[race4it]

US Air canceled our return flight and we lost part of our vacation/reunion. I wrote a letter today to customer service and several senior level US Air executives, and am still waiting for a response.

I also setup www.usairsucks.com.

Mr. Parker (USAIR CEO):

As a gift, my elderly father booked a family reunion/vacation in Belize for him, my mother, my family and my sister's family (10 of us all together). This was a once in a lifetime opportunity to bring all three generations together for a week and enjoy the great climate and activities that Belize has to offer. When the trip was booked months ago, we had a reservation on a USAIR flight from Charlotte to Belize that left on January 2nd and returned on January 9th, and accordingly my father booked a house that we were all to stay in for that week. US Air confirmed all our reservations and the tickets were paid for in full.

However, we just learned from him that a few weeks ago USAIR canceled the returning flight on the 9th from Belize (no reason was given), and did not re-book us on a competing airline's Sunday flight (both American and Continental fly out of Belize on the 9th). When my father called a couple of weeks ago about the problem, the USAIR representative told him the only solution was to book the return flight on another USAIR flight on the 8th (shortening our once in a lifetime family reunion by over 14%), and went on to say that if we wanted to sit together on the US Air flight he would have to pay an additional fee to US Air do so (this is hard for me to believe, but he says it's true). He paid the fee.

Mr. Parker, I would expect that instead of canceling our flight with little/no notice (we were unable to shorten our agreement on the accommodations so we will waste the $1,750US/day cost of the house), there would be an opportunity for US Air to place us on a Continental or American flight on Sunday the 9th (which there appears to be plenty of seats on). I'm sending you this information because as the CEO of a company (granted millions, not billions in size like US AIR, but I think the concept is universal), I would want to know if one of my companies behaved like this and I would want to make it right.

Mr. Parker, I greatly appreciate that you took the time to read this email and I look forward to your view and response on this problem with our US Air flight. As you can see from the dates above, we are in the middle of our time in Belize, and therefore can only be reached by email, douglas.parker@usairsu..., or at the house phone in San Pedro Belize (226-2481). Thank you for your assistance with this.

And sorry for the all the SEO keywords and the http://www.usairsucks.com address. Just trying to get someone's attention before we have to leave a day early on the US Air flight on the 8th.

If you guys correct this, I'll be happy to give you both credit for doing so as well as the http://www.usairsucks.com domain. I look forward to hearing from USAIR on this issue.

[jimworcs]

Wow, if you first salvo is a USAirSucks website, what shock and awe tactics are next!! This kind of arrogance by the airlines is infuriating... and then to have the gall to demand further payment for the earlier flight is breathtaking. Good luck... sadly US Airways lost touch with it's customers a long time ago... I remember fondly the old Piedmont... which was a lovely airline and had a great ethos... but it is LONG GONE!

[race4it]

Friday, January 7th, and US Air still has not responded to any of my emails to US Air Customer Service, US Air Executives (including Doug Parker the US Air CEO), and many calls into the US Air Customer Service line (typical wait time, 45 minutes plus). Looks like US Air will have successfully stolen a day of our vacation and not even had the decency to speak with us about it. US Air still Sucks!

A number of comments have been posted on other boards around the Internet (mostly agreeing with how US Air sucks and US Air Customer Service is effectively non-existent). However, one person rightfully so pointed out that US Air did not have to help us out in this situation. I agree that every airline is clear in their tiny print that they have the legal right to jerk you around as much as they care to and for any reason (or no reason). I realize that I have not legal case here, but great companies are never built on doing only what they have to do. Their brands are defined by empowering their people to do what they didn't have to do-- to do what is right.

And I think that's the point with US Air. They treat their customers like cattle going to slaughter and do only the bare minimum required by law in every category (safety, customer service, innovation, etc.).

I realize they don't have to do anything for me (and probably won't). I just find it amazing that with many posts around the internet (including the creation of www.usarsucks.com), many phone calls to customer service (who is impossible to get in contact with unless you want to invest at least an hours time on hold), and many emails to customer support and all the senior US Air executives (including the US Air CEO Doug Parker), that I can't get even a response from any one. Not even a "go to hell". Like I said, for these and many other reasons, US Air Sucks!