TWA Fan 1

I've never used either, I have no reason to doubt them, and SHARES has a reputation of being unwieldy, but, part of that is familiarity.

Apollo may be pretty much similarly unwieldy to SHARES, but at least they know Apollo.

fastair

I would be one of them. Until they removed the native apollo application from our machines a decade ago, I would always launch both apps (fastair and native apollo) and for simple things, use fastair, and for complex ticketing transactions, I would use the native apollo due to it's freefrom entry vs scripted radio buttons and combinations of atl/cntrl/shift function keys. To get to the menu you need in fastair may take a series of keystroke combinations. In apollo, I could just type the direct command I wanted.

That said, even native apollo (which was at the heart of the fastair GUI) had a distinct advantage over Shares, and that is a separate system of operations from the reservation called ACI. Sure, over the years, they were linked into 1 GUI, but they are 2 different processes, and ACI is (was) very good at what it did. (way back on the blue "incoterm"http://www.vintagecomputing.com/index.php/archives/33 ) one had to switch back and forth between apollo and ACI, but that was changed decades ago to allow interactiong with the "GG" or "DG" command to tell the computer that you were accessing ACI (which is different than the Shares "GG" command, which means you wish to display a profile.)

Weatherboy

Thank you so much for your continued insights fastair!

Weatherboy

Just wanted to say United made good on their promises; I received an apology letter in the mail today, along with a travel voucher for the meltdown.

Curious how others' experiences in LAX lately have been. Hopefully it's been smooth sailing for people (and employees) since then.

Landice

Thanks for the update. Glad UA came through. I wonder if the positive resolution may be a result of the actions posted on this board?

Jigen666

I'll find out next week when I fly out of LAX.

I pray that you're right.

FlyMan

When I flew out of LAX last week, there was no drama, chaos, riot, or meltdown. Everything was normal at the gate, but I was just lucky...?

username

Had to do a regional flight out of the 80 gates today. Definitely chaotic. Multiple flights boarding at the same gate with impossible gaps in between, gate changes, flight information on the Web and FIDS do not reflect reality, agents seem overworked...

Also didn't find the employees so friendly - whether it is the baggage re-check or United Club. You really wonder what the management at that station is doing.

Passmethesickbag

To be fair, LAX was never famous for having particularly pleasant or helpful PMUA employees, on the whole.

LAX/HKG

Flew from LAX last Thurs for an 8 am flight. It wasn't a meltdown but it was chatoic for sure. All the premier lines were backed up with only a few agents to help. Finally one elderly agent just randomly picking people out the lines, regardless of status, and directed them to the next available kiosk. Some poor folks saw people who just arrived at line jumped ahead of them. Needless to say there were not a lot of happy campers.

escapefromphl

The T6 Premier lines are such a joke, when I came through Tuesday morning last they had 2 TSA agents serving 4 lines. One serving the non-status line and 1 serving the other 3, the Premier, 1K and GS line. Needless to say the non-status line went about 3 times as fast as the 1K line.

Bigbit

I have flown out of LAX a few times since 3/3 and I have not noticed any issues / delays beyond what I had experienced PMUA.

That being said, not trying to stir the pot, I should relay an experience that I had about three weeks after SHARES went lives on both sides. I was checking in at LAX T6, and struck up a conversation with the check-in agent at the 1K check-in desk. I casually asked her how the conversion to SHARES was going, and she admitted that she actually was a PMCO agent there to teach the PMUA LAX crew how to use SHARES and that she was there for "several weeks". She lamented that none of the LAX crew seemed particularly incentized to use or interested in learning the new system. As I was leaving, I stopped a few feet away from the counter to stick my watch, cell phone, and other goodies in my briefcase in preparation for security, and I overheard a heated conversation between her and another UA employee, where she was pointedly telling him that she was getting tired of agents not showing up for her training sessions.

I don't know how serious the situation was, but she was clearly miffed that she was stationed away from home for a prolonged period and trying to do her job, and was being met with indifference / resistance.