Recognizing the growing negative consumer response to the string of service meltdowns it has experienced since its merger with America West, the management of US Airways recently reached out to its Dividend Miles program members to tell them what the airline is doing to correct problems and improve its product.
H. Travis Christ, vice president of sales and marketing, began the merger update by "apologizing for tough times we had this spring due to the migration of our reservation system."
On the morning of Sunday, March 4, airport ticketing kiosks shut down when they tried to switch the complex reservation computers of the two airlines to operate a single system. That created a disruption that led to hundreds of flight delays and cancellations. Similar system snarling snafus occurred when the airline merged its various Web sites and frequent-flier programs.
Mr. Christ explained that 600 new ticketing kiosks had been purchased to address the problem, with the first 100 being installed in airports this month.
Acknowledging that the airline didn't "adequately replicate processes that many of our employees use to do their jobs every day," Mr. Christ offered assurances "that teams of employees and programmers have been formed to get staff what they need and are making good progress."
On the positive side, the airline announced it is beginning a series of in-flight enhancements and upgrades this fall, especially on its transcontinental and transatlantic flights, as well as domestic first class.
There's no mention of any betterments in the economy compartments, but they are working to make it easier for Preferred status members to get complimentary upgrades.
As far as US Airways' Web site, service upgrades are being uploaded every eight weeks. Already as Mr. Christ explains in a humorously self-deprecating way, the airline is offering:
Support for Mac users. (We thought Apple was a fruit.) We now support Firefox 1.5 (and newer) for both Mac and PC, Safari 2.x+ for Mac, IE 6 and 7 for the PC and Commodore 64.
Bar codes on boarding passes to speed boarding.
Fixed Web Check-in for Firefox users.
Improved reliability of flight information for departure times, delays, etc.
Universal Air Travel Plan (UATP) cards now accepted for all tickets and purchased upgrades.
Ability to see and confirm your itinerary online when US Airways makes a schedule change that affects you.
In coming weeks, usairways.com will display sold-out flights, present more options regarding its Star Alliance partner airlines and provide detailed flight status information for flights delayed or diverted during inclement weather.
Soon, it will be possible to access flight information from mobile devices, and even buy tickets. They're also setting up a system to provide text message updates.
Mr. Christ admits "that some of these features are standard equipment on some other airline sites, but we started in a bit of a hole at merger time and now we're quickly closing the gap. We intend to be fully caught up and more by -- well, as soon as possible."
Surely even skeptical travelers will be reassured by these good-faith efforts and electronic improvements, were it not for the airline's continued tendency to drop the proverbial ball whenever the going gets tough, sending thousands of its travelers scrambling to salvage some semblance of their trips.
The most recent meltdown occurred without warning on June 8, a Friday, when a Federal Aviation Administration computer system in Atlanta failed early in the morning. The system processes pilots' flight plans and sends them to air-traffic controllers.
Those functions were automatically transferred to another computer in Salt Lake City, which was quickly swamped by the extra data, only magnifying the problem.
Although the glitch was fixed shortly before 11 a.m., its impact rippled throughout the country and lingered throughout the next day, especially in the busy East Coast corridor.
Flights arriving at New York City's La Guardia Airport early Friday evening were averaging nearly four hours late, and delays continued into Saturday.
The airline most affected by the situation? According to flightstats.com, an independent Web site, US Airways operated only 47 percent of its flights on time that Friday and even fewer -- 39 percent -- on Saturday to its Philadelphia hub.
In the face of a consistent inability to maintain its operating schedule, all of US Airways' service bells and whistles offer relatively little comfort.
While nifty to be able to access flight information in a variety of electronic formats and platforms, far better is being confident a given flight will depart and arrive close to its scheduled time, or that the airline will be upfront with and committed to paying passengers when things go bad.
Unfortunately, that faith is becoming increasingly difficult for US Airways travelers to sustain. What delays await as we head into the busiest and stormiest months of the travel year or the most difficult phase of the US Airways merger?
First Published: June 15, 2007, 12:30 p.m.
