[brichar]

I've called and written the following complaint to US Air about this nightmare! But no response. So I'm screwed out of $700:

I am writing regarding the disastrous events I experienced courtesy of US Airways, which just don’t seem to end! On April 16, 2007, I booked tickets for my husband and me to fly round trip from PHX to BWI on June 29, 2007 ($466.80); on May 5, 2007, I booked an additional ticket with the same itinerary for my daughter ($238.40) so that she could go with us to attend my niece’s wedding. On June 29th, we went to the airport to begin our trip. After waiting in line for 50 minutes to check our bags, the baggage handler took our tickets and went to the counter. After several minutes, he came back, handed us our tickets and said, “I can’t help you.” After chasing him down to find out what was going on, he informed us that we didn’t check our bags in time; that there was now a requirement to check bags 45 minute before a flight. WE HAD BEEN WAITING IN LINE FOR 50 MINUTES, AND NOW WE WERE PAST THE 45 MINUTE LIMIT BY 8 MINUTES! AFTER this happened, he made an announcement that there was a new 45 minute time limit for bag check and if anyone was getting close to their flight time to let them know. Had this announcement been made sometime during our 50 minute wait in line, it would have saved us A LOT of grief!
We were told to go to the Customer Service desk and see if they could do anything. Again, we stood in line for about 30 minutes (no way we were going to make our flight by then), and lo and behold, there was a sign posted INSIDE the terminal, by Customer Services, about the new 45 minute rule on checking bags, that I believe, became effective in October, 2006. When I asked why the sign wasn’t posted at the curbside bag check, the US Airways Customer Service person informed us that the curbside people were contractors and weren’t employees of US Airways and that we should have checked our bags inside.
I’m not a stupid person, and I believe in knowing as much as you can about things that you’re doing in life, but you need a little help from people who are supposed to know their jobs. We missed our flight because a rule had taken effect, and NO WHERE AT CURBSIDE OR ON THE FACE OF MY E-TICKET DOES IT SAYS ANYTHING ABOUT THE TIME LIMIT FOR CHECKING BAGS.
After being LECTURED by the punk at the Customer Service desk on how he’d have me removed from the airport for swearing at him, after I told him I was "pissed”, he RE-ISSUED our tickets and put us on Stand-By; and oh yes, his parting remark of, “Well, all the flights are overbooked, so that’s what happens" was truly a great example of Customer Service - Really!
We were then sent from gate to gate trying to catch a flight to BWI or any airport near BWI. After 12 hours at the airport, we returned to our home (our luggage went to BWI). When I called to ask that the reissued tickets be emailed to me (which they never were), I was told that the tickets could be used up to one year. Not one year from the original booking date of April 16th. Now I’m want to book a trip using the credit from the tickets and I’m being told that they expired!
When I called to book a new trip and use the tickets, I was told that the ticket on the confirmation number doesn’t show me as a traveler. I told her that was because the tickets were reissued after we missed our flight on June 29, 2007, and that there should be a different confirmation number for the reissued tickets. The agent looked it up and found the reissued tickets, and said, “Oh, those tickets expired April 16th.” Why should they expire April 16th when they were reissued on June 29th? I was told because the original ticketing date was issued on April 16th. As I told her, “You just told me that the ticket you’re looking at that was issued on April 16th doesn’t show me as a traveler, it only shows my husband, AND that it doesn’t have any value, which is probably because it was reissued on June 29th and that after being placed on Standby, we never got on a flight.
I cannot even convey to you the emotional distress that my family and I went through on June 29th. We ran from gate to gate trying to get on another flight, and all we kept hearing was that all the flights had been OVERSOLD, and on top of that, about a hundred flights had been cancelled the day before, and that the airlines was trying to play catchup. I can only surmise that the whole chain of events was to prevent as many people as possible from making their flights so that the airline could free up seats for the other passengers who had been unfortunate enough to have had their flight cancelled the day before. And now, to find out that US Airway, after all the crap that we went through, and although they reissued the tickets (on June 29th) under a different confirmation number (which, by the way, were never emailed to me as I had requested at the time), are now not honoring the tickets because the "initial" booking date was April 16th. That’s $700 out of my pocket, for NO SERVICE or ASSISTANCE, only excuses from US Airways.
I feel that actions by your airline are unacceptable. I should be able to reuse these tickets until June 29, 2008. I am requesting that I be contacted to resolve this issue.