[Johannesgeiger]

Hello everyone, here is my very lengthy complaint letter i wrote to US Airways:


To Whom It May Concern:


My name is Johannes Geiger and for Christmas 2012 I decided to visit my family in Germany. The flight to Germany went smoothly but the flight back to Portland from Munich, which began on January 1st, 2013, was very memorable. My journey began on US Flight 709 from Munich to Philadelphia, which was about forty-five minutes late, push back from Terminal 2 was planned to be at 12:15PM, and the actual time was 01:01PM CET.


Usually, this would not be a problem, especially since the delay was known ahead of time. This advance knowledge meant that even if the flight was unable to speed up and arrive at its destination on time, which was not an option because of the jet stream, that's out of the airline's jurisdiction, no question there, there were about nine hours in which to plan ahead so that the passengers who had to catch a connecting flight could be briefed on what to do and where to go. Given that the flight from Philadelphia to San Francisco was the same flight number, we can reasonably assume that a large number of passengers on that flight had an interest in making a connection on time that day.


No such briefing occurred during the flight. We ended up arriving over an hour late. Our scheduled landing time at KPHL was 03:37PM EST, and our actual landing time was 04:38PM EST. Again, I understand that weather delays are not the airline's fault, so I could have lived with that delay. How the airline reacts to such a delay, however, makes all the difference in the world to me. When we debarked the airplane there was only one US Airways employee at the gate. She had a huge pile of tickets and informed us that if we didn't make our flight we could have another ticket for a new routing.


Now, there were 296 passengers on the plane and I estimate that at least half of them had to get a new ticket. It takes an extremely long time for a single person to give out a hundred tickets to a mass of confused passengers with a lot of questions, most of which could have been answered on the plane with a simple announcement. That process added a lot of completely unnecessary time to my already pretty substantial delay. Next, I had to get my checked bag, check it back in, go through immigration, a separate passport control and a TSA security screening, and all of that in less than an hour. I know this is pretty much out of the airline's control as well, but all the flight's passengers still had to wait in the same line as the relaxed passengers who had more than just forty-five minutes to catch their plane.


Naturally, I missed my flights. (Us Airways 709 to San Francisco and then United Airlines 522 to Portland). I didn't think this would be a big deal; I figured I'd just go to one of the many US Airways ticket counters and get a new connection to Portland. Three times I was told to go from Terminal A to B or vice versa to a specific ticket counter. The airport in Philadelphia is pretty big so I was running around for a good forty minutes before I finally spotted a help desk. The employee there gave me two new tickets, after having to ask her supervisor how to change my route, with my new route being Phoenix-Portland on flights 1193 and 93 with your airline.


I arrived at gate B11, which was on the other side of the airport again, just in time to listen to an announcement that the flight to Phoenix was delayed as well. Again, weather delays happen but almost two hours? The scheduled time was 07:55PM EST and the actual take off time was 09:17PM EST. Had I been two hours late in arriving at Phoenix, I would have obviously missed my connection to Portland, so I tried to go to the ticket counter at that gate and get help. Tried to, being the key phrase here, because despite there being about twenty-five passengers in line trying to get new tickets there was only one employee at the counter. It took about thirty-five minutes for her to help the first customer. It was about 7:30pm Philadelphia time when it was my turn. Once again, the lady at the ticket counter didn't really know how to use the computer, to the point where it took her about five minutes to pull up my reservation. I was then informed that all flights to Portland for that evening were full and my next chance would be at 7:00pm the next day. Not 7:00am, mind you, but 7:00pm. Astonished, I asked whether there were any other options, maybe with another airline.


I was informed, sadly, that all the flights were completely booked. I inquired as to the availability of hotels in the local area, since it seemed that due to your airline's ineptitude I would be stuck in Philadelphia for the evening. Your employee told me that US Airways does not pay for hotels in these scenarios. This was the point at which I started to get really angry. Not only did I receive minimal help during my ordeal, I was now supposed to pay for the effects of the delay. In all my time traveling, I had never encountered such a policy. I went to a new desk in the other terminal in an attempt to find someone more helpful and waited in another lengthy line. When it was finally my turn, I had waited so long that I was able to search for other flights going to Portland on my smart phone.


It took the employee at the desk ten minutes and the help of her supervisor to pull up my reservation, and again I was informed that my best chance would be a flight the next day at 7:00pm. I suggested a few flights to Portland I found on my phone and the employee started to get frustrated and told me in no uncertain terms that she checked everything and there was absolutely no way I would make it to Portland. Finally, she said that I could fly to Seattle that evening if I wanted to. Seattle is a lot closer to Portland than Philadelphia, so I agreed. After only fifteen minutes of furious typing, I had my ticket to Seattle on US Airways flight 1541.


It was at this point that I asked what the plan was once I arrived in Seattle, Washington. I was told that that was not the airline's problem, as they had taken me as close to my destination as possible given the circumstances and that company policy did not allow them to pay for a train, cab or flight fares to my ultimate destination of Portland, Oregon. They still would not cover the expense of a hotel, even though my flight arrived at 11:07pm.


This was simply unbelievable. I am twenty four and I live on my own so I can take care of myself, but for example, there was a really nice older gentleman in the queue behind me who had a brain injury and he was clearly confused. I am concerned about a company that thinks it is acceptable to send someone to a different city and just tell them that they are on their own when they arrive. The same sentiment applies to people traveling with young children.


Thankfully, I have an awesome girlfriend who drove all the way from Portland to Seattle, a drive which takes about three and a half hours and picked me up. So, not only did I arrive in a different city, I had to drive three and a half hours back at my own expense. I think we can all agree that that is the last thing anyone needs after a twenty four hour long trip. I paid 1,500 dollars for my tickets and I did not get the service I paid for, not even close.


To add insult to injury, when I debarked the plane in Seattle, I asked the US Airways employee at the gate where my bag was. She had no idea and could not locate my bags in the system. When I asked her what to do she told me straight up she had no idea. The next day, after a three and a half hour drive back to Portland, I tried to figure out where my bags were. Your website has a tracking system for lost bags detailing how I can track my luggage:
"You can use your file number (ex: PHLUS00000012)."
I still, to this day, have no idea how to figure out what my file number was. After searching on the internet, I finally found a phone number, where one can elect to leave a message on a answering machine and get a call back. In the period of three hours I left three messages, which to this day are unanswered.


I figured that since I only missed my flight by a hair, my bags probably went my original route (PHL-SFC-PDX), so I called the airport directly only to get the same automated number from the help desk. I am so thankful that my flight from SFC to PDX was operated by United Airways because it only took me about twenty seconds to find their lost luggage number, call and have an agent tell me that they had immediately located my bags. The agent took my address and had a representative deliver my bag to my front door in less than an hour.


In summary, I know that it is not the airline's fault about the initial weather related delay. I also know that the airline is supposed to know about their own schedule and should be able to deal with problems like these when they occur. Not once in my many interactions with US Airways employees did I have the feeling that they were there to help me. The customer service attitude was one of hurried apathy. Perhaps this attitude arose from a general lack of training concerning normal operating procedures.


The recurring theme of this trip was frustration and helplessness. It is just shocking that such a prestigious airline would have such abysmal customer service. I don't really expect much from this email, I will send this to a few customer service websites and post it on a few forums. I don't even expect you to reimburse me for the fifty dollars I had to spend on gas money. This will be the last time I fly with US Airways. There are plenty of other airlines out there who hopefully have far superior customer service for a similar price, not that that would be very hard to accomplish.


Respectfully,


Johannes Geiger