[Gonzo]

Please back me up if you were involved in the Jan 5th HNL fiasco with US Airways.

Below is my letter to US Airways customer service.

A chart of their dismal stock performance appears at the top and did not paste.

Thanks!

* * *


Surely this is not the only message you've received, or will receive, about this particular fiasco, so you don't need many of the particulars. I feel I can safely list our specific complaints without providing extensive background about the situation in Honolulu last week.

We reserved tickets online with consecutive seats for all flights. Upon arriving for flight 125, we did not have seats in the same row. Or any of the actual seats selected online. We would never play this card to one-up our fellow passengers, but this was particularly troublesome with a pregnant woman and an obviously sick five year old. We paid more for a different flight from US Airways to avoid the hidden charge for 'premium' coach seats (HA!) that were all that was available on cheaper flights.

Pointed this out at check in. "No problem, they'll fix it at the gate."
Got to the gate. "Okay. The flight attendants will help out."
First flight attendant. (pointing down the crowded aisle) "The next flight attendant will help you out."
Second flight attendant. (pointing to the galley) "Oh. He'll get you re-seated."

He didn't. He "wasn't allowed."

Thankfully there were some friendly people in the back rows willing to switch seats around.

This was nice of them. However, after sitting on the tarmac for three hours (No useful updates. Not even water offered between 11:40pm and 3:00am), it turned out to be rather inconvenient to be at the very back of the plane (thanks to your staff) as lines formed to get call center numbers, hotel vouchers, etc.

Got off the plane, was handed a call center number "specifically activated for this disruption."

Hold.

Hold.

Call center answer.

I normally enjoy the foreign call center experience. We trade recipes and compare weather; it's a great bit of multiculturalism. However at 3:40, I didn't like being put on hold while I scrambled to explain that I wasn't going to Germany.

Hold.

Phone bank picked back up and informed me (after a brief attempt to argue that we were indeed going to Germany, not El Paso, TX) that our best chance was a (Delta) flight to Seattle the next day. Fine. "And US Airways at the Seattle-Tacoma airport can arrange the rest of your flights." Keep in mind my final destination is almost as far from Seattle as it is from Honolulu. Same continent, I guess.

I remarked that this was unacceptable and may I please speak to a manager. "Oh, yes, sir."

Hold.

Hold.

Hold.

Phyllis at US Airways gets on the line and informs me that a new flight has been set up for the next day to handle this circumstance. (I think I know why this wasn't common knowledge to the call centers as we got off the plane. More on that later.) Super. And they could book me through to my final destination. Super. And as it is a brand new flight, consecutive seats should be no problem. Super!

During this holding period, the three US Airways employees working the voucher line have finally gotten to my fiance at the back of the line. The vouchers for breakfast, only good for that day, were especially appreciated.

At about 5:20am we get to the hotel at which US Airways has a block reserved. Nice place. Apparently, though, no contingency plan is developed to inform the hotel that 200 check-ins will be soon arrive, as the two night receptionists struggle through the line. Not their fault. They actually did their jobs pretty efficiently given the circumstance.

New flight (9030) is at 10:30pm, and we wisely, given the previous night's experience, arrive early.

Check-in. Non-consecutive seats are a minor problem compared to one of the three of us not showing up on the check-in computer. I produce for the ticket agent the email on my phone proving that, yes all three of us exist.

The next thirty minutes are about like two of those above 'Holds', but without the muzak or friendly lady from India. But we all get a ticket.

Upon commenting on the nonconsecutive seats:
"Oh, they will take care of that at the gate."

Don't even get to masochistically point this out to a gate agent. There isn't one. 15 minutes before scheduled boarding of a 6 hour flight.

Gate agents arrive, and while I am in line, they are (by no fault of their own - these two were competent, well comparatively) actually quite busy getting security to manage the large group of passengers with smaller complaints and and much less patience. This was at least entertaining. Especially the passengers yelling about how the gate agents know that they are paid to lie. Funny.

11:00 No plane at gate. "It's here. It is being re-spotted."
11:30 No plane. And a gate change . . . to the gate where this night's flight 125 is scheduled to leave.

200 newly perturbed US Airways customers as the delay is announced, and the passengers from my plane explain the situation to all of the next night's lucky US Airway's customers. Who I'm willing to bet were 'delayed' about like we were as US Airways kicked the can down the road and surely lost more money. Did you call ahead to the hotel this time?

In the meantime, whilst waiting, other passengers were checking flight status. One passenger checking through the FAA, not your website, noticed that there was no flight 9030 out of Honolulu that night. Call me a tinfoil hat conspiracy theorist, but I'm pretty convinced that there was never an intention to treat us any better or inform us of the actual situation. There was no plan for a new flight. Surely some passengers re-booked on the next night's flight 125. Suckers. They should have gone to Seattle on Delta.

Onto the plane.

Oh. Not only were our seats not consecutive, the five year old was boarding in group five as the adults boarded in group two. Naturally we got on with family boarding, but that automated system sure doesn't miss a beat does it?

This time a flight attendant really tried to help us. Wish I'd gotten her name so I could pass it along to Southwest, Delta, etc. Still, we traded around seats on our own before we could use her help.

12:20ish

Plane takes off two hours late.

I've been on many Southwest flights where 15-20 minutes is made up on a two hour flight. I realize Jet-A is expensive and there is a trade off between schedules and your fuel bill. I tried to remember this while running through PHX with a nauseated kindergartner on my shoulders, and not fixate on how while flying with the jet stream across the Pacific, how little fuel would be needed to make up a few minutes of time.

I guess your economists are the experts.

See chart at top for proof.

And for the sorry reason that this experience can't lead to a profit be shorting your stock. It has no more down to go.

Tonight as I refused to fill out your online complaint form and searched around for a real address, I found the FAA complaint address and several private websites which exists to post such horror stories. This will be up on all I can find shortly.

Right after I go to my credit card site and make sure that I haven't been charged for my replacement flight. Or one to Seattle. Or Dusseldorf. None would surprise me at this point.

Utter incompetence and apathy towards the customer at nearly every interaction throughout this ordeal. Sure, I'd love a refund but we will not be flying US Airways again so I guess that does you no good. Isn't honesty in business interactions novel?