Because a real letter doesn't do any good

I thought I'd bitch where everyone can read it.


Dear US Airways CEO Doug Parker,

I realize you’re distracted with your DUI charge in Scottsdale AZ at the moment but that doesn’t negate the fact that the negligence this shows in your personal life seems to carry over to your employees. In fact, it appears that your employees embrace your negligence and use it to maximize misery to the traveling public.

Shall we review our recent trip? On Monday we got to the airport with plenty of time to spare, checked in without incident, and were waiting at the gate watching planes and trying to find ways to entertain our three year old (oh, have you ever noticed that many other airlines have play areas for kids in the gate area? you might want to think about that while you’re waiting for your court date). Then the dreaded announcement “The flight to Philadelphia has been cancelled. Please go to the check-in area to be rerouted.” We went back downstairs and waited and waited and waited because you know, two people at the ticket counter is insufficient. But after waiting and waiting, suddenly the rumor that it wasn’t our plane that was cancelled, it was the plane going to NY and wait, that turned out to be true! Imagine that. So to review, an employee incorrectly announced that a flight was cancelled and then we had to wait in line only to find out via the rumor mill it was incorrect. Oh, and during that time I called US Airways to see if I could rebook through there instead of waiting in the infinite line but no, of course no one there was able to help in any way. We were able to make the flight because Burlington is a very small airport but you could have made our lives easier by not screwing it up in the first place. At this point I’m counting that as two strikes against you…one for the announcement, one of the lack of customer service.

We made it to Philly safely but it appears you weren’t done with us yet. We had a 5:40 that was delayed because the crew wasn’t there. The crew finally showed up at, oh 6:15 or so, and we all got on the plane where we waited and waited and waited. We waited so long that the crew timed out and we went back to the gates. Gee, wouldn’t you say that the time the planes are waiting to take off is fairly predictable when you’re in the airline business? Most pilots seem to like to announce “We’re fourth in line for take off and expect to be off the ground in 5 minutes” or some such variation on the theme. We got back to the gate at 8ish, you know, about the time we were supposed to be at our destination. There was no one at the gate to meet us, no direction given as to where we should go and of course, no customer service anywhere in the vicinity. The only employees in the area were those driving the carts and they had no clue. Finally, there was an announcement that everyone should go to a particular gate to be rebooked. For the 8:15 flight that was now leaving at 10:10. Or so. Once again, phone customer service was useless but we were rebooked on the late flight. Conveniently, all the people on the 5:40 fit on the late 8:15 flight so it made it look as though you went through all this inconvenience just to avoid having to fly a plane. I assume that means you cancel an early morning flight as well, just because you don’t have the equipment in the right place, thus irritating an already irritable flying public.

How many strikes was that? There were at least 2 customer service strikes, maybe three, one for canceling the flight in the first place, one for having no clue about the crew’s flight time. So now we’re up to a total of at least 6, perhaps 7.

Of course you couldn’t leave it at that. When we got to our destination only 4.5 hours after we were scheduled to do so it turns out you lost the car seat. You know, the one that we are required to use when we transport a kid in a car? I’m not sure if it speaks well of your airline that you keep back up car seats at the baggage claim area or not. It may mean that you lose them on purpose and when you find them, just put them into circulation within your system. So another strike.

Let’s see, the next day I found a message on my cell phone saying there was a car seat in Philly without any baggage tags on it. Seems they forgot to put the tag on in Burlington (strike 8?), such a little oversight. I called them back and talked to a fellow whose accent I couldn’t understand (strike 9) and he at least tied the two baggage claim numbers together. I told him that he should send the car seat back to the Burlington airport so we could pick it up when we got back.

Guess where they delivered it the day we left? To the hotel. Stike 10. So we still have the cheapie car seat and you still have our nice Britax seat floating around somewhere in your system. That is if US Airways bothered to pick it up from the hotel. I suspect not.

Do you think we’ll ever get our car seat back? I know we’ll never get that 4.5 hours back; you know, the hours that landed us at our hotel at 3:00 am. Our time is as valuable as yours even if you don’t see it that way so why don’t you reimburse us at the equivalent of your hourly rate.

May I suggest you take your family for a trip on US Airways, fly coach, don’t tell a soul who you are and see if you enjoy your trip. That would be a much-needed and honest evaluation of your system.

Sincerely,

Bitch who wishes there was a good alternative to air travel because I would love to boycott the entire airline industry because you know, I've had nearly as bad flying experiences every time I've flown in the last year or so. What ever happened to doing things once and doing it right? You can't imagine how thrilled I am that my current job requires very little travel....