Westjet "New and Improved" res system

[greenasgrass]

Sucks!! On hold for 98 minutes. Was told "11 new destinations, code-share with Southwest, new computer system, guess we're a bit overwhelmed". You really think?? Anyone else frustrated with this?? Thankful it's toll free long distance at least... ComeOn, WJ, get with the program!!

[Lurch]

Looks like you aren't the only one

viewtopic.php?f=36&t=59566

Lurch

[Mustard]

Ya it's nearly impossible to use the recip jumpseat with them.

[Conquest Driver]

Flew with them on Saturday morning out of YEG. What a goat rodeo.

I dumped all my Westjet stock yesterday morning.

[AME 283]

Great New reservation system, would not work on line, 3 hrs on speaker phone ( auto hung up twice), must be taking lessons from the U.S. Carriers !!!

[rightseatwonder]

its been a bad week for sure! Its a mess. Its causing a lot of frustration. Everyone is getting delayed and having to deal with it ... guest, employees parents buddy passes recip pilots. everybody.

It'll get better, and hopefully short term pain for long term gain. A little (more!) patience on all sides might help it go smoother and get past it.
cheers.

[joe to go]

I am almost left speachless with conquest drivers short sightedness. Oh dear god, this may just be the end of WestJet!!

[jjj]

Cue a very small violin.

[greenasgrass]

It just get worse. Tried the web check-in for my flight. It worked fine BEFORE the new P.O.S. res system. Could check-in for both legs of my two-leg flight no prob. Seat selection worked fine for the first of my two legs, so I'm thinking "good deal, at least SOMETHING is going to meet the expectations of the paying public. Oops, not so fast. Seat selection for second flight not working. Has me stuck in the middle even though there are lots of empty seats!!! What the **!!!! And now can't even get in to change it.

Pretty much fed right up with this Bull-Tweetie from the Teal team. AND... good luck getting them to apply any "travel credits" you've got saved up! Not a snowball's hope in Hell... was on the phone for 2 hrs, 32 minutes yesterday, finally had to get on with my life. Thanks, WJ, for giving the employees "on-the-job" training instead of bringing everyone up to speed BEFORE you bring this "new and improved" res system online.

Has anyone been able to find an email address for the "WestJet Complaint Department"?? Yup, thought not... What's the number for Air Canada again? Never thought I'd be that fed up with WJ, but here I am...

Big fancy planes with big payments need people to pay to ride along in the back. You guys keep this up, and you'll get what you deserve...

Just tried to call them again... "expected wait time is in excess of 60 minutes". Called A.C., 26 seconds later had a human. Oh, yeah, sorry. Thats because WJ has so many more pax to deal with that AC. Hahahahahah!!! Nope...

[flyinthebug]

greenasgrass.. Sorry to hear your still having issues with the new res system at WJ. I was having problems booking my daughters ticket yesterday, but within a matter of 10 mins, it was resolved and all is well. I understand your frustration, particularly online.. but what I dont understand is your last sentence?.."quote greenasgrass" [Big fancy planes with big payments need people to pay to ride along in the back. You guys keep this up, and you'll get what you deserve...]unquote. What does a decent company that pays its employees fairly and flys according to the regs truly deserve? Sucess? One would think so anyways.

On topic, the res system worked fine yesterday for me. They had their site down part of the day to install the new system.. so a few bugs to be worked out is not really a surprise.
Patience is a virtue ya know

Oh and you can report website troubles if you click on "contact us" at westjet.com and scroll down to website troubleshooting and they provide a form you can fill out with your complaint or problem. I hope you get things sorted out today.

Fly safe all, Cheers

[foxmoth]

hope they do not have that idiot making reptitative 'jokes' while you are on hold that long. They lost 3 fares out of me when i finaly hung up. AC was better.

[greenasgrass]

"Flyinthebug".. So you got to speak with a person within 10 minutes?? That's what your post would indicate. How in the he^^ did you manage that? Call at 0245 or something? BTW, it's not a problem with the web site that requires attention, it's the entire res system that needed to be up and running in parallel with the old one before switching over. I'm glad things worked out for you, I truly am.

Here I am again, gonna try to change my seat on connecting flight with a human. Gotta love it, as they now say "the wait time to speak with an agent is currently less than 60 minutes", Crap, you gotta tell people when they are looking at ONLY wasting an hour out of their lives on hold?? Hahahaha!!! Gonna try one last time to get my seat changed and travel credit applied. Speaking of which, has anyone else got the feeling that they're gonna get "screwed" out of their travel credit?? Booked a WJ holiday, and got a $400 travel credit. This may be quite the marketing scam they have on the go. Think about it for a minute... they say they'll give a $400 travel credit if you book a flight, and then make it so freakin' hard to use this credit that you finally just give up. Who comes out ahead in this deal? Certainly not the consumer! Need to start a movement wherein WJ must allow their travel credits to be used with the Red team flights as well. See how that would go over Count me in!!

Does anyone get the idea that this whole experience has left a very bad taste in my mouth? That's because it has. I didn't mind the same old repetitive jokes on the flights, the less-than-professional ramblings each and every time they put me on hold. So much for the "WestJet Care-antee". What a load of hooey!!! They should credit everyone $2.00 per minute they have to hold while waiting to speak to a human. Hey, if you guys are so great at being so great, put your $$ where your mouth is!! Compensate me for the hours of my life I've wasted that I'll never get back.

Just got off the phone with WJ human, and even she can't assign seats! I can see it now, there will be multiple people headed for the same seat in the E-exit row. Wow, in a state of dismay I am right now... "you need to be patient" I was told. Nope, just need to ride the Red wagon for a while.

You blew chunks big time with this "forward movement", WJ. Maybe Canadian North will sell you a used -200 at a good price, when you've lost the customer base to the point where that's all the plane you need... Yup, more than one successful company has discovered all it takes is one gigantic screw-up like this to start a ripple-effect that you can't recover from... May have an impact on profit sharing if there aren't any profits to share, eh what??

[balfour]

[KAG]

It’s a step that had to be taken, as our old RES system was not able to what we need it to do down the road, IE code sharing. I’m just glad they did this in a slower traveling period.
Unfortunately, it didn’t go off without a hitch and I can assure everyone that Management is acutely aware how Saber is performing, and is taking every step to fix the issues.

Sorry for the wait times, the online failures and such. It's a work in progress.

[greenasgrass]

I know it's a work in progress. But you'd think that WJ would have modelled the new system more closely after the A.C. system. Didn't some upper management of WJ spend considerable time on the A.C. private system a few years back? "Dang it! We should have taken better notes!!" You'd think there'd be some positive gains for the public pee-pee whackin' they took.

Ahhh, just when you thought we had a short attention span...

[co-joe]

Is that the same Saber system AMR uses? Canadian did as well. JC

[The Mole]

Westjet lost my business when the stopped letting other websites search there system for reservation. Kayak.com is all i use to find air fare. Its the google of airfare search engines. To bad for west jet.

[KAG]

I know it's a work in progress. But you'd think that WJ would have modelled the new system more closely after the A.C. system. Didn't some upper management of WJ spend considerable time on the A.C. private system a few years back? "Dang it! We should have taken better notes!!" You'd think there'd be some positive gains for the public pee-pee whackin' they took.

Ahhh, just when you thought we had a short attention span...

It's a hardware/software thing that is being worked out. Sorry it wasn't perfect BEFORE your tried to travel. Wait until it gets sorted out, and get intouch with the complaints people, they will work something out for you. Also I can say with confidence, your travel credits are good, just read the fine print (if there is any, I don't know I don't have any).
Again sorry you had a bad experience. All I can say is it will get better...very soon...

[AME 283]

Wow between their new reservation system and web site that gives very little information ie. on the costs of extra bags, Westjet is making our other major carrier look good

[greenasgrass]

KAG wrote... " It's a hardware/software thing that is being worked out. Sorry it wasn't perfect BEFORE your tried to travel. "

Well, I for one hope that this is not representative of the Company motto that WJ must have. Don't know about anyone else on here, but would sure hope this viewpoint doesn't trickle down to a new RNP approach procedure that WJ decides to try! I can see the headlines now...

"That's right, Jane, and now to our next story. Here's our "News at 1100" reporter KAG live on the scene of today's top story... "It's a hardware/software thing that is being worked out. Sorry it wasn't perfect BEFORE your tried to travel.""

[Blastor]

HAHAHAHAHA!

Kool-aid anyone?

HAHAHAHAHAHA

[Blastor]

Brent Jang

From Wednesday's Globe and Mail
Last updated on Wednesday, Oct. 28, 2009 2:34AM EDT


.WestJet Airlines Ltd. is recovering from last week's travel disruptions during the rollout of its new Sabre computer reservations system. "This is not the WestJet experience that you have come to know and expect from us," the company's chief executive officer, Sean Durfy, said in a note e-mailed to passengers over the weekend. The nine-sentence apology was featured this week as the first screen that consumers see on the airline's website.

WestJet's website temporarily crashed again yesterday because of Sabre Travel Network glitches, but Mr. Durfy is optimistic that "in the coming weeks, we anticipate that the system will be humming along."

Meanwhile, Jacques Kavafian, one of the Bay Street analysts who has tracked WestJet, resigned yesterday after more than five years at Research Capital Corp. While Mr. Kavafian, 49, proved to be a thorn in Air Canada's side, he said he tried to be even-handed, noting that he most recently had a "hold" on WestJet and a "sell" on Air Canada.

Air Canada has disputed Mr. Kavafian's assertions that Canada's largest airline needs to shrink its way to profitability. He countered that he prides himself on his independence. "I have never been on anybody's side," he said from his cellphone during a sushi lunch yesterday. There has been speculation Mr. Kavafian is pondering a career move into the tour-operator industry, perhaps focusing on inbound tourists from Japan. He was coy yesterday, though he did give this hint: "Whatever I do will incorporate my passion and love for the airline industry, and things Japanese."

[Blastor]

Brent Jang / Globe and Mail



.WestJet Airlines Ltd. is experiencing problems as it switches over to its new Sabre computer reservation system, with temporary glitches in the new technology leaving many customers frustrated. Since Saturday, the airline's website has periodically gone offline, leading to long waits to get through to its swamped call centre. There have also been some flight delays averaging 40 minutes

. But Catherine Dyer, WestJet's vice-president of distribution, said yesterday that the carrier is working with the Sabre Travel Network to address the "hiccups." She urged consumers to only contact the call centre if they have queries about bookings for today or tomorrow, to help ease the crush of calls. "We are expecting things to improve day over day," Ms. Dyer said in an interview. "Things will get more stable as we move over the balance of the week."

WJA (TSX) fell 14 cents to $11.10.

[.80@410]

Brent Jang / Globe and Mail



.WJA (TSX) fell 14 cents to $11.10.

Hey Blastor.

You malicious S.O.B.
Remember Karma is a b1tch. Truly happy we dont have people lik you working for us.
But thankfully it seems our process worked seeing as though you did not make it past the interview.

.80

[greenasgrass]

Come on, let's keep on topic here.

To .80@410... Who cares if someone makes, or doesn't make the supposed "grade" to get on at WJ. Maybe some of us actually don't like the Blue Kool-Aid that you did. Cold hard facts are that WJ swallowed the Sabre system hook, line and sinker. WJ quote... "We outgrew the old system". Yup, and the new system will pi$$ enough people off that the old system will need to be resurrected, as the new system is now "too big for the dwindling market share" that will likely be yours.

It's easy to make excuses at to why it's everyone else's fault for the "temporary glitches" in the system. Let's have some form of compensation if WJ truly is sorry. I for one am truly pi$$ed at WJ!!

C.D. says "hiccups", yeah right. It'll get more stable all right, as the customer base shrivels like a penis in cold water...