everywhere_ex_lax

These days it's hard to get the media excited without video or multiple substantiations of "crazy" behavior, not just bad, even appallingly bad, service.

One other point to consider is that many passengers, myself included, don't take too kindly to being photographed or taped while traveling. Unless there's an obvious event/incident taking place, pulling out the camera phone and obviously shooting the gate area may cause other problems.

pigx5

I don't think they need authority to add people to the list.

Alpha Golf

My guess is that if your seat assignment didn't happen to exist on the -200 you were SOL.

bniu

So basically the employee was much more interested in covering their own 'image' instead of solving the problem?

This sounds just like what the UPS guy who started the right turn strategy talked about at a seminar a week ago at my school. He said the biggest obstacle was idiot middle managers who would order their drivers to do three right turns to eliminate a left turn and they would come up to him all proud at the end of the month showing that they eliminated every single left turn!!! He promptly fired those idiots on the spot.

demkr

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; CPU iPhone OS 5_1 like Mac OS X) AppleWebKit/534.46 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.1 Mobile/9B176 Safari/7534.48.3)

That's the problem with CO and now COdbaUA. From the phone agent to the UC agent to the GA, they simply aren't given the tools to accomplish tasks that PMUA flyers would be able to ask for.

Everything has to be checked or forwarded to a "different department" for approval.

Thus, makes life harder for the employee and customer.

PaulInTheSky

And if they were not re-assigned the seat, then SOL too

EsquireFlyer

a.k.a. "notarized videotape or it didn't happen"

star_world

Step 1: Consolidate everything onto a single PSS so you can start to act as a single airline and consolidate ticket counters, gate areas, etc. Get the basics right so you can operate aircraft and carry passengers.

Steps 2+: Optimize the new (single) system and processes as necessary.

There was no way they were going to do any level of optimization before getting the basic framework in place. I would be extremely surprised if the big roadblocks that exist today will continue to be in place in the future.

cesco.g

+1! as always, kb1992, your comments & observations are right on the money! ^^^

TWA Fan 1

Perhaps not, although the incident that sparked this thread has strictly nothing to do with the merger or any integration issue.

In this case, one PMCO plane was swapped out for another PMCO plane, flying a PMCO route, at a PMCO gate staffed by PMCO ground staff.

This could have happened six months ago, or five years ago and the outcome would have been the same.

1KPath

I think a lot of this is due to the manner corporate added staff for the PSS changeover...

Last night, my wife and I had dinner with one of my LAX "angels" and his wife...we have known each other for over 30 years and have become good friends (B-Days, Christmas, New Years, kids...we are close!) He indicated that it has been a living hell since the third (he now regrets not taking the "golden parachute" that UA offered senior staff last year) He has experienced no major problems with SHARES as he was an "old green screen" kind of guy...and can adapt! Rather, his main problem has been with some of the PMCO staff that has been sent in to assist...and the PMCO (and a few UA as well) retirees UA dug out of the woodwork to train and assist PMUA staff...some have been out of the game for over five years! Most have forgotten much of their training and are making up rules as they go along...and then there is the "attitude" they bring to the picture..."this is what it is, take it or leave it"...to both fellow UA employees and customers.

I think he summed it up the best when he said that the new UA management is "forcing" the CO culture on UA staff and customers in a manner that gives them no options...and while this may have worked in Houston, Newark or Cleveland where there was little or no competition...at most PMUA cities, and especially at LAX (probably more competition than anywhere!), this culture is being rejected by both staff (unhappy) and customers (unhappy)!...and will unfortunately result in incidents like this.

His advice..."stay away from UA for a while (if you can)...and then reassess your needs after the storm has died down"...we do have options!!

jetski1110

The gate agents claimed it was random by the system and they had no idea it was happening. I was right by the counter when people started to get rejected. The thought this plane only had one row of seats different.

I guess no one went onto the plane to count rows.

Much earlier in the delay, the gate agents claimed a supervisor was on the plane to check on the plane's repair status. 45 minutes later someone walked onto the plane to check on the supervisor - who was long gone and never event reported what they found

TWA Fan 1

Well, this incident clearly involved two PMCO 757's. First, of the two merged carriers, only PMCO had the 753. Second, if this flight had been swapped for a PMUA 752, then no FC passenger would have been denied boarding, since the PMCO 753 and PMUA (non PS) 752 both have 24 premium cabin seats.

But there is a huge difference betweem the PMCO 753 and 752, going from 24 FC to 16 BF and 192 Y to 153 Y.

If the original flight was full, this would have meant a total of 8 bumped in F and 39 bumped in Y.

mduell

Was the flight being handled by sCO staff, sUA staff, or a mix?

The sCO staff at LAX is pretty grim. Even the UAX staff at LAX is more friendly and professional IME.

TWA Fan 1

I'm not sure how much the two staffs are inter-mingling, but it was gate 60, which is a PMCO gate.