An open letter to US Airways

by Mike Barish on

I just got back from spending a week visiting a friend in Puerto Rico. Considering I am tan, well-rested and had perfect weather, I guess it was a successful trip. But it was almost derailed from the very beginning when US Airways lost my luggage.

You see, I was forced to check my luggage because the overhead compartments were full. When I asked the US Airways representative why people in our seating “zone” had to check our bags and not others who boarded first, he simply said, “next time book a seat in the back of the plane.” Now seems to be the right time to point out that I was seated in row 22 of a 30 row plan yet was in Zone 6 out of 7. Logic, thy name is not US Airways.

Well, the attendant quickly scribbled my flight info on the luggage ticket. And by quickly I mean sloppily. How sloppy? His SJU (San Juan, Puerto Rico) ended up looking like SJO (Juan Santamaría International, Costa Rica). Woops! Of course, no one knew where my bag was for days. Which meant that I spent New Year’s Eve in clothes purchased in San Juan and several days in a pretty ornery mood. Ultimately, my bag was found and returned and I am happy to report that I encountered several wonderfully helpful US Airways staff members along the way.

What follows is an open letter to US Airways (rest assured it has also been emailed, faxed and mailed to their Customer Relations department). I made sure to praise those who helped me. It’s only fair.

US Airways Customer Relations,

I am writing to express my great frustration and disappointment. On December 30, 2008, I departed LaGuardia airport en route to San Juan, Puerto Rico with a stop in Charlotte, NC (Flight 899 with a transfer to Flight 1568).

I attempted to board the plane at LaGuardia when my zone was called (Zone 6). At this time, I was told that the overhead compartments were full and that I would need to check my carry-on bag. When I asked the US Airways representative why people in our zone were essentially being penalized, he simply told me, “next time book a seat in the back of the plane.” However, I was in row 22 of a 30 row plane. Yet, I was in Zone 6 out of 7. Why was a seat in the last third of the plane included in Zone 6? And such a dismissive and smug response from a member of your staff is disrespectful.

I reluctantly gave up my carry-on bag to the attendant. However, because of his sloppy handwriting, my bag was sent to Costa Rica (SJO) instead of San Juan (SJU). I did not learn this for several days. In that time, I was in Puerto Rico for New Year’s with absolutely no clothing and no idea where my luggage was and if it would ever be recovered.

I made several calls to your toll-free number and found your customer service representatives to be uninformed and dismissive. My bag could not be tracked or accounted for.

Thankfully, I can say that your on-site luggage services staff in Charlotte and San Juan are professional, courteous and honest. David in Charlotte searched diligently for my bag and had the idea to check Costa Rica. He went so far as to call me back twice to assure me that he was still working on my case. Sheila in San Juan was fantastic. She called me repeatedly and even had the delivery service bring my bag to me before their scheduled deliveries. She later called me again to confirm that I had received the bag. I wish that your corporate office staff were as friendly and helpful as your airport staff.

It is absolutely unacceptable that A) my seat was in Zone 6 for boarding since it was in the back third of the plane, B) a member of your staff would give me such a dismissive explanation as to why I had to check my luggage, C) the haste and sloppiness of one of your employees would result in my luggage going to an entirely different country for several days, and D) your corporate staff is as ineffective as they are.

You should be ashamed of a situation like this. I certainly have no intention of utilizing your airline in the future. My disappointment is tempered only by the kindness of your airport staff, who showed that a little patience and humanity can go a long way.

Overall, however, your airline’s service was an embarrassment.

Sincerely,
Michael Barish

US Airways fined $140,000 for unfairly bumping passengers

by Jeffrey White on

The US Dept. of Transportation has fined US Airways $140,000 for violating a number of regulations in the way they handle bumping passengers from overbooked flights.

The fine came last month. In agreeing to the penalty, US Airways avoids further litigation for the violations, the DOT says.

What did the airline do wrong, exactly? Violated the department’s over-sales rule, 14 CFR Part 250, from July 2007 to July 2008.

Huh?

Basically, the DOT nailed the airline for:

  1. Failing to solicit volunteers before bumping passengers
  2. Failing to give said bumped passengers written notice
  3. Failing to give bumped passengers timely redress, i.e. monetary compensation and/or another flight

US Airways says it has reworked the way it trains its ground crews to ensure that they know now how better to comply with DOT regulations when dealing with overbooked flights.

In paying the fine, US Airways is not admitting to or denying any mistakes, the DOT says.

Here’s part of the DOT’s finding.

Thanks to Moody75.


These women weren’t unfairly bumping passengers … but they should still be fined!


US Airways Wouldn’t Like Me When I’m Angry

by Mike Barish on

You can’t drive drunk. You can’t operate heavy machinery on NyQuil. And you can’t fly angry. At least according to US Airways. Consumerist picked up a story of a traveler who was hoping that US Airways would price match a ticket that he had purchased to the new, lower price. US Airways informed him that they couldn’t match the lower fare. When he expressed his true feelings about the airline’s inability to be polite corporate citizens, he was told that angry is the new al Qaeda.

Just check out this exchange from his conversation with customer service (CS):

CS: “Did you say you were going to be angry on the flight?”
James: “I totally did. If I know that the guy sitting next to me spent $150 less for his seats than me, you better believe I’m not going to be happy.”
CS: “Well, if you’re telling me you’re going to be angry I’m going to notify security.”

A representative from US Airways Executive Relations later reiterated that James had said that he was “going to be angry, and that’s one of the words we look out for.”

I’d love to know what other words get you added to the watch list. And is it just for security? If I say that I’m parched, do they warn the bartenders in the airport lounge? If I mention that I’m horny, are the flight attendants put on high alert (sorry Heather)?

So add vocabulary profiling to the list of airline security techniques. And the worst part? Now real terrorists know not to tell their customer service reps that they are angry. Beware of the happy man with a one-way ticket.

Who else got into trouble in the skies?


A few long days through three alliances: Star, Skyteam and Oneworld

by Grant Martin on

The confluence of a pleasure trip out to Boston to see my girlfriend, an engineering conference in Pittsburgh and a meeting at (The) Ohio State University this past week brought me the opportunity of flying on three different carriers throughout the East and Midwest. Since my native carrier, Northwest was offering some truly hideous fares on my desired routes, I decided to give each alliance, Star Alliance, Skyteam and Oneworld a try on my three legs to see how the industry was faring while I was away on NW. Along my journey I kept the following diary:

Leg 1: DTW-NYC-BOS – Delta Airlines

Detroit – New York – CRJ900 Operated by Comair
Boarding and Gate Area

I don’t get over to the B/C concourse at Detroit’s McNamara often enough. While they do have a killer A&W Rootbeer stand, most Northwest flights depart out of the A terminal so I have little reason to visit the other half of the building. It’s nice being on this side once in a while.

Due to what seemed to be some last minute booking and jockeying by the gate agent, we started boarding ten minutes late, but since the aircraft was so small, the twenty minutes was plenty of time to board the entire aircraft.

As usual, the typical gate lice nested around the boarding area, but they quickly cleared out once first and “elite” passengers boarded.
Predeparture

Settling into 9D, I was treated to narrow leather seats, some overhead soul music and a nice view of the larger MD-80 next to me that I would have much, much rather been on. I nestled into my leather seat and greeted the voracious software consultant to my left, and the deer tick in between the window panes on my right.

During the preflight security speech, the young woman next to me noticed the gentlemen in the back of first class messing with the flight attendant – I would later find out that the two were from the hiphop group, Yung Joc with his Swagg Team.

Inflight

The nice thing about flying east in the afternoon is that you get the sun shining over your shoulder. Delta’s CRJ was fairly new, clean and quiet and the young woman next to me kept me busy trying to figure out what “Swagg Team” actually meant, so the ride was quite pleasant.

Once we got close to cruising altitude two flight attendants came back through the aircraft serving (free) soda and peanuts while sandwiches were offered at 7$ apiece. I decided to wait to eat in JFK, which, I would soon learn would be a mistake.

We landed a few minutes early, and even with the long taxi of JFK airport I still got into the the terminal in good time. What a pleasant flight.

New York – Boston – CRJ 900 Operated by Comair
Pre departure

I now know why my New York based girlfriend was always so stressed out when leaving from The City on a Friday evening. On entering Delta’s terminal at JFK, I was greeted by a throbbing mass of people mashing around for space and gates.

Most of the small CRJ aircraft that I was bouncing between this weekend board from ground gates at JFK, and the way Delta arranges them is that they all filter into one outdoor walkway that links to one gate inside of the terminal. So at any particular time you can have several flights departing or arriving from one doorway (in my case, 25) at the end of the terminal.
And if one of those is delayed, like my flight from New York to Boston (due to a late inbound aircraft – flight congestion), the crowd around the single door begins to pile up with stray passengers.

I can’t blame Delta for the congestion – any other solution would require many more gates — but the throng of people in the terminal was truly stifling. After I learned that my flight was delayed by forty minutes I walked over to Wendys to try to grab a burger. With the line well out the front facade though, I wasn’t willing to wait in line. Instead I camped out under a cart of courtesy phones and checked in on the blog from my phone.

Finally, fifty minutes past departure time we made it onto the plane and waited while the ground crew patiently loaded the luggage…. putting us another ten minutes behind. Fortunately, the pilot came on the PA and noted that the flight to Boston was a short 37 minutes, so by the time we got airborne we were only twenty minutes late.

Inflight

Had I not known that my aircraft had just arrived to take us to Boston, I could have arrived and departed out of the exact same plane. Cleanliness, leather seats and operation were effectively the same, although instead of sitting in 9D in this CRJ I was now sitting in the exit row, 12A, with plenty of leg room to spare.

Since the flight was so short, the cabin crew didn’t have much time to offer snacks and drinks, so I was mostly left alone to read Devil May Care and reflect. I didn’t even bother firing up my computer for the 12 minutes that electronics were allowed.

Once we cleared the massive flight delay known as New York City, things went smoothly and we landed in Boston without event.

Leg 2: BOS – PIT – US Airways – Embraer 170
Predeparture

My Sunday evening flight from Boston departed from terminal 2, a slightly older terminal than the normal T5 that I usually fly out of. Despite the floors being heavily worn I found the terminal pleasant and because of the overhead music, almost jovial.

Almost an hour before departure the gate agent briefly came over the loudspeaker to mention something about luggage but almost immediately cut out – and continued talking into her dead microphone for a few minutes. She then made another announcement that never even reached the PA.

Curious, I sauntered over to the gate and mentioned that the PA wasn’t working.

“I know. I’m not management,” the gate agent replied.

“Can you tell me what you said?” I asked.

“I made an announcement about luggage,” she replied “We’re boarding early.”

I smiled and left. She seemed agitated. True to her word, we boarded about ten minutes early and obediently filed onto the Embraer. When I got back to 10D I noticed that my seat had gum worn into the leather. Being my assigned seat, however, I had not choice but to sit in it, and I knew it wasn’t worth my time to complain.

Most of the preflight revolved around passengers attempting to fit giant, giant bags into the smaller overhead compartments (hint: if the wheels on your 400$ Tumi are larger than dinner saucers, you’re going to have trouble), and having a medium sized backpack I was unfortunately asked to shove it under my seat to make room. Now, with gum all over my thigh and nowhere to stretch my legs I too was starting to get agitated.

Inflight

Needless to say, the rest of the flight went fairly smoothly. About twenty minutes after departure one of the two flight attendants wandered down the aisle asking if anyone wanted to purchase a bevvy or snack (US Airways no longer offers free snacks or drinks on their flights) – I didn’t see anyone bite – so they returned to their stations and didn’t bother us for the rest of the journey. Twice, near the end, they came through the cabin and collected refuse, but that was about it.
I guess that makes less congestion in the aisle if the flight attendants aren’t milling around with beverage carts, but I’m starting to wonder how much revenue US Airways is earning from paid snacks and drinks.

Once again we were on time arriving into Pittsburgh, and on transferring to the land side terminal I was out of the airport fairly quickly.

Leg 3: PIT – ORD — CMH American Airlines — Embraer Regional Jet operated by American Eagle

Pittsburgh – Chicago
Preflight

Pittsburgh’s airport is surprisingly large, sprawling and pleasant (more on that later). After circling the grounds about 12 times trying to figure out the maze of roads, I still found myself two hours early so beached up to a gate, plugged in and logged into the free wireless to get some work done. The boarding area was a little dated, but clean and pleasant, and before I knew it we were being called to board the evening flight.

My seat on this ERJ was 2A, which I forgot didn’t have an overhead compartment above it, so after a second of fiddling with my backpack under the seat the flight attendant took pity on me and told me that “she would take care of it.” After everyone had boarded, she took my bag and put it in the crew closet, which I thought was a very gracious thing to do. Later, she crammed two other people’s bags into other compartments as well.

Unfortunately, due to weather and air traffic control restrictions, we sat in the penalty box next to the runway for nearly an hour waiting for a departure slot. As I dozed, I thought about picking up beers with Gadling’s Scott Carmichael when I reached O’hare, and it seemed like for ever before we took off.

Inflight

Rather than accomplish the 28 things that I need to do on the flight, I elected to keep napping to save energy for the evening. The nice flight attendant stopped by to offer free beverages and 3$ snacks, but half asleep I waved her away.

It seemed like I had been napping for ever by the time we punched back through the clouds to a rainy Chicago airport – but since my phone wasn’t on I didn’t know for sure. By the time I flipped it on after landing I was surprised to find that we were over an hour late – this meant my layover had been reduced from 1:40 to :10. Hopefully they hadn’t already closed the gate.

Chicago to Columbus – ERJ Operated by American Eagle
Preflight

It’s been a while since I’ve experienced the mayhem of O’hare first hand, and entering the terminal my expectations were fairly on par. As one of the largest airports in the country, O’hare moves a lot of people and it’s difficult to keep people orderly and happy en masse – especially if there are weather delays.

My walk from G18 to G1A was short, and on the way I discovered that my original flight scheduled to depart at 8:10 was pushed back to 9:25 – but that an earlier flight leaving at 7:10 was also delayed to 8:10 – and it departed from the same gate. So when I showed up at the gate I asked the agent if I could standby. No problem. Five minutes later I was on the aircraft, for a grand total of about seven minutes spent in the airport. I guess I’ll see O’hare and Scott later.

Inflight

After a nice nap on my earlier flight I was ready to get some work done, and from 15C with no seatmate in this ERJ, I had the opportunity to do that. Despite the fact that legroom was minuscule, I was still able to open my Thinkpad X31 and get a fair amount of blogging done, which is really all anyone can ask for on an aircraft this size.

It took a while to get out of the Great Lakes weather and the flight was turbulent – even passing through 20,000 feet I could still see the strobe lighting up rain showers all around the aircraft.

As expected, the flight attendant showed up about 30 minutes into the flight, which effectively left me about 20 minutes to slam a cran-apple juice and get ready for touchdown. But I was just happy to be on the ground again. Finally, arriving only 10 minutes after my original flight was supposed to land, we made it into Columbus.

Summary

It’s difficult to have many excellent experiences when flying around the country in regional jets. Leg room is always restricted, service is truncated and the noisy flights are often too short to get the full experience. If I had to choose my favorite leg though, I would pick my Detroit – New York flight on Delta. Clean seats, a clean plane, free drinks and an on-time arrival are all you can ask for in today’s economy — in fact, with the direction that airlines are heading in, I would say that getting those four things on any flights these days is pretty fantastic.

As I sit behind my bedroom desk at home though, it sure is nice being able to relax and stretch out. It’ll be awhile until I book another regional flight again.

US Airways Charges for Water

by Josh Lew on

Like every other airline in the country, US Airways is making cuts and adding charges. But the struggling carrier is going beyond charging for checked baggage and snacks. They are even going to charge you for water. So far that just means bottled water and soft drinks aren’t free anymore. Not many travelers would be surprised if the next round of fees include a charge for flushing the toilet or washing your hands.

The airline has already made drastic cuts. They removed movie screens from planes flying domestic routes, claiming that the extra weight added to fuel costs. Now, the pay-for-water scheme has passengers wondering what’s next.

Airlines seem to be wary of scaring off customers by raising fares significantly. For some reason, it seems that they have no fear of thinking up new fees and smacking you with them when you least expect it.

Sure, the no water thing can be easily remedied. Stop by the terminal convenience store or bring a bottle to fill up at a drinking fountain or (sigh) buy one from the flight attendant.

But, it’s the principle.

Why not raise fees a dollar per person and keep offering water on flights? At least then, people would know what they were paying up front and wouldn’t have to stick their heads under the lavatory faucet to remedy a dry mouth.