[designer714]

I was recently on Flight 740 (March 5, 2011) to Madrid. We were supposed to arrive in Madrid at 7:55am. Well in Philly there was a child who was screaming and crying as we boarded, we did not leave on time due to this. The flight attendent warned the parents that we could not leave until the child was under their control, another person also came down the aisle (these people were right behind me and the kids kicked my seat throughout the flight-maybe I should have complained then) and noted the seat number. Finally the mom got the child to only whimper, but the delay had started. We arrived in Madrid almost a full hr late! I missed my bus out of the city and had to pay for a hotel for two extra nights, and extra train fare. I had to reschedule my flight back, to the tune of $250 (and then I find out that there was a young girl on my flight back, who missed her flight the day before, she had been out drinking and slept late, who was able to reschedule without any fee!). I wrote to US airways and received the stupidest cut and past email back. Of course they couldn't refund me any flight fee/hotel/etc because crying children were out of their control, however they allowed the child to control the time of departure. go figure. My daughter used to worK at US Airways so I was not rude, because I know customer service gets alot of complaints. I really was naive in expecting them to step up. In total their decision to delay takeoff due to a crying child (which of course they said they had no control of) cost me over $1500 in extra fees/hotel/train etc. not to mention the stress/frustration. I will never fly them again unless its the last & only resort. I'm still trying to figure out how they can charge me a ticket change and not someone else.....i'm sure there is a law broken there somewhere, but probably there is a clause in the fine print on the tiny square on my ticket that says, we don't care about customer service, we can treat anyone however we want to.

[stonecold_1981]

Hmm just trying to understand the situation:
You flight was about an hour late and so you had to:
- miss the bus out to the city
- pay for hotel extra two nights
- extra train fare
- reschedule return trip

Not sure how the above flows. Could you not have taken the next bus to the city? If there is only 1 bus in a day, don't you think leaving 1 hour time-gap for delays is too less? What if your flight was delayed due to weather? Also, why did you have to reschedule the return flight? How is that related to your outbound flight getting delayed by 1 hour?

Once again, I'm just trying to understand the situation and feel that the story doesn't make sense (i.e. requires more information).
So far, I see you (rightly so) ****** about the flight getting delayed due to a crying child. But I don't understand how US airways is liable for $1500??

[jimworcs]

There is no where near enough information about the circumstances to justify the claim. Some of the decisions you made seem almost reckless. If one hour delay could so seriously disrupt your itinerary, you are either a VERY inexperienced traveller or reckless. You need take some responsibility for what seems like very poor planning.