[Cern]

To Whom It May Concern:

My name is CeeAnne Ernspiker, and I traveled with US Airways on the dates of June 11th, 2011, and June 18th and 19th, 2011 between SDF and MBJ as the final destination, round trip. I am writing this letter to express my disappointment with many circumstances that I experienced with your airline during this time. I have traveled with your company before, and have always had an issue and let it go, but this last experience was the last straw. On Saturday, June 11th, my family was on flight #3072 from SDF to PHL, and flight 859 from PHL to MBJ. My family and I were at SDF by 5:30 AM to catch our 7:00 AM flight, only to take off around 7:30 AM for undisclosed reasons. The pilot informed us that he would be able to make up for lost time in the air. When we got in the Philadelphia area, the pilot came back on the speaker to inform us that there were no available gates, and there were many planes in front of us, so we we’re simply in a holding pattern for at least half an hour before we could land. This caused us to deplane flight 3072 over 45 minutes late with our plane to MBJ leaving less than 20 minutes later. When booking my flights, my travel agent (and myself with a follow up) informed US Airways that at every airport terminal my husband needed assistance and/or a wheelchair. The only time this need was met during the entire trip was when we landed at MBJ, which was also the case last year. When we deplaned at PHL, my two daughters literally had to run to catch the shuttle taking us to the correct gate, and then sprint onto the plane, informing the gate attendants that my husband and I were on our way, as he cannot walk and they had to leave us looking for a cart to take us where we needed to go. We were the last people on the plane, and barely made it. Luckily after standing around for a very precious couple of minutes, we waved down a cart to take us where we needed to go. Thankfully the flight to Jamaica wasn’t a hassle, like our entire morning had been, and we arrived at our resort without problem.
The flight home is where the major problems began. Upon arriving to MBJ, on schedule, we were displeased to find a staggeringly long line of people waiting to check in at the U.S. airways counter. There were open “Self Serve” computers, U.S. airways personnel standing around chatting to one another, and well over a hundred passengers in line. After standing in line for almost an hour, we finally arrived at the counter. The woman helping us was pleasant, as per the “Jamaican Hospitality” and she was a tremendous amount of help after informing us that our flight to CLT, #1232 had just taken off from CLT, and would be at least two hours late. Right away we realized we would miss our connecting flight home #2678 to SDF, and she tried everything she could to get us home on different flights, and even trying different airlines, to no avail. I informed her that my husband is on numerous extremely important cancer treating medications, and he only had a couple of more doses. She tried everything she could to get us home that night, but it was obviously out of her control. We had no choice but to get on our flight, with hopes of being put on stand-by for a flight leaving at almost midnight to SDF. We were also told at MBJ that if we were denied stand-by, we would be provided hotel accommodations and meal vouchers for the night. The flight home on #1232 was uneventful until landing and we had to sit waiting on the runway for over half an hour until a gate was available yet again. To be sure, we were anxious as to what we would do when we got off of the plane in CLT.
The plane arrived at CLT after 9 PM. After picking up our bags from the baggage claim, we went back up to the ticket counter, sans accommodation for my husband in the form of a wheelchair and/or assistance. At this point, it was expected that we obviously were not going to be helped by US Airways personnel with this particular request and I was willing to push him in a wheelchair myself. There were about five people from the same flight in line in front of us awaiting their fate and several behind us, because they had obviously missed their connecting flights as well. As me, my husband, and my two daughters were walking up to the next available ticket person, my oldest daughter overheard the ticket lady, who’s nametag read “Shirley D.”, next to her raise her voice at a man and his wife who were on the same flight as us, saying “Sir, DON’T get an attitude with me!”. My daughter, who is 22 years old and under any other circumstance is extremely well mannered and courteous but obviously compassionate, started listening in on the conversation, only to hear “Shirley D” inform in an extremely unprofessional way, that contrary to what the flight was told in MBJ, the man and his wife would not be provided accommodations and meal vouchers and would simply have to fend for themselves. My daughter joined in the conversation, informed “Shirley D“ that she had heard the exact same thing as the man and his wife had, and we were to be provided accommodations and assistance. After a heated exchange between “Shirley D”, my daughter, the man and a couple more passengers who had heard the same thing that my daughter had at MBJ, the ticket counter people were informed by their boss, I would assume, that our flight was to receive assistance but not the previous flight from Jamaica. This was only after “Shirley D” told my daughter, who is obviously younger than she was, but educated and normally very polite, not to get an “attitude” with her, just as she had told the older man. Then she extremely and unprofessionally tried to “stare down” my daughter and smirk at her, and whispered to another man behind the counter something incomprehensible. Other people saw this as well, because later, as people from our flight were waiting for the shuttles taking everyone to their hotels that we had to fight to even receive in the first place, two different passengers at different times came up to my daughter and said they could not believe that “Shirley D” acted the way she did to her, and that they were glad my daughter stood her ground or else they may very well have been spending the night on the chairs at CLT. After being treated horrendously (anyone who was on our flight and in that line would attest to this) by the US Airways personnel at the ticket counter, we were finally given vouchers for a room and dinner. Eventually, past midnight, we made it to our hotel where we had to wait an hour and a half for food to be delivered, only to be back at the airport at 5:30 AM for our 7:33 AM flight on #2424 to SDF.
We arrived at our gate before 7 AM the next morning and boarded our plane on time, ready to finally arrive in Louisville after traveling for almost 24 hours. The entire plane was boarded, and ready for take-off. After about fifteen minutes of sitting at our gate on the plane, the pilot announced over the intercom and informed us that due to inclement weather, we would be delayed an hour and a half and to deplane but to remain in the boarding area. The passengers were upset, but it was weather after all, and no blame was to be taken. We all deplaned and took seats at the gate, after we were told not to leave the terminal. After sitting for about an hour, my youngest daughter approached the gate attendant to ask if we were still supposed to be departing shortly and if we would be boarding again soon, only to be told that our flight home had been cancelled. The gate attendant then handed her a card with an 800 number we could call. Again, my husband was on his last dose of medicine, and we were at our wits end already from the over 24 hours of trying to arrive home at this point. We received no explanation as to why our flight had been cancelled and were left to simply fend for ourselves. I immediately called the 800 number, and got a busy signal for at least 20 minutes. I had also noted that the next flight to Louisville was leaving at 10:00 AM and On Time. In the meantime, my daughters went to find a cart to take us to the ticket counter, yet again, because my husband had still been offered no wheelchair or assistance whatsoever since we had been stateside. We eventually arrived at the ticket counter, again hoping that we would be treated better than we had been previously. My youngest daughter stood in the extremely long line, while my husband and I walked outside to try the 800 number again because there was no reception in the actual airport building. My oldest daughter walked to the US Airways check-in area outside because she saw wheelchairs and attendants, to ask for assistance for my husband. She was told that he would have to show them a boarding ticket in order to receive assistance, and after handing them his boarding ticket for the cancelled flight to SDF that morning, the attendants told her that it was not a current boarding ticket, and there was nothing they could do, even after she explained to them that my husband could not stand in the extremely long line in order to receive a current boarding ticket. She asked if she could simply borrow one of the US Airways wheelchairs and assist him herself, and they told her no, that it was a liability, and waved her off. Meanwhile, I got through to a US Airways operator, and told her our predicament, and she told me she would “try to find a flight out the next day” for my family. I informed her that this was unacceptable, because my husband was on very important medicine regimens and he had taken his last doses and needed to get home as soon as possible. I stayed on the phone with her for over an hour while she looked for flights, but she kept informing me there were none available for Louisville. After over an hour on the telephone, we settled for a flight down to Atlanta, with a connecting flight to Louisville, and we would arrive home at 10 or so that night. We had no choice but to accept this. Leaving my husband outside to sit down, because there was nowhere inside to sit, I walked inside to look for my daughters. I found them in an extremely long line still waiting to speak with a counter person (this was well over an hour after they began waiting in line). They informed me that after standing in the first line for over forty five minutes, they arrived at the counter and were told they were in the “wrong line” with no explanation as to why. They asked numerous US Airways personnel standing around which line they should be in, but they were given shrugs, with one woman literally saying “I dunno” and walking off. Eventually, after being helped by a few polite US Airways attendants, which at this point was very surprising, we were able to get confirmed on flight #2677 at 1:10 PM to SDF with no seat assignments, and were told there was a very good chance of us actually getting on the flight. My family then proceeded to the correct gate, as it was nearing noon at this point. We went through security again, and eventually arrived at gate E26. My oldest daughter and I walked up to the gate attendant (who was not wearing a name tag) and told her our situation and simply asked if she could tell us, in her experienced opinion, what chance we had of getting on the flight. She told us that she didn’t know who had the authority to confirm us for this flight, as it was a full flight and “oversold by 10”, and she was pretty sure we would not have a spot on it. Then she actually told us that she was extremely busy and getting behind, as the plane had just arrived at the gate, and continued doing whatever it was she was doing before we walked up to her. This was her way of telling us to leave her alone, we suppose. Another extremely rude US Airways worker, but we were used to it at this point. Luckily, we were able to get on the flight, and arrived at SDF around 4 PM, almost 36 hours after we had arrived at MBJ. And luckily again, half of our luggage had arrived to SDF on an earlier flight, and half of it arrived on our flight (which is unlike last year, when none of our luggage made it home with us on a US Airways flight, and had to be brought to our house the next day.
After spending almost a thousand dollars on each ticket for the four members of my family, I am appalled at the experience we endured flying US Airways. Some of what we experienced was out of human control, such as the weather we encountered. However, what made mine and my family’s traveling experience so terrible was the way we were treated by the numerous US Airways personnel we encountered, and the extremelack of assistance my husband received, even after we arranged for assistance prior to our trip, and then having to resort to simply asking for a wheelchair, and being denied. Two years in a row! The lack of answers as to why our flight was cancelled and leaving us extremely confused most of the time, the lack of organization by US Airways, which resulted in even more stress on my family, and more importantly, my husband. We tried to make this a memorable trip but certainly not in the way it played out. There are a few more issues that I have, ie. extra charges incurred for food, tips, house sitter, cabs, etc., that I would not have had if we had arrived home on time or in a reasonable amount of time, but this letter has already taken too much of my time. I do have the documentation if you would like proof.
In closing, I am asking for a full refund or replacement of the four fares considering the amount of stress, including physical, mental and monetary, that my family was subjected to. I would like to add that in the future, myself and any other customers that may choose to fly with US Airways, should not have to deal with such total disregard for what should be common courtesy and comfort.
Thank you for your prompt attention and time in considering this matter.
Sincerely,
CeeAnne D. Ernspiker CErnspiker@aol.com
418 Washburn Ave.
Louisville, KY 40222
(502) 425-2331