November 2012 UA ORD DO (Post-Meeting Posts/Discussion/Reports/Etc.)
Nov 18, 2012, 1:28 pm
#47
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More photos online now from the hangar tour and custoemr service bits.
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?...8334795&type=1 or http://gallery.millerworks.net/photo...lbumKey=jMxhBV
And a montage video:
http://youtu.be/5szXCslmYaQ
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?...8334795&type=1 or http://gallery.millerworks.net/photo...lbumKey=jMxhBV
And a montage video:
http://youtu.be/5szXCslmYaQ
Nov 18, 2012, 7:35 pm
#48
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My photo album is up on Facebook. If anyone wants to see it, PM me and I'll find a way to add you so you'll be able to check it out.
Nov 18, 2012, 8:32 pm
#50
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I can say I had a very interesting talk with Sharon, who was the lady handling the Boarding Passes. The one thing you may have noticed is the United Boarding passes were ALL the same Boarding pass, the only differences were the Seat description, the status description ie only 1K and Global Service will be listed in big letters on the top right on these boarding passes.
Nov 18, 2012, 10:53 pm
#51
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This, along with the elimination of United FIRST or United Business for intl flights makes it tough to get past some of the line dragons in domestic and international airports.. Almost had an issue with this at LHR over the summer, as the agents could barely see the UA931J portion of my BP.
Nov 19, 2012, 12:27 am
#52
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Nov 19, 2012, 2:51 am
#53
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The MP folks were a total turn off by many, not to mention the boarding pass lady at the Hyatt reception was just the same. It showed quite a number of "improved" boarding pass on the posting board, but when many of us suggested different ideas, she totally ignore any comments and push whatever it is on the board. (I was suggesting howabout do it the PMUA way, have First Class (now Global First), Business Class (now BusinessFirst), and Economy Plus in bold letters printed on the top of the boarding pass, instead of tiny F/J/Y letters next to the flight numbers, there was a thread here about the same suggestion/complains as well). She had no idea what I was talking about, and when I asked her was she a PMUA or PMCO employee, she just simply said "oh it doesn't really matter, we are one company now", I had never seen her wrote down my suggestion, or if she ever said "thanks for your feedback". 
For instance, a number of criticisms that came up while I was there were about the font sizes and styles, and the location of things on the boarding passes. She agreed that there was room for improvement, but also pointed out that the kiosk printers are apparently limited to only three font sizes and only certain shapes/lines/objects, and that they want to be fairly consistent between the kiosk passes (with their limitations) and the website passes (which can look like just about anything). So then I understood that anything that we suggested that can't be done on a kiosk printer... isn't feedback that they can reasonably implement at this point.
I did learn an interesting tidbit from her, though - on kiosk-printed boarding passes, the unique ID of the printer should be printed somewhere on the pass. So if it prints poorly and cannot be scanned, she recommended emailing UA with the printer info, so they can ask the station to clean the printer heads or replace toner or whatever. Of course, I cannot find this printer number on any boarding pass in my possession, and I also question whether such a complaint will be useful with the multi-week turnaround in Customer Care emails. But it was a thing I learned, I guess.
Nov 19, 2012, 6:01 am
#54
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I did learn an interesting tidbit from her, though - on kiosk-printed boarding passes, the unique ID of the printer should be printed somewhere on the pass. So if it prints poorly and cannot be scanned, she recommended emailing UA with the printer info, so they can ask the station to clean the printer heads or replace toner or whatever. Of course, I cannot find this printer number on any boarding pass in my possession,
Nov 19, 2012, 6:34 am
#55
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My last 3 flights had 3 different variations.
IAD-SFO - people needing assistance; GS and military in uniform; Group 1
SFO-ORD - military in uniform, GS; everyone else
ORD-IAD - any military (no uniform required); GS; Group 1.
That said, sUA still knows how to board a 757 in 30 minutes.
Nov 19, 2012, 7:43 am
#56
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I don't remember too much detail about future plans, but I'll start this and others can tack on.
IT/eCommerce:
-- working on serious ground up re-do of website, think they said back half of 2013, though I might be misremembering
-- just got additional funding to work on the upgrade system, in order to produce a unified approach that follows all the rules. Seems like that's at a pretty advanced stage.
-- they have some "really cool ideas" about how upgrades on LH are handled. Sounded more preliminary, and we didn't get a chance to follow up, but it was in the context of a discussion about better partner integration.
IT/eCommerce:
-- working on serious ground up re-do of website, think they said back half of 2013, though I might be misremembering
-- just got additional funding to work on the upgrade system, in order to produce a unified approach that follows all the rules. Seems like that's at a pretty advanced stage.
-- they have some "really cool ideas" about how upgrades on LH are handled. Sounded more preliminary, and we didn't get a chance to follow up, but it was in the context of a discussion about better partner integration.
To any that did attend the Network session -
What was the discussion regarding changes to the Upgrade processing system and any predictions for rollout?
Thanks again to all who attended and took the time to post their recollections.
Last edited by hhmorgan; Nov 19, 2012 at 7:50 am Reason: Add FortFun's original quote regarding add'l funding upgrade system
Nov 19, 2012, 7:55 am
#57
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Thanks to all for the reports from this first United DO.
To any that did attend the Network session -
What was the discussion regarding changes to the Upgrade processing system and any predictions for rollout?
Thanks again to all who attended and took the time to post their recollections.
To any that did attend the Network session -
What was the discussion regarding changes to the Upgrade processing system and any predictions for rollout?
Thanks again to all who attended and took the time to post their recollections.
The IT/eCommerce team said the Upgrade Processing is one of the top priorities right now, and they just received funding to improve the systems. There are at least 4 systems that impact how upgrades and buy-ups to F occur and the plan is to get them all in sync with one another so the published business rules are followed. This means that things like TOD should give way to a balanced buy-up offer across all passengers (elite and non-elite) and then CPU should work as advertised. There are separate pieces to this and they will be rolled out on a phased approach as each component is ready for deployment. So rather than one big change, there will be several changes deployed over the next year to get everything right.
Nov 19, 2012, 8:51 am
#58
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Maybe management "knows how the boarding process must go," but in reality, the boarding process remains a crap shoot.
My last 3 flights had 3 different variations.
IAD-SFO - people needing assistance; GS and military in uniform; Group 1
SFO-ORD - military in uniform, GS; everyone else
ORD-IAD - any military (no uniform required); GS; Group 1.
That said, sUA still knows how to board a 757 in 30 minutes.
My last 3 flights had 3 different variations.
IAD-SFO - people needing assistance; GS and military in uniform; Group 1
SFO-ORD - military in uniform, GS; everyone else
ORD-IAD - any military (no uniform required); GS; Group 1.
That said, sUA still knows how to board a 757 in 30 minutes.
And I can board a 757 in 30 min, but cannot board a 737 in that time. Takes way longer than that to tag 50% of all bags on th aircraft!
Last edited by fastair; Nov 19, 2012 at 3:26 pm Reason: Typo. Changed 2nd 757 to 737
Nov 19, 2012, 11:41 am
#59
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Maybe management "knows how the boarding process must go," but in reality, the boarding process remains a crap shoot.
My last 3 flights had 3 different variations.
IAD-SFO - people needing assistance; GS and military in uniform; Group 1
SFO-ORD - military in uniform, GS; everyone else
ORD-IAD - any military (no uniform required); GS; Group 1.
That said, sUA still knows how to board a 757 in 30 minutes.
My last 3 flights had 3 different variations.
IAD-SFO - people needing assistance; GS and military in uniform; Group 1
SFO-ORD - military in uniform, GS; everyone else
ORD-IAD - any military (no uniform required); GS; Group 1.
That said, sUA still knows how to board a 757 in 30 minutes.
https://hub.united.com/en-us/News/Co...g-process.aspx
What I find truly unaceptable is lumping GF into group 1 with 1K and BF. I am now trying to recall any experience I have had with any other carrier in 3-cabin F where F and J were treated the exact same way for boarding . . . and I'm coming up empty. Why not just put up a neon sign that says "we don't value our GF passengers' business" in the gate area, because that's what it is probably like trying to board with the 50++ other people in group 1 on a 747.
-------
It was pointed out that "uniformed military personnel" and "military personnel in uniform" are two different things, and that might be responsible for some confusion. That came up in Willis Tower on the second day. I don't know what the solution will be, but UA now knows (in theory) that the former term might cause confustion.
Nov 19, 2012, 11:42 am
#60
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Ah-- I searched for it (really!) and didn't find it. Things have a tendency to get buried in big threads.
By calling it out here, the video is surfaced for all those folks here who didn't do the Do, and probably are not following that thread as a result. It's good stuff for everyone, not just Do attendees.
By calling it out here, the video is surfaced for all those folks here who didn't do the Do, and probably are not following that thread as a result. It's good stuff for everyone, not just Do attendees.