October 21, 2000

Air Canada warns of ticket chaos Tells workers to 'be patient' with angry customers

Peter Fitzpatrick National Post Employees at Air Canada have been told to be extra kind to customers this weekend as the airline makes major changes to its computer reservation system.

Last night, Air Canada began shifting more than a million Canadian Airlines bookings into its own reservation system in a service improvement effort it concedes is fraught with potential problems. It will complete the job over the weekend.

"There is no doubt customer-contact employees are facing a significant challenge this weekend," Robert Milton, president of Air Canada told employees in a recorded message yesterday.

"Since this will take between 18 and 24 hours to accomplish, some [files] might not have transferred by the time customers who booked with Canadian check in.

"Please be patient with the system and with our customers. Give them the benefit of the doubt should you encounter difficulty."

The changeover involves electronically transferring data from Canadian's current Sabre system in Tulsa, Okla., to Air Canada's Res III mainframe in Winnipeg.

Once complete, agents from either airline will be able to book travellers on one another's planes.

The move will streamline airport operations, co-ordinate frequent flyer points and facilitate bag handling, the carrier said.

Combining the systems took about twice the effort as preparing for the Y2K computer changeover, said Air Canada.

http://www.nationalpost.com/news/national/story.html?f=/stories/20001021/436079.html

-- Martin Thompson (mthom1927@aol.com), October 23, 2000