channa

Sure, replacement can happen. Airlines have done it. Copa is in the process of dumping SHARES as we speak. Once Copa is out, I believe SHARES will be down to some like 5 customers, with every remaining SHARES customer having fewer than 100 aircraft (aside from UA).

PMUA was on a path to replace Apollo with Amaedus, the Star Alliance standardized platform. That was scrapped when CO came into the mix with their "free" copy of SHARES.


It's not clear what's attributable to systems, to policies, to customer service issues that stemmed from either of the above, or whatnot. But I can't help but think systems was a big part of it when I factor how much more difficult things became and how much more time I had to spend to get similar (or poorer) results than in the past.

But at the end of the day, UA's drop in RASM performance (UA was a solid #1 and CO was a solid above average before merging, to being at the bottom after merging), there is no doubt in my mind that systems had something to do with it.

daniellam

Had UA switched to Amadeus (for both reservations and DCS), all the agent had to do was press the function key (eg. F9 or something similar) for the "Find Connection" function.

daniellam

Sounds like the agent was trying to add a UA passive segment to an existing UA PNR using the HK, BK or GK codes. This is not meant to work when the "live" operating segment of the other flight is hosted in the same computer system (in this case SHARES). Passive segments are really meant to work only when the "live" operating segment (for another carrier) resides on another computer system.

Be glad that it didn't work, otherwise you could have a double booking scenario where both the original SFO-HND segment and the duplicate SFO-HND segment (added temporarily to the BOS-SFO PNR using a "sell" transaction to deplete from "live inventory" as opposed to a "passive segment" [as it didn't work]). This could by accident cause you to have both segments cancelled when the duplicate segment check is done behind the scenes.

Other reservations systems such as Sabre (which AA uses) have a work around where when you have two separate reservations (both AA as an example) in separate PNRs, "information" segments showing flights from the other PNR can be added to each respective PNR. This is done using the "YK" code as opposed to the HK, BK or GK codes.

In Amadeus Altea (airport check-in version), there is a "find connection" function that allows the check-in records from two separate reservations to be merged into one. (Only the check-in record is merged, while the PNRs on the reservations side remain as separate records)

As for SHARES (who is familiar with the system), can anyone tell me if there is a work around?

ual744777sta

Yes, it's true in ALTEA CM if the customer name matches another UA booking it is very easy to merge two separate PNRs on the DCS.

PVDtoDEL

TK has over 300 aircraft.

That said, they are currently in the process of dropping SHARES too.

TheTakeOffRush

Good to see vendor software being forced to evolve or die.

1KHI

Just went through the pain of checking bags in two separate UA operated reservation. Three agents spent 25 minutes trying to figure it out at SFO, 1K lane. They finally called a supervisor, who made the trick to add an extra segment on one of the itineraries, then remove it.... Completely ridiculous system.

SFO 1K

That's not a "trick" that's the official, actual way to do it. And yes, it's ridiculous.

vincewy

While we're on this subject.

I have 2 separate tickets, LAX-ORD, ORD-DTW, is UA willing to tag my bags all the way to DTW (based on people's encounters with agents recently)? FYI LAX-ORD is domestic First and ORD-DTW is Y (not basic economy), I have *A Gold if those help.

WineCountryUA

Yes this can be done but allow extra time in case the agent has not done this before -- may require the agent get assistance, it is not straightforward.

username

Is this still a pain? US->US Hub->International. If they do it, what should I watch out for (i.e. PNR does not get messed up, which PNR the bag would be under, etc.)

Thanks.

jsloan

If the bag tag gets printed out properly, you're likely golden. Check the reservation afterwards to make sure the the dummy segments have been removed, but that's the only thing I'd worry about. The bag tracker is likely to be confused.

StuckinITH

The only thing I know about this from my readings is that it can still be complicated and I did not want to deal with it at 5:00 AM going from US->US Hub->International on two different PNR all on United. So, I changed my first flight to one for the evening before and stayed overnight in a hotel at ORD.

For the return, it took the agent at PVG a long time to get it done. She apologized a lot in the process. But if it had not worked it would not have been a big deal since at ORD passengers anyways need to get their luggage and give it back to an agent.

HNLbasedFlyer

Complications arise when:

1) The agent hasn't done it before and nobody can assist the agent - or don't even know it can be done.

or

2) Maybe the agent has done it a lot - but hasn't done it when the subsequent flight is sold out. They need to make a dummy booking on the subsequent flight - and if sold out, they can't make the booking. So, they either throw their hands up because they don't know what to do - or, they know to call a supervisor on the phone - but the wait time is excruciating and you don't have the time to wait...

shdflyer

Had a huge hassle flying CHO - IAD on one reservation, and then IAD-BRU-MAN on another because "MR" was appended to my name on one reservation and not on the other
shdflyer on one
shdflyerMR on the other

UA refused to check bags all the way because the names did not match -- they even called support from check in desk and got a hard "no" -- and I had no time to call UA and get them to reticket without the MR... Lesson learned, if doing this allow extra time!

Both tickets were purchased at ua.com using my normal login, etc. I have no idea why one had MR added...