US Airways: Letter of Complaint to CEO
 

February 8, 2008

Doug Parker
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
US Airways
4000 E. Sky Harbor Blvd.
Phoenix, AZ 85034

Dear Mr. Parker:

You’re about to read a few words from a very loyal, a very faithful, and now a very angry and disappointed frequent flyer, Louis I. Middleman, FF# 4207962. Since last October, my wife and I have been trying, at least weekly, and completely without success, to use points to upgrade from coach to business class the Philadelphia – Athens – Philadelphia portion of our upcoming itinerary (confirmation #F82N56). My wife has a bad back, and without the added comfort of the upgrade, it will be extremely difficult for her to make this trip.
We said to ourselves, “Not to worry: we have points!” How do we have points? By spending a lot of money with US Airways over a lot of years. By being loyal, faithful frequent flyers. But we have been treated badly, and I want you to fix this situation.
Every time we call, we learn that there are no seats available for upgrades. “What,” we ask, “are we to do?” “Call back in a week.” And then it all starts again.
On November 30, my wife, Lynn Scott Cochrane, FF# 3842466, called and was told that yes, indeed, the upgrade was available but that we were short 1,000 points and that she would therefore need to transfer 5,000 points (the minimum allowable transfer) from her account to mine, for a fee of $186.25. My wife was told that as soon as this transfer was accomplished, she could call back and get the upgrade. But when she did that, the answer – from a different person, of course – was “No, the upgrade isn’t available now.”
Setting aside the outrage of charging $186.25 for what some employee did with perhaps thirty seconds’ worth of keystrokes, let me just say that the message you send to customers is that you don’t really care about us at all. Some years ago, your ad line was “USAirways Begins with You.” Well, I’m afraid that what’s truer, both in spelling and in fact, is that “USAirways begins with US. And by the way, the heck with YOU.”
If you let us use our miles the way you say we can in your ads and promotions, then we’ll be motivated to continue being good customers. We’ll choose you when we have the option because we’ll feel rewarded for doing so, knowing that the points we build up actually mean something.
But if you don’t, then we’ll do everything we can to fly some other airline. (Wouldn’t you?) And once enough disgruntled customers become disgusted customers, then before long you won’t have any customers to behave badly towards. Please make this right. If you need to do some customer service benchmarking, call Nordstrom. Or Southwest. Better yet, Thai Airways.

Hopefully,


Louis I. Middleman

cc: U.S. Department of Transportation-Aviation Consumer Protection Division
Federal Aviation Administration Consumer Hotline
www.consumeraffairs.com/travel/airlines.html
www.airlinecomplaints.org