite a few "hotheads" within the CWA that vent regularly there. But to take it up with a customer on a call -- that's over the line.</font>

I agree with you that it was a tad unprofessional. They probably shouldn't have vented with me.

Again, just wanted to show how unhappy they all are - not a good portent of things to come. If they strike, well, things will REALLY suck.

Also, they said they get yelled at constantly throughout the day. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/frown.gif

(Though I guess I feel like yelling at my Verizon reps, too.)

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by Beckles:
...all I can say for sure is I can count the minutes I've spent on hold waiting for a rep to pick up on one hand over the last year...</font>Obviously you didn't try to do anything after 9/11. US was the worst of 3 (UA and AS) airlines I dealt with in the weeks after September 11th.

"Please hold your call is important to us. The next agent will be available in... 57 minutes..."

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by nawlinsdoc:
I agree with you that it was a tad unprofessional. They probably shouldn't have vented with me.

Again, just wanted to show how unhappy they all are - not a good portent of things to come. If they strike, well, things will REALLY suck.</font>

I doubt that they are all so unhappy. I could, of course, be wrong about that but I wouldn't be surprised if the silent majority feels differently. Time will, of course, tell...

FWIW I can and do sympathize with some of their issues. They're in a tough spot -- one that I'm very glad that I'm not in. But an awful lot of the venting is pure crap, does nothing to help their cause and, in fact, detracts immensely from their credibility.

And nobody should be yelling at them regardless.

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by chexfan:
Originally posted by Beckles:
...all I can say for sure is I can count the minutes I've spent on hold waiting for a rep to pick up on one hand over the last year...</font>Obviously you didn't try to do anything after 9/11. US was the worst of 3 (UA and AS) airlines I dealt with in the weeks after September 11th.

"Please hold your call is important to us. The next agent will be available in... 57 minutes..."

I (Gold) called about 4 days after 9/11 and they picked up in 3 rings.

I've now been on hold for almost 10 minutes. You guys jinxed me. Big time.