Monday, July 23, 2007

on my list (07-23-07)

If you're ever on expedia or cheaptickets looking for a flight and come across one from US Airways that's a good price, run. RUN far away and fast. Pay the extra $200 for a ticket on another airline. It will be worth it in the end. That $200 extra that you pay will save you from missing your connecting flights and having to stay overnight in strange and sometimes shady hotels, ripped and broken luggage, lost luggage and general feelings of anger and hatred towards a company that I pray goes bankrupt soon.

A month after we bought the ticket on US Air, this report came out. I should have canceled the ticket then and there. It was a dismal indicator of what was to come for my husband.

" Among airlines, US Airways Group Inc. finished the worst in May for on-time arrivals, at 67.9 percent. Its Flight 1569 from Boston to Philadelphia was the most-delayed in the U.S. in May, running late 96 percent of the time.

``We know we need to do better,'' spokesman Morgan Durrant said. The carrier, No. 7 in the U.S. by passenger traffic, began a customer-service push in March that includes hiring more workers and upgrading self-service kiosks, he said. "

Really? REALLY?! You know you need to do better? Well, no freaking kidding. How about starting with hiring people who actually know how to load the luggage onto the plane, without ripping it to shreds. Then, you should focus on those people actually putting the luggage on the correct flight. Send them a memo informing them that the airport code FRA is Frankfurt and NOT France. Once you do that, then you should tell your planners to figure out a way to plan routes that don't make you late 1/3 of the time. People don't pay $1,200 a ticket in hopes that you ruin their vacation by making them miss their connecting flights, forcing them to travel for an extra day. They pay you $1,200 a ticket for you to get them to their vacation destination rested and ready to play. Are you going to give us the day of paid vacation back? I didn't think so. How is it freaking fair that we give you money for a service that you didn't even provide? It hurts. It really REALLY hurts.

What's really sad is that you began this "customer-service push" in March. It's now July. If this is the New and Improved US Air, you've got bigger problems that you can handle. Do yourselves a favor and sell your souls to Delta or United. They have problems too, but at least they can get a customer to their destination on time 84% and 75% of the time, respectivly. Morons.

2 comments:

Hilary said...

My mom's friends recently took a trip from California to the East Coast somewhere (or, at least, tried to) and bought their tickets from US Air. Right when they took off, they knew something was wrong. After about an hour of weird flight, the pilot came over the loud speaker and announced that they had lost an engine and were going to have to turn around and do one of those scary crash landings. They ended up ok, but for me that was enough to swear NEVER to even THINK about buying travel from them again.

Anonymous said...

Jo,
If you make a big enough stink sometimes the airlines will give you some form of compensation. I know that in the states if they delay you for more than 4 hours they have to give you a certain amount of compensation or a free ticket or something like that. If your hubby and W were supposed to catch a flight on US and US made you late. Technically they are supposed to hold the flight or put you on the next one with compensation. I know that you are a terrific complainer (I meant that in the best way possible...meaning if you were upset I wouldn't want to be on your bad side...it's a good thing). I guess see if you can get anything from your poor families bad experience. See what company policies are. PS. Stay away from American Airlines too. My ex traveled to Wisconsin when we were together and they told him one boarding location on his ticket, another on the computer, and another from an employee. He stood where the employee said that the plane would be boarding. He missed the flight and they couldn't fly him out until the next day. He sat in those massage chairs all night and slept. Even though the chair kept saying every two minutes, "Please insert money."
Anyway, see if you can get a free ticket. Let me know if you get compensation.
Stef