As far as the seat situation goes ... many airlines "hold" seats, even when nobody it sitting in them, which means the agent is not able to book someone into those seats, until the gate agent opens the seats. Usually these seats are reserved for elite members of frequent flyer programs. I doubt that the agent lied to you, that row 10 was the best he could do ... it probably was the best he could do, at that time, until the gate agent "unheld" the other seats. Being as though they were seats ahead of row 10, I would be willing to bet that is exactly what the case was. Usually these "Held" seats are located in the front of the airline. They are held, again, for elite members of their frequent flyer program, children who may be flying alone, as well as hanicapped passengers. These seats are usually not "unheld" by the gate agent, until about 30 minds prior to departure.
As far the airplane being bumped to the front of the line, for takeoff, that is air traffic control, and something USAir has no control over. Air traffic control, is FAA. USAirways didn't have any control over their place in line, for takeoff.
In regards to being lied to about the departure time of your flight to Presque Isle. The agents did not deliberately lie. They can only go by what they computer tells them. They times that are put into the computer are "estimates", and often change. If they gate agent told you 9:15, originally, it was because that is what the computer said. It later got pushed back. Gate agents, unlike what most people think, have no control over that, and can literally only go by what the computer says.
Routine maintenance doesn't mean that the airplane was scheduled for maintenance at that time. It means that the situation is routine, in that it is something that is not serious, and that the mechanics fix on a routine basis.
It sucks what happened to you, but I don't think that the airline lied to you as much as you think. There are many things that are completely outside of customer service agents control, that get updated constantly, so they can only give you an estimate, or an educated guess. For example, at the airline I worked for, we turned flights around, in 13-15 minutes, plenty of times, other times we spent much longer. You cannot predict things that may allow you to turn a flight fast, and things that may hold you up. They do happen.
|