Newspapers / Piedmont Aviation Employee Newsletter / June 1, 1988, edition 1 / Page 4
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International reservations agents have answers to tough questions Brackney Picture this if you will. . . a passenger enroute to Germany via London approaches a station agent at the gate in CLT moments before depar ture time and wants to change his travel plans. Does the agent panic? Of course not! Thanks to information acquired at a recent seminar, the agent knows exactly what to do: Pick up the phone and call an international reservations agent in Winston-Salem. A two-day seminar on international travel and immigration was pre sented in early June in CLT and INT through a joint effort of Passenger Procedures and Reserva tion Services Interna tional, both located in INT, to address such issues as the one illus trated above. Represen tatives including station agents, supervisors, and customer service manag ers from 40 stations around the Piedmont system were invited to the seminar. Martin Silverman from British Immigration at LGW attended the seminar to discuss U.K. entry requirements. The seminar will be offered to the remaining stations in coming months. Attendees were responsible for preparing a written summary of the seminar for dissemination to co-workers at their respec tive stations. "The purpose of the seminar was to acquaint our employees with what is involved in dealing with international travel,” said Bill Brackney, manager-international department. “The intrica cies of international travel are constantly chang ing, and it is our responsibility to stay informed so that we can assist our station agents when they are confronted with questions related to in ternational travel. All they have to do is call us.” During the seminar, Brackney and his staff ad dressed issues such as international documenta tion requirements, baggage restrictions, foreign currency conversions, ticket changes and reissu ance, schedules, rates, involuntary rerouting, fre quent flyer, and tariffs. A year ago when Piedmont started service to London, the International Department only had 62 international reservations agents. Currently, there are 84 agents, the majority of whom assist the public in making international reservations. The remainder of the agents are available to an swer questions from station personnel. ‘‘We want the station agents to understand the complexities of international travel to the degree that they understand why it may take a little longer to address their questions. This cuts down on their frustrations, and they can convey a calmer attitude to our customers, which can dif fuse a tense situation,” Brackney said. All international agents have had nine weeks of advanced train ing beyond that of the normal reservations training. Candidates for the department are selected on a combina tion of seniority, job per formance, and foreign language abilities. Thir teen agents are cur rently in training classes and additional classes are scheduled to begin in late June and August. Along with dealing with international destina tions, we have also had to become involved with customs and immigration. “When Piedmont ac quired Empire Airlines in 1986, and we began to incorporate the Canadian destinations, we had to address the issue of customs and immigration,” said Pat McKee, analyst-passenger procedures. Basically, representatives from Passenger Pro cedures met with the Canadian and United States government officials to become familiar with the customs and immigration regulations. From there procedures were established which are contained in Piedmont's Standard Practice Manual as well as the Direct Reference System (DRS) in the CAREsystem for quick access. “To distinguish between immigration and cus toms,” McKee said, “remember that immigration deals with people control, and customs deals McKee m m A INT International Reservations Agent (right) Erin Ervin shows (I to r) Ann Broocks, CLT- assistant customer service manager, and Judy Craver, CLT-station training, the teiriff man uals she refers to in making international reservations. with baggage and cargo control and inspections.” In a new program effective July 1, the U.S. Im migration Department and the U.S. Department of State have instituted a three-year Visa Waiver Pilot Program (VWPP) which will allow citizens of the United Kingdom to travel to the United States without a visa although they still must meet other requirements. U.S. citizens have been able to enter the U.K. without a visa for a num ber of years. To be eligible for the program, participants must be U.K. residents, have a valid passport, purchase a round trip ticket, stay in the U.S. no longer than 90 days, enter the U.S. on a partici pating carrier, purchase a ticket refundable only in the country of issuance, and sign a VWPP form before departure. “Since Piedmont will be a participating carrier in the program, more U.K. citizens will be travel ing to the U.S., and the increased traffic should bolster our already successful London flights,” McKee said. “We are really pleased with the success of these seminars, not only because our employees have a better understanding of international travel, but it also gave us the opportunity to put names and faces together,” Brackney said. “It’s also a nice way to celebrate the anniversary of our first year of service to London.” Questions cover merger date married empioyees As of mid-June, we have received more than 2,000 calls on the ‘800’ information line, and we have distributed over 1,000 individual responses. Many of the duplicated questions (such as those below) have had responses in the Piedmonitor or through the Declassified. Here is an additional sampling of employee questions and manage ment’s response. Q, Has the proposed date for the merger been delayed? I heard originally that the two airlines would merge prior to year end and that doesn't seem to be the case. A, Senior executives of both airlines have con firmed that the full operational merger of the two airlines will probably not take place until some time in the first quarter of 1989. We continue to believe that the most orderly merger, with the greatest concerns for our customers and our em ployees, takes priority over hastiness or meeting an arbitrary timetable. It should be noted that between now and the “official merger day,” Pied mont in particular will be adjusting many of its procedures to bring its flight and maintenance operations to a “mirror image” of USAir's to ex pedite FAA sanction of the merged company’s procedures. Above answer provided by Bill McGee, chairman, president and chief executive officer. Q. Why is USAir hiring part-time agents at my airport, and our hours are being cut at Piedmont? A. USAir and Piedmont now use the same staff ing procedures to determine station comple ments. Shifts are based upon allotted number of hours. For a station to comply with staffing requirements, hours may have to be adjusted (higher or lower) to meet authorized staffing. We are striving to keep employment at each airport close to the needs of the merged carrier. This will minimize displacements after the merger. How ever, we have months to go before the merger, and we want to maintain the highest possible levels of service for customers of both airlines in the interim. Q, Why is it that personnel working in inflight services cannot transfer to customer service or operations? A, Stations, including inflight services, are being staffed according to new staffing methods. As staffing complements are authorized, man agement is considering several possibilities that allow more systemwide transfers. Those transfers may include inflight services to other work areas within a station. No final decision has been made. Q, Are station work schedules no longer posted in advance? A, Work schedules for station personnel are posted to provide employees with a schedule of their assigned shift. They are to be prepared prior to the 20th of the month preceding the month to which the schedule applies. If the work schedule isn’t posted on time, station personnel should contact their local manager. Above answers provided by Leonard Martin, senior vice president-passenger services. Q. What procedure should I follow to travel on USAir? How am I ticketed? A, PI employees may proceed directly to USAir gates and present their valid company ID card and flight pass PA-T-401 (write-your-own-pass form) or an industry travel ticket (form 042) for boarding. PI employees will be boarded after USAir employees on USAir flights, and USAir employees will be boarded after Piedmont em ployees on Piedmont flights. PI employees should obtain Piedmont flight passes and industry travel tickets through their departments as usual and use them when traveling on USAir flights just as they would if traveling on Piedmont. Above answer provided by Flaye McIntyre, manager-pass bureau. Q. Has the Inflight Action Line been discon nected? Has the ‘800’ inform.ation line taken its place? A, No, to both questions. We want to encourage night attendants to continue to call our Action Line. Above answer provided by Trula Scott, director- inflight services. Q, What is USAir's policy about married em ployees working together? A, USAir’s personnel policy provides that rela tives (spouses included) will not be permitted to work in any supervisor/subordinate relationship. It further provides that applicants may not be employed nor employees transferred into any department in which a relative is a foreman, su pervisor, manager or director. We are not aware of any restrictions that would preclude two sta tion agents from the same station being married, so long as such was not contrary to the foregoing. Above answer provided by Dwain Andrews, stsiff vice president-labor and employee relations. TOGETHER, WELL SOAR TO NEW HEIGHTS. Piedmonitor • June 1988
Piedmont Aviation Employee Newsletter
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June 1, 1988, edition 1
4
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