Our "successful" website is once again giving run time errors. How can anyone get any productive booking done??

Our "successful" website is once again giving run time errors. How can anyone get any productive booking done??

The site has been messed up all day and for most of the last 9 days. What's that saying about how to run a railroad? After all, load factor is more important than web site. All of our booking is being done with websites and airlines that work, frankly. :confused:

The site has been messed up all day and for most of the last 9 days. What's that saying about how to run a railroad? After all, load factor is more important than web site. All of our booking is being done with websites and airlines that work, frankly. :confused:

I know how bad it's been... but now even www.usairways.com gives errors. :td:

It seems to have taken two steps back today. (Or maybe I'm just seeing some the existing problems for the first time.) I was unable to log in to my account for at least an hour this morning, and then ran into big errors while searching for flights. The site has also been very slow.

if I type in www.usairways.com the redirect doesn't get me anywhere; I have to use americawest.com instead. Even typing in www2.usairways.com doesn't work. Is anyone else seeing this behavior?

if I type in www.usairways.com the redirect doesn't get me anywhere; I have to use americawest.com instead. Even typing in www2.usairways.com doesn't work. Is anyone else seeing this behavior?

When I enter in www.usairways.com, it redirects me to http://www2.usairways.com/awa/

When I enter in www.usairways.com, it redirects me to http://www2.usairways.com/awa/


There are definitly real errors (I received some when trying to link to Web Check in from the MY ACCOUNT area, and also have problems with the site keeping my seat assignments when booking or changing a reservation.)

But some of my issues were resolved by reloading the site, cleanign the cache... it seems too much is changing too quickly :P

There are definitly real errors (I received some when trying to link to Web Check in from the MY ACCOUNT area, and also have problems with the site keeping my seat assignments when booking or changing a reservation.)

But some of my issues were resolved by reloading the site, cleanign the cache... it seems too much is changing too quickly :P

I have had some errors today myself...which I also cleared up by closing the browser, clearing cache/history/cookies, etc. I guess having a three-day holiday did not help matters any!

Who changes a production server in the middle of the day?!?!?!
:mad:
First I lose miles, then I cannot book travel, now this!

Honestly US, I have to book travel today, if its not back up by tonight I'm going UA and not looking back.

Who changes a production server in the middle of the day?!?!?!
:mad:
First I lose miles, then I cannot book travel, now this!

Honestly US, I have to book travel today, if its not back up by tonight I'm going UA and not looking back.

I'm trying to book an award rez... called gold line and was told the online site had better availability than they did. Can you believe this??

I'm trying to book an award rez... called gold line and was told the online site had better availability than they did. Can you believe this??

How can that be? How many different systems are running?

Don't they at least put updates on the homepage to let people know they're aware there's a problem, and a possible timeline for fixing it??? :confused:

I had the same problem calling Gold Award Res last night..I don't know if this is a new thing, but the website will actually allow you to combine Premium and MileageSaver awards for the separate legs of your trip (so, flying PHL-FRA for example, you could take the 25,000 MileageSaver going PHL-FRA, and the 50,000 Premium award for the return trip, if no MileageSaver awards are available). When I tried using the same flights over the phone, the agent told me they didn't have that functionality, and that both would have to be booked under the Premium award. So it does seem the website uses a different system..Now if only they showed award availability for Star Alliance partners, since I was actually looking for PHL-WAW...

This is so bad it is getting funny. I tried to book from CLT to BOS yesterday...it told me the departure and arrival city are not served. So I used the little 'find airport' link to pick them from a dropdown...was told the departure and arrival cities are not served. I love it...just amazing.

US Airways Customer Commitment (Link from DOT website):

http://www2.usairways.com/customers/customer_commitment/

"The system cannot find the path specified."


That may be the most appropriate thing I have seen yet.

http://www2.usairways.com/customers/customer_commitment/

"The system cannot find the path specified."


That may be the most appropriate thing I have seen yet.

Very a propos. Best thing I have read all day on this forum. The link speaks much more than words, or the lack thereof.

US Airways Customer Commitment (Link from DOT website):

http://www2.usairways.com/customers/customer_commitment/

"The system cannot find the path specified."


That may be the most appropriate thing I have seen yet.


Priceless X 10!!!!!!!

US Airways Customer Commitment (Link from DOT website):

http://www2.usairways.com/customers/customer_commitment/

"The system cannot find the path specified."


That may be the most appropriate thing I have seen yet.

That is hysterical! :D

Some things do, indeed, seem to happen for a reason. :)

My "favorite" error message so far...

"We're sorry, but we were unable to complete your request.

Here's what happened:
This portion of our site is temporarily unavailable."

There have been several "features" I have tried to access that I have not been successful yet... "Hotel Reservations" under "Travel Planning" is just one such example.

If it's unavailable, then why do you have a link or form to attempt to access it??
Duh. :mad:

I have not been able to look at my account since the new system went "live". I try every day with no luck. I am a patient person, but this is getting ridiculous. I called the 800 number, stayed on hold for 30 minutes while a disembodied voice told me how sorry they were that I had to wait and how much they valued my call. (I guess croissants and coffee was more important than customer service in ... land). I gave up and sent an email to which they promised a swift five to seven day response. Heck, all I wanna do is to look at my account and book some travel....some time this year.

I have not been able to look at my account since the new system went "live". I try every day with no luck. I am a patient person, but this is getting ridiculous. I called the 800 number, stayed on hold for 30 minutes while a disembodied voice told me how sorry they were that I had to wait and how much they valued my call. (I guess croisants and coffee was more important than customer service in ... land). I gave up and sent an email to which they promised a swift five to seven day response. Heck, all I wanna do is to look at my account and book some travel....some time this year.

If you are a former US Airways customer, you must log in first with your Dividend Miles number and 4-digit pin. From there, you set up your new website account with a new user ID, password, and a new profile, as this new website is America West system based.

If you are a former US Airways customer, you must log in first with your Dividend Miles number and 4-digit pin. From there, you set up your new website account with a new user ID, password, and a new profile, as this new website is America West system based.

Thanks for regurgitating the info on the website. That isn't working for everyone though. :rolleyes:

Thanks for regurgitating the info on the website. That isn't working for everyone though. :rolleyes:

I believe that and I am sorry that at least that part is not working!

I have not been able to look at my account since the new system went "live". I try every day with no luck. I am a patient person, but this is getting ridiculous. I called the 800 number, stayed on hold for 30 minutes while a disembodied voice told me how sorry they were that I had to wait and how much they valued my call. (I guess croisants and coffee was more important than customer service in ... land). I gave up and sent an email to which they promised a swift five to seven day response. Heck, all I wanna do is to look at my account and book some travel....some time this year.

I'm in the same boat as you. I have given up at this point and hope that it eventually works.

My "favorite" error message so far...

"We're sorry, but we were unable to complete your request.

Here's what happened:
This portion of our site is temporarily unavailable."

i got this message three times trying to book a flight. after the third failure, i just booked thru expedia. (nice to put my UA number in at booking, too..) found out a couple of days later when citibank put a fraud alert on my card that all three purchase attempts on usairways.com queried mastercard, but failed to go thru.

When attempting to book a flight earlier today, I was all the way to the last screen (payment information) but was blocked by this error: "The Dividend Miles Number that you entered does not match this Passenger's Dividend Miles Account." Does anybody know what this means?

(I eventually gave up on the website and called the CP line to book the ticket.)

Everything works flawlessly with every other USA airline. Just imagine how quickly US would get their s..t together if everybody just did what almost everyone I know and work with is doing. If their revenue is shut off or at least slowed to a trickle Doug, all of his horses and all of his yes-men would put US back togetheragain and get seasoned really quickly. I wouldn't bet on a confirmed losing horse and jockey. Every dollar spent by any individual on US affirms their guaranteed failed approach. It simply delays their lesson or failure, and probably both.

This is impressive in it's lack of utility.

I'm told (by usairways.com) that US does not offer service between AVL and NYC.

Fortunately, DL does. And UA does from both GSO and GSP. DL and CO fly direct from GSO.

I may be joining l4pi on that other southeastern airline (tm) if this kind of crap keeps up.

I may be joining l4pi on that other southeastern airline (tm) if this kind of crap keeps up.

I think l4pi's terminology for this is that you are thinking about "coming over to the dark side".

Everything works flawlessly with every other USA airline.
I have to take issue with this statement. The very first sticky of the United forum is entitled Consolidated Thread to Post Your UA Website Experiences/Complaints (http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=482441). This website is far from perfect, but one can not claim that every other USA airline website works flawlessly. Over the past 72 hours, I had 3 itineraries fail to book on United.bomb, 4 itineraries that I had to submit Low Price Guarantee forms on, 1 itinerary magically changes dates between confirmation and ticketing, and lots of "unknown error 105" on United.bomb.

Just imagine how quickly US would get their s..t together if everybody just did what almost everyone I know and work with is doing. If their revenue is shut off or at least slowed to a trickle Doug, all of his horses and all of his yes-men would put US back togetheragain and get seasoned really quickly. I wouldn't bet on a confirmed losing horse and jockey. Every dollar spent by any individual on US affirms their guaranteed failed approach. It simply delays their lesson or failure, and probably both.
As for taking vindictive action against a corporation for problems with their website, I find this a bit extreme. United has had a probldematic website for years - US has not had theirs a month yet. Obviously, everyone is entitled to voice their concerns, but no company can wave a magic wand and fix every problem at once.

I'm in the same boat as you. I have given up at this point and hope that it eventually works.

Count me as another person who has not been able to check 'My Account' since the new Web site went live.

This is impressive in it's lack of utility.

I'm told (by usairways.com) that US does not offer service between AVL and NYC.

Fortunately, DL does. And UA does from both GSO and GSP. DL and CO fly direct from GSO.

I may be joining l4pi on that other southeastern airline (tm) if this kind of crap keeps up.

US Airways DOES offer service from AVL and LGA, though CLT, and right now the lowest fare was under $300 with taxes and fees, as I have two itineraries booked with them this summer through AVL. I suggest calling to book.

DL and CO fly direct from GSO.

US Airways also flies direct from GSO to LGA! Call them, or book on Expedia, Travelocity, Orbitz...anywhere but the website!

US Airways DOES offer service from AVL and LGA, though CLT, and right now the lowest fare was under $300 with taxes and fees, as I have two itineraries booked with them this summer through AVL. I suggest calling to book.

I'm well aware that US services AVL and LGA. That the website was not is the entire point.

As for calling, I did. They wanted the $5 fee. Now, it's not that I did not want (or even try) to give them my money via their website. I did. In vain. And for calling them (still trying to give them money) they wanted another $5.

Nope. Not a chance. They lost that business from me as soon as they had the nerve to make it more difficult for me to give them my money and then want to charge me for the privilidge. That calling the Gold line connected me (near as I could tell) to someone whose native tounge was not English was like icing on the cake.

Not that it matters to the gurus in the Sandcastle, but they'll be getting a copy of the receipt and itin for the flight, along with the requisite 10th grade explanation about making it easier for people to give them money and not insulting their (customer's) intelligence in the process.

Not that it matters to the gurus in the Sandcastle, but they'll be getting a copy of the receipt and itin for the flight, along with the requisite 10th grade explanation about making it easier for people to give them money and not insulting their (customer's) intelligence in the process.

Making someone wait "3 minutes" to process their CC isn't exactly easy either. Has anyone waited any less than that?

I'm well aware that US services AVL and LGA. That the website was not is the entire point.


I apologize for any misunderstanding, but from what you wrote previously, it did not appear that you were just commenting on the malfunctioning website.

I know the website is not working correctly, from my own experiences and the numerous comments posted on this forum. I myself am trying to be patient. I have not yet attempted to book on the new website and I do not plan to until after June 9. If the website does not work by then, I will book elsewhere.

I also know that many of the customer service departments of many companies, not just airlines, have been outsourced to other countries where labor and the cost of doing business is less expensive. A good reference: The World is Flat by Thomas L. Friedman. Unfortunately this outsourcing and offshoring will only grow in the future.

I just tried to book a business trip for the first time. I'd tried some award travel before, but just for expirmenting.
What a bad expirence...first the design of the site is just bad. Come on...get on the web 2.0 bandwaggon (I hate that term)...look at sites like Netflix or Gmail or any modern site... this is just lipstick on a pig!

I tried for about 15 minutes before calling. They wanted to route my RIC-SBY trip through philly and LGA when there was clearly a RIC-PHL-SBY trip for less money at the exact time I asked for. Then when I went to pay it complained that my name was not the same on my profile....i had to re-enter all my information ,etc.

Look, we are dedicated to US and more willing than the average traveler to put up with this. If it took my father 15 minutes, he'd be on travelocity or DLs web site with out even blinking- or calling to tell US about the issue.

The bottom line here is that they put a turd of a web site into production with no testing and no training for their staff. If the fortune 15 software company I work for put out anything that poorly written our customers would litterlally run us out of business. In this age a website is the face of a travel company. Its time the industry as a whole recognized that they are not doing us a favor by existing, but rather we are doing them a favor by supporting any loyality program at all.

When I finally called the CP desk they booked the correct trip with in minutes and politely informed me they'd be waving the fee fro me...awww how nice of them. To their credit, I didn't ask and they were very polite and wonderful as usual....just sucks that they have to take the brunt of this problem.

As for calling, I did. They wanted the $5 fee. Now, it's not that I did not want (or even try) to give them my money via their website. I did. In vain. And for calling them (still trying to give them money) they wanted another $5.
Your profile says you're * Gold -- is that on US? Preferreds are supposed to be exempt from the $5 service fee (http://www2.usairways.com/awa/content/travelplanning/ticketingpolicies/servicefees.aspx).

Your profile says you're * Gold -- is that on US? Preferreds are supposed to be exempt from the $5 service fee (http://www2.usairways.com/awa/content/travelplanning/ticketingpolicies/servicefees.aspx).

I thought that was the case, but the CP desk made a point of telling me he was waving the fee....
know you weren't responding to me though...

I also know that many of the customer service departments of many companies, not just airlines, have been outsourced to other countries where labor and the cost of doing business is less expensive. A good reference: The World is Flat by Thomas L. Friedman. Unfortunately this outsourcing and offshoring will only grow in the future.

The only airlines to have had profitable (excluding BK exit book writedown) quarters in the past 5 years in the United States all have one thing in common--they don't offshore reservations.

In fact, offshoring worked so well that US is bringing the work back in-house. (http://www.thestreet.com/_googlen/stocks/transportation/10287328.html?cm_ven=GOOGLEN&cm_cat=FREE&cm_ite=NA) But to be clear: it would not bother me if I can actually understand the person on the other end of the phone, or if they knew what the heck they were doing. Neither of those is true for the US operations in El Salvador or Manilla.

My firm has an offshore call center. But not for high value customers, not for support on large ticket purchases, and certainly not for sales.

The only airlines to have had profitable (excluding BK exit book writedown) quarters in the past 5 years in the United States all have one thing in common--they don't offshore reservations.

In fact, offshoring worked so well that US is bringing the work back in-house. (http://www.thestreet.com/_googlen/stocks/transportation/10287328.html?cm_ven=GOOGLEN&cm_cat=FREE&cm_ite=NA) But to be clear: it would not bother me if I can actually understand the person on the other end of the phone, or if they knew what the heck they were doing. Neither of those is true for the US operations in El Salvador or Manilla.

My firm has an offshore call center. But not for high value customers, not for support on large ticket purchases, and certainly not for sales.

Thanks for the article. At least that is good news! Being a language instructor, I can certainly understand the importance of learning a language well enough to really be able to use it.

The only airlines to have had profitable (excluding BK exit book writedown) quarters in the past 5 years in the United States all have one thing in common--they don't offshore reservations.


I work in outsourcing. The main problem with the offshore operations you mention is that the company that is outsourcing decides that instead of a 15% savings, they will go full monty and get 40% by cutting training and taking lower language skilled staff. Offshoring can raise customer service levels, but only if the right amount of investment is made, which is very rare.

Funny enough, for all of the hoopla over the website roll out, HP does website development and management in house. I find it strange that an airline feels it can do a better job developing and maintaining web sites than a web firm. Sure it might cost $300K more per year to outsource it and do it right, but look what you get when you try to roll your own.

I work in outsourcing. The main problem with the offshore operations you mention is that the company that is outsourcing decides that instead of a 15% savings, they will go full monty and get 40% by cutting training and taking lower language skilled staff. Offshoring can raise customer service levels, but only if the right amount of investment is made, which is very rare.

Rare, indeed. It's also a foregone conclusion that US (old) went the cheapest possible route.

Funny enough, for all of the hoopla over the website roll out, HP does website development and management in house. I find it strange that an airline feels it can do a better job developing and maintaining web sites than a web firm. Sure it might cost $300K more per year to outsource it and do it right, but look what you get when you try to roll your own.

I think that HP looks at it from the standpoint that they can more easily (and probably cheaply) execute minor feature changes and tweaks at a decent price point--rather than paying EDS out the wazoo like US used to. HP also had a fairly decent web site of their own, but that talked to HP's reservation system, FF database, and the like. I'm betting where the current site is crapping the bed is in the process and data flows to the US legacy backend systems, and then trying to make it all "look the same" up front.

The "not found" errors for the cities seems to be related to their scripted pop-up lists. Whatever's typed in the must be replaced by an item on the list. If there's a problem generating the list, you get the "not found" errors.

They really should allow non-javascript lookups, returning matches or potential matches on another page. The popups are new to the website; the old one only had drop-down lists. Even pre-merger the city list was too big for a drop down.

The "not found" errors for the cities seems to be related to their scripted pop-up lists. Whatever's typed in the must be replaced by an item on the list. If there's a problem generating the list, you get the "not found" errors.

I wish they'd just accept the airport codes (for exactly the reason you mention).

I think that HP looks at it from the standpoint that they can more easily (and probably cheaply) execute minor feature changes and tweaks at a decent price point--rather than paying EDS out the wazoo like US used to. HP also had a fairly decent web site of their own, but that talked to HP's reservation system, FF database, and the like. I'm betting where the current site is crapping the bed is in the process and data flows to the US legacy backend systems, and then trying to make it all "look the same" up front.

Kind of like how US are paying out the wazoo for catering? :D Come on, there are very few companies that have good websites that maintain them in house.

HP's res system is EDS' Shares. US' is EDS' Sabre. One would think they would have had EDS develop and maintain the web site at minimum through the transition period. Testing would have happened and I doubt that you would have seen these errors. Ah well, these type of issues always make my job so much easier selling outsourcing.

Come on, there are very few companies that have good websites that maintain them in house.

My web guys down the hall here who run a 2-billion dollar a year e-comm site for a division of a 12-billion dollar a year Fortune 250 disagree with your assesment :cool: .

HP's res system is EDS' Shares. US' is EDS' Sabre. One would think they would have had EDS develop and maintain the web site at minimum through the transition period. Testing would have happened and I doubt that you would have seen these errors. Ah well, these type of issues always make my job so much easier selling outsourcing.

Or you combine the res systems first. I don't know if that is even possible (knowing not that much about their specific implentation, contraints, or drivers to get it done), but if it is, the HP people on the front end can "go with what they know" (shares). My guess remains that they barfed trying to have an integrated front-end without understanding the back end.

Regarding having EDS do it--I can only conclude that either the old US did a piss poor job of negotiating the EDS contract or EDS gave them the finger for the entire length of the engagement--the old US website was poor. Piss poor. And basically just a travelocity knock-off (at least in the old days). EDS and US (east) did not do a particularly good job of getting "the programmer" and "the process analyst" and "the marketing guy" in the room at the same time back in the day (witness our old favourite--Get Out More).

Regarding having EDS do it--I can only conclude that either the old US did a piss poor job of negotiating the EDS contract or EDS gave them the finger for the entire length of the engagement--the old US website was poor. Piss poor. And basically just a travelocity knock-off (at least in the old days). EDS and US (east) did not do a particularly good job of getting "the programmer" and "the process analyst" and "the marketing guy" in the room at the same time back in the day (witness our old favourite--Get Out More).

No money at US, it was as simple as that. Try supporting 7 yr old desktops. There was a great article in an IT rag not too long ago about how bad it was at US. They didn't spend squat, so EDS sure wouldn't do it out of the goodness of their heart. EDS did finance some metal for US to try to get the balance sheet to work on the deal, but even that killed them. Back to the original issue of trying to cut IT costs to the bone, you can kill it in house or outsourced. Outsourcing for that reason is the wrong reason to outsource.

BTW, your guys running a 2 Billion rev eComm web site are working on their core competancy - no web guys, no web site, no business. My point was web sites for airlines, for car dealers, for plumbers, for whatever is not a pure eComm play, shouldn't be developed in house. I sure wouldn't want your web guys piloting my flight back to PHX, why would you want airline people building your web site?

No money at US, it was as simple as that. Try supporting 7 yr old desktops.

Still running Windows 95... in 2004 no less. :eek:

This was noted in the FFOCUS visits to INT and GreenTree rez last year.

When we revisited INT this Feb, the machines had been replaced and were actually running well.

BTW, your guys running a 2 Billion rev eComm web site are working on their core competancy - no web guys, no web site, no business. My point was web sites for airlines, for car dealers, for plumbers, for whatever is not a pure eComm play, shouldn't be developed in house. I sure wouldn't want your web guys piloting my flight back to PHX, why would you want airline people building your web site?

Oh, our core compentancy is not e-comm. Not even close. Think diversified manufacturing. In our case, it's a situation where what's done electronically (webby) eliminates paper and directly feeds manufacturing, ERP, replenishment, and all those other things which drive cost out of the business. It's inhoused because our business analyst types are better than anyone any of the outsourcing folks are going to bring to the table, and we've been at this for longer than most of the consultants and outsourcing folks have (10 years for the webby portion, longer for the EDI and green screen stuffs). In a sense, it's not necessarily the pure tech play that should be kept in-house, but if your biz analysts and project managers don't know one's particular business (and lots of firms, even the big boys, don't), it'll kill the project. Been there, done that. It smelled like that was one (of many) problems with the EDS deal.

On the US front--I thought they had a CLI version of sabre. How much PC do you really need to run a terminal emulator? If it had to do anything more than that then I agree--they had serious problems.

The current site is no winner--looks like sabre is either not paying for enough bandwidth or US is not paying sabre for enough bandwidth--I'm getting killer latency at their load balancer or the gateway one hop in front of it.

The current site is no winner--looks like sabre is either not paying for enough bandwidth or US is not paying sabre for enough bandwidth--I'm getting killer latency at their load balancer or the gateway one hop in front of it.The old server was Sun Solaris and hosted by Sabre (http://toolbar.netcraft.com/site_report?url=www.usairways.com). The new site is Windows 2003 (http://toolbar.netcraft.com/site_report?url=http://www2.usairways.com) and appears to be hosted in-house, with one server in Phoenix and one in Dallas. Until April 10, www.americawest.com was running Windows 2000 (http://toolbar.netcraft.com/site_report?url=www.americawest.com), which may account for more of the teething pains.

The old server was Sun Solaris and hosted by Sabre (http://toolbar.netcraft.com/site_report?url=www.usairways.com). The new site is Windows 2003 (http://toolbar.netcraft.com/site_report?url=http://www2.usairways.com) and appears to be hosted in-house, with one server in Phoenix and one in Dallas. Until April 10, www.americawest.com was running Windows 2000 (http://toolbar.netcraft.com/site_report?url=www.americawest.com), which may account for more of the teething pains.

AlanH is correct on all counts. You really did your homework! ^ ^

Now I can't log into my US Airways account - the login name, which worked just 8 hours ago, is telling me "the account has been merged" - but the accounts were already merged!

Jeez, can they ever get this stuff to work?

Now I can't log into my US Airways account - the login name, which worked just 8 hours ago, is telling me "the account has been merged" - but the accounts were already merged!

Jeez, can they ever get this stuff to work?

same here - so hopefully its not just us!

still have to wonder who is the idiot allowing a beta system to be put into production. this is ridiculous.

Regardless I am still not happy at having lost my easy to remember username that I got in week one of the usair.com website going online!