CALFO

How come the l-ual pilots are having so much difficulty with Ccs? It seems fairly simple and intuitive. When I was hired it took me all of twenty minutes to figure it out.

pilotgolfer

It is a simple system. The problem is that it doesn't give access to all the same information that people are used to having access to. The veil of scheduling secrecy is also not transparent...as it should be.

Sunvox

I agree with Golfer's sentiment. There is some element of a learning curve involved, but I feel the larger issue is the difference in philosophy shown in CCS. As an example I will point out 4 issues that have come to my attention right away, not that these issues are unsolvable nor that others might have run into different issues, but simply as an example of the frustration some people may be feeling.

First, I can not access another pilots current schedule or pairing. Second, when Monthly Preferencing is complete I must look through hundreds of pages of data to see what others were able to bid where previously I could pull that up in a simple line summary format only a few pages long. Third, bidding individual pairings was easy because a pairing summary was available in 9 pages rather than hundreds. Lastly, training managers were able to see each instructors schedule by simply hovering over their name on a data base, but now they have to print out several poster sized sheets to get the same information. Information that they use daily to meet the scheduling challenges they face when people call in sick or there are broken sims etc. In short, CCS appears, at first blush, to have much less functionality from the UAL perspective. It may be that in time we will learn how better to get what we want from CCS, but so far it seems CCS is intentionally designed to restrict pilot access to system wide information.

CALFO

I guess you are one of the pilots that is having a difficult time figuring out how to use Ccs. Have you read any if the training materials or tried navigating the system?

Scott Stoops

It might be because the LUAL pilots like know what the hell is going on. We could actually see the maintenance status of the jets we flew. We could see what the crew desk was doing to us. They actually had to document changes to our schedules. We knew where the jet was going next which might determine whether we accepted an MEL. We knew when we were supposed to get crew meals (actually a contract item, go figure). We actually knew where to go to get the van to the hotel. The pickup times from the hotel were readily available. We knew the sequence of the FIFO list. We were aware when the crew desk was running amuck of the contract. We were actually able to determine violations of the contract and we grieved them.

Is that enough? I could go on. Or, in contrast we could waive it. Your call.

Scott

Snarge

I think the two responses to your original post are adequate... when your expectations are low (cal pilots), you don't expect much...

I don't think its just legacy United pilots.... its seems UCH is having problems with CCS... see below!!

APC225

United Airlines (UAL) is suffering a computer system malfunction that stranded pilots and caused canceled flights, evidence the company is still struggling to integrate Continental Airlines more than three years after the merger closed, people with knowledge of the matter said.
The breakdown contributed to the scrapping of almost 1,500 flights as the airline also grappled with unseasonably cold weather, said the people -- five United employees who were not authorized to speak publicly about the issue. United’s crew desk lost track of hundreds of pilots around the world since Dec. 30 as the system erroneously reported which pilots would control specific flights, the employees said.
The technology snafu is the latest in a string of miscues that have dogged United parent’s Chicago-based United Continental Holdings Inc. since the 2010 merger. The issue was amplified by tighter federal limits on pilot duty hours, which took effect Jan. 4 as a winter storm and plunging temperatures thinned pilot ranks at its Chicago and Newark, New Jersey, hubs.
“The company has brought on the perfect storm for our pilots, exacerbating the subzero temps and snow,” Jay Heppner, who heads United’s pilots’ union, wrote in a Jan. 4 letter to members and obtained by Bloomberg News. “In the communications received from our pilots, we are hearing about an operation which is coming apart at the seams.”
Computer issues and new federal duty limits “created a nightmare” for United pilots and crew schedulers, said Christopher Cooke, a spokesman for the union representing United flight attendants.
Scheduling Woes
Crew scheduling woes started after the second-largest U.S. carrier shifted all 10,200 of its pilots to a system previously used only by Continental pilots on Dec. 30, the United employees said.
David Messing, a United spokesman, declined to discuss any issues regarding the change.
“We worked hard to support our pilots as we have made changes to their routines at the same time we have faced unprecedented bad weather,” Messing said in a phone interview. “As we began complying with the new regulations, we were combining our pilot scheduling systems. We are making progress each day in making all of the new processes easier for our crew members.”
Dave Kelly, a spokesman for the Air Line Pilots Association, said Heppner wasn’t available for an interview.
Pilots said they had difficulty logging on to the system, known as CCS, for Crew Communication System, which shows everything from trip assignments to pay stubs.
Software Crashing
The new technology required three passwords, said a United captain, and was prone to crashing. Once logged on, he found it difficult to navigate and the information that was available was largely out of date. Flights were even assigned to pilots who are retired or deceased. When pilots tried to call for help, they sometimes sat on hold for more than an hour.
Another pilot, based in Chicago, said that every time he logged on to the crew scheduling system in recent days, a different person was listed as the captain of the flight he was supposed to fly.
He had difficulty calling in to the swamped scheduling department to straighten out matters, which caused him to be late on several of the flights, the pilot said.
“The company is field-testing the CCS system on the fly, several months behind schedule, and fixing issues as they arise,” Heppner wrote in the letter to pilots. “At the same time we are switching bidding systems,” adding the new scheduling system and reacting to the realities of the new pilot rest rules.
New Rules
United canceled 1,467 mainline flights from Jan. 1 through Jan. 8, and more than 8,700 when including its regional and commuter airlines, according to flight data analyzer masFlight. Other carriers also scrapped large parts of their schedules as they contended with frigid temperatures in the eastern U.S. and the same new federal restrictions on pilot flying time, known as FAR 117.
United’s Challenge
Merging complicated computer systems has been a challenge for United, especially when the shift has been to smaller Continental’s technology platforms.
The airline suffered flight delays, long check-in lines and problems with check-in kiosks in March 2012 after the Apollo passenger reservations system from the old United was switched over to Continental’s Shares program.
Five months later, backup systems failed to prevent a computer network malfunction that disabled communications with airports and United’s website, delaying 580 flights.
Also in 2012, a computer breakdown caused a flight to take off about 20,000 pounds (9,071 kilograms) heavier than pilots believed because the carrier’s weight estimate assumed the coach section of the Boeing Co. (BA) 737-900 was empty when it was full, people familiar with the incident said at the time.
In November of that year, a computerized system that coordinates preflight activities across the U.S. failed for about two hours. At least 523 United flights were delayed, according to online data service FlightStats.com
‘Stable and Reliable’
United has worked to improve its on-time performance and make its operations more efficient as it moves past the merger struggle. The carrier aims to trim costs by $2 billion through 2017 as it shifts flying to fuel-sipping aircraft like the Boeing 787 Dreamliner and boosts employee productivity.
“Our team’s performance year-to-date demonstrates that our operations are once again stable and reliable,” Chief Executive Officer Jeff Smisek said on an Oct. 24 conference call, after 78.9 percent of United’s arrivals for the third quarter were on-time.
To contact the reporters on this story: Julie Johnsson in Chicago at [email protected]; Mary Schlangenstein in Dallas at [email protected]; Alan Levin in Washington at [email protected]
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Ed Dufner at [email protected]

CALFO

So it's not that you can't operate the system, it is that the system is limited in the information it provides? No argument there. The FIFO is completely unacceptable as is the crew meal info.

Some of the other information, such as the aircraft's next leg, are available if you know where to look.

CALFO

It's AFU. We all know that. Very little of it has to do with pilots operating CCS. CMS, that's a different story.

CALFO

Totally understand and agree. I believe CCS has most of this functionality, however line pilots are not given access to it. This needs to change.