Does anyone know how compliant the reservation system really is? Are we getting snowed?

shadow

-- shadow (foo@foo.com), February 09, 1999

Answers

We know that reservations can be made into the year 2000. So, that particular software is compliant. For the "system" to be Y2K compliant, all components (hardware, software, and firmware) must be able to work when the clock rolls forward. We find the answer to that on 1.1.00, unless they publish a statement earlier.

Troll Maria

-- Maria (anon@ymous.com), February 09, 1999.

Hi Shadow! I chatted with some friends of mine today who are still at Continental. (I used to work there.) Apparently Continental and most other major carriers are doing pretty well, but I was told that Southwest Airlines is in trouble. I haven't had a chance to verify that yet. I have a close friend who has been with Southwest for 15 years, so I'll see what I can find out.

-- Gayla Dunbar (privacy@please.com), February 09, 1999.

Gosh, Gayla, if I had to pick one airline that would have a handle on this it would be Southwest. Your post, while I don't doubt its veracity, just sorta flies in the face of all I know about Southwest and Herb. How could an airline that names a plane after Nolan Ryan go so wrong? Oh woe. Is nothing sacred?

-- Vic (Roadrunner@compliant.com), February 09, 1999.

The problem with Southwest is that they don't run all of their systems.

Some are run by The SABRE Group (subsidiary of AMR Corporation, parent company of American Airlines). And some are run internally.

Southwest has a close relationship with HP and my understanding was that Southwest runs mainly COBOL in the HP systems (COBOL tends to have more of the "date" problems).

Also, in Southwest's frugality, they have remained on "older" equipment, so many terminals and servers may not be Y2K.

SABRE has pressed its focus on the "core" SABRE system, which Southwest is not part of. Southwest is on another system called SAAS, which SABRE spends very little time or effort on (because Southwest pays them very little to run it).

There have been several attempts by Southwest over the years to build their own reservations systems, but at least as late as 1997 (the last year I worked for SABRE), Southwest was still planning on running SAAS indefinitely.

So, while I'm confident that SABRE and American Airlines will probably not have a problem, Southwest may be another story. American already has enough problems with their pilot's union.

Ex Computer Reservations System Employee (ExCRSEmp)

-- ExCRSEmp (Bubba@Bubba.com), February 10, 1999.

It would be a shame next year if some airline's non-compliant reservation system couldn't find a customer's reservation because it had been made for January 1900...

-- Kevin (mixesmusic@worldnet.att.net), February 10, 1999.