The new US Airways in recent weeks adopted a single set of ticketing rules for all domestic and Canada transborder fares. It also announced plans to incorporate as a common reservations system the one already in use at the former America West Airlines.
Standardized ticketing policies, many of which extend those previously in place at AWA, soon will be in effect across the merged carrier. For example, the airline confirmed that partially or wholly unused nonrefundable tickets must be canceled on or before the scheduled departure date, but said those tickets "can be re-booked anytime, as long as travel is completed within one year from original issue date." Rules on itinerary changes also are being aligned: If changes after origination violate minimum-stay requirements, the entire itinerary will be repriced using historical fares. Otherwise, only the return portion will be repriced at the going one-way rate.
Some travel managers are irked by these changes, in part because they could increase costs and/or reduce flexibility for travelers in some circumstances, but also because of conflicting information. "It is almost as if you need to call US Airways about every booking to find out what the heck is going on," said one travel buyer located in an East Coast city served by US Airways.
An airline spokesman acknowledged that the company still is working through "some transitional details."
US Airways also said that it will hold a customer's telephone reservation without payment or penalty for up to 24 hours, in certain markets and for certain fares. Customers can standby for a flight within four hours of original departure time. The standby fee is $25.
Also this month, US Airways said Electronic Data Systems would integrate the reservations systems of the two legacy carriers. EDS was the former AWA's reservations system supplier - handling as many as 30 million annual passengers - and since July 2001 serviced US Airways via an outsourced IT contract with Sabre
(BTN, March 26, 2001).
"Combining passenger handling systems marks a big step toward a seamless customer experience," said Joe Beery, CIO of US Airways.
Once the hosted reservations platform is running across the entire merged entity, it would handle about 85 million annual passengers. A US Airways spokesman said full integration is expected by late 2006, "allowing time not only for training, but also to standardize - and modernize - the equipment in the stations systemwide."
Continental Airlines, Virgin Atlantic Airways and others also use EDS' Shared Airlines Reservations System.
Meanwhile, since US Airways is becoming a direct client of EDS, it no longer would contract with Sabre for a hosted reservations platform. A US Airways spokesman said the carrier still would honor the one-year extension on the global distribution system content deal signed previously with Sabre "and we are still evaluating others."
The former America West and legacy US Airways had conflicting distribution strategies before cementing the merger
(BTN, Oct. 3) . Those differences remain as America West-coded fares and inventory will not be subjected to the terms and conditions of legacy US Airways' GDS distribution agreements.