"Computer glitches forecast future snafus"

Sunday, March 11, 2007

Computer glitches forecast future snafus
By David Bear
The Pittsburgh (PA) Post-Gazette


If the computer crashes that stranded hundreds of US Airways passengers last
weekend are any indication, local travelers should fasten their seat belts.

The meltdown resulted from US Airways' merging its Sabre computer
reservations system into a modified version of America West's Shares
computer system, a decision made by the post-merger management of the now
Arizona-based airline.

Unfortunately, after what we assume was a long-considered transition plan,
automatic ticketing kiosks at East Coast airports last Sunday had trouble
processing the changed information and shut down. Ticket-seeking passengers
swamped the ticket counters, resulting in long lines and missed flights.

Waits in Charlotte -- where most passengers rely on the kiosks --
Philadelphia and Boston were three hours and longer. Lines in Pittsburgh,
where US Airways still accounts for over half of the daily flights, were up
to 90 minutes long.

Although US Airways employees were trained on the new system, the airline
apparently didn't advise them to anticipate glitches until 48 hours before
the switch. Nor were airport staffs significantly boosted to handle any
resulting crush. Finally, while frequent flyers were advised of the pending
computer change in advance, the airline did not publicize the date
beforehand nor advise travelers to get to the airport extra early that day.

Even worse was US Airways' response when things began to go awry early
Sunday morning. They were slow to own up to and address the mounting
problems.

According to Joe Brancatelli, a travel industry observer who had sent out an
alert on March 1 about potential for problems, as of 1 p.m. last Sunday, the
carrier still wasn't informing passengers about delays on its Web site. A
travel advisory posted later that afternoon on USAirways.com blamed delays
on "heavy passenger volume and long check-in lines," even though as Mr.
Brancatelli noted, "there is no evidence at all" that passenger volume was
any heavier than usual.

Problems with the kiosk system persisted well into the week.

Is this any way to run a major airline?

If this switch glitch is indicative of how US Airways' management will
handle the other enormously complicated logistics of merging flight
operations of its two primary carriers, there is cause for real concern. It
certainly seems we should be thankful that its hostile attempt to take over
Delta did not succeed.

This incident becomes even more ironic coming on the heels of another recent
announcement.

The International Air Transport Association, which manages the complex
financial transactions that allow the world's myriad airlines to work
together, recently announced that it intends to stop providing the paper
ticket stock to airlines by the end of the year. Apparently, paper tickets
are going the way of the buggy whip.

According to the association, electronic tickets or E-tickets, which have
been around nearly a decade, now account for 96 percent of ticketing
transactions of U.S. airlines and 77 percent of foreign carriers.

Most domestic carriers, including US Airways, Northwest and American,
already charge $50 for passengers who insist on getting a printed ticket for
a reservation when an electronic option is available.

There's no question that E-tickets offer distinct advantages over paper
tickets: they're far cheaper and easier to process, theft-proof and allow
passengers to check in and get a boarding pass from their home or office
computer or at airport kiosks.

Assuming of course, there are no electronic malfunctions. Sadly, last
weekend's snafus show that is a questionable assumption.

The reality is that E-tickets don't offer passengers the same proof of
purchase or transferability that paper tickets did. Since electronic
boarding passes can't be obtained more than 24 hours prior to departure,
securing the documentation for a return trip always has to be done either en
route or at check-in at the return airport, at which point it will be
difficult for passengers to respond to flight changes or computer meltdowns.

Furthermore, while a paper flight coupon could be used to get an alternative
flight on another carrier, a reservation code or a passenger-printed
electronic boarding pass from one carrier won't mean anything at all to a
different airline. Rather than a widely accepted form of currency, it's just
another piece of paper.

While no one is advocating a return to paper tickets, the credibility of any
currency certainly depends on its reliability. This recent incident
indicates that passengers may be putting their "full faith and trust" in the
less than rock solid species of E-tickets.

Let's hope this was an isolated aberration rather than a preview of coming
distractions. Otherwise, we're in for a rough ride indeed.

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