In December 2010, United announcedit was leaving Apollo, the reservations system it had used for decades, to switch to HP’s Shares, which Continental
used. United actually created the Apollo Reservations system in 1971. The airline evaluated Apollo, SHARES and “several other options†and chose HP SHARES as the “best customer and employee alternative and because its ability to handle a migration in a reasonable amount of time.” United is now SHARES largest customer.
The first weekend in March, United cutover to SHARES. The initial transition created problems with long hold times and other issues as people called to try to fix issues, but passengers complained about long waits to talk to agents and associated issues. From most reports, United, five months after the switch, has yet to resolve the issues. As friend of the blog, Cranky Flier commented, United’s operation is a mess and is not improving.
Today, United’s system went down for 2 hours, cancelling and delaying flights. United actually had to ask the FAA to issue a ground stop to prevent its flights from taking off to its hubs. This proves that United, despite complaints, is not solving these problems. Hopefully, they will solve this problem soon, before they have no customers left.
Related articles
- ‘Messy’ merger process costs United Airlines (travel.usatoday.com)
- United Airlines Now Responsible For One-In-Three Consumer Complaints (consumerist.com)
- United Airlines Experiences System-Wide Outage, Leaves Travelers Stranded (consumerist.com)
- Gay Couple Sues United Airlines for Intentional Harrassment (bilerico.com)
- How United Could Have Avoided Frustrating Staff And Alienating Customers (rohitbhargava.com)
- United Loses Children (flightwisdom.com)
