US Airways Dividend Miles (Pre-FlightFund Merger) - Travelers stall in US Airways' lines at airport

http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/tribune-review/business/s_198823.html

"We did have an unusually high volume of leisure travelers traveling with us on Sunday with excess baggage," said US Airways spokeswoman Amy Kudwa.

"So, there was a bit of a backup," she said. "But the ticket counter was fully staffed."

Kudwa also said many passengers were using the ticket kiosks for the first time. So, self-serve check-ins that normally take 30 to 40 seconds stretched out to three to four minutes, she said.

Brilliant. Why would any airline expect a high volume of leisure travelers on a Sunday in June? :rolleyes: :rolleyes: :rolleyes:

If it takes a "first time user" 5x the average time to perform a process as simple as checking in, either the technology or interface is broken.

This is the kind of stuff that US can ill afford at this point (particularly in PIT, where the playing field is going to change pretty drastically in a few short months).

I watched the interviews on the TV news. Lines snaking out the door, only two agents at the counter, then one TA went on a BREAK! It was terrible PR for US!

Even with "an unusually high volume of travelers", I would expect an airline to already know from existing reservations what to expect. If you ran this business yourself, you'd staff according to the reservations booked in advance. There should be no surprises, unless they are weather related.......which wasn't the case here.

It's not like these people walked up and bought tickets out of the blue. Poor planning by US caused this debacle. :mad:

I agree. That is terrible. First of all, why would only 6 ticket agents be scheduled for a Sunday? Only 6, and then 4 go to help passengers make connections, leaving only TWO AGENTS staffing the check-in counters! That honestly is absurd! I mean I know US is short on cash and is not financially sound, but that is simply pathetic planning.

"Failure to plan is to...."

Good Job USAir...Always reaching new lows... :td:

Wow. What a bad situation.

Still, all I could think of were the passengers not checking backs. For them the ONLINE CHECK-IN would have saved 2 hours of misery.

The kiosks are also too slow! They could easily eliminate two or three steps. Why does every step on the kiosks need to have it's own separate screen :confused:

So what US is saying they had more slow (some might stay stupid) people checking in than usual who couldn't figure out the kiosks?
I can believe it. I had the pleasure of sitting next to two ladies this weekend who had the toughest time figuring out how to use the seatbelts. (seriously)
They were a hoot. I can't imagine them in front of the kiosk... or security for that matter.

The statements made by these PR spokespeople are useless. They would have more credibility if they just said:
"we screwed up in a big way, and we will give each pax 5,000 Dividend Miles," in this way they could turn a bad PR situation in to a good one:
Headline:
Customers In Line Get US Airways Bonus Miles
Maybe 10,000 miles if you got stuck overnight, etc.
$.02*5,000=$100 monopoly money :). It really does not cost the airlines $100 for the 5,000 miles in hard dollars.

Also agreed it is crazy and ludicrious the number of keystrokes (or whatever you call presses on a touch screen) even for a simple check in. It should be set up to insert card, and press one button (an ok button) and then present other options for things like changes/bags, etc. It could even be set up when you insert the card for it to spit out the boarding pass with no user input after say a 5-10 second time period. I was talking to a US employee and we joked about how US has gotten wripped off by IBM on these kiosks. There have been at least 2 times in the last month where it went through, but did not print my bp (out of paper?) but even if that happens and you checked in online you still get the kiosk bonus :). It does not matter if it prints for the bonus, only that the transaction is "touched" in Sabre by a kiosk for checkin.

Also if they are not going to have enough ticket agents on staff they really need to press the public hard to use internet check in. The % of internet check in is probably under 5-10, and probably 85% of flyers or more have access to a home or office computer.

They could have in flight raffles of prizes for people who use the internet check in, and really put a face on this using the crews, etc. Also they don't send emails, and 1,000 and 100 bonus miles is not going to move the population to shift to adopt the www check in. The small mileage program probably attracts computer people and "early adopters," but not the general public at large. It is probably like the banking industry getting people to say trust depositing money in an ATM. But even with web check in you need agents to pick up the bags, and leisure vacationers usually check bags.

A classic example of both initial Big Six stupidness, and then screwing up the PR spin by saying something dumb and dummber about the obvious chaos in the lines.
Sorry for rant!

To Jetsetter.

I was at PBI on June 10 did online checkin for 5 travelers. We had to check bags with two record locators. We could not check the bags with koisk. The lead counter person said to me IT does not save any time. The preffered line was longer than basic checkin. She said NEVER use the online checkin is a WASTE of paper and time. Too many people at USAIR not on the same page. It took 25 minutes to check bags and another counter person did not know what a piority tag was????? :confused:

SCA

I agree with jetsetter to some extent. Ah, for 2002, when if everything went wrong with your shuttle flight-- everything, from getting bumped to being delayed to having to deplane without an jetbridge and a half dozen other things-- that DCA-LGA hop could net you six figures of miles. Of course, I don't think it ever happened to anybody.

The problem with Internet check-in is that for many of us, it's only a realistic option on the outbound. I mean, how many travelers on any airline are going to take the time to find a Kinko's or Internet cafe, wait in line, and pay ¢¢ or $$ to rent a kiosk and obtain a printout?

Perhaps kiosks ought to have an "expert" option that allows you to make selections on the same screen. My only real complaint about US kiosks is that they mimic the clumsy user interface of the website.

OLCI is a real time saver but mainly if you have no checked luggage. You avoid having to wait in a line before security, or at the gate. I can for example get to Logan Airport at 3:45PM and jump right on a 4PM shuttle with OLCI! But OLCI probably saves no time if you are checking bags, and the only advantage would be to get a particular seat or get a ckin status 30 hours in advance which supposedly gives you priority on the upgrade stadnby list? OT, does OLCI 30 hours before also give pax priority on the bump/volunteer standby list?

I was thinking more about my post, and given the operation affected mainly leisure travelers, US should have offered the following options:
Package 1: 5,000 bonus miles for someone who missed a flight but got reacomm that day;
Package 2: 4 drink coupons, and a dollars off voucher with $50/$100/$200 depending on fare level;
Package 3: 10,000 bonus+hotel+dinner for people stuck overnight; or
Package 4: A $200 travel voucher+10 drink coupons+hotel+dinner for people who got stuck overnight.

They really lost, and probably often lose, opportunities to make bad situations turn in to good favorable PR, spin, publicity, and $$$ for US Airways. Some psychologist can probably tell you about the synapses in the brain that fire when a consumer thinks they are in an awful situation, (missing a flight is probably very traumatic for 1-2 a year leisure flyers), but then to be unexpectedly rewarded. The occasional flyer would be much more likely to return to US Airways, and to sing its praises to their "occasional flyer circle of influence." As it is, the occasional flyer tends to have absolutely no loyalty to an airline, and getting to 25,000 miles probably seems insurmountable. Many of the occasional flyers I know don't even put an FF # in their PNR, or they think it is too much trouble to track miles, etc.

Some of my personal best memories of airline service involve situations that turned from bad to good due to this kind of compensation or amenity being given out.

To Jetsetter.

The lead counter person said to me IT does not save any time. The preffered line was longer than basic checkin. She said NEVER use the online checkin is a WASTE of paper and time. Too many people at USAIR not on the same page.
SCA

This US employee was conducting class in Job Protection 101.

Or perhaps Kill a Business 101.