ijgordon

It was a mistake to combine the reservation systems?

aamilesslave

I guess the same goes for employee integration.

I still don't understand what some perceive as the doozie mistake, either. Not saying there wasn't one, but I have no idea what it was.

eponymous_coward

On HP's SHARES system instead of US's Sabre? Yes, given that US was the larger airline and now they're going to have to go to Sabre anyways.

(Parker and his team basically admitted this was a mistake, which is why AA's Sabre system is being used, as the larger airline. They also have seen the customers had about UA going from Apollo to SHARES...)

phlwookie

It wasn't a combination, it was a migration, with insufficient training and testing prior to go live. It was, in many ways, classic failed IT project management. It caused havoc on particularly the old US "East" side (e.g., the larger side) for a while and it was the most negatively impactful aspect of the HP-US merger integration. The management team more or less has admitted such, and as part of the AA-US merger has committed to defaulting to AA systems unless US had a decidedly better option.

You've probably seen numerous comments about Parker and team learning from their own and others' (notably UA's) past mistakes. This is one of the areas we do indeed hope they've educated themselves in, and comments thus far from them seem encouraging.

fly747first

^^^^

BoeingBoy

Not in the sense that it had to be done, but it was a nightmare. I think it was in the US forum that I said I still remember the video of the interview with Parker when he said that US was going to show the other airlines how easy a res migration (what they called combining the two systems) could be. Then the day they threw the switch very few of the kiosks at primarily US stations worked, lines at the ticket counter were out the doors, and agents were telling people "Come back tomorrow." When Parker was questioned on camera late that morning he said that there'd been "a few small hiccups." OT performance was below 30% for at least the first week and didn't get above 50% for over a month.

Yeah, I'd call that one a doozie. Overconfident and under-prepared.

Jim

BoeingBoy

Absolutely, to a degree. For 16 months Parker had a chance to negotiate an integrated contract for the "West" and "East" pilot but he insisted on a "cost neutral" contract, meaning further concessions since one or the other pre-merger contracts had higher cost provisions in different parts of the contract. With the "East" pilots having a contract that was the result of two bankruptcies and the "West" pilots still being relatively low paid in the industry, you can imagine how "cost neutral" went over.

Finally, only a few days before the arbitrator issued his seniority award, Parker made an offer that wasn't "cost neutral." Unfortunately it was too late - the "East" pilots withdrew from contract negotiations to prevent a combined contract from being negotiated (which would have cemented the seniority award in place) and started the drive to replace ALPA with an in-house union elected and controlled by the "East" pilots due to their majority. Once USAPA was elected it's been tied up in court ever since.

Jim

236Dakota

I have been impressed as well. I have been giving out my recognition slips at a record pace due to the excellent service I have received, both on board and at check in.^

ijgordon

Well, that's not a "mistake" that's just poor execution, IMO. Now, perhaps the selection of one system over another was, in fact a mistake, but then you should have just said so.

trvlr70

Great to hear. But why would there be no nonstop between ORD and GSO? Seems odd to me.

JBEagle1000G

I wish there was.
SW might have it. But I'm not doing that
AA/US have directs to CLT and RDU.....I guess GSO is just too close to those.
Hopefully they keep the current US hope from CLT - GSO.

LarkSFO

Yes, and when they start down that path to 'resolution' (sounds easy, right?), let's see how the different employee groups and unions react.

One thing UA has proven is that it is difficult for management to negotiate when the employee groups / unions themselves are not in agreement on negotiating strategy or proposed outcome of the overall process.

Let's hope AA can avoid that, all it takes is money!

BoeingBoy

To-may-toe, to-mah-toe. Not doing sufficient testing (hey, it works great in PHX), going with the smaller airline's system to save a little money, saying how easy it was going to be, saying how few problems there were when anyone in the eastern half the US trying to fly US knew better - I call those mistakes but you can call them what you want.

Jim

ATXflyer

And I for one, appreciate it greatly! Thanks!

The last 6 months have been a breath of fresh air!

MiamiFlyer

Sorry, but just got back from my 6th trip this year, 23 flights. Four cancelled, six misconnects, nine re-bookings. None associated with WX. PDB's on only one flight. Multiple emails from AA "Unable to rebook".

Food has definitely gotten better, but inflight service hasn't changed much. Some very good, mostly average, some poor.

Yesterday was the final straw....FA on the flight baked the cookies before we took off, so they were cold and hard when served an hour plus later. Grrrrr..