LongTimer V Posted November 15, 2009 Share Posted November 15, 2009 Great flight coming home from mexico on a half filled 737-800 They forgot the movies in YYC so no in flight movies,and no tv for most of the flight I don't know about you guys but i find the screens to small to watch and no way i would pay $5.99 to watch a movie on those screens Good crew and service was excellent When we arrived in YYC the customs hall was backed up all the way back almost to the top of the stairs. You elders will remember the walk to customs at the original T1 in YYZ,well the walk we had,had to be longer.I thought those days were gone,you know moving sidewalks would sure help Anyways thats not a Westjet issue. Its good to see that Westjet has Air Canada working for them in YYC After clearing customs we went to the Westjet connection counter and we were greeted by a friendly Air Canada agent who directed us all upstairs I asked where the WESTJET agent was,and she said there wasn't one and that a lot of westjet customers have been looking for one. So off we went upstairs with our connection bags already tagged to the next destination and did the self service thing The 737-800 with a full load is a different story,but it got us home and with our bags If it wasn't for the price i would have booked continental airlines for the return They have been my favorite for a long time And thats my story Would i fly WS again?Sure,if the price is right Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted November 15, 2009 Share Posted November 15, 2009 Westjet has really dropped the ball on this one. A change of reservation systems has caused a "virtual breakdown" of the whole Westjet approach to doing business. I have never seen so many pissdd off "guests", employees and no body seems to have an answer to this. Maybe the "Durf" better start earning his money and sort this mess out. Incredible, from humble beginings, to Mumbai...... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Canus Chinookus Posted November 15, 2009 Share Posted November 15, 2009 James as a front-liner myself, I'll try to speak for all the front liners by saying we're at least as frustrated as the guests for our inability to deliver the service we're so used to give. We are told things are getting better everyday, but some days I wonder. I don't think there's any way but forwards from here, and I pray to the FSM that we'll have it figured out prior to the Xmas rush. Longtimer, I'm not sure what happened with the movies, but they are supposed to be there to supplement the lack of satellite reception departing Mexico northbound. We usually can't get a reliable signal until the north end of Texas, unfortunately. As for screen size, there's a retrofit planned soon to 10" screens(which still may not please everybody). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Seeker Posted November 15, 2009 Share Posted November 15, 2009 James as a front-liner myself, I'll try to speak for all the front liners by saying we're at least as frustrated as the guests for our inability to deliver the service we're so used to give. We are told things are getting better everyday, but some days I wonder. I don't think there's any way but forwards from here, and I pray to the FSM that we'll have it figured out prior to the Xmas rush. Longtimer, I'm not sure what happened with the movies, but they are supposed to be there to supplement the lack of satellite reception departing Mexico northbound. We usually can't get a reliable signal until the north end of Texas, unfortunately. As for screen size, there's a retrofit planned soon to 10" screens(which still may not please everybody). Jeeezzz, I didn't know you were a FSM follower - I would have been nicer to you if I had known. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
deicer Posted November 15, 2009 Share Posted November 15, 2009 Westjet has really dropped the ball on this one. A change of reservation systems has caused a "virtual breakdown" of the whole Westjet approach to doing business. I have never seen so many pissdd off "guests", employees and no body seems to have an answer to this. Maybe the "Durf" better start earning his money and sort this mess out. Incredible, from humble beginings, to Mumbai...... Welcome to the Big Leagues Iceman Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thebean Posted November 15, 2009 Share Posted November 15, 2009 Welcome to the Big Leagues Iceman For once, Bean is speechless. Publicly anyway. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
deicer Posted November 15, 2009 Share Posted November 15, 2009 I wouldn't take that as a good thing. WS is just inheriting all the problems that everyone else has. Watch out, unions are probably next. Iceman Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SkyBlazer Posted November 15, 2009 Share Posted November 15, 2009 Thanks for the comments - you sure didn't get to see us at our best and for that I apologize as a owner This Sabre thing has been a real FU situation with repercussions not just in the call centres but right across the board - As employees we feel the pain - in not being able to provide the level of service we have become accustomed to - right down to being right along side you in the dissatisfaction of sitting on the telephone for hours trying to make a booking ourselves just to get home for those who commute. Im betting that between the people we have pushed away and of those who said F it and decided to book AC over the holidays - as well as the cost of this crisis ie Mumbai call centre that we will see a very very weak first Quarter. The Big Leagues ? maybe but for sure a big pile of S. SB Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FA@AC Posted November 16, 2009 Share Posted November 16, 2009 Im betting that between the people we have pushed away and of those who said F it and decided to book AC over the holidays - as well as the cost of this crisis ie Mumbai call centre that we will see a very very weak first Quarter. Mumbai call centre??? What did I miss? Surely WS hasn't moved its reservations functions to India, has it? Or is Sabre's support for WS' users in India? What problems has WS been encountering with Sabre? The system used to be considered the most sophisticated in the industry. I'm not sure if that's still the case, but it runs well for AA. They use it, I believe, not just for reservations but also for crew scheduling and galley planning. Is it just a teething/cutover thing, or is WS trying to use a special version of Sabre that was designed just for them? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted November 16, 2009 Share Posted November 16, 2009 Mumbai call centre??? What did I miss? Surely WS hasn't moved its reservations functions to India, has it? Or is Sabre's support for WS' users in India? What problems has WS been encountering with Sabre? The system used to be considered the most sophisticated in the industry. I'm not sure if that's still the case, but it runs well for AA. They use it, I believe, not just for reservations but also for crew scheduling and galley planning. Is it just a teething/cutover thing, or is WS trying to use a special version of Sabre that was designed just for them? Travelocity (owned by Sabre) will be providing call centre agents in India to make new bookings for Guests to help alleviate the workload on the YYC call centre. Otherwise, the product is Sabresonic. It's an out of the box product, but WestJet had to transition in approxoimately half the time normally required to do such a transition due to issue with Navitaire and the HP server that hosted WestJet's old system. Now, there are some teething pains with things such as migrated PNR's from Open Skies not functioning properly in Sabresonic and a pile of printer overload issues. On top of that, the Open Skies that WestJet ran was basically cusomized in house, with all kinds of processes and procedures creating something of a bastardized version for an airline that likes to do things their own way. Having to work from an out of the box system is taking some time to do, but it's slowly getting better. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
inchman Posted November 16, 2009 Share Posted November 16, 2009 Now, there are some teething pains with things such as migrated PNR's from Open Skies not functioning properly in Sabresonic .... Interesting... Sean seemed to think that the PNR transition went well.... .... from the 3rd quarter call... "We had hundreds of thousands of PNRs or basically folks who had booked with us, 600-plus-thousand folks who had booked with us and hadn't flown yet were still on the old system. We had to migrate them over to the new system, we did that, we did it successfully and didn't lose any. " Hmmm... wasn't there a thread around here about misleading information? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Canus Chinookus Posted November 16, 2009 Share Posted November 16, 2009 Inchman, your quote is basically correct, buuuut, there's a catch. Even though the previous PNR's did successfully transfer, the new system is having trouble 'doing stuff' with them for certain processes, all processes that are causing a phone overload to our call staff, hence the pressure being taken off by the mumbai call center to give us more time to fix the problems as they come up. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CanadaEH Posted November 16, 2009 Share Posted November 16, 2009 Such as "old" PNR's not working for web check-in, online changes, seat selection, etc. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
better4me Posted November 16, 2009 Share Posted November 16, 2009 ....Even though the previous PNR's did successfully transfer, the new system is having trouble 'doing stuff' with them for certain processes, all processes that are causing a phone overload to our call staff, hence the pressure being taken off by the mumbai call center to give us more time to fix the problems as they come up. And Westjet would not have this problem if Obie One Kenobi etal had disallowed the standard set of invalid characters on the PNR and other fields like every other airline. What Openskies allowed was not the same as any other RES system because of poor business rules in the original design. PNR should never have been a straight six character text field with no business rules attached. Now let's not talk about realligning other fields to fit the whims of Westjet (Wheelchair codes, booking status, city parms, etc.) and not following all ready established airline industry standard. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Seeker Posted November 16, 2009 Share Posted November 16, 2009 And Westjet would not have this problem if Obie One Kenobi etal had disallowed the standard set of invalid characters on the PNR and other fields like every other airline. What Openskies allowed was not the same as any other RES system because of poor business rules in the original design. PNR should never have been a straight six character text field with no business rules attached. Now let's not talk about realligning other fields to fit the whims of Westjet (Wheelchair codes, booking status, city parms, etc.) and not following all ready established airline industry standard. Is this where the "COW" issue comes up? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark VI Posted November 16, 2009 Share Posted November 16, 2009 I just flew on West Jet for the first time. Absolutely no different than Air Canada. Same problems....except less leg room on West Jet. F/a's did there job, pilots made to Vegas, although it took him six months of training to learn how to turn on the seat belt sign...not my kind of annoucements. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chockalicious Posted November 16, 2009 Share Posted November 16, 2009 There is an element out there that will rub their hands in glee at the problems WS is having. What I think that all of the haters and others fail to understand is that WS employees have higher expectations of our own people and company than people outside of the company do. WS was already in the big leagues and this too shall pass just like the other challenges that were supposed to bring WS down, like the lawsuit for example. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kip Powick Posted November 16, 2009 Share Posted November 16, 2009 There is an element out there that will rub their hands in glee at the problems WS is having I would hope you are wrong. So WS has problems with the system...so what? Not good for WS but certainly not "Headline News" and I would be sorely disappointed if your peers on this forum are "rubbing their hands in glee" as I would also be very disapointed if "other" members were happy when AC went into CCAA. I perhaps, like many others, don't particularily like the attitude of some of the "salute the flag come hell or high water" individuals who seem to relish in blowing their own horn but I, for one, would hate to see any airline employee see their job sliding over the edge through an issue that was absolutely no fault of their own. Being happy over someone elses problems is sinking really low. Hopefully the "Green Team"...sorry mean "Teal Team" get their train on the tracks and do as well as they have in the past. They are just like all airline employees.... trying to do their best...no matter what color their aircraft... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
boestar Posted November 16, 2009 Share Posted November 16, 2009 Well said Kip. We are all in the same business doing the same jobs. Sure we compete but we should keep it friendly. I hope the Sabre issues get worked out. I know from experience that Sabre can be hard to deal with getting support to fix issues. Good luck to you Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mitch Cronin Posted November 16, 2009 Share Posted November 16, 2009 I would hope you are wrong. I have little doubt he's right, but I really don't think you'd find a lot of them on this forum. Chock, I would have said almost exactly as Kip said, then I read his post and didn't have to. I'd imagine AC employees in particular can very well empathise, and wish you all a speedy recovery. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
J.O. Posted November 16, 2009 Share Posted November 16, 2009 The one thing I've always admired about Westjet is their attitude when it comes to the hurdles that we all must face in this crazy business. There's no such thing as an "It's not my problem" mentality at Westjet. It's always everyone's problem, which makes finding a solution much easier to achieve. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest rattler Posted November 16, 2009 Share Posted November 16, 2009 I too hope the problems are fixed sooner than later. Looking at departures from YVR today, it appears the problem is also having a negative effect on actual departures, is this correct and if so is it a result of delays in pax processing or does the new system also create problems in Dispatch? Just curious as I well remember our first cut over to Sabre (not fond memories). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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